When will Vietnamese women's football get younger?

The Vietnamese women's team won third place in the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's Football Championship with 15/23 players over 30 years old. Of which, the youngest player on the team, midfielder Thu Xuan (23 years old), only played in the first half of the 7-0 win over Indonesia in the group stage.

The strong rejuvenation of the opponent

Two former rivals of Vietnamese women's football, Myanmar and Thailand, both sent very young teams to participate in the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's Football Championship.

Specifically, Myanmar only has 3 players over 29 years old in the squad. And Myanmar's starting lineup in the final match against U23 Australia has 9 players aged only 20 - 26.

Although only winning the runner-up position after a 0-1 defeat to U23 Australia, the Myanmar women's team has shown that they will be a formidable opponent for both Vietnam and Thailand in winning the gold medal at the upcoming 33rd SEA Games.

The young female players of Myanmar are also well invested in under the guidance of Coach Tetsuro Uki (Japan).

Although the Thai team lost 1-3 to the Vietnamese women's team in the third-place match, they still showed great potential. Apart from 30-year-old center-back Sakuna Senabuth, the remaining 22 Thai players are all under 23 years old.

Among these, there are even 12 players under 20 years old. In each match of the tournament, coach Futoshi Ikeda (Japan) often puts on the field 5/11 starting players who are only 17 - 19 years old.

Despite losing both times to Vietnam at the 2025 Southeast Asian tournament, the young Thai players showed more and more maturity as they played.

In the third-place match, Thailand was ready to play an open game and was not inferior to the host Vietnam in terms of ball control and number of shots. In the group stage, Thailand only had 2 shots compared to 10 shots by Vietnam. 20-year-old striker Wiranya Kwaenkasikarmv scored 2 goals, but both were against the two seniors Myanmar and Vietnam.

Vietnam women's football focuses on immediate results?

After losing the title to the Philippines in the 2022 Southeast Asian Women's Football Championship, the Vietnamese women's team has set great determination for this home tournament. Coach Mai Duc Chung has called up the best players. Especially the attack line, when he only called up two veteran strikers Huynh Nhu (34 years old) and Hai Yen (31 years old).

But that experienced squad still could not help Vietnam achieve its goal. They "bullied" Cambodia 6-0, Indonesia 7-0, defeated young Thailand 1-0 in the group stage and then stopped in the semi-finals when losing to U23 Australia 1-2.

Winning the bronze medal after defeating Thailand in the third-place match, the Vietnamese team still makes experts and fans worried when looking to the future with the current rather old squad.

Huynh Nhu finally scored in the last match against Thailand, ending nearly 2 years of "silence". But in 2-3 years, who will replace Huynh Nhu and Hai Yen is a question mark, while the opponent has been rejuvenated early.

The third best striker Tuyet Ngan (25 years old) missed the chance to compete in the tournament due to appendectomy. But it is regrettable that Ngoc Minh Chuyen (21 years old) or Vu Thi Hoa (22 years old) were not given the chance.

The team lacks youth.

Not only does the attack lack youth, the midfield also does not give many opportunities to young players. Tuyet Dung is 32 years old, and has not been used much in the Vietnam team for a long time. Most recently, she only entered the field at the beginning of the second half of the match against Indonesia.

Not to mention the two current key central midfielders are also old, Nguyen Thi Van (31 years old) and Thai Thi Thao (30 years old). The Vietnamese women's team should give more opportunities to other young players to have better preparation.

In fact, coach Mai Duc Chung has called many young players to join the Vietnam national team in recent training sessions such as midfielder Vu Thi Hoa (20 years old), striker Ngoc Minh Chuyen, Ta Thi Thuy (21 years old), goalkeeper Kieu Oanh (22 years old), midfielder Thuy Linh (19 years old), Nhat Lan (21 years old), defender Luu Nhu Quynh (21 years old)...

But almost no one could stay on the final list before the Vietnamese team entered the official tournament.

No one can stay strong forever with the same generation of players. Thailand won the Women's World Cup twice in a row in 2015 and 2019 before being surpassed by Vietnam. And they chose to rejuvenate to be able to come back stronger.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese women's football still uses the same old generation of players who are getting older. Even coach Mai Duc Chung has asked to retire many times but was still persuaded by the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) to stay instead of giving the opportunity to a new or younger coach to create a new breakthrough.

Vietnamese women's football clearly needs to change for the better.