The Vietnamese women's volleyball team will participate in many regional and continental international tournaments in the last 6 months of 2025.
Besides some annual tournaments such as AVC Challenge Cup, SEA V.League, FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship..., one of the most important tournaments for coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team is SEA Games 33.
With outstanding achievements in the last 2 years, especially the AVC Challenge Cup championship or 3rd place FIVB Challenger Cup, the target that the Department of Sports and Physical Training assigned to the Vietnamese women's volleyball team at the 33rd SEA Games is very high - to participate in the final and win the gold medal of the Games.
"This is a great deal of pressure for the national women's volleyball team. However, when reporting on the 2025 professional plan, the coaching staff said they will strive to compete with the highest determination," said General Secretary of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation Le Tri Truong.
Among the teams participating in the 33rd SEA Games, the women's volleyball teams of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are three familiar opponents who have met many times in regional tournaments, most recently in two matches at the 2024 SEA V.League.
Notably, before participating in the 33rd SEA Games taking place in early December, Bich Tuyen and her teammates will continue to face these teams at the SEA V.League 2025 (scheduled to take place in August). Therefore, this tournament is considered a stepping stone for the teams to explore each other as well as plan to compete at the Southeast Asian Games.
Historically, the Vietnamese women’s volleyball team has never won a gold medal at the SEA Games. The athletes have always lost to their direct opponent, the Thai women’s team, in the finals.
Since 2001, the Vietnamese women's team has faced Thailand in the finals a total of 10 times. Most of the time, Vietnam lost quickly 0-3 to their opponents, only winning 1 set against Thailand 3 times at SEA Games 25 (Laos), SEA Games 26 (Indonesia) and SEA Games 31 (Vietnam).
In 2024 alone, Vietnam also lost both matches against Thailand in the SEA V.League, with scores of 1-3 (leg 1) and 0-3 (leg 2) respectively.
The above statistics show that the Thai women's volleyball team has never been an easy challenge for Bich Tuyen and her teammates, especially when they have been on the world stage for many years.
Recently, the Thai Volleyball Federation has invited veteran coach Kiattipong Radchatagriengkai to lead the national team. This shows that they are very careful and do not want to make mistakes in their strategy towards the 33rd SEA Games.
Thailand's squad also includes quality, Asian-class and experienced athletes such as Wipawee Srithong, Thatdao Nuekjang, Chatchu-on, Tichakorn Boonlert, Sasipaporn Janthawisut...
Therefore, winning against the Thai women's team is not an easy challenge for the Vietnamese team.
“The professional gap between women's volleyball teams in Southeast Asia including Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia is gradually narrowing, so everyone is cautious and cannot predict anything,” coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet once shared.
