Recruiting Vietnamese women to enter the Top 5 in Asia for the first time
According to the FIFA women's football rankings in March 2023, Vietnam has not changed its score because it has not played any international matches for many months. However, coach Mai Duc Chung's army still advanced one step to 33rd position. This is not the best FIFA order in Vietnam's history, when the team was ranked 28th June 2013.
But if only the AFC teams are counted, Vietnam entered the Top 5 for the first time. Previously, the highest position of the team in Asia was usually sixth or lower, after Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Australia. . Even before Australia joined the AFC in 2006, Vietnam was behind the first four teams and Taiwan.
North Korea ranked 10th in FIFA, but was left out of the table after not playing a match in the past four years. Vietnam is currently behind Australia (ranked 10), Japan (11), China (13) and South Korea (17). The four Asian teams right behind Vietnam are Taiwan (37), Thailand (44), Myanmar (47) and the Philippines (49).
In this ranking, the Philippines climbs to a record four places to 49, even though they have just lost all three friendlies in February 2023 to Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Due to the deletion of North Korea's name, most of the Southeast Asian teams advanced, except for Thailand (down three places) and Indonesia (two places).
Women's teams are preparing for the 2024 Olympic qualifiers, which will take place from April 2023. Vietnam started playing from the first qualifying round in Group C, meeting the host Nepal twice on April 5 and April 8. This group originally consisted of Afghanistan and Palestine, but the two teams withdrew. Nepal is ranked 100th in FIFA, so Mai Duc Chung's teachers and students are expected to easily enter the second round.
After two matches in Nepal, Vietnam will train in Japan, before returning to the 32nd SEA Games in Cambodia. After that, the team set off again for training in Germany and New Zealand, before attending the 2023 World Cup final against the US, the Netherlands and Portugal.
