Two sides of the new format
The Thai Football Federation has proposed a new play for the 33rd SEA Games men's football with the Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF) and the Asian Football Federation (AFC). Instead of 2 groups, Thailand proposed 3 tables with 11 teams. Only each team in the semi -finals, the second team with the best achievement will win the final capacity.
In fact, Southeast Asian youth teams are no stranger to this format. Many tournaments including U22 Southeast Asia 2023, U23 Asian qualifiers 2016 to 2024, U19 Southeast Asia 2024, U20 Asian qualifiers 2025, U16 Southeast Asia 2022 and 2024, U17 Asian qualifiers 2023 and 2025... have all applied the group division and team selection method as above.
host Thailand proposed a new format to shorten the playing time of men's football. If the 11 teams are still divided into 2 groups like in previous editions, the tournament will last for more than 2 weeks, with teams competing continuously for 2-3 days/match. This increases the risk of injury, especially for Gold Medal candidates such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.
With the new format, the number of matches in each table will decrease, the teams play 2-3 matches before the semi-finals and finals. The competitiveness will be higher, when only the first team will definitely go on, while the second team must compare with the other second team and hope their achievement is best. Each match in the group stage will be a survival battle, increasing the attractiveness and attracting the attention of the fans.
U22 Vietnam needs to be careful
Vietnamese young teams from U17, U20 and U22 have participated in 12 regional and continental qualifiers - which have applied new competition formats - within the past 2 years. Vietnam passed the stage 10/12 this tournament. In the U16 Southeast Asia finals 2024, U17 Asian qualifiers 2023, Vietnamese youth teams went on with the first position. There are 2 times U16 or U17 Vietnam have to wait and wait for the best group to win "tickets" to continue.
Accordingly, in the U16 Southeast Asia finals 2022, coach and coach Nguyen Quoc Tuan only ranked second in Group A. Luckily came to Cong Phuong and his teammates in the end of Group C when Australia successfully held Malaysia. As a result, U16 Vietnam from the loss of self -determination has won tickets to the semi -finals as the second team with the best achievement in the tournament.
Two years later, the juniors with Viet Phong, Viet Anh, Gia Bao struggled to win tickets to the 2025 U17 Asian Cup finals. The 1-1 draw with U17 Yemen in the final round of the qualifiers pushed U17 Vietnam down to 2nd place, but still entered the top 5 best second-placed teams to participate in the final round.
Since 2016, U22/U23 Vietnam teams have always continued in the continental qualifier as a first or second -group team. In particular, in the U23 finals of Southeast Asia two years ago, the team of coach Hoang Anh Tuan stood at the top of the table and won the championship. However, Vietnam is not always convenient. Last year, U19 Vietnam only ranked 2nd in Australia and was eliminated when he did not overcome two other second teams, including Thailand. In the U20 Asian qualifying round 2025, Cong Phuong's team only ranked 2nd after Syria and cannot reach the final round, ranked 6th among the second team.
Giving the above evidence to encourage and warn Vietnam U22 of coach Kim Sang-Sik before entering the journey at SEA Games 33. If proposed from the Thai host is approved, the risk of the team falling into the difficult group is very possible.
Despite achieving good results in the last 3 congresses and being widely classified as the No. 1 seed group, it is not ruled out that U22 Vietnam is in the same group as Indonesia or Malaysia. At that time, winning the maximum points or accumulating goals to create a goal difference will become more difficult for Mr. Kim Sang-sik's team.
The Korean leader has 8 months to optimize the strength of U22 Vietnam. Based on the players' performances at the CFA Team China Team 2025 in March, confronting China, Uzbekistan and South Korea, Mr. Kim believes that the team is capable of passing the SEA Games group stage if applying new format. However, the team also needs more luck and caution to avoid unfortunate errors ...
