Landmarks
Starting 2025 with the Vietnam National Team is two mixed moods. The 2024 ASEAN Cup championship at Rajamangala Stadium (Thailand) on January 5 did not go through all of Kim Sang-sik and his team when striker Nguyen Xuan Son - the top scorer and best player of the tournament suffered a serious injury and had to miss more than 10 months.
For most of 2025, the Vietnam team will compete in the qualifying matches of the 2027 Asian Cup, including 2 matches against Laos and achieved positive results. In the 2 matches against Nepal in Ho Chi Minh City, Duy Manh and his teammates also won all 6 points, despite their ineffective playing style not being as expected by fans.
The only defeat that the Vietnam team experienced in 2025 was against Malaysia. However, Malaysia's 4-0 victory has been investigated by FIFA. The 7 naturalized players they used also had to serve a 1-year suspension for forging documents. In terms of expertise, coach Kim Sang-sik is transferring the force. Some faces of the U23 age group and above have gradually appeared on the national team. In addition, he also looked for new options in the attack to fill the void left by Xuan Son.
Waiting for the year 2026 to explode
Closing 2025 after the match with Laos, the Vietnam Team aims for 2026 with the focus on the ASEAN Cup. Unlike the annual practice for more than a decade, the tournament will be held in the summer, from July 24 to August 26, 2026. This can be considered a revolutionary change, synchronized with the current competition schedule of many national championships in Southeast Asia or Asia. This promises to help the teams call up stronger squads.
The good news for Vietnam is that in 2026, some overseas Vietnamese or foreign players will be eligible for naturalization and compete for the "Golden Star Warriors". These include goalkeeper Patrik Le Giang, midfielder Hendrio or striker Geovane Magno. In the context of opponents in the region having made many advances in investing in their forces, Mr. Kim Sang-sik having more options from the two players mentioned above is necessary to improve the internal strength of the Vietnam National Team.
Before the 2026 ASEAN Cup takes place, Vietnam will also wait for the decision from AFC regarding Malaysia's fate. If the "Malaysian tigers" are defeated and eliminated from the tournament, coach Kim Sang-sik and his team will regretfully participate in the 2027 Asian Cup finals but have no match schedule in March. In case Malaysia has not been awarded or eliminated from the tournament by AFC, the task for Vietnam is still to find every way to win with a difference of 4 goals or more against the Maads, to ensure their presence in the Asian finals taking place in Saudi Arabia early next year.
