Coach Kim Sang-sik and the goal of defending the throne with U23 Vietnam

Ahead of the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship, coach Kim Sang-sik affirmed that the top goal is to help U23 Vietnam successfully defend the title. However, the Korean strategist also places greater emphasis on discovering and nurturing the successor force for the national team in the future.

Coach Kim Sang-sik will lead the Vietnam U23 team to participate in the Southeast Asian U23 Championship, taking place in Indonesia from July 15 to 29. This is a tournament when Vietnam is the defending champion for two consecutive times and aiming to win the championship for the third time.

This year, the U23 Vietnam team is in Group B with Laos and Cambodia, and as the number one seed, the team is highly rated to make it to the semi-finals. However, coach Kim Sang-sik commented that the journey to defend the title will not be easy when big opponents like Thailand and especially the host Indonesia have made very strong investments.

He said that Thailand always stands out with their technique and organized play, while Indonesia impresses with their strong physical foundation and high speed. According to him, matches with these two opponents are always very tense and require careful preparation both tactically and mentally.

In the last two championships, U23 Vietnam faced these opponents in the final. In 2022, Vietnam defeated Thailand 1-0, and in 2023, it was a thrilling penalty shootout victory over Indonesia.

Despite his pride in the achievement, coach Kim Sang-sik did not want to put unnecessary pressure on the young players. He stressed that the team needed to focus on performing well in each match, rather than focusing on results. Because results will be the inevitable consequence if the development process is carried out in the right direction.

In addition to the championship goal, coach Kim Sang-sik also pays much attention to building the next generation of the national team. According to him, the Southeast Asian U23 Championship is a valuable opportunity to evaluate the players' abilities, test tactical options and discover new factors capable of long-term contributions. Recently, he has given defender Pham Ly Duc and midfielder Nguyen Thai Son the opportunity to join the national team, and believes that they will be important factors in the upcoming tournament.

He said that football is a team sport and he always emphasizes discipline and solidarity in the playing style. However, with players who have worked with him such as Ly Duc or Thai Son, he expects them to maximize their abilities to support the team's overall playing style.

The Vietnam U23 team will train in Vung Tau city from June 26 to July 13, before leaving for Indonesia. In the group stage, the team will meet Laos at Patriot Stadium (Bekasi) on July 19, before facing Cambodia at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium (Jakarta) on July 22. The top team in each group and the best runner-up will advance to the semi-finals on July 25, before the final on July 29, also at Gelora Bung Karno.

In 2025, coach Kim Sang-sik and U23 Vietnam will participate in many major tournaments such as the Asian qualifiers and the 33rd SEA Games, so building squad depth is an important task. The recent defeat of the national team against Malaysia in the Asian Cup qualifiers clearly showed the gap in squad strength and dependence on aging pillars. Coach Kim Sang-sik understands that if new elements are not added, the Vietnamese team will have difficulty maintaining its competitiveness in the future.

According to him, U23 Vietnam is the ideal place to discover, test and train the next generation of players. He does not want to only focus on familiar names like Van Khang, Thai Son or Viktor Le but needs to find new faces with enough potential to create innovation for Vietnamese football.

For coach Kim Sang-sik, winning the Southeast Asian U23 Championship is an important goal, but not the final destination. What he is aiming for is a generation of young players with enough ability, courage and spirit to shoulder the future of the national team, a task full of pressure, but also the core for the sustainable development of Vietnamese football./.