Football

HÀ NỘI — Coach Mai Ðức Chung asked his players to forget their loss to Japan and focus on the upcoming match against Australia at the Asian Women’s Cup tomorrow.

In their first match of Group B, Việt Nam were defeated 0-4 by the defending champions. The match saw the loss of Chung’s two major players, Nguyễn Thị Nhung and Chương Thị Kiều, who were suffering from the flu and could not compete.

“Currently, my players are in good spirits over the upcoming match. I told them we could be a loser in terms of the numbers, but we do have better spirit and more determination than (our rivals),” said Chung.

Chung, after reviewing the first failure, said four goals lost to Japan were mainly due to the Vietnamese players’ mistakes. In the coming matches, these mistakes must be limited as the Asian runners-up Australia were also a very strong team.

“They are taller and bigger than us. They will definitely play high balls, so during our practice, we focus on ways to resist their tactics,” Chung told vtv.vn.

Chung, who will welcome back his best players, called on his side to improve defensively.

"I watched the game between Australia and South Korea, and I think Australia have a lot of good players who have very good physical ability, so tomorrow we will try to defend much better than we did in the previous game against Japan,” he said.

On the other side, Australia’s head coach Alen Stajcic expected to get their Jordan 2018 campaign back on track with a win over Việt Nam after a 0-0 draw against South Korea.

He said he saw Việt Nam play against Japan and thought they were very tough. Stajcic praised the mental fortitude of the Southeast Asian Games champions, saying Việt Nam conceded an early goal but fought hard for the whole 90 minutes. The team gave all of their courage and commitment to the game.

“The last time we played Việt Nam in the Asian Cup, four years ago, the result was 2-0, and we scored a lucky goal, so we never underestimate anyone,” said Stajcic on the-afc.com, adding that Việt Nam were certainly a team that has improved over the last couple of years.

“We’re in a position now where we could finish first, second, third or even fourth (in Group B), so it’s up to us to step up to the plate in an important game, and we’re certainly not going into the game with the mentality that it’s going to be easy.

“Our expectation is that we want to win every game. It doesn’t matter if we’re playing Việt Nam or the USA or Germany or France – we want to win every one.” — VNS