The Vietnamese national team will face Thailand next September.

With FIFA Days in September approaching, national teams around the world will have the opportunity to play international matches. The Vietnamese national team will also take advantage of this opportunity to play friendly matches, aiming to assess their squad, refine their playing style, and prepare for official tournaments in the near future.

According to Asean Football, the Vietnamese national team is expected to play a friendly match at home against the Thai national team next September. Thailand is currently ranked 100th in the world, while Vietnam is ranked 116th.

For many years now, sports in general, and football in particular, have been fiercely contested between Vietnam and Thailand, making them the strongest teams in Southeast Asia.

Matches between these teams, especially in men's football, have always generated immense interest, whether in official tournaments or friendly matches.

Historically, in matches between Vietnam and Thailand, the Thai team has held a significant advantage. Since 2002, the Vietnamese and Thai national teams have met a total of 19 times. Of these, the "War Elephants" have won 11 matches, drawn 6, and lost 2.

Specifically in official tournaments, including the AFF Cup and World Cup qualifiers over the past 20 years, the two teams have met a total of 12 times, with Vietnam winning only 1 match, losing 6, and drawing 5.

Besides the scheduled friendly match against Thailand, the Vietnamese national team will participate in a friendly tournament with two teams outside Southeast Asia: Lebanon and India. This tournament is expected to take place in Vietnam. Specifically, Vietnam will face India on October 9th, followed by Lebanon on October 15th. Between these two matches, India and Lebanon will play each other on October 12th.

This period coincides with FIFA Days (days when FIFA allows national teams to gather players from their clubs for international duty), making it easier to assemble the Vietnamese national team and find opponents for international practice matches.

Currently, Lebanon is ranked 117th in FIFA, while India is ranked 124th. Therefore, the match between these three teams is considered to be fairly evenly matched.

The period during which the Vietnamese national team played friendly matches against India and Lebanon coincided with the time when coach Kim Sang-sik's team was preparing for the 2024 AFF Cup (from November 23rd to December 21st). Therefore, these were very important warm-up matches for us before entering the Southeast Asian Football Championship.

At the 2024 AFF Cup, Coach Kim Sang-sik's team is in the same group as Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Laos. The Vietnamese national team's goal is to reach the final of this year's Southeast Asian Football Championship.