On April 4, Beijing time, FIFA announced the latest ranking of the men's national football team, and the Southeast Asian powerhouse Vietnamese men's football team fell 10 places, losing 30.04 points, both the decline and the points are the most among the 211 football associations in the world.
As a close neighbor, Chinese fans are no strangers to the Vietnamese men's football team. In the top 12 of the Asian zone of the last World Cup, the Vietnamese men's football team overturned the Chinese men's football team 3-1 at home, which "added blockage" to the Spring Festival holiday of Chinese fans.
However, in 2024, the performance of the Vietnamese men's football team has not become a dark horse trend, but has become a fish belly that is "bullied by everyone". They first lost all three games in the Asian Cup, and returned home from the bottom of the group stage. In the round of 36 in March, Vietnam was beaten 0-1 and 0-3 by the Indonesian men's football team, also from Southeast Asia, in the away and home games.
Coupled with the two international A-level warm-up matches in November last year and January this year, Vietnam lost 0-1 and 1-2 to Iraq and Kyrgyzstan respectively, and the Vietnamese men's football team has lost seven consecutive matches in official competitions and has not won so far in 2024. Although the Chinese men's football team, which is also in the trough, is also struggling at present, its recent record seems to be better than that of the Vietnamese men's football team.
At present, the Chinese men's football team only needs to defeat Thailand at home in the round of 36 to qualify in advance. The Vietnamese men's football team has 3 points in 4 games, 1 win and 3 losses in Group F, behind Iraq (12 points) and Indonesia (7 points) in Group F.