Filipinas, Azkals grouped with defending champs Vietnam in SEA Games football

MANILA, Philippines — Both the men's and women's national football teams will be tested early in the upcoming 31st Southeast Asian Games as they are grouped with defending champions and hosts Vietnam.

In the draw held Wednesday, the Azkals and the Filipinas both ended up in Group A of their respective tournaments where the Vietnam men's and women's squads also found themselves in.

This year's hosts won twin titles in football in the previous edition of the SEA Games held in Manila.

It's quite a heavy group for the Azkals Under-23 squad that will be suiting up for the Philippines as they also have Indonesia and Myanmar in their group. Those teams finished second and third, respectively, in 2019.

Wrapping up Group A on the men's side is Timor-Leste.

For the Filipinas, joining them and Vietnam are Cambodia and Indonesia.

It can be recalled that the Philippines and Vietnam qualified for their first-ever FIFA Women's World Cup earlier this year during the 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup in India.

The Filipinas clashed with Vietnam in the 2019 SEA Games in a semifinal match and lost to the eventual champs, 0-2.

Vietnam is the winningest women's squad in the SEA Games with six titles to their name.

Football in the SEA Games is set to start as early as May 6, almost a week before the opening ceremonies on May 12.

The Filipinas are already in training camp in Sydney, Australia for the Games while the men's side recently wrapped up a stint in the FAS Tri-Nations Series.