Vietnam Women's Futsal Aims for World Cup

futsal nữ Việt Nam - Ảnh 1. — Captain Thanh Hang (right) and teammates actively prepare for the opening match against Hong Kong - Photo: VFF

For over a month, coach Nguyen Dinh Hoang and his team have been training diligently from Ho Chi Minh City to Japan and now China to aim for the world dream.

Confidence in the match

In Group B, the Vietnamese women's futsal team will meet Hong Kong, the Philippines (May 9) and Iran (May 11) to compete for one of the two official tickets to the quarterfinals. Currently ranked 29th in the world, 18 places lower than the Vietnamese women's futsal team (ranked 11th in the world), Hong Kong is not an opponent worth worrying about.

But the opening match is never easy. Moreover, the Vietnamese team cannot be complacent because football always contains many surprises. For example, the Vietnamese women's futsal team defeated China (ranked 24th in the world) 4-2 and 3-0 in two friendly tournaments in 2024, but just lost to China 3-4 in the penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw in the two regular periods of the friendly match on May 3 in Inner Mongolia.

On the other hand, Hong Kong has also shown progress. In the 2025 Asian Women's Futsal Championship qualifiers, Hong Kong finished second in the group behind Indonesia (ranked 17th in the world) with 2 wins and 1 loss. Former national team player Cheung Wai Ki scored 5/9 goals for the Hong Kong women's futsal team in 3 matches.

Therefore, the Vietnamese futsal team will enter the match with Hong Kong in a very serious manner. Coach Nguyen Dinh Hoang said that the coaching staff has prepared many tactical plans, and at the same time made adjustments to suit each specific opponent.

World Cup Dream

Last year, the Vietnamese women's futsal team won the Southeast Asian championship for the first time and also defeated Thailand (ranked 5th in the world) in the final for the first time. It was a historic milestone for Vietnamese women's futsal. And now, they are aiming for a new milestone: winning a ticket to the Futsal World Cup for the first time.

This is the third year the Asian Women's Futsal Championship has been held. Unlike previous years, this year's tournament is highly anticipated by participating teams because it also serves as a qualifier for the 2025 Women's Futsal World Cup at the end of the year.

Apart from the host Philippines, who will qualify directly, only the top 3 teams of the 2025 Asian Women's Futsal Championship will qualify for the world stage. That is the dream and also the destination for ambitious teams, including the Vietnamese women's futsal team.

Captain Thanh Hang shared: "This is the first time the Women's Futsal World Cup has been held, and we are looking forward to participating in the world arena. The whole team is under a lot of pressure, but also very determined.

Everyone is trying their best to overcome all difficulties and focus on this tournament. We will compete with all our hearts to realize the World Cup dream, as a gift for Vietnamese futsal fans."

Prepare carefully

To reach the World Cup dream, the Vietnamese women's futsal team has been training seriously in the past time. They have 3 international friendly matches, including 2 very valuable matches with the Japanese women's futsal team (ranked 10th in the world) and China.

Despite losing to Japan and China, the Vietnamese women's futsal team has learned many valuable lessons to realize their dream. Even after returning from a 7-day training trip in Japan, the Vietnamese women's futsal team did not rest but continued to practice.

"We took advantage of each training session to overcome the weaknesses that were revealed during the training trip. The players met the required competition intensity. However, facing opponents with much higher quality, our players could not keep up with their competition intensity, so their weaknesses were revealed," said coach Nguyen Dinh Hoang.

The reigning champion Iran (ranked 9th in the world) is the biggest rival of the Vietnamese women's futsal team in the group stage. But getting a ticket to the quarterfinals is not difficult. The only difficulty is that coach Nguyen Dinh Hoang must calculate the final ranking position in the group in order to meet an opponent of equal strength in the quarterfinals to be able to go as far as possible.

The advantage for the Vietnamese women's futsal team is that they will meet Iran in the last round, so they can calculate their moves.

NGUYEN KHOI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/futsal-nu-viet-nam-huong-den-world-cup-20250507101303586.htm