Head coach Akira Ijiri: “U20 Vietnam women’s team has completed 100% of the preparation process for the 2nd qualifiers”
Speaking at the press conference before the second qualifying round of the 2024 AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup, the head coach Akira Ijiri affirmed that the U20 Vietnam women’s team has completed 100% of the preparation process for this qualifying round. The team doesn’t have any injured players, that’s what’s important at the moment.
02/06/2023 17:05:13
In the first qualifier, the Vietnam team excellently won the right to enter the second qualifier as the winner of Group F. According to the draw results, in the second qualifier, the Vietnam team was in the group A with Australia, Iran and Lebanon. Meanwhile, Group B includes 4 names: China, Myanmar, Nepal and Chinese Taipei.
Head coach Akira Ijiri said: “We learned about the Iran team and knew that this is a very strong team in terms of individual technique. They also possess a good physical foundation and tactical thinking. We prepare carefully for each match and can’t say much about the final match against U20 Australia at this moment.”
Meanwhile, the captain of U20 Vietnam women’s team – defender Le Thi Bao Tram said: “In the first qualifier, the opponents were not stronger than the Vietnam team. But the U20 Iran women’s team in the second qualifier is a tough opponent. My team and I will try to get 3 points on the opening match. Playing against the top teams in the continent is a good opportunity for me to show my ability.”
The opponent on the opening match of Vietnam team is the U20 Iran women’s team. The team from West Asia is trying to get a good record against the home team. Coach Morgan Jahan-nejati said: “After the first qualifier, we tried to have the best preparation for the second qualifying round. We are ready for the first match against U20 Vietnam women’s team.”
The captain of the Iran team, Mohadesheh Zolfi, commented: “In every tournament, the first match is important, I will try my best in the first match of the tournament. Meeting the U20 Vietnam women’s team is a difficult match, but I hope for a good result. There are differences in the 2nd qualifying round, the training in Vietnam and Iran is also different. We are still trying to control and adapt to this. We also have some equipments to overcome difficulties.”
The remaining match on June 3 is the match between the Lebanese and Australian. Coach Joanna Hanga of the U20 Lebanon women’s team said: “We are not fully prepared but will try our best. The U20 Lebanon women’s team will show the best we have.”
The captain of the U20 Lebanese women’s team Amina Kareme said: “I think the ranking on the FIFA rankings is not important in the field. We are here to show what we can do. I want me and my teammates to do well in the first game.”
As a highly-rated team in the group stage, U20 Australia’s head coach Leah Blayney is confident: “We came here to express ourselves and feel very excited to prepare for the upcoming tournament. Preparation before a tournament is very important so we arrived 6 days early to get used to the conditions here. PVF has very good facilities. That helps the team easily adapt to have the best preparation for the tournament”.
“In the AFF U18 Championship, we met Vietnam, but the match took place 12 months ago. Currently, we are also adding some new faces. Every match is a challenge. But in this tournament, we will aim for each game and first of all, do well in the first game before thinking about the second game.”
Captain Jessika Nash of U20 Australia said: “I think, for every tournaments, the goal is to win and qualify. With the U20 Vietnam Women’s team, I don’t want to talk about any specific players, but this is a quality team. Right now, my main concern is the first match against Lebanon.”
According to the schedule, the home team – U20 Vietnam will meet Iran team, Lebanon team and Australia team respectively on June 3, June 5 and June 7 at 19:00. The matches took place at Viet Tri Stadium, Phu Tho province. The LOC free entrance tickets so that fans can be more convenient in coming to the stadium to watch and cheer for the teams, especially the host U20 Vietnam. In addition, all matches in Group A will also be broadcast live on Youtube VFF Channel and VFF Fanpage.
