Coach Okiyama Masahiko speaks at the press conference - Photo: HFF
On the afternoon of June 8, the Ho Chi Minh City Football Federation (HFF) held a press conference before the 2025 Southeast Asian U19 Women's Championship with the participation of 8 teams.
Opportunity for young players to develop
On the opening day at Thong Nhat Stadium tomorrow (June 9), the Vietnam U19 women's team will meet the Myanmar U19 women's team in a match at 6:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the defending champion Thailand U19 women's team will meet Indonesia U19 women's team in the opening match at District 8 Stadium at 3 p.m.
Speaking at the press conference, coach Okiyama Masahiko did not hide his ambition and confidence that he would lead the Vietnamese U19 women's team to victory at the tournament.
The Japanese coach shared: "We have three goals. Firstly, through this tournament, we want to prepare for the 2026 AFC U20 Women's Championship qualifiers held in Hanoi next August.
The second is to try our best, win every match to win the championship. The tournament is held in Ho Chi Minh City, so we want to celebrate with the audience. And finally, we hope that through this youth tournament, women's football in Southeast Asia will develop together."
"You set the goal of winning the championship after only finishing second to Thailand three times. What makes you confident in setting such a high goal?", the reporter asked.
Coach of Thailand U19 women's team Nuengrutai Srathongvian - Photo: HFF
Coach Okiyama Masahiko replied: "We have a good group of young female players. They perform well on the field according to the training plans given by the coaching staff and develop quickly in a short time. I think this group of players will win the championship."
For his part, coach Thet Thet Win shared: "The Myanmar U19 women's team did not have too much preparation time for the tournament. However, we are determined to play well in the tournament. Meeting the Vietnam U19 women's team in the opening match is extremely difficult because we are both the host team and a very strong team. But we will try our best to win."
Ho Chi Minh City is currently in the rainy season. However, both coaches of the U19 women's team of Vietnam and Myanmar said they have prepared if they have to compete in heavy rain.
"We have been training in Thanh Long for a long time. The team sometimes had to practice in the rain so we have gotten used to the weather in Ho Chi Minh City," said coach Okiyama Masahiko.
For his part, Coach Thet Thet Win said: "The weather in Ho Chi Minh City is no different, because Myanmar is currently in the rainy season. We went to Ho Chi Minh City a day early to get used to the field and weather. Yesterday (June 7), we could have practiced on a grass field, but it rained heavily so we had to practice on an artificial field. But this did not affect much."
Thailand U19 women's team has a coach who attended the 2015 Women's World Cup
Notably, the Thai U19 women's team is led by Ms. Nuengrutai Srathongvian - former head coach of the Thai women's team who defeated the Vietnamese women's team in the play-off match at Thong Nhat Stadium to win a ticket to the 2015 Women's World Cup.
Despite being the defending champion, coach Nuengrutai Srathongvian was still modest when talking about the goal of the Thai U19 women's team at the tournament. She said: "The Thai U19 women's team is a group of young players competing in the Thai Women's First and Second Division. We only trained for two weeks before coming to Vietnam.
The tournament is a challenge for every young Thai female player, an opportunity to hone their skills so they can play at higher levels. The victory over the Vietnamese team in 2014 is still a beautiful memory for me personally. I am trying to convey my experience to help the young Thai female players compete well."
The 2025 Southeast Asian Women's U19 Championship will take place from June 9 to 18 at 4 locations : Thong Nhat Stadium, District 8 Stadium, HFF Stadium and Dat Duc Stadium (Go Vap District).
The eight participating teams are divided into two groups. Group A includes Myanmar, Laos, Timor Leste and host Vietnam. Group B includes defending champions Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Malaysia.
The top two teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals, while the winners will advance to the finals to compete for the championship.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tuyen-u19-nu-viet-nam-quyet-ha-thai-lan-de-vo-dich-20250608123433403.htm
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