To prepare for the 2023 World Cup, the Vietnamese women's team will play a friendly match with the German team at 11:15 p.m. today, June 24. This is a rare experience for coach Mai Duc Chung and his students when they get to face the world's top-class team.
Germany has always been among the best teams in the world. Their consistency in women's football is even better than in men's football. In the past 20 years, Germany has only been pushed out of the top 3 once (in July 2022). They are regularly ranked second in the FIFA rankings, which is where they are now.
Lena Oberdorf is one of the stars of the German team.
The core of the German team is made up of members of Wolfsburg - the team that just finished second in the Champions League - and Eintracht Frankfurt. Frankfurt Club is also the host where the Vietnamese team is training.
Facing the German team at this time - the preparation stage for the 2023 World Cup - means that Thanh Nha and her teammates will be competing with the best stars of their opponents. The German team has called up a force of 31 players with a full lineup of bright faces. They are only missing Dzsenifer Marozsan - the Lyon star who announced his retirement from playing for the national team in March.
Among them, the most notable names are Alexandra Popp, Lena Oberdorf, Merle Frohms and Ann-Katrin Berger. Captain Popp and midfielder Oberdorf are both nominated for the Ballon d'Or and FIFA The Best. Meanwhile, Frohms and Berger are in the top 5 best female goalkeepers in the world in 2022 (according to the voting results organized by FIFA).
In their last 15 matches, Germany have won 11. In the remaining four matches, they drew 0-0 with Sweden and lost 1-2 to England, the United States and Brazil. The defeat to England was in the European Championship final.
The Vietnam team is preparing for the 2023 Women's World Cup.
The opportunity to face the world's top opponents rarely comes to the Vietnamese women's team. The strongest teams in Asia that Huynh Nhu and her teammates as well as the senior generations have faced are Australia and Japan. It was not until they qualified for the World Cup that coach Mai Duc Chung and his team had the opportunity to test their strength against the world's top 5 teams.
Nearly a year ago, the Vietnamese team played against the French team (ranked 5th in the world) and lost 0-7. The defeat by a large margin by coach Mai Duc Chung and his team was predictable, even when the opponent did not field their strongest lineup.
However, such defeats also bring many rare lessons in the players' careers. In addition, facing the German team (plus the next 2 friendly matches with New Zealand and Spain) at this time also helps the team to prepare mentally before entering the 2023 World Cup. That is the tournament where coach Mai Duc Chung and his team are in the same group with the US and the Netherlands - the defending champions and runners-up of the World Cup.
Han Phong
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