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Laos will be the dark horse in the women’s championship when their SEA Games event kick-off tomorrow at the National University Stadium. The women’s football matches will begin with Malaysia taking onn Thailand while Laos will play Myanmar. Phouvanh Vongsouthi, the president of the Laos Football Federation (LFF) expressed his confidence that the team will be able to at least put up some resistance against the likes of defending champions Thailand, silver medallists Vietnam, fast-improving Myanmar and Malaysia.

As opposed to the men’s game which is restricted to players under the age of 23-years-old, the women’s game is open to the full senior side. “There are only five teams taking part, so the tournament will be competitive,” said Phouvanh.

“We are confident based on their progress thus far, so I think that we will have an outside chance of making making the medals.”

With only five teams taking part, they will be competing on a roun-robin basis to decide the gold medal winners. In the meantime, Vietnam will be anxious to reclaim the gold they loss in Korat two years ago.

What made the loss more painful was the fact that Vietnam had been winning the women’s football gold medal since 2001 and only surrendered it to the Thais at their own turf.

But head coach Chen Yun Fat feels confident that they can be back at the top of the podium considering their recent win of the International Women’s Football Tournament TKV 2009 when they beat Thailand 2-0.

“There is only one aim and that is to win back the gold medal we lost two years ago,” added Yun Fat, whose team also went to Japan for training in preparation for their SEA Games onslaught.

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