Pressure from expectations
Vietnam women's volleyball is determined to find a chance to beat Thailand. Therefore, the players on both sides always play fiercely in every confrontation.
After losing 2-3 to the Thai women's team in the first phase of the 2025 Southeast Asian International Volleyball Championship (SEA V.League 2025), many opinions were shared on social networking volleyball forums. Fans expressed many personal opinions when watching Vietnamese players return to the second division of the 2025 SEA V.League, but all agreed that coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet and his team had unfortunate results.
According to statistics from the Asian Volleyball Confederation, we have never won against the Thai Women's Team in official tournaments in the past 20 years. In the Southeast Asian arena, Vietnamese women's volleyball lost to Thailand in the finals, so they only won a Silver Medal at the SEA Games.
We won 2 games in 1 official match against the Thai women's team, which was a match in the first phase of the 2024 SEA V.League in Vinh Phuc (Phu Tho). At that time, the Vietnam Women's Volleyball Team lost 2-3. After a year, we continued to lose 2-3 to Thailand in the first phase of the 2025 SEA V.League. The results reflect that Vietnamese women's volleyball players have a chance to narrow the gap against Thai women's players.
Coach Nguyen Tuan Kiet once acknowledged: Thailand volleyball has developed more professionally than us, but the players of the Vietnam Women's Volleyball Team must have effort and determination to do well the requirements when playing. Previously, we often lost to the other team with a score of 0-3, but now in many official tournament matches, the players from both sides have fought fiercely and the Vietnamese team has won some matches against Thailand".
A good foundation will make success
The Thai women's volleyball team has won the SEA Games consecutively for more than 30 years. The Thai women's volleyball team won the Asian championship (in 2009, 2013, 2023). This team has participated in world-class arenas including the World Championship and the Volleyball National League. This year, Thailand is the host of the 2025 World Volleyball Championship.
To successfully achieve the national team level, the Thai Volleyball Federation has built the most methodical training and selection system in Southeast Asia over the years. Young players are built into teams from the age of U14 to U16, U18, U19, U20 to compete professionally to develop their skills. This is a way to build a foundation for sustainable development for longer.
To overcome Thailand, the Vietnamese women's volleyball team must first have a good force of players. To do so, we must effectively select and train young athletes. The Vietnam women's volleyball team has achieved historical results including: Winning the Third Division of the FIVB Challenge Cup 2024; Fourth Division of the 2023 Asian Championship; having a place in the 2025 World Championship). However, we are not a strong volleyball team.
Mr. Tran Duc Phan - Vice President of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation - said: "Through each stage, we have learned about the professional sports of some volleyball regions in Southeast Asia and Asia to find suitable conditions to build investment in Vietnamese volleyball. However, to be effective, it is necessary to be synchronous in many aspects".
The training of young players depends directly on how they work at local teams. However, many teams have limited funding resources, so the professional training of players is only at a moderate level.
