JAPAN STINT FOR VIETNAM GIRLS

Ngo Le Bang, the assistant coach of the Vietnam national women’s team at the recent AFF Women’s Championship in Yangon, said that the decision to go to Japan was made to make sure that the Vietnam side will have a fighting chance of defending the title they won two years ago in the Philippines.

“There is no denying that apart from the performance of Thailand and Myanmar, there have been improvements especially in the other teams like Malaysia and Laos,” said Le Bang, who will be leaving national assignment to coach a club side.

“So we have to take steps to make sure that we can be better than how we’ve been in the AFF Women’s Championship where apart from the trip to Japan, the five-team tournament at the end of October will also be important to our development.

“For the moment, I do not know how many matches we will be playing in Japan but whatever it is, we have to admit that the trip will be good for the girls.”

Apart from the Japan trip, the Vietnam girls will also be playing in a five-team tournament which will feature Chinese Taipei, South Korea, Myanmar and Thailand.

Le Bang said that there are plans to bring in new players to the current side to make sure that the team can be competitive especially against the burgeoning confidence of the Myanmar side.

“There were weaknesses for sure in the team – which is why the new coach will be bringing in new players to give more dimension to our game,” added Le Bang.