Leticia McKenna was one of two U23 Australian players who scored against the Vietnamese women's team - Photo: Australian Football Federation
"It feels great to score a goal like that, it helps me reach my dream," Leticia McKenna told Tuoi Tre Online about her lucky goal to increase the score to 2-0 against the Vietnamese women's team on the evening of August 16.
Leticia McKenna, born in 2002, is the runner-up of the 2024-2025 AFC Champions League Women's Championship. Her shot from outside the box in the 17th minute followed a difficult trajectory, causing goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh to be unable to prevent the goal even though she touched the ball.
However, the goal that raised the score to 2-0 was also the last goal of U23 Australia, because in the remaining time, the representative of the land of kangaroos only focused on protecting the score against the attacking efforts of the Vietnamese women's team.
"The Vietnamese women's team played well. They showed great technical foundation with a squad of potential players," said Leticia McKenna.
Aideen Keane, who scored the opening goal in an aerial duel in the 6th minute of the match, also gave words of encouragement to the Vietnamese women's team.
"We had to fight hard from the first minute to the last minute of injury time, as the Vietnamese women's team proved to be a very tough opponent. It was even harder when we had to play on your home field, with such a large crowd cheering us on. The whole match was like a battle and I feel grateful to have won with such a hard-fought victory," said Aideen Keane.
Aideen Keane celebrates opening the scoring with a header against the Vietnamese women's team - Photo: Australian Football Federation
As one of the players who played the entire match, Aideen Keane admitted that she was under great pressure when the Vietnamese women's team scored a goal to revive hope from Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy in the 88th minute. The effort to defend the result took a lot of the Australian U23 team's physical strength.
"The most important thing now is that we have to recover to get back in shape for the final. We only have one more match to make our dream come true," said Aideen Keane.
Sharing the same opinion, head coach of the Australian U23 women's team Joseph Palatsides also "sweat" when the Vietnamese women's team fought back to find an equalizer at the end of the second half.
"At that time, the Vietnamese women's team pushed up high and fought with the spirit of having nothing to lose. We struggled a lot in the remaining 8 minutes including extra time to protect the 2-1 victory. I was very worried because in football anything can happen, especially when playing at the home field of one of the best teams in the tournament," said coach Joseph Palatsides.
It can be seen that despite losing the match, the Vietnamese women's team still made the U23 Australia team admire and respect them greatly. This is also the only loss of coach Mai Duc Chung and his team in the tournament up to this point.
Despite losing 1-2 to U23 Australia in the semi-final on the evening of August 16, the journey of the Vietnamese women's team at the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's Championship has not yet ended. Coach Mai Duc Chung and his team will play the third-place match against Thailand, the team that lost 1-2 to Myanmar in the semi-final, on August 19.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/cau-thu-u23-uc-noi-gi-ve-tuyen-nu-viet-nam-sau-tran-ban-ket-20250817083652899.htm
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