General information about Vietnam national football team
Ten years ago, the VN national football team was only known as one of the low-level teams in Southeast Asia, but until now, the Vietnamese football has reached the Asia level and become an extremely difficult opponent for strong football teams in the continent such as the Thai team, the Japanese team and even the Korean team. Although the Vietnamese team has not been able to make a strong mark in major arenas outside of Asia, VN football is still considered a strong and growing football in the region. Moreover, the VN team is the “dark horse” of Asian football, as they have continuously achieved remarkable achievements and for a long time, they have stepped out of the big shadow of the Thailand team to rise to No. 1 in Southeast Asia. at the moment owns a golden generation of players, which is also the strongest and most skilled group of players ever. In this article, let’s learn about the Vietnam national football team, its history, achievements, and journey to the World Cup.
General information about the Vietnam national football team
if a few years ago, the Thai football team always held the championship title, until now, the Thai team has had to suffer many times to see the team take the throne at regional tournaments. football did not have much luck and was given many conditions to develop early like other countries on the same continent, because suffered and experienced a very long time by war of aggression by France and America. At that time, it was the French who popularized the concept of football . The time when people officially had access to football was in the 19th century. However, during the late 19th century and to the end of the 20th century, football only stood still due to war and conflict. The first football associations were formed in the south and the north, due to this time the country was divided, that was the football association in the north and the football association in the south. It was not until 1976, a year after the two regions reunified, that these two associations were officially merged and created the Football Federation. The team represented the nation and officially competed internationally in 1990 under the management of the Football Federation. Here are some basic facts about this team:
- Name: Vietnam national football team
- Nickname: Golden Star Warriors
- Association: VN Football Federation (VFF)
- Confederation: Southeast Asian Football Federation (AFF)
- Head Coach: Park Hang Seo
- Captain: Do Hung Dung
- Most played player: Le Cong Vinh
- Top scorer: Le Cong Vinh
- Stadium: My Dinh Stadium
- FIFA Code: VIE
The journey of the Vietnamese team through the World Cups
The team faced many difficulties in the first days of establishment and unification. Because of that, the South and the North have two representative teams. In 1964, the Democratic Republic of team representing the Northern military gathering area officially joined the FIFA World Football Federation, after a while, the Football Association also joined this Federation. Basically, joined sports in general and football in particular very late, so their football background is still very young and weak in many aspects, not only that, the time for the country to reform is later in 1986, therefore, infrastructure, as well as a serious investment in football, have not been paid special attention by the State. Therefore, it is understandable that the team does not have many outstanding achievements and can barely make a mark in the World Cup arena. In total, the team played 37 matches, won 10, drew 3, and lost 24. The team scored 42 goals but conceded 75 goals. That led to the fact that the team was always eliminated early in the 1994 to 2018 World Cup qualifiers. However, there are still some achievements that we can list below on the journey to the World Cup in the full efforts of a small but resilient team.
- World Cup 1974
In fact, the VN team has missed up to 40 years to be able to participate in the biggest football tournament on the planet, the World Cup because of many factors, of which the most important factors are war and poverty. However, overcoming the difficulties and obstacles in the development of the country’s football, at the 1974 World Cup, just one year before vn was completely liberated and reunified the two Souths, and North, the VN team made an impressive first impression. This is the first time that the VN team has shown their continental strength when defeating the Thai team to win the right to participate in the qualifying round and enter the top 4 strongest teams to qualify for the FIFA World Cup 1974 qualifiers. At that time, the team only succumbed to the Japanese team with a score of 0-4 and continued to lose to the Hong Kong team with a score of 0-1. However, winning the ticket and surpassing the Thai team to enter the World Cup qualifiers was really considered a miracle for football at that time. Because at that time, this country was still divided into two regions, but the football spirit was shown in the international arena in a resolute and strong way.
- World Cup 1994
The 1994 World Cup was an important milestone marking the return of football as an official team, as the country gained independence and united the two regions, then two football associations were also merged into one and officially entered the international arena as the sole representative of the Socialist Republic of VN . However, at the 1994 World Cup, the team played nothing out of the ordinary and let the opponents completely overwhelm them. The team was placed in the same group as the strong teams at that time, Indonesia, Singapore, Korea, and Qatar. After both the first leg and the second leg, the team is still at the bottom of the table and has only one rare victory. At that time, the level and level of the team with other teams on the journey to win a ticket to the qualifying round was too different, so as a result, the team had to say goodbye to the World Cup very early.
- World Cup 1998
After 4 years of returning to the biggest football festival on the planet, the team still has not shown that they have made positive changes in both the squad, the gameplay as well as the physical strength of the players. As a result, they closed the 1998 World Cup with a loss in all matches. The opponents of the team in the 1998 World Cup qualifiers were China, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. This is a sad result but also a lesson for in the future in developing national football.
- World Cup 2010, 2014 and 2018
Basically, the World Cup qualifiers that the team had the opportunity to participate in ended with very bad results. The team has never won an official place to attend the World Cup, although now, the World Cup has passed for nearly 100 years. For the three World Cups in 2010, 2014, and 2018, the team was also eliminated very early and did not leave a special in the hearts of fans. The period from 2010 to 2018 was the time when football was in decline in many aspects, from problems in the squad itself, tactics, skills, and ethics of the players to the problems of the players, internal contentious, negative, and non-transparent issues in the results of competitions. Not only that, but at this time, the Vietnamese team had to face the Thai national football team many times, but they all lost completely. At that time, the State had to try to rebuild the football system in terms of setting strategic directions to reform football in the long term, however, after three World Cups in 2010, 2014, and 2018, the results have not yet seen many positive changes.
In these three World Cups, the Vietnamese team was eliminated very early. Particularly for 2018, winning the ticket to attend the World Cup takes place in a slightly different format from the tradition, i.e. the teams will apply double qualifying to select the qualified team to attend the World Cup through the World Cup and the Asian Cup. At that time, the team was unlucky when they shared a group with very strong teams, namely Thailand, China, Iraq, and Indonesia. In particular, the most unfortunate match was the defeat to Thailand by the team which was officially eliminated from the 2018 World Cup. At that time, the team had to receive a lot of criticism when continuously losing to Thailand, and 100% of the time against the Thai team, the team was completely subdued.
- World Cup 2022
This year’s World Cup is a very different World Cup for the team and it is also the World Cup that ends the ugly images of football in the eyes of fans. Exactly since 2017, when the team first welcomed the new Korean coach Park Hang Seo, the entire football scene has had an extremely positive change. Under the guidance of the Korean coach, football has become stronger and stronger than ever. Never in the history of football has the team played resiliently and fearlessly against a terrifying opponent, the Thai team. Previously, in 2018, Mr. Park Hang Seo did an extremely unbelievable thing when bringing the team to the final round of the U23 Asian Championship, which was unprecedented in the history of football and became a shining milestone for sports so far. Then, in 2019, the team continued to show a spectacular makeover when they won the championship of the Sea Game, they overcame Thailand and ended a series of defeats lasting more than 10 years against the Golden Temple land team. Right after that, at Sea Game 31, continued to be crowned champion and far surpassed the achievements of the Thai team. With the outstanding development of the team, fans really have a reason to believe in the presence of in the World Cup in 2022.
The 2022 World Cup qualifiers are divided into several stages, with the first two stages, the team has had an impressive start. At the same time, they are also the first Southeast Asian team in the history of the World Cup to reach the third stage of this tournament, not only that, the team also won 4 points at this stage. They easily overcame the Chinese team with a score of 3-1 in the excitement of millions of spectators, because so far, it is not easy for the team to overcome the Chinese team. Not only that, with the performance of 4 times the Southeast Asian champion, the team also made the strongest team in Asia, Japan, feel extremely difficult during the 90 minutes of the game, and in the end, they could not afford to win against the team and only stopped at a 1-1 draw. Despite the final result, the team was still eliminated and could not go to Qatar to attend the World Cup, but what the team does is promising a bright future. Especially the World Cup in 2026 in North America, when FIFA allowed increasing the total number of participating teams to 48 teams. With the current form and class, will certainly have the opportunity to set foot in North America in 4 years.
The squad of the Vietnamese team
The following is a detailed list of players in the squad:
- Goalkeeper
Dang Van Lam, August 13, 1993 (29 years old), Topenland Binh Dinh club
Tran Nguyen Manh, December 20, 1991 (30 years old), Viettel club
Nguyen Van Toan, November 26, 1999 (22 years old), Hai Phong club
- Defender
Nguyen Thanh Binh, November 1, 2000 (22 years old), Viettel club
Phan Tuan Tai, January 1, 2001 (21 years old), Viettel club
Bui Tien Dung (vice captain), October 2, 1995 (27 years old), Viettel club
Bui Hoang Viet Anh, January 1, 1999 (23 years old), Hanoi club
Nguyen Thanh Chung, September 8, 1997 (25 years old), Hanoi club
Do Duy Manh, September 29, 1996 (26 years old), Hanoi club
Doan Van Hau, April 19, 1999 (23 years old), Hanoi club
Que Ngoc Hai, May 15, 1993 (age 29), Song Lam Nghe An club
Tran Dinh Trong, April 25, 1997 (25 years old), Topenland Binh Dinh club
Ho Tan Tai, November 6, 1997 (24 years old), Topenland Binh Dinh club
Vu Van Thanh, April 14, 1996 (26 years old), Hoang Anh Gia Lai club
Nguyen Thanh Nhan, October 25, 2000 (22 years old), Hoang Anh Gia Lai club
- Midfielder
Chau Ngoc Quang, February 1, 1996 (26 years old), Hai Phong club
Nguyen Hoang Duc, January 11, 1998 (24 years old), Viettel club
Khuat Van Khang, May 11, 2003 (19 years old), Viettel club
Do Hung Dung, captain, September 8, 1993 (29 years old), Hanoi club
Phan Van Duc, April 11, 1996 (26 years old), Song Lam Nghe An club
Nguyen Tuan Anh, May 16, 1995 (27 years old), Hoang Anh Gia Lai club
Luong Xuan Truong, April 28, 1995 (27 years old), Hoang Anh Gia Lai club
Luong Duy Cuong, November 7, 2001, SHB Da Nang club
Nguyen Quang Hai, April 12, 1997 (25 years old), Pau FC
- Forward
Nham Manh Dung, April 12, 2000 (22 years old), Viettel club
Nguyen Van Quyet, July 1, 1991 (31 years old), Hanoi club
Pham Tuan Hai, May 19, 1998 (24 years old), Hanoi club
Nguyen Cong Phuong, vice captain, January 21, 1995 (27 years old), Hoang Anh Gia Lai club
Nguyen Van Toan, April 12, 1996 (26 years old), Hoang Anh Gia Lai club
Pham Dinh Duy, April 1, 2002 (20 years old), SHB Da Nang club
Nguyen Tien Linh, October 20, 1997 (25 years old), Becamex Binh Duong club
Outstanding achievements of the Vietnamese team
Official Prize
Continent (Asia)
- AFC Asian Cup
o Quarterfinals (2): 2007, 2019
Region (Southeast Asia)
- AFF Cup
o Champion (2): 2008, 2018
o Runner-up (1): 1998
o Third place (7): 1996, 2002, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2020
Since 2007, the AFF Cup has not held a third place match. The two losing teams in the semi-finals are considered joint third place.
- SEA Games
o Silver Medal (2): 1995, 1999
o Bronze medal (1): 1997
Since 2001, men’s soccer has been restricted to under 23 years of age.
Friendly tournament
- AYA Bank Cup 2016
o Champion (1): 2016
- VFF Cup
o Runner-up (3): 2004, 2006, 2009
o Third place (1): 2012
- King’s Cup
o Runner-up (2): 2006, 2019
- LG Cup
o Runner-up (1): 2002
The presence of the Vietnamese team in tournaments
FIFA World Cup
AFC Asian Cup
AFC Asian Games
AFF Championship
AFF Southeast Asian Games
Frequently asked questions
The VN football team has never participated in the World Cup. The team that participated 4 times won tickets to the World Cup qualifiers.
Coach Park Hang Seo’s contract term with the team is on March 31, 2023, and he has now decided not to extend the contract.
The answer is yes. In 2026, the number of teams participating in the World Cup will increase to 48 teams, so the Vietnamese team will be very likely to participate.
The Vietnamese team was officially established in 1962.