Why is Vietnamese futsal ranked among the strong teams in the Asian tournament: Surprising reasons…

Unlike soccer, in futsal, the Vietnamese team is one of the strongest teams in Asia. Coach Diego Giustozzi's team is fully capable of winning a medal at the 2026 Asian Futsal Championship.

Very high FIFA ranking

There are currently 14 teams participating in the 2026 Asian futsal finals, including host Indonesia (ranked 23rd in the world ), Australia (ranked 53rd), Thailand (11th), Japan (13th), Kyrgyzstan (49th), Iran (5th), Afghanistan (33rd), Kuwait (43rd), South Korea (73rd), Uzbekistan (19th), Tajikistan (46th), Lebanon (54th), Malaysia (81st) and the Vietnam futsal team (ranked 26th in the world).

Vietnam futsal team is currently ranked 26th in the world.

Photo: VFF

The 2026 AFC Futsal Championship has two more spots, reserved for the top team in Group D of the qualifying round (taking place in October) and the Myanmar team (second in Group G) or the second team in Group D (if this team has a better record than Myanmar). In terms of FIFA rankings, the Myanmar team is ranked 56th in the world. The two highest-ranked teams in Group D of the qualifying round are Iraq (ranked 41st in the world) and Saudi Arabia (48th), both lower than the ranking of the Vietnamese futsal team.

This means that when the 2026 AFC Futsal Championship has all 16 teams in the coming days, there will only be 5 teams with a higher world ranking than the Vietnam futsal team: Iran, Thailand, Japan, Uzbekistan and Thailand. Only 4 of those teams regularly beat the Vietnam futsal team in international tournaments, including the current Asian champion Iran, the current runner-up Thailand, the 3rd place team in the most recent tournament Uzbekistan and the former Asian champion Japan. The Indonesian futsal team in particular has a similar level to the Vietnam futsal team, the 2 teams often beat each other in international tournaments.

Vietnam futsal's medal potential

Recently, the Vietnamese futsal team has taken another step forward, as we have narrowed the gap in skill level with the Thai futsal team. In last year's Southeast Asian Championship, the Vietnamese futsal team defeated Thailand in the group stage. Therefore, the Vietnamese futsal team at this time is only really afraid of 3 teams with very different playing styles including Iran, Japan and Uzbekistan.

Vietnam futsal team can compete for tickets to the semi-finals of the Asian tournament.

Photo: VFF

That reflects that if the Vietnamese futsal team falls into a favorable group and bracket, we have a very high chance of aiming for a ticket to the semi-finals, then dreaming of winning a medal at the 2026 Asian Futsal Championship.

Thanks to good training and maintaining a well-organized domestic tournament system, and having a coach with good expertise (Coach Diego Giustozzi won the 2016 World Cup with the Argentine futsal team), the Vietnamese futsal team has been playing very consistently in recent years. We are not afraid of representatives from strong football backgrounds such as Korea, Australia, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. This is a very different thing between soccer and futsal. In futsal, if the above-mentioned teams are in the same group as the Vietnamese team, they will often worry about our strength, not the other way around!

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/vi-sao-futsal-viet-nam-duoc-xep-chung-mam-cac-doi-manh-giai-chau-a-ly-do-bat-ngo-185250925160203512.htm