The Vietnam Football Federation has dismissed head coach Philippe Trussier of the national team. This decision came immediately after losing to Indonesia, led by coach Shin Tae-yong, at home.

The Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) released a statement the night before, saying that it had agreed to terminate the contract with coach Trussier as of the 26th. They emphasized that ‘the contract is terminated by mutual agreement.’

However, since the contract was terminated two hours after Vietnam lost 0-3 to Indonesia in the 4th match of Group F of the 2026 North and Central America World Cup Asia 2nd qualifying round held on this day, there are speculations that he was in fact dismissed.

Coach Trussier, who coached the Japanese national team from 1998 to the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, took over as coach of the Vietnam national team in February of last year, succeeding Coach Park. Originally, his contract ran until July 2026, but he was set to step down after just one year.

Coach Trussier's dismissal was an expected procedure. When the Vietnamese national team finished third in last year's Southeast Asian Games and was eliminated from the Asian Cup held in January this year after losing all three of their group matches, local voices continued to call for a change in coach.

Social networking services (SNS) even argued that his predecessor, Director Park, should be brought back. Coach Park Hang-seo was revered as a national hero by raising Vietnam, which was once ranked 130th in the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) 130th place, to 96th place during his tenure.

However, after Trussier suffered consecutive losses to Indonesia, he had no choice but to leave Vietnam. The chances of Vietnam advancing to the final World Cup qualifiers on their own have become slim. This is because we have to win both remaining games and wait for Indonesia to lose all of them. Although it is not theoretically impossible, the possibility of advancement is low.