Vietnam convincingly booked their place at January’s Finals in India following straight Group B victories against the Maldives (16-0) and Tajikistan (7-0), with Hai Yen contributing eight of the total 23 goals, making her top scorer as of September 29.

Vietnam forward Pham Hai Yen (second from left) appears in the AFC article.

Talking about the 26-year-old forward, the AFC article emphasised: “The pandemic had played a key role in her inability to score at internationals for almost two years prior, but Pham Hai Yen more than made up for it in Dushanbe, producing a barely believable return of two games, 135 minutes, eight goals.”

“A half-time substitute in Vietnam’s record 16-0 win over the Maldives, she helped herself to a remarkable six goals in 33 minutes before adding two more against Tajikistan as Mai Duc Chung’s side sealed qualification.”

“Long considered a lethal finisher at both domestic and regional level, Hai Yen will be looking to make her mark on the highest continental stage, and perhaps lead the ever-improving Vietnam side to a first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup,” the article went on.

Together with Hai Yen, five other prominent players were also honoured by the AFC, namely Moon Mi-ra (Republic of Korea), Janista Jinantuy (Thailand), Zahra Muzdalifah (Indonesia), Behnaz Taherkhani (Iran) and Chandler McDaniel (Philippines).

Hai Yen celebrates after scoring a goal.

Vietnam are among the first 10 teams to qualify for the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup, alongside four teams who automatically qualified – India (the hosts), Japan (2018 champions), Australia (2018 runners-up) and China (2018 third place); and five qualifying from the freshly concluded September 17-29 tournament – Indonesia (Group C winners), the Republic of Korea (Group E winners), the Philippines (Group F winners), Iran (Group G winners) and Thailand (Group H winners).

The remaining two qualifiers will be determined later as the Group A and Group D campaigns take place between October 18-24.

Photo contest launched to honour Vietnamese women

Hanoi City Cultural Centre, under the municipal Department of Culture and Sports, recently launched a photo contest themed ‘Women with family and society’ to honour the beauty of Vietnamese women and raise public awareness on gender equality.

Virtual concert to connect women artists across continents

A concert featuring women artists from Vietnam, France, Germany, and Ghana will be hosted online by the Goethe Institute in Hanoi on July 17.

Vietnam move up one place to 32nd in FIFA Women’s Rankings

Vietnam climbed one place to 32nd in the latest FIFA women’s rankings released on Friday (June 25).

Man donates sanitary pads to quarantined women, medics in Covid-19 hotspot

Nguyen Nhat Linh has donated more than 13,000 sanitary pads to quarantined women and frontline medical workers in Bac Giang Province.

Two women die of Covid in Hanoi

Vietnam recorded two more Covid-19 deaths Monday afternoon, putting the national coronavirus fatality tally at 61.

Source: NDO