At the 2026 ASEAN Cup, the Vietnamese team is in Group A with Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia and Timor Leste. This is considered a fairly easy group for coach Kim Sang-sik and his team, compared to Group B including Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar and Laos.
Indonesia is considered the biggest challenge for the Vietnamese team in the race to win the top spot in the group. Besides, Singapore and Cambodia are both teams that are likely to cause difficulties if Quang Hai and his teammates cannot maintain stable form.
Among the matches in the group stage, the match between Vietnam and Indonesia received much attention. The two teams have met in the previous ASEAN Cup group stage at Viet Tri stadium and the upcoming rematch is likely to have a major impact on the top spot in Group A.
Before entering the tournament, the Vietnamese team had a long preparation process with training sessions at home and abroad. The team went through 3 friendly matches with Korean clubs to review forces and test tactics before returning home.
In the general rehearsal against Myanmar, the Vietnamese team won 4-0. Three naturalized players including Nguyen Xuan Son, Hoang Hen and Tai Loc all left their mark, thereby helping the coaching staff have more basis to complete the squad for the official tournament.
ASEAN Cup 2026 takes place from July 24 to August 26. The group stage applies a round-robin format, each team plays two matches at home and two away matches, selecting the two teams with the best results in each group to enter the semi-finals.
The Vietnamese team will begin their championship defense campaign with a match against Timor Leste at a neutral stadium in Chonburi (Thailand) on July 24. After that, the team will successively face Singapore (July 31), Indonesia (August 3) and Cambodia (August 7) to complete the group stage.
The matches of the Vietnamese team as well as other matches at ASEAN Cup 2026 will be broadcast live on FPT Play.
