Football

HÀ NỘI — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has chosen to feature Vietnamese goalkeeper Đặng Thị Kiều Trinh on their website, ahead of the Asian Women’s Cup early next month.

In their feature, AFC called Trinh an ever-present figure at the Asian Cup.

The 32-year-old made her debut at the National Championship in 2006 and now has competed in all five editions of the competition.

Việt Nam nearly achieved their dream of taking part in the 2015 World Cup in Canada. However, the team fell short by losing 1-2 to Thailand in HCM City, during a play-off match for the fifth position in 2014.

Trinh said that this memory was unhappy, as the team did not play as well as expected. But they considered the loss a motivation to try harder in Jordan next month, and the Vietnamese Golden Ball winner is motivated to go one better.

Under head coach Mai Đức Chung, Trinh and her teammates played well in the Asian Cup qualifiers last April and secured their berth in the finals in Jordan. They later won a gold medal at the Southeast Asian Games in Malaysia and remained undefeated for the entire year in August.

Trinh and two other teammates, Nguyễn Thị Tuyết Dung and Huỳnh Như, are key members while coach Chung is an effective leader who knows how to unite the players and motivate the squad, to win their World Cup place despite the challenges.

“Before every match, we all promise to play at our highest possible level, to bring victory to our country. That was our motivation to play well in the Southeast Asian Games,” she said to the-afc.com.

“Head coach Chung is an enthusiastic coach and he understands every player very well, which is a key factor that led to his success as a coach,” she added.

Việt Nam, the Southeast Asian champions, must progress to the Cup’s semi-finals to achieve their ambitions. However, they must overcome major challenges in the group phase, where they will face Japan, Australia and South Korea in Group B.

“They are all strong opponents in world football, and we will face our challenges in this draw,” Trinh stressed.

“To me, the competition has obviously improved as more and more teams have participated, and the level of each team is getting better and better as well,” she added.

Trinh and her teammates are currently trained in Germany to prepare for the Cup in Jordan. — VNS