Vietnam is number one in Southeast Asia, with favorable conditions in World Cup qualifiers

The highest position in the region on the FIFA Rankings in April 2015 helped the Vietnamese team avoid many strong opponents in the second round of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

Vietnam team ranked number one in Southeast Asia. Photo: Duc Dong.

In the table updated by FIFA yesterday, in the Southeast Asia region, the Vietnamese team was deducted nine points (from 229 to 220), but rose five places. Meanwhile, the team that was the top team in the region in March 2015, the Philippines, was deducted 28 points (from 221 to 193) due to a friendly match loss to Bahrain. Therefore, they dropped 11 places and fell to the second position in Southeast Asia. From there, Vietnam benefited and climbed to the number one position in the region, 125th in the world.

The Thai team recently played two friendly matches, winning 2-0 against Singapore and losing 2-3 to Cameroon, so they were awarded six points and maintained their 142nd position in the world. That means Kiatisuk and his team are 17 places behind Vietnam in the Southeast Asian region. Malaysia even dropped to 164th, 29 places below Vietnam.

Positions on the FIFA rankings have long been considered fun and have little practical value. However, with the second round of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Asia (also the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers) about to begin, thanks to being the highest ranked team in Southeast Asia, Vietnamese football will have a more or less favorable position when the Asian Football Confederation draws lots to divide the groups on April 14.

According to the regulations, 40 Asian teams are divided into five groups, divided into eight groups, playing a double round-robin, starting from June 11, to select the eight group winners and four second-place teams with excellent records to continue. Thanks to being in the top 16 in Asia, the Vietnamese team was placed in the second seed group, thereby avoiding a series of strong opponents in the same group including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria and Kuwait. Meanwhile, the teams that are considered Vietnam's rivals in the region are Thailand in group three, Singapore and Indonesia in group four, and Malaysia even in group five.

World scoreboard

Southeast Asia Scoreboard

According to VNE