Vietnam U17 women's team closes its journey at the 2026 AFC U17 Women's Championship finals after a 0-2 defeat to Australia U17 women's team in the quarter-finals. This result means that coach Masahiko Okiyama's team cannot qualify for the 2026 Women's U17 World Cup.
After the match, the Japanese strategist said that the team did not show their true ability for most of the first half.
In the first half, U17 Vietnam women's team did not show their best form. In the second half, we adjusted the squad towards attacking to find a goal. However, the situations still did not achieve the accuracy of tactical intentions," said Mr. Masahiko Okiyama.
According to the assessment of the coaching staff, the ticket to the U17 Women's World Cup is a big goal that the team aims for before the tournament. However, having to stop in the quarter-finals prevents the whole team from completing the set target.
Coach Okiyama added: "This is a great opportunity for U17 Vietnam women's to qualify for the 2026 U17 Women's World Cup, so not being able to participate is what we regret the most. However, the result is still the result.
Although they could not create a surprise against a strong opponent like U17 women's Australia, this tournament still brought a lot of experience to young Vietnamese players. According to Mr. Okiyama, the professional gap between Vietnam and the top strong teams in Asia is still quite large, especially in the ability to handle the ball under high speed pressure.
Overall, compared to the top Asian teams, we still lack many factors. Players can train well, but when entering competition with fast opponents, ball handling has not achieved high efficiency. This needs to be further improved through the training process," the Japanese coach assessed.
In addition, he also emphasized the role of clubs in accompanying the youth team to improve the quality of players in the coming time.
“I and the clubs will work together to improve the technique and tactics for the players. This is a very noteworthy issue, especially for newly called players to the national team. The players need to continue to train and improve their individual skills,” Mr. Okiyama affirmed.
