International Break
- FIFA mandated matchdays for international tournaments
- Away days in continental competition
- Taking a break from international travel
In more ways than one, this is going to be bittersweet. There can be a (happy) problem of having too many away days and too little time to balance things out. I’m not prepared to complain that our club and its teams have punched well above our weights and smashed through glass ceilings.
Hence I’m taking a break from travelling and going for neither of the historic group stages proper for the AWCL or the destiny decider that is the ACQ in Hong Kong. Sydney and Malacca were high points of my 2025 trips that have largely revolved around football, and I’m due to travel for a much needed non-football holiday soon.
Granted, it will be the last time in at least a year before the WT get to go on to the continental stage again. Over to the likes of Albirex and Still Aerion as they aim to bring greater competitiveness in the league and motivate “the others” to take things just a little more seriously while aiming for a crack at the AWCL and showing that it isn’t just us who provides the highlights and the platform for local talents to aim high.
As much as the party will eventually end before the new dawn, our final flourishes in this historic 2025 will be helpful with our rebuilding in 2026 as we look back and look forward to overcoming the blips that ended our hat trick title streak.
Battleground: Saigon
Thong Nhat Stadium has been a fortress for HCM City last campaign, despite match attendances being 10% of its 14000+ capacity. Being one of the three stadiums spread across the country that regularly host the WNT in its internationals, its inner city location is a short hop away from the international airport to its north.
Team Profiles
HCM City
Ami Takeuchi played against the Vietnamese champions in the last half hour of their 2-0 win by Urawa Reds, and with our newly minted Japanese ace now given a starring role far bigger than the collective defensive effort from packing the midfield, this match would go a long way to decide our progress to the knockout stages.
As much as the Vietnamese league seems to be a threadbare affair, with only 6 teams battling for both the championship and dwindling attention, the Vietnamese champions can call upon the services of quite a few experienced internationals who have grown together as a unit in the years when women’s football was still under the radar. With defensive veterans Chuong Thi Kieu and Tran Thi Thu Thao holding the fort admirably with goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh, and long serving captain Tran Thi Thuy Trang still evergreen at 37 years old (with her jersey number 88 to match), the stage is set for all time WNT top scorer Huynh Nhu to add to her 2 goals from last season and add gloss to her glittering career high 69 goals in 116 international matches.
Meanwhile, American-born Pakistani WNT captain Maria Khan headlines the foreign contingent in HCM City, with Tunisian international leftback Samia Aouni being another eye-catching addition to the American quartet of Aubrey Goodwill, Sakura Yoshida, Tatiana Mason and Chloe Gorman. While not much is known about the latter four, it is likely that they will play some part in the closing stages while using their most experienced heads to counter the youthful energy that our squad will present in order to stamp their authority in the midfield battle.
Stallion Laguna
The Philippine outfit qualified via the competitive Women’s Cup, pipping league champions Kaya IloIlo to the valuable slot. With a heavy American influence, both through their imports and also players with Filipina blood who has chosen to represent their ancestral land in elevating their emerging power status within the AFC, this is going to be one of the toughest matches other than Melbourne City
The McDaniel sisters Chandler (forward) and Olivia (goalkeeper) have not just excelled on opposite ends of the field, they have even helped influence their younger brother to take his football seriously enough to be called up for the Azkals. Olivia played for the legendary Brazilian club Santos after a brief splitting of ways with her Costa Rica-bound sister after a brief stint in Austria. With the reunion of the globetrotting Californians complete, they return to the Philippines looking to translate their national team form into club action.
Kaya Hawkinson is a familiar face to the more senior Lionesses, having scored the first goal in a 7-0 rout of Singapore in the 2022 AFF Women’s Championship. Yet another Californian who has chosen to don Filipina colours, her lethal combination with Chandler McDaniel upfront will be one to watch for our defences. Meanwhile, Texas born Isabella Pasion will be one to watch for the future with 17 caps at the tender age of 19, while Malia Cerdon and Rhea Chan wait patiently for their time in the sun to feature for club and country.
Charisa Lemoran is also expected to have some influence in midfield, as one of the rare native Filipino born players who could hold her own against the American influx.
Melbourne City
It is a testament to how strong the Australian Matildas are as a squad, that Holly McNamara remains City’s most recent call up (and one of only two locally based A League Women players called up for a high profile friendly against England). Also true is when former youth internationals from abroad pitch up in Australia while the best of the locals eventually grow good enough to make the reverse trip to Europe.
It won’t be long before attention from abroad falls on young prospects Alexia Apostolakis, Shelby McMahon and Bryleeh Henry, while Laura Hughes and Karly Roestbakken can call upon their European experiences (with Icelandic side Throttur and Norwegian giants Lillestrom respectively) to add an edge despite being just 24.
Former Real Betis goalkeeper Malena Mieres would benefit from the guidance of player-coach and A League Women legend Melissa Barbieri despite a massive 20 year age gap between them, while English defensive duo Ellie Wilson and Danielle Turner brings top level Women’s Super League experience to a very strong City team. American age-group international Taylor Otto has played in both the USA NWSL and the Scottish Premiership with Celtic, and her versatility as a defensively minded midfielder will be key to keeping the back tidy. This would complement Nigerian forward Chinaza Uchendu’s flair in attack.
And when cancer survivor Rebekah Stott takes to the field, being on the pitch would be half the battle won for the New Zealand captain. The fighting spirit and willpower that the former Brighton and Seattle Reign centurion possesses will serve to galvanize her team mates and also the women’s football community in Asia.
Hopes, Dreams and No Fear
Our Sailors would no doubt have been galvanized by Ami Takeuchi and Eri Kitagawa reappearing for the group stages (and who knows, maybe even beyond). Given a generous chance to qualify for the quarter finals, we just need to avoid finishing bottom and even get a win to have a cast-iron chance of making the next round.
This campaign also holds clues to how our rebuilding process will be like in 2026. While our mission remains the same, to develop a strong core of local talents unafraid to take on the increasingly high levels expected of football in the region and take the lead in enhancing the appeal amongst their younger peers, the manner of how our title defence ended would have stung.
With the calibre of players we previewed in August, the template to rebuild might involve a smaller (but higher quality) number of foreigners schooled both in the college football system and polished by WE League clubs in the much more competitive Japanese system.
And to that effect our new signings are an incremental step up of ambition and calibre. In particular with our new trio of former youth internationals, the Sailors have recruited wisely to not just offer a competitive edge in the tournament proper, but also motivate the current internationals to rise to the occasion and apply towards being consummate professionals in the modern Asian women’s game.
Wang Jiaxin (China U21) and Hikaru Shibusawa (Japan U19) bring top level experience at the backline to add to Rivka Ramji’s creative impetus as a future Indian star. With Chinese trequartista Zhang Qiaoling adding another dimension in our smoother transitions in play, our local talents like Irsalina Irwan and Nicole Lim are not forgotten in their preparations towards the upcoming SEA Games.
Much will also hinge upon how the core of our Women’s National Team will perform in order to attain a doable breakthrough in Thailand. While Amelia Ng, Raeka Ee, Farah Nurzahirah and Nur Ain Salleh are exciting talents to watch for the future, the roles of Umairah Hamdan, Syazwani Ruzi, Dorcas Chu, Ho Hui Xin and Khairunnisa Anwar as the survivors from our previous Jordan campaign shouldn’t be underestimated as they bring much needed guidance and strengthening of team spirit in faraway lands.
Perhaps, the only thing holding the FAS back from sanctioning such a rebuild in the longer term (after our quintet were restricted to only the AWCL) is the competitive imbalances that may put The Others in jeopardy, on threat of heavily lopsided defeats virtually every time they play the Sailors.
While Nicole Lim’s homecoming should be a vindication of hard work and effort that brings a return to the club that started her top level career, our clubs should not be afraid to place more emphasis and offer more pathways for young talents to step up and make the grade (who knows, at the expense of every subsequent WPL season not being a two-horse race)
That said, the underdog status that we hold might be key in breaking more ground for Singaporean football, given that we bloodied the noses of Etihad and are game to put recent history of heavy defeats on the international stage against our regional opponents behind us.
To close.. COME ON YOU SAILORS!
Written by Joseph Chin
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