"This Is Way Better Than Korea" While We Were Busy Calculating Scenarios, Vietnam Clinched Top Spot on Their Own... Kim Sang-sik’s Magic Devours Asia

[Financial News] "A team led by a Korean coach has swept the group with three straight wins to finish first." Unfortunately, this is not the story of the South Korean national team. The good news coming from faraway Vietnam is instead leaving Korean football fans with a bitter taste.
The Vietnam national under-23 football team, coached by Kim Sang-sik, has pulled off a major shock. In the third group-stage match of the 2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup on the 13th (Korea time), they sank host nation and defending champions Saudi Arabia 1–0.
With that, Vietnam swept past Jordan and Kyrgyzstan and then Saudi Arabia, emerging from the group of death with a miraculous record of "three wins from three, first place in the group." Kim Sang-sik is proving in Vietnam, for all to see, the winning formula that Korean football has been desperately searching for.
This match was a showcase of Kim Sang-sik’s tactical acumen. Facing Saudi Arabia, buoyed by one-sided support from the home crowd, Vietnam prepared a thoroughly disciplined "defend first, counter later" game plan. A draw would have been enough to secure a quarterfinal spot, but Kim refused to settle.

The moment substitute Nguyen Dinh Bac scored the winning goal in the 64th minute was a textbook example of game management. Making changes at exactly the right time, and the substitute delivering the decisive result—this was the kind of "coach controlling the game" scene that Korean football fans have rarely seen from their own national teams in recent times.
An even more painful point of comparison is that Vietnam carved out their own favorable knockout path. Had they finished second in the group, they would have faced their old rivals Japan, the winners of Group B, in the quarterfinals. Instead, Kim Sang-sik’s side beat Saudi Arabia on merit, secured top spot, and avoided Japan altogether.
Vietnam will now battle either the United Arab Emirates (UAE) or Syria for a place in the semifinals. Unlike Korean football, which has often relied on "calculating all the possible scenarios" and even resorting to "prayer meta," Vietnam has paved a "flower road" with sheer performance.

The more victory reports come in from Kim Sang-sik, the more complicated the mood becomes in Korean football. Coaches who were bombarded with criticism at home and accused of lacking tactical ideas are suddenly working "magic" and being treated as heroes once they go abroad. Is this really just a coincidence?
Under a Korean coach, Vietnam is dismantling Asia’s traditional powerhouses with organization and fighting spirit. Meanwhile, Korean football itself—the supposed "original"—has recently struggled to produce convincing performances, from youth national teams all the way up to the senior side. Hence the biting sarcasm: "Export-model coaches are better quality than the domestic ones."
Kim Sang-sik’s team now has its sights set not just on the quarterfinals but on the semifinals and beyond. As Vietnam’s red wave sweeps across Asia, Korean football remains stuck in frustrating patterns. Kim Sang-sik’s jubilant celebrations feel, more than ever today, like a heavy and stinging message to Korean football fans.
jsi@fnnews.com Jeon Sang-il Reporter