Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: The inaugural edition of the AFC U-14 Girls’ Regional Championship 2013 has closed with four champions winning their respective regional titles.
Vietnam, China, Jordan and India were the champions of the ASEAN, East, West and South and Central regions respectively during the championships which started in March and concluded in June.
The ASEAN region’s championship was the last installment in the series where hosts Vietnam grabbed the crown after thrashing Cambodia 7-0 in their final match at Thong Nhat Stadium on Sunday.
Vietnam’s striker Nguyen Thi Quynh claimed a brace of awards, as MVP and Top Goal Scorer, having scored nine goals throughout the competition including a whopping four goals against Malaysia in their opening game.
Thailand finished as the runners-up, Myanmar in the third place while the Philippines clinched the Fair Play Award in the six-day ASEAN meeting.
Going back, the championship began in March this year with the South and Central region which was hosted by Sri Lanka in capital city Colombo.
India finished as the runaway champions for the region with a perfect five-out-of-five record, scoring 33 goals and conceding only two.
The Indians won two other accolades, the MVP Award through Daya Devi Heigrujam and Top Scorer won by Kashmina. Iran came away as runners -up while Bangladesh grabbed a double, the third place and Fair Play honours.
The action then shifted to Jordan in April for the West championship which the hosts won after winning four games out of five. Palestine were the runners-up, Bahrain the third place and Qatar won the Fair Play Award. Palestine’s Rozeen NY Odeh scored 14 goals throughout the tournament and clinched the Top Goal Scorer Award while the MVP went to Leen Yasin Mohammad Al Btoush of Jordan.
Come early June, China hosted and won the East edition having won all their three matches at the group stage before going on to beat Japan in the semi-finals and DPR Korea in the final.
DPR Korea were the runners-up and Korea Republic won the third place while Japan were the Fair Play team. The MVP accolade was won by Sung Hyang-sim of DPR Korea whereas the tournament’s Top Scorer was China’s Chen Xia.
The girls’ regional championship began in 2008 as a Girls’ Festival of Football that was more educational than competitive in nature and was held annually. In 2012, it became more competitive as it became the AFC U-13 Girls Football Tournament. Then, the AFC U-14 Girls’ Regional Championships started this year.