On the evening of July 29, at Bung Karno Stadium (Jakarta), U23 Vietnam defeated host Indonesia with a score of 1-0 in the final match of the 2025 U23 Southeast Asian tournament. The only goal of midfielder Nguyen Cong Phuong helped coach Kim Sang-sik's team successfully defend the throne.
This is the third consecutive time U23 Vietnam has won the regional tournament. Since the tournament returned in 2019 after nearly two decades of interruption, the U23 Vietnam team has only failed to win the championship once, which was in 2019 in Cambodia with the 3rd place overall.
Previously, U23 Vietnam won the championship twice in a row in 2022 under the leadership of coach Dinh The Nam (winning U23 Thailand 1-0 in the final) and in 2023 under coach Hoang Anh Tuan (winning U23 Indonesia after a penalty shootout).
With this achievement, coach Kim Sang-sik became the third coach to bring U23 Vietnam to the tournament.
Notably, this is also the first time U23 Vietnam has won the championship with an all-win record: overcoming U23 Laos 3-0, U23 Cambodia 2-1, U23 Philippines 2-1 and Indonesia 1-0. Previously, in the last two championships, the "Golden Star Warriors" had to go through at least one draw and win by penalty shootout.
In the history of the tournament, only U23 Thailand in 2005 was the team that won the championship with an all-win record.
This victory also extends the impressive streak of coach Kim Sang-sik since taking charge. For more than a year, he has led the Vietnamese national team at all levels to conquer two regional championships, the 2024 ASEAN Cup and the 2025 U23 Southeast Asian Cup - both away and achieving a 100% championship rate in official tournaments.
