The final match with North Korea U20 women's team took place with a tight match between the two leading teams in the continent at the youth level. Japan U20 women's team took advantage of the opportunity to score the only goal, thereby convincingly winning the championship.
Before returning to work for Japanese youth women's football, coach Akira Ijiri worked in Vietnam for nearly 6 years, starting from May 2019 under a cooperation program between the Vietnam Football Federation and the Japan Football Federation. During this period, he participated in coaching youth women's teams from U16 to U20, contributing to improving the professional quality of the successor force of Vietnamese women's football.
Under the leadership of Mr. Akira Ijiri, the Vietnamese youth women's teams achieved many positive results. Notably, the runner-up position at the 2023 Southeast Asian U19 Women's Championship and the achievement of winning the right to participate in the 2024 AFC U20 Women's Championship finals. This is also the first time the Vietnamese U20 women's team has participated in a continental level playground in this age group, creating an important foundation for the long-term development of young women's football in the country.
During his time working in Vietnam, Mr. Akira Ijiri was once considered one of the potential candidates for the position of head coach of the Vietnamese women's national team replacing Mai Duc Chung. However, the Japan Football Federation plans to use him for the national women's youth teams, so the Vietnam Football Federation has ended cooperation according to the professional development orientation of the two sides.
The 2026 AFC U20 Women's Championship continues to affirm Mr. Akira Ijiri's coaching ability at the youth level, and also shows the effectiveness of the systematic training model that Japanese women's football has been maintaining for many years.
