Dreams need fuel

VHO - Two years after the miracle of participating for the first time at the 2023 World Cup, Vietnamese women's football is facing important turning points. Although the historic journey in Australia - New Zealand ended with predictable failures, it opened a new page of pride for the country's women's football.

Now, as the initial glory has gradually faded, the question is how to keep the “World Cup dream” alive. This requires a serious review of the achievements and limitations of the past two years, and at the same time, a long-term investment strategy to maintain the development momentum of Vietnamese women’s football.

The women's team needs strong investment to be able to repeat the miracle in 2023. Photo: VFF

Looking back at the historical journey and reality

The 2023 World Cup is an unforgettable milestone, the Vietnamese women's team participated in the biggest women's football tournament on the planet for the first time. Despite being in the group of death with the US, Portugal and the Netherlands, the Vietnamese girls showed admirable courage.

The 0-3 loss to defending champions the United States on the opening day of July 22, 2023 did not disappoint fans. On the contrary, the brave performance, including goalkeeper Kim Thanh's penalty save against star Alex Morgan, made waves in the international media.

Despite ending the tournament with three losses, no goals scored and 12 conceded, coach Mai Duc Chung and his team still received great admiration and support from the community. “Participating in the World Cup is a miracle. We are not afraid to face anyone,” coach Mai Duc Chung said upon returning from Australia.

After the World Cup, the women's team continued to compete at the 19th Asian Games and the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers. However, due to the gap in skill level, the girls in red shirts could not create any surprises. However, Vietnam still holds the No. 1 position in Southeast Asia according to the FIFA rankings at the end of 2023, although the gap with the Philippines and Thailand is clearly narrowing.

In particular, after coach Mai Duc Chung left the team at the end of 2023, Vietnamese women's football entered a transition period. The young force was gradually promoted, but still lacked experience. Some pillars such as Huynh Nhu and Tuyet Dung, due to the burden of age, gradually stepped on the other side of the slope of their careers.

In the past two years, despite VFF's efforts, the Women's National Championship still has only 8 teams from 6 localities participating, playing centrally, without promotion or relegation, lacking competition and attraction. Some clubs such as Son La and Thai Nguyen have encountered financial difficulties, even nearly having to disband. The women's tournament stands are still sparsely attended, and the media is not interested. Despite the World Cup miracle, most female players, although their income has improved, still have difficult lives and short careers.

After the glory of the World Cup, our golden girls returned to the quiet practice routine, competing in Southeast Asian tournaments or continental qualifiers that did not receive as much attention.

The public’s expectations, which were once high after the World Cup victory, are at risk of fading if women’s football does not continue to achieve outstanding results. This is a reality that requires those working in football to ponder: How to “keep the fire” of passion and support for Vietnamese women’s football?

Need to be nourished from the roots

To prevent the World Cup dream from becoming a flash in the pan, Vietnamese women’s football needs to be nurtured from the roots. According to expert Phan Anh Tu, the biggest problem is a systematic training system, human resources and economic potential. Currently, the whole country only has a few hundred professional female players, concentrated in less than 10 localities. Compared to developed football countries, that number is too small to maintain a competitive team at the continental level.

Regarding solutions, VFF has proposed three priority directions: Expanding the women's football movement in localities; raising the level of the National Championship and building a continuous youth training system from U13 to U20. Some centers such as Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh, Thai Nguyen have shown positive signs. In particular, training centers with investment from enterprises such as T&T in Thai Nguyen are opening up a feasible direction.

In fact, when there is sponsorship and a professional model, women's football can take off. For example, after moving to Portugal to play for Lank FC, player Huynh Nhu has grown remarkably. According to many sources, she receives a salary of about 1,500 euros/month, many times higher than the average in the country. However, such cases are still very rare.

Another way is to take advantage of international support. UEFA is working with the VFF to develop Vietnamese women’s football through training, communication and tournament projects. At the same time, the U17 and U20 women’s teams are being sent to more international training and competitions to gain experience.

However, to continue dreaming of the World Cup, Vietnamese women's football needs a real "ecosystem", where everything from clubs, youth leagues to the national championship operates professionally and systematically. A proposal supported by many experts is to require each V.League men's club to establish a women's team, similar to the European model. Only then will female players have enough space to perform, compete, earn a living and have a future. However, maintaining funding to support many men's teams in the V.League is still facing difficulties, so it is unknown when this proposal will be implemented.

Finally, the role of the media and fans is indispensable. The story of the Vietnamese girls at the 2023 World Cup has been a great inspiration to the whole society. If it is continued, nurtured with attention, encouragement and real investment, that dream can completely become a reality.

The 2023 World Cup is a historic feat, but two years later, the challenges for Vietnamese women's football are still there, even greater. Because keeping the fire burning is the hardest. Instead of just looking back, it's time for us to take real action from the training system, sponsorship policy, tournament mechanism, to changing social awareness about the role and value of women's sports. If we don't want the World Cup to be just a fleeting dream, Vietnamese women's football needs to rise up strongly once more...

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/giac-mo-can-tiep-lua-156843.html