At 10:30 pm on January 16, 2026, the house in the center of Dong Kinh ward (Lang Son) was still lit. In the 3-story apartment, the TV placed next to the window was turned on early. The U23 Asian Cup quarter-final match between U23 Vietnam and U23 UAE began in a tense and nervous atmosphere.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan (35 years old) sat close to the screen, wearing his familiar red and yellow star shirt. The strange thing is that Ms. An (33 years old, Mr. Tuan's wife) did not turn off the bedroom lights, nor did she pull the blanket back like the nights he watched European football.
She prepared a teapot of ginger, sat down next to her husband and said concisely: "Today Vietnam plays football, I'll watch with you.
Mr. and Mrs. Tuan have been married for 6 years and have a 5-year-old son. For him, football is a hard habit to give up. But for Ms. An, her husband often staying up until 3 am to watch the Champions League or the English Premier League was once the source of many grimaces.
It's not that I hate football. I'm just tired of insomnia, and the next morning I still have to go to work," Ms. An shared.
Some nights, she quietly carried her child to another room to sleep to avoid the noisy cheers of her husband.
However, when U23 Vietnam took the field, everything seemed completely different. Ms. An actively coaxed her child to sleep early, then woke him up before the ball rolled.
Let me show you a little, to know about our national team," she said.
On the field, U23 Vietnam and U23 UAE created a stalemate. The opponent team continuously put pressure, at times equalizing, causing the small room to be completely silent. Mr. Tuan's whole family held their breath with each ball.
In the first half, the counter-attack situation originated from Nguyen Dinh Bac's technical handling and then assisted his teammates to score, causing the whole team to jump up.
I saw my wife clapping very loudly. Only then did I realize that watching football together was so fun," Mr. Tuan recounted.
After 90 minutes of tension, the match had to enter extra time. When Pham Minh Phuc scored the decisive goal, sealing a 3-2 victory for U23 Vietnam, the small apartment seemed to burst into tears.
Little Bi hugged the plastic ball and jumped up, while Ms. An turned to her husband, smiling brightly: "Vietnam has won!".
The clock was almost 1 am, but no one was in a hurry to go to bed.
The victory over U23 UAE is not only of professional significance. Many opinions assess that U23 Vietnam winning all 4 matches from the group stage to the quarter-finals is a highlight in a highly competitive tournament. Chinese media also recognized that U23 Vietnam has become a familiar face in the knockout rounds at the continental arena, once reaching the final in 2018
Those pieces of information were reread by Mr. Tuan after the match, with clear pride.
But for Ms. An, what she remembers most is not the score or statistics. "I see my husband different. He not only focuses on the screen, but also explains each ball phase to his child, and then turns to ask me if I'm tired," she said.
Football, for many families, used to be the cause of very ordinary disputes. But it is also football that has become a rope pulling members closer together.
