On the evening of December 8, the Vietnam women's team suffered a 0-1 defeat to the Philippines in the second match of Group B of the women's football event at the 33rd SEA Games. Immediately after the match, coach Mai Duc Chung frankly acknowledged the mistakes and shared his views on his students' performance.
Vietnam lost very regrettably. With the match, the draw would have been more reasonable. I would like to take responsibility for some of the situations that led to Vietnam's goals conceded. But there were also some cases where the referee handled them unfairly. I don't blame you, but I need justice. There were situations where the ball touched the opponent's hand without blows, while in Vietnam it blows very tightly, while being more defensive towards the Philippines", coach Mai Duc Chung shared.
Despite controlling the ball well and creating many opportunities throughout the 90 minutes, the Vietnam women's team unexpectedly conceded a goal in the last minute. Commenting on the opponent's playing style, Mr. Chung said: "The Philippines did not have any clear coordination. They only took advantage of the high ball and their strength. They played like that, without any coordination. Losing at the last minute is really a pity, I would like to take full responsibility".
When asked about the decision to use the 3-center-back system, Mr. Chung explained: "Diem My has experience playing center forward, the other 2 players are tall, arranged like that to fight the ball and the players have done well. However, there were some ineffective, somewhat passive substitutions that did not exploit the opponent's weaknesses.
There are still opportunities to continue. If they beat Myanmar, they will pass the group stage. At that time, it is possible that all 3 teams will have 6 points and when comparing the goals, we still have an advantage over Myanmar and the Philippines if this scenario happens. In the tactical meeting, we decided not to play high balls, but at many times the players played spontaneously. Our mistake was to keep crossing the ball. I have mentioned many times that we have to play tightly and coordinate with small triangles, but due to the poor team distance, the players are forced to play long, coach Mai Duc Chung added.
With this result, the Vietnam women's team currently has 3 points after 2 matches, 3 points behind Myanmar in Group B, meaning that the chance of advancing still depends on the match with the next opponent.
