- By Kyaw Zin Hlaing | Thursday, 21 May 2015
The Myanmar side are welcomed back to Yangon International following their trip to Vietnam. Photo:Facebook/MFF
After a brief break following the celebrations and congratulations received by the women’s side on their return from Vietnam on May 11, the team will congregate in Yangon on June 1 and begin preparations for the tournament starting on September 14 and hosted by Thailand.
Five teams – Myanmar, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Jordan and Vietnam – will compete to join Australia, China, both Koreas and hosts Japan in February’s final round of qualification.
“Although we finished runner-up in the AFF Championship, we lost to both Vietnam and Thailand during the competition. We won’t be able to afford such results in Olympic qualification,” Thet Thet Win told The Myanmar Times.
“We’ll also be facing physically stronger teams in the likes of Jordan and Chinese Taipei and so must adjust our preparation accordingly,” she added.
“Achieving results against any of these teams is not beyond our abilities but with only one qualification slot available, every match will be tough and important in its own right.”
The side’s physicality is an area Thet Thet Win will focus on for improvement over the next three months, with plans to follow the lead of the men’s national sides and bring in a foreign fitness coach.
“The Myanmar Football Federation has agreed to this and I hope to see results in the upcoming tournament,” she said.
Regularity of play is also an issue the coach hopes will be addressed.
“In the run-up to the ASEAN tournament, we played only one friendly match with Thailand. Our players suffer from lack of game time.”
Prior to the tournament in Vietnam, the women’s last outings were the unchallenging contests with India (7-0) and Sri Lanka (16-0) when Myanmar hosted the nations for Group A of the first round of Olympic qualification at the Mandalar Thiri Stadium, Mandalay, in early March.
“In the past we’ve only been able to practice against men’s teams which does not support the development of our side properly. I hope we will play at least six friendly matches before the September tournament … There are plans for a tour of Japan but that is yet to be confirmed.”
In advance of September a training squad of 35 has been pulled together, consisting of the team from Vietnam plus 10 youngsters called up from the Ministry of Sport and the MFF Youth team.
“There are suggestions that in 2016 a Myanmar National League will be formed for women. Such a league will create a wider talent pool from which to draw our athletes and improve our chances of success in future international tournaments,” said Thet Thet Win.
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