The former Thai coach took Messi to show a lesson for the Vietnamese women’s team.
The experience of attending the world playground for the first time has ended for the Vietnamese women’s team. The separate defeats against the world’s top opponents gave Mai Duc Chung’s teachers and students many lessons.
What can Vietnamese women’s football draw?
As a person who has led many football teams in Southeast Asia, including the Thai men’s team or the Vietnamese women’s team , coach Steve Darby said:
“Vietnam can draw two lessons from this World Cup. First, leaders need to increase financial resources for women’s football, thereby helping the team better prepare for tournaments and find more qualified players.”
Darby suggests that female national players can go to schools to talk and teach football, thereby inspiring the next generation. At the same time, this is also a way to increase income for players as well as career orientation for them after retirement.
Another lesson that the Vietnamese groom sent to VFF is: “Look for and attract taller players. Midfielders or strikers may be as short as Lionel Messi or Diego Maradona, but at world class, defenders and goalkeepers have to be tall.”
He said that in Vietnam there are athletes with good height who play basketball or volleyball. Darby encourages VFF to look for Vietnamese-born talents playing abroad. According to him, this force is mostly in Australia, the US or Europe.
Some achievements in Steve Darby’s coaching career:
- Led Johor FA to win Malaysia FA Cup and National Championship in 1997.
- Led the Vietnamese women’s team to win the SEA Games gold medal for the first time in 2001.
- Led Home United to win the S-League and Singapore Cup in 2003, and reached the semi-finals of the AFC Cup in 2004.
- Served as technical director and head coach of the Laos team from 2015 to 2016, helping Laos achieve the highest score in World Cup qualifying history and the highest FIFA ranking ever.