Song Lam Nghe An youth teams have a chance to re-establish the record

2018 was a brilliant year for SLNA in youth tournaments. That was the year that the SLNA U11 team successfully defended the championship before winning the 5th championship in 2019, the SLNA U13 team won the championship for the 6th time before extending the number of championships to 7.

The SLNA U15 team led by coach Le Ky Phuong also easily qualified for the final round and won the championship. In addition to the three teams mentioned above, the SLNA U17 team won the Silver Medal and the SLNA U19 team won the Bronze Medal.

Only the U21 SLNA team qualified for the finals but stopped at the group stage. Thus, the record of SLNA youth football in 2018 was not only 3 gold medals, 1 silver medal, 1 bronze medal but also the only V.League team to participate in all the finals.

U15 SLNA won the championship in 2018. Photo: Archive

That is an “unprecedented” record that only SLNA can achieve. This year, this miracle is completely possible to repeat. Up to this point, the defending champion U11 SLNA and U13 SLNA have won the right to participate in the final round with an undefeated record.

With the U15 SLNA team currently the defending champions, coach Nguyen Van Vinh and his team have played through the first leg of the qualifying round, winning 4 absolute victories, scoring 9 goals, conceding 1 goal, earning 12 points and leading Group B. The team ranked behind is U15 SHB Da Nang with 9 points.

The latest team to secure a place in the finals is U17 SLNA, led by coach Le Ky Phuong and coach Pham Van Quyen. According to the tournament regulations, the finals will be a place for 8 teams to compete, including 7 excellent teams that passed the qualifying round (including 5 group winners, 2 second-place teams with the best results in 5 groups) and the remaining spot belongs to the host team of the finals.

With 16 points after 5 wins and 1 draw, U17 SLNA has secured their place in the finals despite having 2 matches left to play. In addition to SLNA, there are 6 other teams that have already secured tickets to the finals, namely PVF (first in Group A, host of the finals), HAGL (first in Group C), Saigon (first in Group D), Dong Thap (first in Group E), Phu Yen and Nutifood Academy (2 of the 3 second-placed teams with the best results).

SLNA U21 team at the end of the year will likely make a difference with 7-8 players playing in V.League 2020. Photo: Hai Hoang

The SLNA U19 team also completed its mission well in 2020 when it qualified for the finals and won the bronze medal. Although there are still many regrets with the 8 players called up to the Vietnam U19 team after this tournament, it is still an acceptable achievement.

At the U21 SLNA level, the Nghe An team still holds the record for the number of championships (5). However, the last time SLNA won the championship was in 2014. The best achievement of U21 SLNA in recent years is the bronze medal in 2017 with the generation of players Van Duc, Xuan Manh, Dinh Chau...

In 2020, SLNA may struggle in V.League, but having 7-8 young players born in 1999, 2000 "earning salary" from the first team will help U21 SLNA become a very formidable team. Among them, Thai Ba Sang, Tran Dinh Tien, Tran Ngoc Anh, Dang Van Lam, Nguyen Van Viet, Mai Sy Hoang have all been on the field.

Being given the opportunity to compete and gain experience early in V.League 2020 will help them become stronger and more mature before participating in the national U21 tournament. This was proven when Nguyen Manh, Khac Ngoc, Phi Son won the championship in 2012 and Manh Hung, Xuan Thang, Ngoc Toan, Phuc Tinh in 2014.

Song Lam Nghe An continues to face the situation of 'player bleeding' after V.League 2020

(Baonghean.vn) - Song Lam Nghe An has had many difficulties in terms of personnel in the 2020 season due to "player loss". July has passed, a methodical plan and roadmap are needed for the current key players because most of them will have their contracts expire right after the end of 2020.