Vietnam’s female football squad has defended its 28th place in the latest International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rankings, its1654 points leading the Southeast Asian region. The national squad has not competed in any more tournaments since its 2014 Asian Women’s Cup Qualifier. The squad convened for training with coach Tran Van Phat on August 1, preparing for the 2013 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Cup in Myanmar from September 9­­–22. The team will complete a ten-day training camp in the Republic of Korea (RoK) before joining the competition in Myanmar. Vietnam was drawn into 2013 AFF Cup’s Group A, alongside Thailand, Malaysia, and the two guests Australia and Jordan. Vietnam’s main rival Thailand dropped one notch to 31st in the latest FIFA rankings. Vietnam is Asia’s sixth-highest ranked team, after Japan (world no. 3), the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Australia (tied at world no. 8), China (world no. 15), and the RoK (world no 16). The FIFA top 10, in order, were the US, Germany, Japan, Brazil, Sweden, France, Canada, the DPRK, Norway, and Australia. VOV