Team Garuda’s World Cup dream is alive as regional rivals struggle to build on transformational manager’s work

The two biggest metropolises in Vietnam feel different. Way up in the north, Hanoi sometimes seems more similar to a Chinese city than Ho Chi Minh City over 1,000 kilometres away in the south of the long thin nation. In the formerly named Saigon with its tropical south-east Asian air, residents shake their heads at the perceived coolness of the capital’s winters and people. They do share a few things however: mental traffic, an insistence that they have the best Vietnamese food and a love for football. Anyone who has witnessed the impromptu street parties in either city that celebrated the national team’s successes on the international stage over the past few years would agree.

And they share their disappointment at the growing realisation that such parties look to be a thing of the past. The national team was, not long ago, the best in south-east Asia – a football hotbed home to 650 million people – but is highly unlikely to come even close to a first World Cup in 2026, even with Asia’s increased automatic allocation of eight. Instead, a fall at the first hurdle is imminent. It wasn’t supposed to be like this when Philippe Troussier took over in February 2023. The Frenchman was to oversee the next step in the country’s football evolution from a regional power into a consistent continental force. Instead, he received his marching orders in March after 10 defeats in the last 11 games.