The Vietnamese women's team trains to prepare for the match with the US on Saturday. Photo VFF

Women’s World Cup

HÀ NỘI — Coach Mai Đức Chung has affirmed that the Vietnamese women's team will do their best in their opening match against the US in the 2023 FIFA Women’s Cup on Saturday, even though their opponent is very strong.

"The US women's team are really strong compared to the Vietnamese team. However, we do not come to the World Cup to travel. I can say that the US are like a tall mountain, but we will not falter. Việt Nam will have reasonable tactics against them,” Chung said at the press conference in Auckland, New Zealand on Friday.

“Our first aim is to limit the number of goals scored by our rival and avoid injuries. If we can get a goal against the US, everything will be great," Chung said.

"I, like the Vietnamese fans, are waiting for this historic match. We did not dare to dream of playing against the US and the Netherlands. Now it is happening. We hardly expect to win in terms of the score, but in terms of the spirit of the whole team against a strong opponent like the US team, we expect that to shine.”

“This is the first time the Vietnamese women's team have attended a World Cup event.

"We feel honoured. We are proud to represent the Vietnamese people at this year’s World Cup. Việt Nam come here with the main purpose of learning from experience. The team are still young in terms of experience in world tournaments and need to learn from every opponent.

“We come from an underdeveloped football area. But Southeast Asia is now proud to have two representatives, Việt Nam and the Philippines, to attend the 2023 Women's World Cup,” Chung said.

Meanwhile, coach Vlatko Andonovski of the US admitted that he did not know much about the Vietnamese women's team and said that the upcoming fight would be an interesting experience for the defending champions.

The two teams have never met before. The US are the most successful team in the Women's World Cup when they have attended eight times and won four times. While Việt Nam is showing up for the first time.

"I know that Việt Nam has gone through a challenging journey at the Asia qualifiers to reach the World Cup. It will certainly be an interesting experience to meet Việt Nam in the opening match. We look forward to knowing more about them," Andonovski said.

The American players are also excited about the opening match against Việt Nam.

Striker Lynn Williams said her team had learned about the group stage opponents and assessed that the Vietnamese team had many surprises and a different playing style.

With the same opinion, defender Crystal Dunn said that Việt Nam would give it their best try.

This year, the reigning US champions have many changes in their squad as coach Andonovski only brought nine players to the tournament who attended in 2019. However, the US is still considered the top candidate for the title.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese striker Huỳnh Như said that football always hides surprises and Việt Nam will play with the highest spirit.

"In football, it is impossible to predict anything, football always has surprises. We do not think we will beat the US, but we promise to play with our best effort,” Như said.

In fact, Việt Nam is one of the teams with the least information about it in the 2023 Women's World Cup.

"We will try our best in the opening match to bring the image and people of Việt Nam to the world. Hopefully, this will also be an inspiration for the development of Vietnamese women's football in the future,” Captain Như said.

“To reach the World Cup, Vietnamese women's football players had to go through many difficulties. We are still not strong as other teams in the world, but the players always have a collective spirit. I hope this will inspire young people to pursue their passion. If we have passion, we will achieve our dreams." VNS