Vietnam ended up in fourth place overall at the 2018 AFC Women’s Futsal Championship after collapsing to a 2-3 defeat on penalties against Thailand in the third place match at Bangkok’s Indoor Stadium Huamark on May 12^th.

Vietnam vs Thailand in the third-placed match of the AFC Women’s Futsal Championship 2018 on May 12. (Photo:the-afc.com)

The “yellow stars” headed into the game having failed to beat the Thai competitors in their previous two meetings. Therefore, Vietnam head coach Truong Quoc Tuan chose a counterattacking strategy, hoping to deal sudden blows on their opponents.

Thailand had more of the ball during the first 20 minutes and created a number of opportunities, however, they could not convert any of them into a goal against Vietnam’s solid defence.

Vietnam enjoyed a clear-cut chance in the 26^th minute, but Thanh Hang failed to beat the Thai keeper in a one-on-one for the opening goal.

The remainder of the match saw Thailand pour constant pressure on the Vietnamese side. However, the brilliance of goalkeeper Thuy Linh helped to keep the match goalless until the last official minute of play.

In the thrilling penalty shootout, Nguyen Thi Hue’s miss allowed Hataichanok to score the winning kick and seal Thailand the Asian bronze medal following a 3-2 win on penalties.

Despite missing out on the podium, the fourth place at the Asian Championship is considered an acceptable result for Vietnam.

“Due to losing in the event’s semi-final, Thailand entered this game with the determination of winning the bronze medal. Vietnam also carefully researched Thailand’s style of playing. Today, Vietnamese players performed very well, they knew their rival’s tactics, and they were more confident compared to the semi-finals match [in which Vietnam was defeated 0-5 by Iran],” said Vietnamese head coach Truong Quoc Tuan.

“There are many young talents in Vietnam’s line-up at this year’s event. Vietnam reached the AFC event’s top four. I think that’s a great advance for the team,” said Tuan.

“During the event, the gap between Thailand and Vietnam has narrowed. We only lost to them in the penalty shootout. That is good luck in football,” Tuan added.

Meanwhile, Thailand head coach Udom Taveesuk said his players were very tired after competing in difficult games.

“You can see our players are very tired and their bodies could not reach the same level after our very hard game against Japan and the games before. Last night, we asked for an extra physio and more staff to help the players recover,” said Udom on the website the-afc.com.

“Thank you to the players for producing that effort, despite how tired they were, and being able to reach third place. But our target was to be the champions, so I’d like to say sorry to our fans. Regarding the whole tournament, I can’t say I’m happy about the result. After success at the SEA Games and Asian Indoor Games wins last year, I targeted the best for Thailand.

“We will learn from this and train to make our players better in the future. I must also improve tactically and teach the players to understand more. We can reach our targets if we do this. We will start a women’s futsal league in July, so hopefully that will help us develop and find more talent.”

En route to the third place match, Truong Quoc Tuan’s side won all of their three group games and edged out Indonesia 2-1 in the quarterfinals before losing the semifinal clash 0-5 to Iran, who were finally crowned the overall champions with a final 5-2 triumph against Japan./.

VNF/NDO