Vietnamese women football team (Source: vff.org.vn)Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam sufferedfrom a 0-4 loss to Japan in the Group B opener of the 2018 Asian FootballConfederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup that took place in Amman, Jordan, onApril 7.
With a lineup of highly skilled players, itwas not surprising as Japan took control of the game right from the firstwhistle.
The former world champions only needed threeminutes to concretise their domination, with Kumi Yokoyama firing anunstoppable attempt from Mana Iwabuchi’s pass to open the scoring for Japan.
The Vietnamese women had hardly come roundfrom the first goal when they conceded a second scored by Emi Nakajima 14minutes later. It was Iwabuchi again who provided an excellent right-wingassist for Nakajima to tap in from close range.
Vietnam also deployed a number ofcounterattacks, which, however, were easily blocked by Japan’s solid defence.
The Japanese players continued to find thenet in the 53th and 57 minutes, and maintained their domination until the endof the match.
Meanwhile, the concerted efforts made byVietnam could not help them to avoid a straight 0-4 defeat overall.
Vietnam is scheduled to face Australia on April10 evening (local time), and the Republic of Korea (RoK) on April 13.
With the opening loss, the Vietnamese playersare not allowed to lose any of their remaining two games against Australia andthe RoK (on April 13) if they want to achieve a top-three finish in Group B toadvance to the playoff match against Group A’s third-place team for the fifthWorld Cup ticket.
Earlier, the team finished a ten-day trainingcamp in Germany, with one win and one draw with the local women’s footballclub.-VNA
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