Women’s football team plan to retake SEA Games title
Posted by Bao Viet Nam on January 7, 2009
HA NOI — The most important task of the national women’s football team this year is to take back the title that they lost to Thailand in the 24th SEA Games December 2007.
It will be a long-term plan for the team who won the biennial tournament three times in a row from 2001.
The team has complained that they don’t have enough tournaments to practise their game plan before the SEA Games. The Viet Nam Football Federation (VFF) responded to this by pushing the national championships forward to March – three months earlier than usual.
After Tet (lunar new year), players will tog out to compete in the national crown, currently held by Ha Noi.
The first leg will kick off on March 24 in Thai Nguyen Province. The return leg is from April 18 in Ha Noi.
The team will have its first training session on May 15 in preparation for the Asian championship’s qualifying round two months later.
They will then take part in the Southeast Asian event. The schedule for the event has not yet been finalised.
After these two competitions, all team members will be sent back to their local clubs before being summoned again for a gruelling training session in early October ahead of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Laos.
Coach Chen Yun Fat, whose contract is expected to be extended, will prime the team as he sees fit. This will involve deciding if his team needs to take part in training sessions abroad, or whether they need to compete in other international championships.
The team may compete in the Annual International Women’s Football Tournament – Coal and Minerals Cup. Viet Nam won last year but did not compete to defend their title last year.
The VFF said they would support all of Fat’s decisions.
Viet Nam defeated worthy rivals Thailand and Myanmar in October’s ASEAN Women’s Football Championship. The victories bode well for the team’s success this December at the 25th SEA Games in Laos.
Young players
After a recent meeting of officials, VFF said they will focus more on young players so they can seek out the talent for the next generation of the national team.
The Training Centre for Young Football Players, which is sponsored by FIFA and the HCM City’s women’s football centre, has been asked to take responsibility for discovering and training talented youngsters.
Young football players will have their own tournament which will be called the National Junior Football Championship. It will kick off in mid-August.
Star players will be called up to the national team. —
