Schedule of U23 Southeast Asian Cup 2023

The 2023 Southeast Asian U23 Championship has 10 teams divided into three groups. The teams play in a round-robin, selecting the three group winners and the best second-place team to advance to the semi-finals.

The tournament was held in two cities of Rayong and Chonburi. In which, Vietnam competes in Rayong, nearly 200 km from Bangkok. Group A has four teams: Brunei, Cambodia, Myanmar and host Thailand. Group B has three teams like Group C, including Timor Leste, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Due to many tournaments in the second half of 2023, the Vietnam Football Federation VFF decided to divide U23 into two teams. Accordingly, coach Hoang Anh Tuan led the second team, mainly U20 players, to attend the 2023 Southeast Asian U23 Championship and ASIAD 19, while coach Philippe Troussier led the main team to attend the 2024 Asian U23 qualifier.

Coach Hoang Anh Tuan's teachers and students reunited from July 29, but until August 13, the full force was due to the fact that the clubs had not released their troops because the V-League, First and Second Divisions were still playing. On August 14, the team went to Thailand with a composition of 26 players. A day later, the friendly team drew 1-1 Bahrain in the two main innings before losing 3-5 in the penalty shootout.

At the 2022 tournament, Vietnam continuously lost troops because of Covid-19, having to add players to Cambodia by car. However, coach Dinh The Nam's army has continuously overcome Thailand and Singapore in the group stage, and Timor Leste in the semi-finals. In the final, the team reunited with Thailand, and won the championship with the only goal of Tran Bao Toan.