Coach Mai Duc Chung announced on October 23 that he wouldn’t be extending his contract with the VFF from 2024, meaning the second qualification round for the 2024 Paris Olympics is also likely to be the last tournament in which he heads the national women's football team. Chung nominated his colleague Akira Ijiri as a candidate for the hot seat.

Indeed, the Japanese coach has worked for the VFF since 2019 in charge of training young players. He had also acquired experience working for the Japan Football Association (JFA) in many different positions before working for the VFF.

Akira has led the Vietnamese U13s, U15s, U16s, U19s, and U20s teams to qualifying rounds for international tournaments, winning places to the final rounds following plenty of convincing victories.

Many young players who now play for the national squad have ever been his students, including midfielder Ngan Thi Van Su, forward Ngoc Minh Chuyen, defender Pham Thi Lan Anh, and goalkeeper Dao Thi Kieu Oanh.

The expert applies the 4-4-2 lineup which is not much different from the current 4-2-3-1 lineup which helps midfielders to show their strengths.

The Japanese coach’s expertise is somewhat proven in youth tournaments, therefore it is also easier for the coach to create a strong squad for the Vietnamese women’s football team, according to experts.

Source: VOV