Hanoi recruits foreign players from Viettel; 'Vietnam women's team has 90% chance of attending World Cup 2023'
(Baonghean.vn) - Hanoi FC signed a two-year contract with Bruno Cunha, finalizing the list of foreign players for the 2021 season; According to the latest FIFA rankings, the Vietnamese women's team is ranked 34th in the world and 5th in Asia. This means that if they play at their best, the Vietnamese team has a chance to win a ticket to the 2023 Women's World Cup.
Hanoi recruits foreign players from Viettel
Hanoi targeted Bruno right after the end of V-League 2020. However, the Hang Day team had to wait until the beginning of 2021, when the Brazilian striker's contract with Viettel expired, to sign him.
Bruno was born in 1993, and joined Viettel during the mid-season transfer period of 2019. In 14 matches in the second phase of V-League 2019, the Brazilian striker scored 15 goals, surpassing his colleagues who played the whole season to win the Golden Boot award. In total, in one and a half seasons with Viettel, Bruno played 33 matches, scoring 23 goals.
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| Bruno practices with his new teammates. Photo: Hanoi FC |
Bruno will debut for his new club on January 9, when Hanoi competes in the National Super Cup, facing his old team Viettel. "I will try to score many goals, even a hat-trick, in my debut match. Hanoi is the top club in Vietnam. The goal for 2021 is clearly to win the championship," Bruno shared.
After losing the V-League championship to Viettel, Hanoi has made a strong change in foreign players. Before Bruno, Mr. Hien's team recruited Geovane from Saigon FC. Besides the two new foreign players, the capital team also won the signature of veteran Nguyen Quoc Long, and recalled a series of players who had previously been loaned to Saigon FC, Ha Tinh and Quang Nam.
"Vietnam women's team has 90% chance of attending World Cup 2023"
The 2023 Women's World Cup is the first tournament to feature 32 teams instead of the previous 24. In addition to the 6 official slots, Asia also has 2 play-off slots with teams from other regions to compete for the last 3 tickets to the 2023 Women's World Cup. This opens up the opportunity for the first time to participate in the World Cup ofVietnam women's team
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| According to coach Mai Duc Chung (right cover), the Vietnamese women's team has a 90% chance of participating in the 2023 World Cup - Photo: NAM KHÁNH |
Considering the current level of Asian women's football, it can be seen that the first three places at the 2023 World Cup will be difficult to escape from the top teams: Japan, Korea and China. The remaining two places will be the competition of teams of equal level including: Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Myanmar...
According to the latest FIFA rankings, the Vietnamese women's team is ranked 34th in the world and 5th in Asia. This means that if they play at their best, the Vietnamese team has a chance to win a ticket to the 2023 Women's World Cup.Commenting on this "opportunity", Coach Mai Duc Chung shared: "I have known about the 2023 World Cup increasing the number of teams for a while now. I think the Vietnamese women's team has a 90% chance of participating in the tournament. The remaining 10% is still up to us to decide, that is the psychological factor."
Although optimistic, coach Mai Duc Chung still has not forgotten the mistake against Thailand, missing the opportunity to participate in the 2015 World Cup. Therefore, Mr. Chung believes that the psychological aspect needs to be carefully prepared even though it has improved in the past two years when the Vietnamese women's team always surpassed their arch-rival Thailand in tournaments in Southeast Asia. "I think there are 5 teams that will compete directly with us. Among them, Thailand and Taiwan will be direct opponents. Thailand has experience participating in the World Cup, but we have rarely encountered Taiwan so I do not know how far they have developed," he said.
The 2022 AFC Women's Asian Cup is scheduled to be held in October and November in India. This tournament will feature 12 teams for the first time, up from 8 in previous editions. The top six teams will qualify for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. The next two teams will qualify for the Asian region's play-offs to compete for the final spot.
Ha Duc Chinh is not 'afraid' of competing with foreign strikers
During the time the Vietnam national team and U22 Vietnam team gathered at the end of 2020, coach Park Hang Seo once again complained about the lack of strikers, citing the reason that "70-80% of strikers in the domestic league are foreign players".
In March 2020, Mr. Park also "directly cited" the fact that Da Nang Club used two foreign strikers, affecting Ha Duc Chinh, a striker trusted by the Korean coach in many tournaments at the U23 and national team levels.
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| Ha Duc Chinh played extremely well against Khanh Hoa Club at the friendly tournament Thien Long Cup 2021. Photo: HOANG TUNG |
The striker from Phu Tho said: "In fact, Vietnamese football currently has very few domestic strikers. Hopefully in the future there will be more options for Coach Park. Next season, Da Nang will have 2 foreign strikers. I myself will try, make every effort every minute, every second, to complete the tasks from the coaching staff well. Currently, I am trying to practice the position of a withdrawn striker and one or two more positions on the attack line assigned by the head coach. In fact, when the coach chooses a foreign striker for the team, it is highly likely that he will play as a striker. The domestic players themselves will have to practice hard to be given the opportunity to enter the field and when they do, they will show their best."
When asked about his feelings when competing for positions with foreign players with superior physiques, Duc Chinh was optimistic: "In fact, domestic players always try very hard to compete with foreign players. For example, in the Da Nang team, regardless of domestic or foreign, everyone has to practice well, if they don't practice well, it's normal to sit on the bench. The appearance of foreign players makes us have to try harder, make more efforts to compete for positions."In the 2020 season, Ha Duc Chinh unexpectedly relapsed with hepatitis B, causing him to miss the start of the season. After returning, the striker born in 1997 managed to make 14 appearances, playing a total of 851 minutes and scoring 4 goals for the Han River team in the V.League and the National Cup.