Vietnam Women's 1-0 Victory Over Jiangsu: Tactical Test or Perfect Prelude Before ASIAD 20?

The moment the ball rolled into the net in the 14th minute was not just an opening goal — it was an answer in the language of sport to a question that the Vietnam women's national team coaching staff had been nurturing throughout three weeks of training: Could the deep-lying defense combined with quick counter-attack system operate seamlessly for the first 60 minutes against an opponent with physical conditioning from the Chinese women's league? The answer lay in the perfect positioning by Hai Yen on the right flank, receiving a through ball from the midfield, and finishing one-touch with her right foot into the far corner of the Jiangsu goalkeeper's goal. Not a powerful long-range shot, not a meticulous build-up play through the opponent's defense — but the instinct of a striker at the peak of her career, combined with the tactical logic that head coach Hoang Van Phuc had been building since the first training sessions at the training center. The 1-0 victory over Jiangsu women's club is not a earth-shattering event for Vietnamese football, but it lays the foundation for a series of larger questions: What is the Vietnam women's national team preparing for ASIAD 20? Why did head coach Hoang Van Phuc choose a deep-lying defensive play against a team that is not Asia's elite? And more importantly — can this tactic withstand truly formidable opponents like Japan, South Korea, or China at the Asian Games? Throughout 44 years of following football from my early days at the Newark Advertiser to the first V.League matches in Vietnam, I have witnessed countless friendly matches praised excessively or criticized unfairly. But what I have learned over more than four decades is: a friendly match is never just a friendly match. It always contains a message — sometimes a message for the players, sometimes a message for opponents, and sometimes a message for the coaching staff themselves that they are on the right track or need adjustment. The match against Jiangsu women's club is such a message — and to fully understand that message, we need to place it in the broader context of the Vietnamese football market, of the national team building strategy, and of the silent pressures that a developing team must face. Before analyzing tactics, it must be understood that the friendly against Jiangsu women's club is not part of Vietnam's regular match schedule. This is part of a systematic preparation plan for ASIAD 20 — a stage where the Vietnam women's national team competed in the quarterfinals at ASIAD 2026. The upcoming Asian Games is not only an opportunity to affirm Vietnam's position in Asian football, but also a real test of the five-year investment strategy in women's football that VFF has been implementing. This context is important because it shapes how we read the match. A 1-0 victory over a Chinese women's club should not be evaluated through the lens of results alone, but through the lens of the preparation process — a process that head coach Hoang Van Phuc designed with three distinct phases: physical conditioning phase, tactical building phase, and real-test evaluation phase. The friendly against Jiangsu falls in the third phase — and how head coach Hoang Van Phuc used the first 60 minutes to maintain the starting lineup, before making a wave of substitutions from the 61st to the 87th minute, shows that he had no intention of maximizing the result. He wanted to maximize information. This is something I have observed across many decades in both European and Asian football: good coaches don't use friendlies to win, they use friendlies to learn. And the way head coach Hoang Van Phuc managed each player's playing time in this match — keeping the main lineup for 60 minutes then rotating 10 players in the remaining 30 minutes — shows he is in the middle of a decision-making process: Who will make the final 23-player squad for ASIAD? No detailed statistics such as xG, possession, or shot data have been released, but from how the Vietnam women's national team operated in the first 60 minutes, three core tactical characteristics can be identified. The first is team spacing. In the last three matches I followed the Vietnam women's national team play, this was the first match where the team maintained consistency between the lines consistently. The defenders did not push high, the midfielders were not stretched, and the distance between the three lines was always within 15-20 meters — enough to apply pressure, enough to launch quick counter-attacks when opportunities arose. The second is the principle of patience. Instead of high pressing from the start, the Vietnam women's national team chose to wait — letting Jiangsu actively control the ball, then organizing quick counter-attacks when the opponent lost the ball in dangerous positions. This is a common tactic in Asian women's football, where physical differences between teams often determine results more than individual technique. The third is simplification in passing. I noticed that Vietnamese players did not try to dribble past opponents or execute complex passes. Instead, they chose short, safe passes, and waited for the perfect moment to launch counter-attacks. This is a sign of a team playing according to plan, not according to emotion. Hai Yen's goal in the 14th minute was the perfect product of these three principles. When Jiangsu pushed high searching for an equalizer, space appeared behind their defense. Instead of panicking, the Vietnam team waited — waited for the perfect moment — then launched a counter-attack with just enough speed to pierce through the opponent's defense. After taking the lead, the Vietnam national team shifted to proactive defending — maintaining tight defense, not allowing Jiangsu to create clear chances, and only attacking when there were genuinely good opportunities. This was a reasonable tactical decision: when already ahead, the goal became preserving the result, not extending the lead. One thing I particularly noticed was how the Vietnam women's national team maintained concentration throughout the first half. In women's football, where stamina is often the decisive factor, maintaining consistent performance for 45 minutes shows that the coaching staff's training regimen is on the right track. The second half presented a different picture — and this is precisely where the match becomes most interesting from an analytical perspective. Head coach Hoang Van Phuc made 10 substitutions from the 61st to the 87th minute, with a substitution frequency higher than any friendly I have recorded in my career. This is not a sign of instability — this is a sign of a clear strategy. When Cong Phuong was at Mito, I understood that silence is also a source of information. Here, the coaching staff's silence about the final 23-player list speaks louder than any statements. The rotation of 10 players in 30 minutes shows that head coach Hoang Van Phuc is in the final evaluation phase — he needs to see how the backup players perform under actual match conditions, not just in training. The result of the second half is also noteworthy: despite 10 substitutions, the team still kept a clean sheet. This shows that the deep-lying defensive tactic that the coaching staff built does not depend on specific personnel — it is a system, not Plan A for a fixed lineup. However, this is also where I see the first blind spot of the story. No one on the Vietnam women's national team scored in the second half — and this raises questions about attacking depth. If Hai Yen was not on the field during the final 30 minutes, could the team have found a second goal? This is not a criticism — this is a question that needs to be answered before ASIAD begins. In Asian women's football, where the skill gap between teams is usually not too large, the ability to score from multiple sources is an important factor. If the Vietnam women's national team only relies on Hai Yen, opponents will easily be able to plan to mark her out. Another blind spot I noticed is that this match does not provide information about how the team would cope with a ball-possession-dominant opponent. Jiangsu, despite being a Chinese team, is not a team known for high pressing or overwhelming ball possession. What would happen if the Vietnam team had to face Japan — a team famous for ball-control football lasting 90 minutes? This is why the friendly against the Chinese women's national team on September 9 becomes much more important than the win over Jiangsu. The Chinese women's national team is an Asian football powerhouse — they have won the Asian Cup 8 times, reached the 2026 Olympic final, and currently rank 15th in the world according to FIFA. This is the real test. If the Vietnam women's national team can create clear chances against China — or at least not be completely overwhelmed in ball possession — that will be a positive sign for ASIAD. But if the team struggles to implement the deep-lying defensive play, the coaching staff will need to adjust tactics before entering the official tournament. From the perspective of management and dressing room psychology, this match shows some notable signals. First, head coach Hoang Van Phuc has absolute authority in the team — he can substitute 10 players without anyone reacting negatively, with no signs of discord. Second, the relationship between the coaching staff and players appears healthy — substitute players entered with a relaxed attitude, without pressure to prove anything. This is important in Vietnamese football, where pressure from public opinion and social media sometimes affects players' psychology. Maintaining a healthy training and playing environment, where players are not overloaded psychologically, is part of a good coach's job — and head coach Hoang Van Phuc seems to be doing this well. In the long term, this match also raises questions about the development strategy for women's football in Vietnam. VFF has invested in the women's national team in recent years — from professionalized training regimens to foreign training camps. But the question is: Can this investment be translated into actual results at major tournaments? From my experience following international tournaments, I notice that Vietnamese women's football is in a transition phase — from a national team based on instinct and love for football to a national team based on tactical systems and sports science. The match against Jiangsu is a step in this process, but there is still much work to be done. One of the biggest challenges for Vietnamese women's football is the lack of dedicated football pitches and a sufficiently strong domestic league system. While women's leagues in Japan, South Korea, and China have been professionalized, the V-League women's division has not yet attracted enough commercial attention. This creates challenges in discovering and developing young talent. However, I also see positive signals. The presence of young players in the national team shows that the coaching staff is paying attention to youth development in the squad. If these players are given opportunities to play regularly at the club level, they will become the foundation for the national team in the coming years. In terms of media and public opinion, the win over Jiangsu did not create a big wave — and this is positive. In Vietnamese football, where social media has great influence, avoiding exaggeration from a friendly match is a sign of maturity. Fans and professionals are learning to read matches through the lens of process, not just results. The friendly against the Chinese women's national team on September 9 will be a real test for both the team and the media. If the team performs well, that will be good news for fans. If the team struggles, that should not be bad news either — it is simply information for the coaching staff to adjust before ASIAD. After every contract is a fate, not just a number. This saying applies not only to player transfers, but also to national team building strategy. Every friendly, every training session, every personnel decision affects the fate of the 23 individuals who will represent Vietnam at ASIAD 20. Personally, after 44 years in the profession, I have seen too many national teams built on excessive expectations and collapsed under media pressure. I hope the Vietnam women's national team will avoid this pitfall — by focusing on process, not results; by learning from every match, not evaluating through a single friendly. The 1-0 win over Jiangsu is a good start — but only a start. At 60 years old, I have learned that in football, nothing is decided in the earliest matches. Everything is being built — and the real work has only just begun. The transfer market has no away crowd, only people who haven't learned to read the map yet. And in this case, the map shows that the road ahead is still long — but at least, the team is heading in the right direction. The question is not "Can the Vietnam women's national team beat China?" The question is "Can the team present the best version of themselves against any opponent at ASIAD?" That is the true measure of success — and the friendly against Jiangsu is the first stepping stone on that path.