Vietnam Women's Team: Hope for the next generation

The Vietnamese women's football team is training in Hai Phong to prepare for the 2025 Southeast Asian Championship at home from August 6 to 19. The whole team has had days of active training, consolidating positions, especially young players, and trying to complete the training plan to achieve the best performance before entering the regional playground.

The Vietnamese women's team is hoping that the young generation of players will mature and be strong enough to replace their seniors in the future.

Efforts to compete for a position

In this training camp, head coach Mai Duc Chung has called up 28 players, most of whom participated in the recent 2026 Asian Women's Championship qualifiers. This tournament provided many opportunities for young players to compete alongside their more experienced teammates. Therefore, the team has quite a few young players in this training camp preparing for the Southeast Asian Championship.

From players who contributed to the 2023 Women's World Cup qualification campaign and are currently key members of the national team, such as Nguyen Thi Thanh Nha, Ngan Thi Van Su, and Tran Thi Hai Linh (born in 2001), to those who have recently joined the training camps, such as Le Thi Bao Tram, Ngoc Minh Chuyen (born in 2004), Cu Thi Huynh Nhu, and Nguyen Thi Tuyet Ngan (born in 2000).

Among the young players gathered this time, midfielder Cu Thi Huynh Nhu is one of the faces expected to make a breakthrough. “During this gathering, I gradually got used to the exercises and playing style set out by coach Mai Duc Chung. During the training sessions, I always tried to show myself and integrate well with my teammates. My highest goal is to make an effort to be on the team list to participate in the upcoming Southeast Asian tournament,” Cu Thi Huynh Nhu shared.

Young defender Tran Thi Hai Linh expressed her excitement for the upcoming campaign: “Playing at home is always an honor for me and the whole team. The goal of winning the Southeast Asian women's championship this year will be more difficult because all teams have naturalized players. Recently, coach Mai Duc Chung has asked the players to practice a lot of physical strength to compete with naturalized players, as well as have their own tactics to compete with teams with superior physical strength.”

Meanwhile, defender Le Thi Bao Tram expressed that being called up to the national team for the first time would be a great motivation to strive harder. “Personally, I feel pressure because the older players have superior technical skills. However, I will continue to train hard and complete the tasks assigned by the coaching staff, improve my weaknesses and develop my strengths to integrate with the team as quickly as possible. I will try my best to earn a spot in the Southeast Asian Games with the other players,” Bao Tram stated.

Looking towards the future

Rejuvenating the force is a common trend in modern football and the Vietnamese women's team is no exception. Vietnamese women's football is possessing a "golden generation" with many impressive achievements in recent times, including 4 consecutive SEA Games championships (2017, 2019, 2022, 2023), Southeast Asian championship 2019, reaching the final qualifying round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, especially the achievement of winning the right to participate in the 2023 Women's World Cup.

However, at present, the players of this “golden generation” are getting old and do not have much time left to contribute to the national team. Captain Huynh Nhu is about to turn 34, players such as Tran Thi Thu (34 years old), Kim Thanh (32 years old), Tuyet Dung, Bich Thuy, Duong Thi Van (31 years old), Hai Yen, Chuong Thi Kieu, Hoang Thi Loan (30 years old) can only play at the top level for a few more years.

Therefore, in recent years, especially after the 2023 Women's World Cup, the coaching staff of the Vietnamese women's team has given priority to rejuvenating the squad, looking for the next generation with good expertise to replace their seniors in the future. In 2024, due to the lack of any official international tournament, coach Mai Duc Chung gave opportunities to many young players in two training sessions in the Czech Republic and China with a squad of about 44 - 45% of players born after 2000, including some players promoted from the U20 team.

Similarly, in the early stages of 2025 with a friendly match with Werder Bremen Club (Germany) and a training trip to Japan, the coaching staff also created competition opportunities for many young players before the team entered the 2026 Asian qualifiers, the upcoming Southeast Asian tournament, SEA Games 33, especially the campaign to find a place to attend the 2027 Women's World Cup next year.

According to coach Mai Duc Chung, rejuvenating the squad is extremely important. Without young players, the team's performance is at risk of falling behind. Therefore, the goal of the Vietnamese women's team is still to train and familiarize young players with the way of training, living and competing in a senior team, and then gradually get used to competing.

“Rejuvenating the squad is a journey for all teams to have the next generation. If we don’t have a good next generation, our performance will obviously not be good. Therefore, we have been doing this for a long time, not just now. But we constantly change, regularly creating opportunities for different young players to join the women’s team to practice and get acquainted, then we can send them back and invite others, not fix a few people. Of course, players who are playing well will be in the plan to join the team. Therefore, there are also many young players joining the team with the purpose of training them to approach the team more, be more suitable and coordinate better with the older players,” coach Mai Duc Chung expressed.

Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/doi-tuyen-nu-viet-nam-ky-vong-vao-the-he-ke-thua-20250804160359243.htm