Vietnam women's team stops at 2024 Olympics

On the evening of November 1, the Vietnamese women's team entered the final match of the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers. Facing a much stronger Japanese women's team, coach Mai Duc Chung's students entered the match with a rather proactive stance.

Although they controlled the ball less than their opponents, whenever they had the chance, Huynh Nhu and her teammates still took the initiative to quickly attack, trying to get the ball into the Japanese women's goal area. However, the Japanese women's team still played more proactively, so it was not easy to get the ball close to their goal.

The game on the field was one-sided with Japan completely dominating. Their flexible passing and varied running situations helped them easily approach the penalty area. However, with a well-organized and tight defense, Vietnam limited the opponent's finishing moves to the maximum.

In the first half, Japan created many notable situations, but goalkeeper Khong Thi Hang made excellent saves. However, in the 40th minute, from a break down the left wing by player Hinata Miyazawa, a favorable pass was passed to Shimizu to tap the ball into the goal to open the score for the Japanese women's team.

After conceding a goal, the girls of the Vietnamese women's team pressed forward to find an equalizer, in which the most notable situation was Tuyet Dung's corner kick, the ball went into the far corner but still lacked a bit of accuracy.

Entering the second half, the pace of the match remained unchanged from the first half, as the Japanese women's team played slowly and did not show their full strength. However, they still scored their second goal early.

From a chaotic situation after goalkeeper Khong Thi Hang's weak clearance, Kumagai appeared in front of the 5m area and quickly kicked, scoring the second goal for the Japanese women's team. After this goal, coach Mai Duc Chung made an adjustment when he took Tuyet Dung, who was showing signs of declining physical strength, off the field and replaced her with young player Tran Thi Duyen in the hope of having more breakthroughs in the attack.

In the remaining minutes of the match, the Vietnamese women's team defended well and stood firm against the pressure of the Japanese women's team.

In the end, the Vietnamese women's team lost to Japan with a score of 0-2. With this defeat, the Vietnamese women's team lost the chance to continue at the 2024 Olympics when they only won 3 points after 3 matches, scored 1 goal and ranked 2nd in Group C. This was also the last match of coach Mai Duc Chung as head coach of the Vietnamese women's football team./.

Hai Hoang