Live schedule of the semi-finals of the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's U19 Championship - Graphics: AN BINH
The reigning U19 Women's Champion Thailand and the runner-up U19 Women's Champion Vietnam both showed impressive strength in the group stage of the 2025 Southeast Asian U19 Women's Championship held in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Vietnam U19 women's team won first place in Group A with 3 wins, scoring 16 goals without conceding any.
After the opening match of U19 women's Myanmar 2-0, the home team won big against U19 women's Timor Leste 6-0 and U19 women's Laos 8-0.
Similarly, the Thai U19 women's team also won Group B with 3 wins. However, the Thai women's players scored 17 goals and conceded 2 goals when defeating Indonesia U19 women's team 6-1, Malaysia U19 women's team 7-1 and Cambodia U19 women's team 4-0.
In the semi-finals, Thailand U19 women will face a formidable opponent, Myanmar U19 women. Meanwhile, Vietnam U19 women will only face Indonesia U19 women quite often.
Naturalized striker Sydney Hopper (10) is outstanding in the Indonesian U19 team - Photo: VIEN LE
In addition to losing 1-6 to Thailand's U19 women's team, the girls from the archipelago only drew 1-1 with Cambodia's U19 women's team and beat Malaysia's U19 women's team 4-0 to enter the semi-finals as second place in Group B.
Indonesia U19 women's team has naturalized players
However, the semi-final match between the Vietnam U19 women's team and the Indonesia U19 women's team will be worth watching, as both teams are being led by Japanese coaches. The Vietnam U19 women's team is led by coach Masahiko Okiyama, while the Indonesia U19 team is coached by Akira Higashiyama.
The Indonesian U19 women's team is not highly rated but is still formidable with Sydney Sari Hopper - a 1m73 tall naturalized striker who is playing football in the US.
Sydney Hopper, who is half Indonesian through her mother, has played 9 matches for the Indonesian women's national team and scored 1 goal. She has only played 2 matches for the Indonesian U19 women's team and this 18-year-old girl also scored in the victory over the Malaysian U19 women's team in the final round of the group stage.
"Naturalization is the current policy for the national team. We have not applied it to the U19 women's team yet, but the future awaits. We have a mission to make history at the 2025 Southeast Asian U19 Women's Championship. Just as the men's national team's goal is to qualify for the World Cup, so does our women's football team," coach Akira Higashiyama shared at a press conference before the tournament.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lich-truc-tiep-ban-ket-giai-u19-nu-dong-nam-a-2025-viet-nam-dau-indonesia-20250614235100094.htm
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