Do Luong youth football team strives for new season

One May afternoon at Do Luong district stadium, under the bright summer sun, teachers and students of the district's youth and youth football teams were still actively practicing to prepare for the 23rd Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth and Youth Football Tournament.

On the field, the young athletes were engrossed in collective juggling, while the coach followed them closely to adjust each technical move. Outside the field, many parents, after dropping their children off at the field, stayed behind as regular spectators to watch the activities of both teachers and students. An eager training atmosphere was truly taking place here.

Veteran coach Tran Van Son said: To prepare well for the 2019 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament, since April, Do Luong has completed "personnel issues", searching for and selecting outstanding athletes, establishing teams, and organizing serious and methodical training.

The training atmosphere of Do Luong football team before the new season.

Like previous years, this year Do Luong has established 2 teams to participate in the tournament. The ND team was selected from the U10 training class organized by SLNA Club in the district. The TN team mainly selected athletes with qualities and abilities in previous seasons. These two teams have started training for 3 weeks now under the guidance of 2 experienced coaches and 2 assistants.

Because the students are still busy with their cultural studies at school, the two teams have had to practice on different schedules. The Youth team practices on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, while the Youth team only practices on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. According to the plan, when the students enter summer, the coaching staff will adjust the schedule, increasing the weekly practice time.

In particular, before entering the competition field, athletes will be mobilized for concentrated training, in order to maximize their spirit of learning and training for the tournament.

According to Coach Tran Van Son, of the two teams of Do Luong this year, the ND team seems to be “less talented” than last year because it does not have any outstanding athletes. Before the team was established, the coaching staff had to travel to the grassroots, hunting and searching for talents in the villages to supplement the team in order to improve the quality of the competition.

Due to the lack of outstanding athletes, in order to "magically" transform the team, the coaching staff has no other choice but to step up training, improve the athletes' physical strength and technique. After initial efforts from both teachers and students, in mid-May, the two youth football teams of Do Luong are ready to accelerate. Bright faces such as Phan Anh Hao, Nguyen Canh Hoang, Phan Chinh Minh Quan... with good physical strength, agility, and skillful techniques, will hopefully contribute to creating new breakthroughs for the teams of the Luong region.

Practicing with his friends at the district stadium, Phan Anh Hao, a student from Block 4, Do Luong town, said: “Football has been my passion since I was a child. Now that I have been selected for the Do Luong team, I feel very excited. Thanks to the teachers’ teaching, my technique has improved. I promise to do my best for the team’s achievements.”

Coach Tran Van Son guides the athletes in techniques and tactics.

Compared to previous years, the basic advantage of the Do Luong teams this year, in addition to the enthusiasm, overcoming difficulties, the inherent passion for football of both teachers and students, the attention of the district-level departments and branches... is the improvement of technical facilities for training is an important factor. The youth football teams have 2 more artificial turf fields in the central stadium, meeting the training needs of the athletes.

Coach Nguyen Kim Toi said: Previously, there was only a natural grass field, so the team's training was quite passive, depending a lot on weather conditions. On rainy days, the field was wet and slippery, so we had to wait a long time or stop training. Now, with an artificial grass field, training has become more proactive, more frequent, and we don't have to worry too much about bad weather.

Over the past decades, the football movement in Do Luong has developed strongly, especially with the gifted classes of SLNA Club opened here, so finding personnel for the teams is really not difficult.

However, to have a strong team depends on many factors, among which, the talent and basic quality of the athletes are extremely important. The deployment of troops when lacking outstanding young athletes is a concern of sports people in Do Luong before this year's season.

Young athletes actively practice before the new season.

Accompanying the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament for 22 seasons, Do Luong has always maintained an “attacking” position on both the Youth and Youth teams. With the achievement of winning the Championship Cup over 10 times, the Luong football team has truly made many teams in the province admire.

Young football players from Luong are trying to find themselves again.

Talking about Do Luong's preparation for the 23rd Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament, Mr. Nguyen Kim Nam - Head of the District Culture Department said: "Do Luong is a locality with a sports tradition and has actively participated in the Nghe An Newspaper Football Tournament since the early days.

This year, after having a plan, we urged our brothers to practice early, be ready, and proactively join the competition. Although there are changes compared to before, we always believe in our teams, hoping that Do Luong will have new achievements in the 2019 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament.

The 23rd Youth and Children's Football Tournament of Nghe An Newspaper Cup 2019 will start from June 11 in Vinh city. It is expected that there will be about 40 youth and children's football teams from 21 districts, cities and towns participating. In addition to competing for the championship, the players will also compete with all their might to catch the eye of scouts from the country's leading training centers.

All matches of the tournament will be broadcast live on Baonghean.vn, Nghe An Newspaper's youtube channel and the tournament's fanpage system.