Vietnam national team and the final test

"The pain is immense and it will take time for this wound to heal," Messi wrote in Spanish on Instagram on July 20. A great player, at the age of 39 and having won the World Cup four years earlier, still could not escape the emotion of having just lost something significant in a tournament where he and Argentina had achieved far more than expected.

Perhaps the simple explanation is: that's football. A match, a tournament, at any level has its own reasons to become valuable. And the ASEAN Cup 2026 for the Vietnam national team is the same.

In the process of advancing Vietnam's World Cup dream, the ASEAN Cup may no longer be a top priority. The shifts in world football are pressuring the VFF to raise standards for the national team; winning the ASEAN Cup would be ironic if performances in larger international campaigns do not meet expectations. But the ASEAN Cup 2026 will be an exception. It is the final test for Vietnam's ambitious plan to rise to the next level.

First of all, "final" is not a rhetorical device. The birth of the FIFA ASEAN Cup could be the starting point for the end of the 30-year-old Southeast Asian tournament.

Based on the appeal and quality of the expanded tournament "endorsed" by FIFA, people will decide how the ASEAN Cup will exist in the future. Even if it does not disappear, its value will be hard to maintain. Therefore, this could be one of the last ASEAN Cups where Vietnam truly goes all out to win.

For that reason, we have several milestones to conquer before it disappears. Although we have 3 titles, Vietnam still trails Singapore, which has 4 championships. The possibility of reaching Thailand's 7 titles may never happen if the ASEAN Cup is no longer held, so for now, Vietnam's goal is to surpass Singapore to become the second most successful team in history.

Coach Kim Sang Sik and his players must also aim to successfully defend the title. Thailand (3 times) and Singapore (1 time) have both achieved this.

In 2020, at the peak of their form, the Vietnam national team under coach Park Hang Seo missed their chance in a tournament disrupted by the Covid pandemic. This time is different. In theory, the defending champions are stronger than they were nearly two years ago.

And that is the story worth telling. This is perhaps the first time Vietnam enters the ASEAN Cup with a single target: must win. Mr. Kim Sang Sik's team has no "right to refuse" that responsibility.

Never before has the team had all the best conditions to defend the crown like now. With an attack "unprecedented" in both the team's history and the tournament's history, Vietnam is unequivocally the number one contender.

Therefore, the ASEAN Cup 2026 truly is the "final test". Comparing it to the World Cup might be too much, but the intensity of this regional tournament is no joke. For example, Singapore, a group opponent of Vietnam, has to play 3 matches in 8 days with a back-and-forth travel schedule. Any team that reaches the final will play a total of 4 knockout matches in 12 days. In other words, to defend the title, Coach Kim Sang Sik's team must be at the highest level of readiness.

No team faces as much pressure as Vietnam at the ASEAN Cup 2026. But that is also the most important test for us to continue talking about ambitions at the Asian Cup or even higher, like qualifying for the World Cup in the future.