Vietnam’s qualification still feels like a dream

Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy scored the aim that certified Vietnam for Australia & New Zealand 2023

She discusses dedicating it to her late father

Nguyen reveals her targets for the worldwide finals

When Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy scored a very powerful aim in Vietnamese girls’s soccer historical past in January, she knew she’d lastly fulfilled the dream of a complete nation – together with her late father.

It was in a showdown for a spot on the FIFA Ladies’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™. Chinese language Taipei wanted only a draw to undergo. Vietnam required a win to achieve, on the sixth try, the finals for the primary time. With the sport poised at 1-1, substitute Nguyen snatched victory for The Golden Ladies.

“I nonetheless really feel prefer it was a dream,” the 27-year-old HCMC midfielder informed FIFA. “I’m so fortunate to have scored this decisive aim. We by no means although this might occur, however now we’re within the Ladies’s World Cup.

“Even now it’s onerous to place into phrases. It has lengthy been a need for us to go to the Ladies’s World Cup, and all these years we’ve labored so onerous to make it occur. Now we’ve realised our aim. It’s an honour for not solely me however for all Vietnamese individuals.”

That strike in Navi Mumbai was Nguyen’s eleventh aim for her nation and one she devoted to her father, who handed away just a few years in the past.

“I devoted the aim to my household, particularly my dad, who inspired me to maintain going on a regular basis in my footballing pursuit,” she mentioned. “After I was younger, my dad informed me, ‘Give it your all in case you have a ardour for the sport. Strive your finest and do not go away your self any regrets.’

“He usually talked with me about soccer, sharing his ideas on my recreation, similar to my approach and bodily strengths. He at all times inspired me to do higher. After we missed out on Canada 2015, he urged me not to surrender and he mentioned that we’d sooner or later obtain the aim of creating it to the Ladies’s World Cup.”

Impressed by her father, Nguyen labored onerous in coaching and in matches. After his passing throughout qualifying for the Ladies’s Olympic Soccer Match Rio 2016, she turned a star within the nationwide crew and scored 5 occasions as Vietnam conquered the AFF Ladies’s Championship in 2019. And within the Australia & New Zealand 2023 preliminaries, Nguyen starred as an excellent sub, coming off the bench to bag a brace in a 7-0 rout of Tajikistan earlier than her heroics in opposition to Chinese language Taipei.

“In his final days, he had a want of seeing me rising as much as help my mom and to play on the Ladies’s World Cup, representing the nation. Now I’m way more mature and I believe I’ve been attempting to reside as much as his expectations.”

Vietnamese girls’s soccer has come on lots in recent times, and qualification for Australia & New Zealand has seen services upgraded and youth growth plans improved within the nation.

“I can see that issues have modified lots since we received the Ladies’s World Cup ticket,” mentioned Nyugen. “The ladies’s recreation is drawing growing consideration from all walks of life and there will probably be extra women concerned on this recreation. Ladies’s soccer will attain new ranges in Vietnam.”

Due to Nguyen, a Cristiano Ronaldo fan recognized for her athletic abilities at college, it already has. And the lady who made her worldwide debut as a youngster in 2013 is already dreaming of scoring one other aim.

“I need to showcase my finest kind within the Ladies’s World Cup and specifically, I hope I can rating my first Ladies’s World Cup aim,” she concluded with a smile.