Vietnam Glory 2023: Vietnam Women's Football Team

Vietnam Glory 2023 - The Vietnamese women's football team has had a courageous journey to win a ticket to the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. With its achievements, the Vietnamese women's football team deserves to be a typical example of the will to rise up, bringing great benefits to the community and society according to the orientation of the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam .

A major event of Vietnamese sports in general and the women's football team in particular, making the country's fans proud. Proud of the achievement, but looking back at the journey that coach Mai Duc Chung and his team had to go through, it really makes people cry...

Tear

To qualify for the World Cup, the Vietnamese women's team must be in the Top 4 strongest teams at the 2022 Asian Cup, where the draw brings Huynh Nhu and her teammates to opponents from Korea, Japan, and Myanmar. The two teams from East Asia are really too strong, while Myanmar is always a very difficult opponent.

And when the Asian Cup takes place from January 20 to February 6, coach Mai Duc Chung and his players understand that they will have to compete away from home while back home, everyone is celebrating Lunar New Year.

In fact, having to compete away from home at such times is not too strange for the players, so the emotional difficulties can be overcome when they are still together and have a sharing. However, no one can imagine the real difficulties that the female players have to go through.

To prepare for the tournament, the women's team had a friendly match in Spain, with the aim of meeting clubs in developed football to gain experience. After the friendly match, shocking news was delivered that there was a person in the opponent's squad infected with COVID-19. Initial test results for all members showed that 4 players tested positive.

And the numbers continued to rise day by day. By the time of departure for India, coach Mai Duc Chung had only four players available for training. That was just one week before the opening match against South Korea. Some players had to stay in Spain because they had not yet recovered.

The option of bringing more players from Vietnam was also considered, but due to the pandemic, the move was not simple. With a total of 17 players infected with COVID-19, despair may have appeared at that time. But hope is never lost...

Smile

Day by day, the players returned one by one. By January 19 - that is, just 2 days before the opening match - most of the new squad had moved from Spain to India and the test results were only announced on the morning of January 21, when the match took place in the afternoon of the same day. At the press conference the day before the match, coach Mai Duc Chung was not sure if the squad was complete, so he only promised that if they were on the field, the players would play to the best of their ability for the spirit of Vietnamese women.

In the end, all tested negative to be able to play, but 10 days without training and the physical effects of COVID-19 were clearly not good for competition. However, in the difficult circumstances, the resilient and indomitable spirit was shown by the players. Although losing 0-3 to Korea, it was an important premise for the step towards a smile for the Vietnamese women's team.

Conceding 3 more goals against the Japanese women's team, the Vietnamese women's team still maintained their 3rd place in the rankings, because Myanmar conceded 8 goals after 2 matches. The decisive clash between the Vietnamese women's team and Myanmar once again affirmed the will of the "golden girls", when they were surpassed twice and equalized twice.

Compared to the third-placed teams with good results, the Vietnamese women's team is one of two teams (along with Thailand) to reach the quarter-finals. Losing to China 1-3, the journey of the Vietnamese women's team turned to the play-off round with Thailand and Taiwan (China). The hardship continued to haunt them, because despite beating Thailand 2-0, the goal difference was still lower than Taiwan (China) - who beat Thailand 3-0.

Forced to win in the head-to-head match, Chuong Thi Kieu opened the score early but the opponent equalized right at the beginning of the second half. The anxiety came again and only when Bich Thuy scored to raise the score to 2-1 and the teammates steadfastly defended until the final whistle sounded, did joy burst out for everyone.

Aspiration

After the historic moment in India, the Vietnamese women's team continued their journey through a number of tournaments. And then, after successfully defending the SEA Games Gold Medal, everyone realized that, in just a short time, the real historic moment would come.

Coach Mai Duc Chung and his players will go to Australia/New Zealand to officially debut on the world-class playground. With the draw leading to the group with the reigning champion USA, the reigning runner-up Netherlands - also the reigning European champion, and Portugal, everyone understands that the opportunity for the Vietnamese women's team is not much.

Coach Mai Duc Chung also said that the players will come with a spirit of learning, but that does not mean they will just consider this a “tour”. Thuy Trang, Huynh Nhu, Hoang Loan, Bich Thuy, Tuyet Dung, Truong Kieu, Hai Yen, Thanh Nha, Hai Linh, Van Su... all have their own aspirations, the aspirations of the collective, carrying on their shoulders the aspirations of the whole country.

In the scorching heat of summer, the golden girls are still practicing hard to prepare the best for the World Cup. With the "golden star female warriors" having overcome many challenges, the World Cup will be an introduction to the world about Vietnam, a country full of aspirations...

Laodong.vn