BANGKOK (15 August 2014) – The consensus was clear and following the pre-match Press Conference this afternoon, hosts Thailand and Vietnam will start as favourites for the AFF Under-19 Women’s Championship that will begin tomorrow here in Bangkok, Thailand.
The tournament which is being used to prepare the squad for the qualifying round of the AFC U19 Women’s Championship this November, will see five teams taking part over the course of the next two weeks.
Gaspar da Silva, the head coach of Timor Leste, said that while his team will put up the best possible performance in what will be a very tight competition, the main challenge will come from Thailand and also Vietnam.
“Traditionally, these two countries are very strong in the women’s game,” said da Silva. “And while this tournament might be an U19 competition, still I believe that they will be the team to beat.
“For us, we have only prepared this team for the last two months. We will do our best to cause an upset.”
Singapore team manager Desmund Khusnin echoed the same sentiment when he said: “Thailand are the hosts and that is a big advantage at this level. We have prepared a very young team.
“There are only five players between the ages of 18 and 19-years-old. The rest are under 16-years-old. We have been training at least three times a week but I hope that the lack of competitive matches will not be too obvious.”
Win Myint Thin, the head coach of Myanmar, believes that while Thailand and Vietnam will start as favourites, he would like to point out that Myanmar should also be given due consideration.
“We have assembled quite a strong, young squad and we believe that they can put up a very competitive atmosphere at this meet,” added Myint Thin.
“This championship is part of our preparation for the AFC qualifiers, so it will be an important venue for us to do well.”
Nguyen Duuy Huu, the assistant coach of Vietnam, said that the AFF meet will be an important ground to assess the level of progress her team has made over the course of the last several months.
“We feel a little pressure being considered as one of the favourites for this tournament but we will do our best playing against the hosts (Thailand),” added Duuy Huu.
“We are not taking anyone for granted as at this age-group, it will be quite even across the board.”
Thailand head coach Nuengrutai Srathongvin added that they will be taking it one game at a time, instead of focusing on making the final.
“We lost to Myanmar a few months before, so the competition will be close indeed,” said Nuengrutai. “We have made some adjustments to the team and where we hope that we can show how much progress we have made since then.”
AFF UNDER-19 WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
FIXTURES
16 August 2014 (All matches at the Rajamangala Stadium)
Thailand vs Myanmar (1600)
Timor Leste vs Singapore (1900)
