Determined for the new journey

VHO - On September 5 in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Football Club I will embark on a journey to defend its "title" at the 2025 National Women's Football Championship. "Winning the championship is difficult, defending the championship is even more difficult", but with determination and careful preparation, Coach Doan Thi Kim Chi and her team will aim for the most important domestic arena of the year with the highest goal.

Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club I is the leading candidate for the 2025 National Championship

Ho Chi Minh City Women's Football has long been considered the "leading bird" of Vietnamese women's football, contributing many faces to the national team. Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club I currently holds the record with 13 championships in the National Championship, including the last 6 seasons holding the "queen position".

Recently, coach Doan Thi Kim Chi and her team became the first representatives of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian women's football to participate in the semi-finals of the 2024-2025 Asian Women's Club Cup. Entering the new season, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club I is focusing all its efforts on achieving the highest goal in the domestic arena, while affirming its position as the most traditional football team in the domestic arena.

Recently, the team has had many changes in personnel when key players have grown old or moved to other clubs, but thanks to the increasingly improved quality of youth training, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club I has overcome difficulties to firmly consolidate its position in domestic and international tournaments.

In preparation for the new season, the team's management has planned an early training session with various training phases. The goal is not only to improve physical and tactical skills but also to help the players maintain mental stability after a stressful season.

The 2025 National Women's Football Championship has 6 participating teams: Hanoi, Phong Phu Ha Nam , Ho Chi Minh City I, Ho Chi Minh City II, Than KSVN, Thai Nguyen T&T. The teams will compete in a round-robin of 2 matches (home and away) at the host city to calculate points and rank. The first leg will start from September 4-21, the second leg will take place from September 26 to October 13, both in Hanoi.

During the initial preparation phase, the team focused on physical training with endurance and speed exercises in Ho Chi Minh City, followed by a training trip to Long An Ward (Tay Ninh). This is considered an important foundation, helping the players maintain their fitness throughout the season. After that, coach Doan Thi Kim Chi and her colleagues deployed tactical exercises, from small group coordination, high pressing to organizing defensive counter-attacks - which have been the club's strengths for many years.

With a solid traditional foundation, a force that harmoniously combines experience and youth, and the dedicated guidance of Coach Doan Thi Kim Chi, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Football Club I is full of confidence heading into the new season. Coach Doan Thi Kim Chi is quite satisfied with the development of players such as K'Thua, Nguyen Thi Kim Yen, Ngo Thi Hong Nhung, Cu Thi Huynh Nhu... and will continue to create conditions for young talents to compete more, to develop their abilities in this year's season.

Coach Doan Thi Kim Chi shared: “Young players are often not stable in terms of expertise, their performance is lacking in maintenance, but the coaching board hopes that the older players will guide them to maintain the necessary stability. It is difficult to calculate exactly, but the goal of each season is still to strive to achieve the best results. The whole team will try, the coaching board will also continue to make reasonable arrangements so that the older players have time to recover.”

This year, Ho Chi Minh City I Club will face fierce competition from rivals such as Hanoi , Thai Nguyen T&T or Than KSVN. Hanoi still maintains a uniform national team of players, while Than KSVN and Thai Nguyen T&T also invest heavily in training and recruiting forces. The progress of the rivals makes Ho Chi Minh City I unable to be subjective, because just a small mistake can lose the advantage.

Not only that, with a long tradition, each season of Ho Chi Minh City I is always associated with the goal of winning the championship. This is a great source of motivation but also creates a lot of pressure. The players have to compete with the mindset of "not being allowed to fail", while the expectations of the fans of the city named after Uncle Ho are increasingly high. This requires a strong will and careful mental preparation.

The goal of defending the championship is not easy, but with the courage that has been affirmed over many years, the girls of Ho Chi Minh City I promise to continue to bring emotional performances, contributing to the overall development of Vietnamese women's football. "Defending the championship this year will be very difficult, but Ho Chi Minh City I Women's Club will try its best to achieve this goal. Hopefully, the older, experienced players will lead the young players, helping them to be more confident to work towards the set goal," said coach Doan Thi Kim Chi.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/quyet-tam-cho-hanh-trinh-moi-165921.html