Why was Thanh Nha eliminated? Will the Vietnamese women's team successfully defend the regional title?

The AFF Cup 2025 is an opportunity for the Vietnamese women's football team to reaffirm its position in the Southeast Asian arena, aiming to create a springboard for the 2026 Asian Cup.

The Vietnamese women's team has made great progress over the past 10 years, winning the SEA Games gold medal four times in a row, qualifying for the World Cup for the first time, and winning the AFF Cup (2019). The resounding success has helped coach Mai Duc Chung and his team maintain their No. 1 position in Southeast Asia (6th in Asia), along with a favorable springboard to continue to break through. However, along with the impressive transformation, Huynh Nhu and her teammates also had some stumbles during this time. One of them took place in the most recent AFF Cup that the Vietnamese women's team participated in, in July 2022.

The Vietnamese women's team will have to compete fiercely with many teams at the AFF Cup 2025.

PHOTO: VFF

At that time, the Vietnamese women's team could not defend the title they won in 2019 when they lost 0-4 to the host Philippines in the semi-finals, in a match where many players had to admit that they "had difficulty breathing" against fast, strong, and physically fit naturalized players on the opposing side. Coach Mai Duc Chung's students then continued to lose to Myanmar in the third-place match. Although the Vietnamese women's team still won the 32nd SEA Games (2023) and had a memorable experience at the World Cup, the stumble at the 2022 AFF Cup was still a warning to Mr. Mai Duc Chung and his team. The line between class in women's football is very narrow. The Vietnamese women's team is currently number 1 in Southeast Asia, but don't forget that the Philippines beat Vietnam in the last 2 meetings. At the same time, the women's team nicknamed "Azkals" reached the semi-finals of the 2022 Asian Cup and had a historic victory at the 2023 World Cup (defeating host New Zealand).

Not to mention, the Thai women's team is also very strong, with the core of the U.20 and U.22 teams from 3 years ago being given the opportunity to compete continuously. The Myanmar women's players are always passionate and persistent, while Indonesia will "change its skin" with a series of formidable naturalized players.

The team will train in Japan from June 8.

To prepare for many major tournaments, including the AFF Cup 2025 taking place at Lach Tray Stadium ( Hai Phong ), the Vietnamese women's team has gathered since May. Mr. Chung's students have gone to Japan for a 10-day training session, then will return to train for the Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers (taking place at the end of June).

Coach Mai Duc Chung and his team are stationed at Green Sakai Camp, a sports center in Osaka (Japan).

According to the plan, the Vietnamese women's team will have 3 friendly matches during this training session, in which the first match with Iga Kunoichi Mie FC will take place on June 11. June 13: match with Tezukayama Gakuin University team. June 15: match with Osaka University of Sports and Health Sciences team.

Coach Mai Duc Chung hopes that with a country with a developed football level in Asia like Japan with many good clubs and players, Vietnamese female players will have many conditions to study, expand their knowledge, learn a lot from Japanese women's football, thereby having the best preparation for the upcoming 2026 Asian women's qualifying round.

The team then continued to train to purify the force and build a playing style for the AFF Cup 2025. The Vietnamese women's team is preparing to go through a very difficult long-distance training period, linked to many ambitions, such as winning a ticket to the 2026 Asian Cup Finals, winning the 2025 AFF Cup, and defending the gold medal at the 33rd SEA Games (taking place in December this year).

Coach Mai Duc Chung has called up a deep squad, with many new faces for the Vietnamese women's team. However, the squad under Chung's control still has many problems. New recruits such as Nguyen Hoang Nam Mi were warned for passing and running slowly, and Luu Thi Nhu Quynh has not made an impression, so she was removed from the list. Midfielder Nguyen Thi Thanh Nha is being treated for a knee cartilage injury and needs time to recover, so her name is not on the list of the Vietnamese team this time. Meanwhile, pillars such as Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy, Huynh Nhu, Pham Hai Yen, Tran Thi Kim Thanh... are all getting old.

The AFF Cup 2025 draw ceremony took place this morning (June 9) in Hanoi.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tai-sao-thanh-nha-bi-loai-doi-tuyen-nu-viet-nam-co-bao-ve-thanh-cong-ngo-hau-khu-vuc-185250608202640174.htm