Coach Mai Duc Chung explains his farewell to overseas Vietnamese player Nam Mi

On the afternoon of June 28, the 4 coaches of the 4 women's teams participating in Group E of the 2026 Women's Asian Cup qualifiers attended a press conference before the competition in Phu Tho . Coach Mai Duc Chung, representing the host of the group, shared: "The Vietnamese women's team aims to top Group E of the qualifiers.

We will show our determination right from the opening match against Maldives. For the Vietnamese women's team, UAE, Maldives and Guam are all opponents that we respect. They have all made significant progress. Towards this qualifying round, all three teams have played friendly matches. The Vietnamese women's team needs to be careful and make a lot of effort."

Mr. Mai Duc Chung continued: “The invested teams have all progressed rapidly. The Vietnamese women's team itself has also made progress in the past 2 years. Looking forward to the 2026 Asian Cup qualifiers, we had a training trip to Japan. That is a good environment for the women's team to develop.

When training in Vietnam, it is difficult for us to have such quality players and we often practice with male teams. Therefore, training in an environment like Japan is very good for our development."

Regarding the squad, Coach Mai Duc Chung explained the farewell to Vietnamese-American player Nam Mi: "I really hope that the Vietnamese-American player will return to contribute to the Vietnam women's team. We are very happy that Nam Mi is joining the team, but due to professional issues, this tournament cannot be named yet.

In this training session, the Vietnamese women's team also has the services of some young players such as Minh Chuyen, Nguyen Thi Hoa and Thu Em.

Meanwhile, Maldives coach Mohamed Athif said: “Our team is very happy to meet quality teams. We are ready to play with the highest effort. There is a little regret in the preparation for the qualifying round.

But Maldives will try to give the best matches in this qualifying round. Meeting the Vietnamese women's team in the opening match is a difficulty. This will be the biggest challenge for Maldives in the qualifying round. We will try to prepare as much as possible. Hopefully the players will have the best performance."

The UAE coach said: “After football returned after Covid-19, I had the opportunity to work with my colleagues at the UAE team. We are proud of what we have achieved. In this tournament, we will see what we can do, where we are and try our best.

The selection of domestic players to play for the UAE women's team is partly due to cultural influences. In addition, the coaching staff and I want to create conditions for domestic players. These players will be the future of UAE women's football."

For her part, Guam coach Kim Sherman modestly said: “We want to see how good we are through continental matches. Meeting teams in big tournaments will help develop Guam women's football in the future.”