The Vietnam women's squad played a friendly with the Myanmar team at Mandalarthiri Stadium in Mandalay, Myanmar, on March 23, 2019. (Photo: Vietnam Football Federation)

It is also the first time the Vietnamese women's squad have reached the highest position in the region since December 2015 - when the team rose to the 29th in the world.

With 1,659 points, coach Mai Duc Chung's side claimed the 35th position in the world and climbed one place to rank 6th in Asia.

They received 21 plus points in FIFA's July rankings after they successfully won the right to play at the third round of the 2020 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

In the second round in Uzbekistan last April, the Vietnamese women won all of their matches, against Hong Kong (China), Jordan and Uzbekistan.

Currently, the squad are in preparation for the upcoming Southeast Asian women's championship hosted by Thailand from August 15 to 27, with the expectation of getting the best results, thereby continuing to improve their FIFA ranking in the third quarter of 2019.

In the recently announced rankings, the Thai team dropped five places to 39 in the world and seventh in Asia. Thailand's drop was due to their poor performance at the 2019 Women's World Cup, as they lost all three matches, conceded 20 goals and only scored one.

Following the successful World Cup campaign in France early this month, the world champions US consolidated their top spot in the world with 2,180 points, 121 points from second-placed Germany. World Cup finalists Netherlands rose five places to the third in the world.

In Asia, Australia top the continent with 1,965 points (8th in the world), followed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea. 

Nhan Dan