Vietnam’s women’s team to kick-start SEA Games title defence

The Vietnam women’s national team, coached by Mai Duc Chung, will officially commence their SEA Games title defence campaign this afternoon (November 26) with a clash against arch-rivals Thailand.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019 03:31

Head coach of Vietnam's women's team Mai Duc Chung (third from right) and the coaches of the five other teams pose together at the press conference on November 25. (Photo: VFF)

Chung’s side have been drawn against Indonesia and Thailand in Group B, while Group A comprises of Malaysia, Myanmar and the hosts, the Philippines.

The group stage will be played in a round robin format, with the top two teams from each group booking their places in the semifinals.

Addressing a press conference ahead of the tournament on Monday, Mai Duc Chung shared information concerning Vietnam’s preparations for their gold-medal target as well as the difficulties they are facing in the Philippines.

“We had one month to prepare for the 30^th SEA Games mission, including an overseas training camp in Japan. Vietnam continue to bring many popular players to the Philippines,” the 68-year-old tactician told reporters.

When asked about the biggest challenge to Vietnam’s title defence journey, he said: “All the teams want to have good and exciting games. I highly respect the participating teams. I see a lot of improvements from them after the recent AFF Women’s Championship.”

“Vietnam are currently rejuvenating the squad, so we also bring along a number of young faces, which also aims to prepare for the 2021 SEA Games to be hosted in Vietnam,” Chung stated.

The coach also touched upon the difficulties that his side have been facing since arriving in the Philippines, including traffic congestion and the lack of food at the hotel.

On November 24 morning, the Vietnamese team had a two-hour training session on artificial turf at Binan Football Stadium, which will host their group matches in the coming days.