U23 Vietnam finalizes list of participants for 2025 Southeast Asian tournament: Song Lam Nghe An only contributes 1 name

On the afternoon of July 12, coach Kim Sang-sik officially announced the list of 23 players of the Vietnam U23 team to participate in the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship after the recent training and friendly matches. In the announced list, only goalkeeper Cao Van Binh of Song Lam Nghe An Club was retained, becoming the only representative of the Nghe An team to participate in this tournament.

Accordingly, 5 players whose names are not on the final list include: goalkeeper Pham Dinh Hai, defenders Nguyen Hong Phuc, Ho Van Cuong, midfielder Nguyen Duc Viet and Vietnamese-American striker Bui Alex. Previously, the coaching staff had reduced the squad from 35 to 28 players after 2 practice matches with the Chinese Taipei U23 Team.

Coach Kim Sang-sik highly appreciated the team's serious training spirit and efforts throughout the preparation process. However, according to the tournament regulations, each team can only register a maximum of 23 players, so the coaching staff is forced to make optimal choices based on the role, position and current form of each individual.

Among the eliminated players, the case of striker Bui Alex attracted much attention. The player who is playing for the Bohemians Praha 1905 youth team in the Czech Republic's Third Division has left a positive mark in his first call-up to the Vietnam U23 team. Being retained until the final list is considered a positive start for this young striker. The coaching staff hopes that Bui Alex will continue to make efforts to participate in the next training sessions.

According to the plan, the Vietnam U23 team will travel to Indonesia on the morning of July 14 to participate in the 2025 Southeast Asian U23 Championship, taking place from July 15-29. In the group stage, Vietnam U23 is in Group B, along with Laos U23 and Cambodia U23. The team will compete on July 19 and 22, respectively.

As the team that won the championship in the last 2 tournaments (2022 and 2023), U23 Vietnam continues to receive great expectations from fans in the journey to defend the title this year. However, coach Kim Sang-sik said that he does not want to create too much pressure for the players.

The Korean strategist also emphasized that this tournament is an important stepping stone for the coaching staff to evaluate and build up their squad for longer-term goals, especially the upcoming U23 Asian qualifiers and the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).
“The tournament is an opportunity to test individual abilities and tactical cohesion within the entire team. For young players, this is also a valuable opportunity to accumulate international competition experience,” coach Kim Sang-sik emphasized./.