Vietnam women's team has difficulty choosing opponents in the semi-finals

U23 Australia revived in time, proving its class

U23 Australia is not actually weak, it's just that the team's 1-2 defeat to Myanmar in the opening match on August 7th caused some people to misjudge the true ability of the young team from the land of kangaroos.

Tuyển nữ Việt Nam gặp khó trong việc chọn đối thủ ở bán kết - 1 — U23 Australia revived in time (Photo: VFF).

The above loss of U23 Australia can be explained by the fact that they have not yet "warmed up" when starting the 2025 Southeast Asian Women's Football Championship. In fact, U23 Australia is still a representative of Asia's leading football.

Australia's women's football is on par with the continent's top women's football powers, including Japan, North Korea and China. These four teams are slightly stronger than the South Korean women's team, and much stronger than the rest of Asian women's football. Australia alone reached the semi-finals of the 2023 World Cup, the furthest Asian team in the tournament.

Also, don't forget that Australia is the only team in this year's tournament that is required to use the U23 squad. Because if the kangaroo country sends its national team to participate in the Southeast Asian tournament, they will certainly have no opponents.

That detail reflects how different the quality of Australian women's players is to the rest of Southeast Asia, so the next generation of Australian women's football, specifically their U23 players, cannot be underestimated.

As the young Australian girls got used to the Southeast Asian women's football tournament, they were a different story in the second round of the group stage. The Australian U23s beat the very strong Philippines 1-0.

Unpredictable situation

It was the victory of U23 Australia over the Philippines that made the situation in Group B extremely unpredictable. U23 Australia and the Philippines each have 3 points, ranking second and third in Group B respectively. Each of them still has the right to decide.

Tuyển nữ Việt Nam gặp khó trong việc chọn đối thủ ở bán kết - 2 — Myanmar (red shirt) leads Group B but can still be eliminated at any time (Photo: VFF).

On the contrary, Myanmar with 6 points after two wins, temporarily leads Group B, but is still at high risk of being eliminated.

If Myanmar loses to the Philippines by two or more goals on August 13, and U23 Australia wins against Timor Leste, Myanmar will be eliminated. At that time, the three teams Myanmar, Philippines and U23 Australia will each have 6 points, but Myanmar will be at the bottom of these three teams, due to losing the direct confrontation results between the three teams.

If the Philippines beat Myanmar 1-0 and U23 Australia beat Timor Leste (by any margin), the Philippines will be eliminated. At that time, the 3 teams Philippines, Myanmar and U23 Australia will still have 6 points each, but the Philippines has scored the fewest goals in the matches between these 3 teams.

If the Philippines beat Myanmar 2-1 and U23 Australia beat Timor Leste, Myanmar will advance, while U23 Australia and the Philippines will compete on goal difference.

Tuyển nữ Việt Nam gặp khó trong việc chọn đối thủ ở bán kết - 3 — The Vietnamese women's team cannot choose their opponent in the semi-finals (Photo: VFF).

If the Philippines wins Myanmar by one goal, but the Philippines scores more than two goals (3-2, 4-3, 5-4...), U23 Australia will be eliminated.

One notable point is that, regardless of the outcome, the Vietnamese women's team cannot choose their opponents in the semi-finals. First, Group A of the Vietnamese team ends on August 12, one day before Group B.

Second, with the complicated situation mentioned above in Group B, we are currently not sure which team will continue and which team will be eliminated among the three teams Myanmar, Philippines and U23 Australia. If they continue, which team will be the group winner and which team will be the group runner-up in Group B? Therefore, the Vietnamese women's team cannot predict our opponent in the semi-finals.