What lessons for the Vietnamese women's team after the failure at ASIAD 19?

Young players play below expectations

After two successful Asian Games, reaching the semi-finals (2014) and quarter-finals (2018), respectively, the Vietnamese women's team was eliminated in the group stage of ASIAD 19, despite being in a group that was considered to be of equal strength. More importantly, coach Mai Duc Chung's students failed at ASIAD, despite having just accumulated experience and learned more lessons at the World Cup.

There are many reasons for the unsuccessful matches of Tuyet Dung and her teammates. Coach Mai Duc Chung explained that the absence of some key players such as Chuong Thi Kieu and Huynh Nhu was not adequately filled.

Vietnam women's team lost heavily to Japan

In attack, Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang has not been able to become a "transit station" to develop a mature playing style like the role Huynh Nhu once showed. It is no coincidence that coach Mai Duc Chung wants to wait for Huynh Nhu until the last minute. The striker born in 1991 is an important link in the playing style thanks to her ability to score goals and create plays.

Without Huynh Nhu, the Vietnamese women's team had to completely change their attacking system. Vu Thi Hoa's injury before the "G hour" also left coach Mai Duc Chung without another good option. Throughout the tournament, Mr. Chung only had 2 strikers, Hai Yen and Thuy Hang, making the attack line weaker than during the World Cup.

However, the main factor causing the problem for the Vietnamese women's team is the lack of inspiration to play football after a long period of training and competition. The Vietnamese women's players have been training since April to prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics qualifiers. Over the past 6 months, the Vietnamese women's team has been training, training, playing friendly matches, competing, and then starting the same cycle again.

The performance of players and teams always has cycles, there are stable and explosive periods, but there will be periods of decline, especially when the team plays continuously for a long period of time.

The coaching staff of the Vietnamese women's team has calculated that the peak of the players' form will be at the SEA Games and the 2023 World Cup. After the tournaments in Australia and New Zealand, coach Mai Duc Chung has prepared for the "low period" of the pillars' form by calling up a series of young players, including Nguyen Thi Hoa, Pham Thi Lan Anh, Tran Thi Duyen and Truc Huong to be ready to make up for the decline (if any) of the seniors.

Vietnam women's team falls to strong opponent

However, the young players played below expectations and could hardly prove their abilities, leading to the Vietnamese women's team once again having to play with a spread out lineup throughout the three matches.

Against weak opponents like Nepal or Bangladesh, the Vietnamese women's team won easily. However, the match with Japan exposed all the problems of the women's team. The thin force, not many alternatives and the relatively slow rejuvenation process as admitted by coach Mai Duc Chung,... are the core reasons, pushing the Vietnamese women's team into a difficult situation.

The journey ahead

Before the defeat of the Vietnamese women's team, another event in women's football appeared, although less noticeable but also worth noting for those working in women's football. That was the defeat of the U.17 women's team of Vietnam in the Asian qualifiers. With home field advantage and the right to decide, the U.17 women's team of Vietnam lost to the U.17 women's team of the Philippines and missed the ticket to the final round.

Most of the U.17 Vietnam women's team's personnel come from about 3 or 4 women's football training centers, such as Hanoi, Ha Nam, Vietnam Coal and Minerals and Ho Chi Minh City. The U.17 women's team, with the best young talents selected, will be trained centrally and compete in specific tournaments.

That is also the way the Vietnamese women's team has operated in recent years. The mark of the national women's championship, although not small, is not entirely convincing. Because there are too few localities participating in women's football, youth training is basically like "gambling", depending more on luck than the superiority of the football system.

Hai Yen is the "locomotive" of the Vietnamese women's team in the coming years.

The proof is that after the success of Huynh Nhu, Tuyet Dung, Bich Thuy, Kim Thanh... the Vietnamese women's team had to wait 7 years to have a good generation of players like Hai Linh, Thanh Nha, Thu Thuong, Vu Thi Hoa. When the senior generation passed their peak, the junior generation could not replace them.

In addition, when female players only play for the national team, without any matches at the club level, Vietnamese women's football is only cared for at the top level. The national women's championship only has 3 months left at the end of the year to play two rounds and end properly.

Former head of the women's team, Mr. Duong Vu Lam, affirmed that Asian women's football is developing rapidly. The rise of the Philippines, Uzbekistan, Taiwan or the return of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea... will create a very unpredictable competitive situation.

The Vietnamese women's team has made rapid progress, but still needs to learn from today's failures to review their actual capabilities. Ahead of coach Mai Duc Chung and his team will be the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers in November, where Vietnam will meet Japan again.

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