On January 5th, Vietnam dominated reigning ASEAN cup champions Thailand, winning 3-2 in the second final leg to take home the Mitsubishi Electric cup. Leading up to their win, Vietnam played a phenomenal first leg scoring 2-1 over Thailand.
Following the win, in celebration, thousands of Vietnamese fans of all ages erupted into the streets of major cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Fans could be seen waving the national flag, clanging pots and pans, and chanting in the streets.
This isn’t the first wild celebration the country has seen, however. This year’s victory is the third in Vietnam’s history. This year they were hoping to replicate their previous win.
Team captain, Đỗ Duy Mạnh, told Vietnamplus, “For the [2024] tournament, we will have to play well and we will try our best to repeat our journey to victory in 2018.”
Their second win in 2018 brought festivities similar to this year’s win as fans also flocked into the streets singing excitedly to parade and dance.
The ASEAN championship, formerly known as the AFF championship, is a soccer championship held by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Founded in 1984, the tournament has established itself as one of the region’s most highly anticipated sporting events with 305 million TV viewers in 2022 according to Sportfive. According to Stream Charts, the tournament’s popularity even set a record for most concurrent viewers on Youtube Live with over 19.5 million concurrent viewers at its peak during this year’s final match. They also reported that the top three streaming channels with the most concurrent viewers for the week of the final match were all Vietnamese sports-based.
Soccer is a widely popular sport worldwide and in the region, so the interest and large celebrations are no surprise. According to Statistia, the soccer market within Southeast Asia is only growing with revenue predicted to reach $547 million this year with $68 million of that being from Vietnam alone.
Vietnamese patriotism can also be attributed to the grandness of this year’s event. The act of storming the streets was first recorded in 1995 when the country’s soccer team won a silver medal at the Southeast Asian Games. The tradition has continued as their home teams have continued to bring home victories over the years.
Nguyen Quang Tuan, a Vietnamese fan who has been traveling across Southeast Asia for over 20 years following their home team, told VNExpress that in no other country was the people’s love for sports as strong as in Vietnam. Through his experience, he noticed foreign country’s soccer fans would simply cheer and go home when their team won.
Vietnam’s strong patriotic spirit for sports among its over 100 million residents reflects a strong love for community and celebration. Hopefully, fans can continue the celebrations as the Vietnam men’s soccer team goes to play against Laos for AFC Asian Cup qualification in late March.
