Urawa Red Diamonds are in Ho Chi Minh City competing in the 2024-2025 AFC Champions League Women's group stage as defending champions.
After 2 matches, they beat Oshida (India) with a score of 17-0 and surpassed Taichung Blue Whale of Taiwan (China) 2-0, thereby quickly winning a ticket to the quarterfinals.
In the final match, the Urawa Red Diamonds women's team will meet the home team Ho Chi Minh City - the team that has also booked a ticket to the quarterfinals. This match will take place on the evening of October 12, the result of the match will determine the first and second place in the group.
Urawa Red Diamonds' leadership is not subjective before the match against Ho Chi Minh City women's team.
“We are very impressed with the performance of the HCMC women's team. They have also won 2 matches, so Urawa Red Diamonds will play their best to win the top spot.
We will have to be careful with our opponents, because the HCMC women's team players play very methodically, pass the ball very well, and have a very high determination. Besides, they are also dangerous in set pieces, when there are many tall players," Mr. Minoru Shimizu shared.
The Japanese club's senior leader also highly appreciated the physical strength of Huynh Nhu and her teammates. However, he also emphasized that the HCMC women's team will face some pressure because the expectations from home fans are very high.
Urawa Red Diamonds Women's Team was founded in 1998, based in Saitama City. They are the most successful women's football club in Japan, having won the WE League twice; Nadeshiko League 1 (the predecessor of the WE League) four times, as well as the continent's number 1 tournament.
Many players from the Urawa Red women's team have played for the Japanese women's team, such as Saki Kumagai, Moeka Minami, Fuka Nagano, Hana Takahashi, and Kiko Seike...
According to Mr. Minoru Shimizu, in order to maintain a highly competitive position, the team has conducted a very systematic selection process every year, from localities across the country as well as nurturing talent from school football.
Promising players will be trained from the U14, 19 to the first team. In addition, like the Urawa Red men's team (3 times AFC Champions League champion), their women's team also cooperates with many foreign partners and is ready to create conditions for players to compete in England, Germany or France.
Sharing with Lao Dong, Mr. Minoru Shimizu highly appreciated the potential of Vietnamese female players. However, in reality, although the Vietnamese women's team has entered the World Cup, participated in many Asian tournaments, and dominated the SEA Games, not many Vietnamese female players have successfully competed abroad, except for striker Huynh Nhu.
According to him, changing this is not easy. He said: “In order for Vietnamese female players to be able to play abroad, the first thing is that they must learn how to develop themselves and maintain the quality of their football.
Matches like the AFC Women’s Champions League are a great opportunity for Vietnamese players to showcase themselves. Because these tournaments always have scouting teams from all over watching. If they play well, they will have a chance.
In addition, Vietnamese players must also demonstrate themselves in international matches at the national team level, which is an important criterion to catch the eye of scouts."
