Coach Mai Duc Chung: Boldly Give Opportunities to Young Players in Vietnam Women's Team

The most memorable moment in the final Group E match of Asiad 2026 was not a goal, but the final whistle of the 0-0 draw between Vietnam women's team and Thailand. That score sent Vietnam into the quarterfinals via a wildcard spot, but it exposed a reality: coach Hoang Van Phuc's side played cautiously, fielded many veterans, and failed to create the attacking play that had been expected. With favorable results elsewhere, this was the most diagnostic type of failure: a game-model failure rather than an effort problem. Coach Mai Duc Chung and expert Pham Hai Anh wrote for Tuoi Tre with a clear message: boldly give the young generation their chance. Both praised Hoang Van Phuc for reaching the quarterfinal target, but they pointed out that young players such as Ngoc Minh Chuyen and Nguyen Thi Truc Huong had almost no playing time. Minh Chuyen played only about 30 seconds in the previous match and about 1 minute against Thailand. That amount of time is too small to prove ability, but large enough to reveal a gap between words about generational transition and the reality of selection. Tactically, the 3-4-3 shape is modern by nature, but role assignment is the bottleneck. Ngan Thi Van Su and Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy normally play well on the wings, yet they were pulled into central midfield and became stuck. Nguyen Thi Thanh Nha, a natural winger, was used at wing-back and could not push forward for almost the whole match. Nguyen Thi Hoa was deployed in three different positions across three matches. That is a sign of a staff still searching for a lineup rather than settling on a stable framework. Against Thailand, with almost no pressure on the result, the team still could not show aggressive attacking play. That says more about systemic cohesion than any scoreline. Mai Duc Chung admitted he very much wants to change the playing style. But changing style means changing personnel; a player accustomed to defensive transition thinking cannot switch to possession-based football after a few weeks of training. If Vietnam keeps the old formula, the team will waste its chance to rebuild. If Vietnam gives young players opportunities, short-term results may become unstable. This is a sporting trade-off, and in my view the team has no choice but to accept that instability. The rare bright spots are individual. Nguyen Thi Truc Huong held the ball and controlled midfield well. Ngoc Minh Chuyen produced a notable dribble. But a total of about one and a half minutes over two matches suggests the young talents are still candidates rather than integrated parts of the system. Without real opportunities, every compliment remains a compliment on paper. The success story is partly inflated by the tournament format. Reaching the quarterfinals is real, but the ticket came through a wildcard route after two group-stage defeats. The loss to Chinese Taipei, if confirmed, is a more worrying signal than the draw with Thailand. It suggests Vietnam's regional standing may not be rising. Yet both experts spent most of their attention on Thailand and China, ignoring a detail that could reveal a silent decline. The support of Mai Duc Chung for his successor is significant. It removes the risk of dressing-room factions, but it also creates an accountability trap. If Hoang Van Phuc plays the young players and loses, people will say they were not ready. If he keeps the veterans and loses, people will call him conservative. Football is a game of shadows: injury is the only light that cannot be hidden. Here, injury should be understood as the generational stagnation quietly eroding the team. From a development perspective, the quarterfinal against China is a match with nothing to lose. In the pre-tournament training camp, Vietnam lost heavily to China, so the result frame was already closed: experience matters more than victory. This is the ideal condition to give 20 to 30 minutes to Ngoc Minh Chuyen and Truc Huong. If they play well, the future has an answer. If they play poorly, the team still gains data for adjustment. But if Vietnam keeps using veterans in a low-probability match, the team will fall into the worst scenario: losing the result while creating no transition value. I have followed Vietnam women's football for many cycles, and I know that age 68 has taught me: every player is healthy until the team doctor turns the next page. Every team seems stable until it must answer the generational question. The match against China is the next page. Instead of delaying the answer, let that page be opened with new faces. Otherwise, Vietnam will remain stuck in the safe zone of the region while the world has already moved far ahead.