Vietnam’s female football team crowned SEA Games champions

The Vietnamese women’s football team are the new SEA Games champions. (Credit: vnexpress.net)

At this year’s SEA Games, five women’s football teams, including hosts Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam, played a round-robin format to select the top three winners for the event’s medals.

Prior to the last clash of the SEA Games women’s football event, between Vietnam and Malaysia, Thailand, the closet competitors in the race to the championship title with Coach Mai Duc Chung’s players, beat the Philippines 3-1 to top the standings with 10 points and a +9 goal difference.

The result put a huge pressure on the Vietnamese players as with 7 points and a +5 goal difference they had to win their final match against Malaysia by five goals or more to become the 29th SEA Games champions.

However, it was not mission impossible for Vietnam as the hosts had lost all three of their previous games, scoring only one goal and conceding 13.

Beginning the game with great determination, the Vietnamese female footballers attacked right from the off. In the 7th minute, Vu Thi Nhung scored the opening goal for Vietnam and inspired by the opener, the red-shirts put more pressure on the hosts and just five minutes later scored their second goal, thanks to Nguyen Thi Lieu’s superb finish from outside the penalty area.

Vietnam completely controlled the game and created a range of opportunities to widen the gap but it was not until the 41st minute that the intense attacks yielded another goal. Nguyen Thi Muon’s shot inside the penalty area sealed the third goal, before Huynh Nhu netted another goal six minutes later to end the first half at 4-0 for Vietnam.

Just nine minutes in the second half, Nguyen Thi Muon doubled her goal tally to extend the lead to 5-0 for her home team.

In the 80th minute, Nguyen Thi Lieu made it 6-0 to seal the resounding victory and also the gold medal for the Vietnamese women’s football team at SEA Games 29.

Also with 10 points after four matches but with +9 goal difference (compared to Vietnam’s +11 goal difference), Thailand are the runners-up, followed by Myanmar in third place with 6 points.

This is the fifth time Vietnam have claimed the SEA Games champions title in women’s football, after winning gold medals in 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2009, equaling Thailand’s record.

The victory by Coach Mai Duc Chung’s players provides some comforts for home fans, after the disappointing 0-3 loss hours earlier by Vietnam U22 male players to Thailand U22, thus dropping out of the tournament after the group stage.