A brace by Nguyen Xuan Son at My Dinh Stadium secured the team's spot in their third consecutive ASEAN Cup final, where they will once again face long-time rival Thailand. The win earned the team an additional 11 Elo points, officially lifting them four places to 92nd in the world.

Nguyen Dinh Bac (number 9) shields the ball during Vietnam's 2-0 victory over Malaysia in the second leg of the ASEAN Cup semifinals, on Aug. 19, 2026 at My Dinh Stadium, Hanoi.

Malaysia lost 11 points, dropping them to 149th place, according to World Football Elo Ratings.

With a current Elo rating of 1,432, Vietnam have overtaken China (1,424) for the first time since the Elo system was applied to football.

China currently sit at 95th, while Thailand are 104th with a rating of 1,391. Coach Kim Sang-sik's squad also hold the top spot in Southeast Asia.

Since the start of the 2026 ASEAN Cup, the team have climbed 25 places. Victories over Timor-Leste and Cambodia did not improve their ranking due to the significant gap in levels.

However, a dominant 3-0 win against Indonesia boosted Vietnam by 19 places, and two consecutive victories over Malaysia helped them advance another 11 spots.

How Elo system works in football

The football Elo ranking is based on the Elo system originally developed by Dr. Arpad Elo, which was first used by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to rank players.

The football version adjusted the formula to suit the sport's characteristics, such as match type, home-field advantage and goal margin.

Each match is assigned a specific importance coefficient (K), ranging from 20 for international friendlies to 60 for World Cup. Continental tournaments like the Asian Cup carry a coefficient of 50.

The 2026 ASEAN Cup has a coefficient of 30, which is higher than that of standard friendly matches.

This is different from the FIFA ranking, where friendly matches played during designated FIFA international windows carry a weighting factor of 10, whereas the 2026 ASEAN Cup matches, falling outside the FIFA calendar, only carry a factor of 5.

Before each match, the system mathematically predicts the teams' winning probabilities based purely on the Elo rating gap. The home team receive a bonus equivalent to 100 Elo points to account for their home-field advantage.

Following the match, points are adjusted based on the actual result: a win yields 1 point, a draw 0.5 points and a loss 0 points.

A team that defeat a stronger opponent gain considerably more Elo points, while a highly-rated team that fail to win suffer a greater point deduction. Victories by a margin of two or more goals result in a larger Elo increase.

A team's Elo rating typically provides a relatively accurate reflection of their true strength after about 30 matches played. This system serves as an alternative method to calculate the strength between teams, rather than a basis for tournament seeding.

In the FIFA world ranking, Vietnam have climbed one spot to 98th. Thailand are currently 91st, while China sit closely at 92nd. The FIFA ranking is primarily used to determine tournament seeding for major events such as the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers.

Vietnam will face Thailand in the highly anticipated 2026 ASEAN Cup final. The first leg will take place at Rajamangala Stadium on Aug. 22, and the return leg will be played at My Dinh Stadium on Aug. 26.

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