The Cambodia women's national under-20 football team training at the Bati Youth Football Academy since February 19. PHOTO SUPPLIED
The Cambodia women's national under-20 football team, who have been training at the Bati Youth Football Academy since February 19, is increasingly focused on qualifying for the AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup qualifiers round 1 in Group G, which will be held on March 8.
Due to the 2024 AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup’s first round matching for Group G, Cambodia will be the host.
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Prak Vuthy, the coach of the Cambodian team, set the goal of going to the second round, as the women's team face strong competition in this important tournament.
"The potential and ability of our women’s team is good because they have gone through the experience of international matches such as the AFF U18 Women's Championship 2022 in Indonesia. We also have selected some new players to gain experience from the competition and to show our ability in this competition too,” he said.
The former Boeung Ket coach added: "We already have the goal and the will. We will do our best in the AFC competition, held on our territory for the first time, to make sure that our team will pass the first round. Although we did not have much time to prepare, at our current training activities we can see that our players have strong mental health, so we hope to get through this first round.”
In preparation for the first qualifying round of the AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup, the Football Federation of Cambodia has called up 25 players under the age of 20: Khon Sak, Torm Rumduol, Rom Molika, John Chita, Doeun Sreynath, Hoeun Theary, Samreth Sreymoch, Nhim Kongkea, Rith Channimol, Samreth Nimol of Siem Reap Football Club; Han Srey Keo and Chea Fariya of Phnom Penh Crown FC; Von Srino and Muth Rath of Preah Khan Reach Svay Rieng FC; Kin Reaksa, Ny Srey Vorn, Sem Sreynang of NagaWorld FC; Sem Malin, Chheang Sreyneck, Von Sreynith of Boeung Ket FC; Tun Kimhong, Thorn Thuna, Im Meysan, Heng Sovannmony of Visakha FC; and Sim Sorita of the Kampong Cham Department of Education, Youth and Sport.
"We have been training at the Bati Youth Football Academy for a long time. We have been training hard as it is the first time that we are the hosts. We have worked hard to fill the gaps so that our women's football can move forward and fight together for Cambodia," said player Samreth Nimol, who was called up from Siem Reap FC.
The Cambodian women’s U20 national team will match with the Myanmar U20 women's team at RSN Stadium at 4pm on March 8. For their second match, Cambodia will meet with the Malaysian women's team on March 10 at 4pm.
The final Group G qualifying game will be between Myanmar and Malaysia on March 12. The first-place winner of Group G will go for second round qualification with the winners of the seven other groups.
Vuthy called on all football fans to support Cambodian women's football to give them encouragement, because it is the first time that Cambodia has hosted the AFC U20 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers.
"The support of our people is a great encouragement to our players, and our U20 team that have prepared for the AFC Cup will be playing for us at the SEA Games in 2025 and 2027. So our people’s participation is very important,” he said.
