The Republic of Vietnam national football team (Vietnamese: Đội tuyển bóng đá quốc gia Việt Nam Cộng hòa) or the State of Vietnam national football team (Vietnamese: Đội tuyển bóng đá Quốc gia Việt Nam) was the national football team from 1949 to 1975 representing the State of Vietnam and later the Republic of Vietnam, known as "South Vietnam".

The State of Vietnam joined the International Association Football Federation (FIFA) in 1952 and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1954. The South Vietnamese football association was treated by these bodies as the only legitimate Vietnamese association, as the State of Vietnam and later the Republic of Vietnam claimed sovereignty over all of Vietnam from 1949 to 1975. The team started to play under the State of Vietnam in January 1949. After the State of Vietnam gained complete independence from France in June 1954 and Vietnam was divided in July, it existed side by side with a separate North Vietnam team, which represented the communist-controlled northern portion of the country from 1956 to 1975. Unlike its southern counterpart, the North Vietnamese football association was never allowed to join FIFA or the AFC. South Vietnam took part in the first two Asian Cups finals (1956 and 1960), finishing last both times. Despite the fierce wars, it was one of strongest teams in Southeast Asia.

The South Vietnam team played their last games at 1976 AFC Asian Cup qualification in March 1975, and ceased to exist after the Fall of Saigon in April, when the Vietnam War ended. The North and South regions combined into the unified Vietnam in 1975, with the Vietnam national team replacing both the North and South teams. The unified republic was allowed to keep South Vietnam's membership of FIFA and the AFC, resulting in the South Vietnam team's historical record usually being counted as part of the overall record of the Vietnam national team, while results for the North Vietnam team are not commonly included as part of the record.

Tournament record

FIFA World Cup

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

|-

!colspan=9|FIFA World Cup record

! style="width:1%;" rowspan="39"|

!colspan=6|Qualification record

|-

!Year

!Result

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

|-

| 1950||colspan=8|Not a FIFA member

|colspan=8|Not a FIFA member

|-

| 1954||colspan=8|Entry not accepted by FIFA

|colspan=8|Entry not accepted by FIFA

|-

| 1958 to 1970||colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=8|Did not enter

|-

| 1974||colspan=8|Did not qualify

|3||1||0||2||1||5

|-

!Total||—||—||–||–||–||–||–||–

!3||1||0||2||1||5

|}

1974 FIFA World Cup qualification

The only World Cup qualification campaign which South Vietnam entered was the for the 1974 World Cup. They were placed in Zone A of the AFC and OFC qualification in Seoul, South Korea. On 16 May 1973 they beat Thailand 1–0 to qualify for Group 1. On 20 May, South Vietnam lost their opening game 0–4 to Japan and four days later they lost 1–0 to Hong Kong and were eliminated. Hong Kong and Japan advanced but neither got any further, losing play-offs for the next round to South Korea and Israel respectively.

Asian Cup

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

|-

!colspan=10|AFC Asian Cup record

! rowspan="21" style="width:1%;" |

!colspan=6|Qualification record

|-

! Year

! Result

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

! Squad

!

!

!

!

!

!

|-style="background:#9acdff;"

| 1956|| Fourth place||4th||3||0||1||2||6||9||Squad

||2||1||1||0||7||3

|-style="background:#9acdff;"

| 1960|| Fourth place||4th||3||0||0||3||2||12||Squad

||2||2||0||0||5||1

|-

| 1964||colspan=9 rowspan=2|Did not qualify

||3||2||0||1||9||7

|-

| 1968

||4||2||0||2||4||4

|-

| 1972||colspan=9|Withdrew

|colspan=6|Withdrew

|-

| 1976||colspan=9 rowspan=1|Did not qualify

||4||0||0||4||1||10

|-

!Total||Fourth place||4th||6 ||0 ||1 ||5 || 8|| 21|| –

!15 ||7 ||1 ||7 ||26 || 25

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;font-size:90%;"

|-

!colspan=4|Asian Cup Finals Results

|-

!Year!!Score!!Result

|-

|rowspan=3|1956

|align="left"| 2–2 ||Draw

|-

|align="left"| 1–2 ||Loss

|-

|align="left"| 3–5 ||Loss

|-

|rowspan=3|1960

|align="left"| 1–5 ||Loss

|-

|align="left"| 0–2 ||Loss

|-

|align="left"| 1–5 ||Loss

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%; width:50%"

|-

! colspan="6"|AFC Asian Cup record

|-

!width=10%|First match

|width=23% style="text-align:center" | 2–2 <br> (9 September 1956; Causeway Bay, Hong Kong)

|-

!width=10%|Last match

|width=23% style="text-align:center" | 1–5 <br> (14 October 1960; Seoul, South Korea)

|-

!width=10%|Biggest win

|width=23%|None

|-

!width=10%|Biggest defeat

|width=23% style="text-align:center" | 1–5 <br> (14 October 1960; Seoul, South Korea)<br> 5–1 <br> (19 October 1960; Seoul, South Korea)

|-

!width=10%|Best result

|width=23% style="text-align:center" | Fourth place in 1956 and 1960

|-

!width=10%|Worst result

|width=23%|None

|}

Olympic Games

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; width: 850px;"

|-

! colspan="9" style="background-color: #CE1126; color: #FFFFFF;" | Football at the Summer Olympics| record

! colspan=6 style="background-color: #CE1126; color: #FFFFFF;" |Qualification record

|-

!Year

!Result

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

|-

| 1952

|colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=6|No qualification

|-

| 1956

|colspan=8|Qualified, but withdrew

||2||2||0||0||9||5

|-

| 1960

|colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=6|Did not enter

|-

| 1964

|rowspan=2 colspan=8|Did not qualify

||4||1||1||2||4||6

|-

| 1968

||5||2||1||2||14||5

|-

|| 1972

|colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=6|Did not enter

|- style="background-color: #CE1126; color: #FFFFFF;" |

|Total||0/16||–||–||–||–||–||–||–||–|11||5||2||4||27||16

|}

Asian Games

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

|-

!colspan=8|Asian Games

|-

!Year||Round||GP||W||D||L||GF||GA

|-

| 1951 ||colspan=7|Did not enter

|-

| 1954 ||Preliminary round||2 ||1 ||0 ||1 ||5 ||5

|-

|| 1958 ||Quarter-finals ||3 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||8 ||5

|-style="background:#9acdff;"

|| 1962 ||Fourth place ||5 ||2 ||0 ||3 ||12 ||8

|-

|| 1966 ||rowspan=2|Preliminary round||3 ||1 ||1 ||1 ||2 ||6

|-

|| 1970 ||2 ||0 ||0 ||2 ||0 ||3

|-

| 1974 ||colspan=7|Did not enter

|-

! Total || Fourth Place ||15 ||5 ||2 ||8 ||27 ||27

|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%;"

|-

!colspan=4|Asian Games History

|-

!Year!!Round!!Score!!Result

|-

|rowspan=2|1954

|Round 1||align="left"| 2&ndash;3 ||Loss

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 3&ndash;2 ||Win

|-

|rowspan=3|1958

|Round 1||align="left"| 1&ndash;1 ||Draw

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 6&ndash;1 ||Win

|-

|Quarter-finals||align="left"| 1&ndash;3 ||Loss

|-

|rowspan=5|1962

|Round 1||align="left"| 0&ndash;1 ||Loss

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 6&ndash;0 ||Win

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 3&ndash;0 ||Win

|-

|Semi-finals||align="left"| 2&ndash;3 ||Loss

|-

|Bronze medal||align="left"| 1&ndash;4 ||Loss

|-

|rowspan=3|1966

|Round 1||align="left"| 2&ndash;1 ||Win

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 0&ndash;0 ||Draw

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 0&ndash;5 ||Loss

|-

|rowspan=2|1970

|Round 1||align="left"| 0&ndash;2 ||Loss

|-

|Round 1||align="left"| 0&ndash;1 ||Loss

|}

Southeast Asian Games

thumb|right|The South Vietnam team winning gold at the [[Football at the 1959 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games|1959 Southeast Asian Peninsular Games in Bangkok, Thailand]]

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

! colspan="8"|Southeast Asian Games record

|-

!Year

!Result

!

!

!

!

!

!

|-bgcolor=gold

| 1959|| Champions || 4 || 3 || 0 || 1 || 11 || 3

|-style="background:#cfaa88;"

| 1961||rowspan="2" |Third place || 3 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 8 || 2

|-style="background:#cfaa88;"

| 1965|| 4 || 2 || 0 || 2 || 8 || 5

|-style="background:Silver;"

| 1967||Runners-up|| 3 || 2 || 0 || 1 || 11 || 2

|-

| 1969||Group stage|| 2 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 1 || 2

|- style="background:#cfaa88;"

| 1971||Third place|| 4 || 1 || 2 || 1 || 5 || 4

|- style="background:Silver;"

| 1973||Runners-up|| 4 || 1 || 1 || 2 || 9 || 7

|-

!Total

!1 title

!24

!10

!5

!9

!53

!25

|}

  • 1971: Pesta Sukan Cup (join-winners with India)

Match results

Head-to-head record

;Key

The list shown below shows the South Vietnam national football team all-time international record against opposing nations.

{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible"

|-

! Against

! Played

! Won

! Drawn

! Lost

! GF

! GA

! GD

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 2 || 0 || 0 || 2 || 0 || 2 || –2

|-bgcolor=#FFFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 0

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 14 || 2 || 2 || 10 || 12 || 25 || –12

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 13 || 7 || 3 || 3 || 14 || 14 || 0

|-bgcolor=#FFFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 10 || 4 || 2 || 4 || 16 || 12 || 4

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 11 || 2 || 2 || 7 || 8 || 17 || –9

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 15 || 5 ||1 || 9 || 25 || 36 || –11

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 4 || 1 || 0 || 3 || 4 || 8 || –4

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 9 || 4 || 0 || 5 || 13 || 15 || –2

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 1 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 2 || –1

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 6 || 5 || 1 || 0 || 24 || 1 || 23

|-bgcolor=#FFFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 0

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 11 || 6 || 1 || 4 || 16 || 29 || –1

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 20 || 4 || 6 || 10 || 30 || 42 || –1

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 1 || 1 || 0 || 0 || 5 || 1 || 4

|-bgcolor=#FFFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 1 || 0 || 1 || 0 || 1 || 1 || 0

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 4 || 4 || 0 || 0 || 25 || 2 || 23

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 19 || 13 || 5 || 1 || 48 || 26 || 22

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 18 || 1 || 6 || 11 || 18 || 44 || –26

|-bgcolor=#FFDACC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 10 || 3 || 3 || 4 || 18 || 15 || 3

|-bgcolor=#CCFFCC

| style="text-align:left;"| || 28 ||20 || 3 || 5 || 59 || 27 || 32

|}

Managerial history

  • Trương Văn Ký (1954)
  • Nguyễn Văn Bông (1956)
  • Lý Đức (1956)
  • Lê Hữu Đức (1960)
  • Lê Hữu Đức (1963–1964)
  • Karl-Heinz Weigang (1966–1968)
  • Nguyễn Ngọc Thanh (1969–1970)
  • Trần Văn Thông (1971)
  • Từ Bá Nhẫn (1973–1974)
  • Nguyễn Thành Sự (1974–1975)