Vietnamese women drop in world football ranking, remain atop Southeast Asia

By Hoang Nguyen   April 1, 2020 | 05:00 am PT
Vietnamese women drop in world football ranking, remain atop Southeast Asia
Vietnam national football team celebrate after winning the SEA Games gold medal on December 8, 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Duc Dong.
Despite dropping three places in the latest FIFA world rankings, Vietnamese women remained the top team in Southeast Asia.

Two losses against Australia with a combined 1-7 score in the Olympic 2020 qualifiers cost Vietnam eight points and the team fell to the 35th spot with 1657 points.

Right above Vietnam are Wales (1658 points) and Costa Rica (1644 points).

Vietnamese women still get to keep the top position in Southeast Asia, followed by Thailand with 1596 points and Myanmar with 1511 points. In Asia, Vietnam are sixth, below strong teams like South Korea and China.

After beating Vietnam in both legs of the Olympic qualification play-off, Australia won the ticket to the tournament and maintained their number one spot in Asia, followed by North Korea and Japan.

Top 10 Asian teams in FIFA womens ranking. Photo courtesy of Asian Football Confederation.

Top 10 Asian women’s teams in FIFA’s latest ranking. Photo courtesy of Asian Football Confederation

Vietnam were thrashed 0-5 in the first leg played away in Australia. Playing the next leg at home, the Vietnamese women put on a much better show at the Cam Pha Stadium, scoring against Australia for the first time in eight games played over 12 years.

On top of the world rankings is the U.S., followed by Germany. The number one and two positions haven’t changed for the past two months.

Recently, Vietnam opposed the new format for the 2020 AFF Women's Championship in the Philippines, which is to be played over two years. The tournament will play its group stage in 2020 and the knockout rounds in 2021. Since Vietnam are among the teams that don’t have to play group matches, they will have nothing to do for the rest of 2020 and the team do not want that to happen. Vietnam Football Federation has demanded that the event is played entirely in 2020.

 
 
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