The rise of Southeast Asian football
From being in the "lowlands" of Asia, Southeast Asian teams have risen in recent years in all areas, from national teams to youth levels.
In the World Cup qualifiers, in the last 3 consecutive rounds (2018, 2022, 2026), there has always been 1 Southeast Asian representative entering the third qualifying round. The record points of Southeast Asian teams in this qualifying round has been continuously broken. In 2018, Thailand only had 2 points. By 2022, Vietnam had 4 points. Currently, Indonesia has 6 points but still has 4 matches left to play.
Group stage at the 2025 AFC U-17 Championship finals
The same is true for youth football. At the 2025 AFC U-17 Championship, there will be three Southeast Asian representatives participating. Vietnam U-17 is in Group B with opponents Japan U-17, Australia U-17 and UAE U-17. Thailand U-17 is in Group A with host Saudi Arabia U-17, Uzbekistan U-17 and China U-17. Meanwhile, Indonesia U-17 is in the "easiest" group. The opponents of the archipelago nation team in Group C are Korea U-17, Yemen U-17 and Afghanistan U-17.
At first glance, the chances for U.17 Vietnam and U.17 Thailand are not high. However, it is important to remember that youth football is always full of surprises. The younger the age, the more likely it is that changes will occur, when players have not yet formed a fixed technical and tactical mindset and are more or less immature in their thinking. U.17 Vietnam once came from behind to defeat U.17 Australia to enter the quarter-finals of the U.17 Asia 9 years ago, for example. Or in the 2025 U.20 Asia qualifiers, U.20 Cambodia defeated U.20 Bahrain, although it is clear that the difference between these two football backgrounds cannot be denied.
At the 2025 U.17 Asian Championship, careful preparation in terms of physical strength, mentality and tactics is the key to clearly distinguishing the ability of the teams to go far. U.17 Vietnam is expected to gather again in mid-March to regroup.
According to Thanh Nien Newspaper, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) will sign a contract with a Japanese strategist who has coached the country's U.16 and U.19 teams. With the new coaching team, Vietnam's U.17 team will have about 3 weeks to practice tactics and prepare mentally before "going into battle".
U.17 Vietnam: Let's dream and hope
Responding to Thanh Nien Newspaper after leading U.17 Vietnam to the Asian qualifiers, Coach Cristiano Roland emphasized that every team in the Asian finals is strong. Every match is difficult, but passing the group stage to attend the World Cup is possible.
Opportunity of U.17 Indonesia
Of the three Asian representatives, U.17 Indonesia is the team with the clearest chance of attending the World Cup.
First of all, the Indonesian youth team participated in this tournament in 2023 as the host. In fact, initially, the World Football Federation (FIFA) assigned Indonesia the role of host of the 2023 U.20 World Cup finals. However, due to factors outside of football, Indonesia no longer held the hosting rights (transferred to Argentina).
However, FIFA made up for Indonesia by assigning the country to host the 2023 U.17 World Cup. Then, U.17 Indonesia made a strong impression when drawing 1-1 with U.17 Ecuador and U.17 Panama. Although eliminated in the group stage, the fighting spirit of the young team of the archipelago country is worth noting.
This is the motivation and valuable capital for U.17 Indonesia to be determined to return to the U.17 World Cup. The group of this team in the Asian playground has U.17 Korea at a superior level. However, with the remaining opponents such as U.17 Yemen and U.17 Afghanistan, U.17 Indonesia can completely think of victory.
With the strategy of naturalizing Dutch players applied by the Indonesian Football Federation (PSSI) from the national team to youth teams such as U.23, U.20 and U.17, the Indonesian youth team will have good potential to dream of reaching the world stage.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/bong-da-dong-nam-a-sang-cua-co-doi-du-u17-world-cup-viet-nam-cho-tuong-tai-185250127161809542.htm
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