Football News: Here's How Vietnam Celebrated Its Southeast Asian Games Gold Medal Win

Southeast Asia is known as a football crazy region, and even the Philippines, a well known basketball powerhouse in Asia, has recently seen a renaissance in football, making intra-region football matches more competitive.

That is why the gold medal in the men's football competition in the Southeast Asian Games is being seen as the second most coveted national team championship in the said region after the title in the ASEAN Football Federation Championship, more popularly known as the AFF Suzuki Cup.

Among the fans, the AFF Suzuki Cup and SEA Games finals are the most anticipated matches in Southeast Asian football, and it was evident on Tuesday night, when the gold medal match in the 2019 SEA Games, which the Philippines is hosting, took place.

The Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila, which according to Wikipedia can seat up to 12,873 people, was nearly packed—about 11,000 specifically—when Vietnam and Indonesia faced off for the SEA Games gold.

Because of the surprisingly huge crowd—surprising in a sense that the pitch only got to see a five-digit crowd again after eight years, or when the Philippine team, known locally as the Azkals, the Filipino term for "stray dogs", hosted some of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers matches at the said venue—the venue officials had to segregate the fans of both sides to as much as possible eradicate possible fan violence if things get heated.

For both teams, this was a date with destiny, especially for Vietnam, which was trying to end 60 years of frustration of not winning a single SEA Games gold in men's football, and Vietnam finally completed its miracle run, blanking Indonesia in the gold medal match, 3-0.

The Vietnamese fans, who were mostly seated at the grandstand with some seated at some portions of the bleachers to the huge number, celebrated their team's first ever SEA Games gold in men's football.

Elsewhere, however, it was a party. Travel vlogger John Saboe, who was in Ho Chi Minh, took a video of motorcycle drivers honking their horns to celebrate Vietnam's win.

The Vietnamese squad is expected to return home on Thursday, right after the SEA Games is coming to a close, and Saboe now looks forward to an even more raucous crowd in Hanoi that will welcome the team.

Here is a full 360-degree view of the street celebration in Ho Chi Minh as documented by Saboe himself.