Nghe An Newspaper Youth Cup 2019: Thanh Chuong determined to 'break the mold'

In late May, Thanh Chuong youth soccer teams are increasing their training intensity.

After the heavy afternoon rain, although the central district stadium was still soaked, the Thanh Chuong youth football teams still went out to practice as usual. That partly shows the efforts of both teachers and students of the teams in the new season.

According to head coach Van Thanh Chuong, in preparation for the 2019 Nghe An Newspaper Youth Cup, the coaching staff is most concerned about human resources and has been recruiting for several months now.

Over the years, Thanh Chuong has had many advantages in establishing a national team: first of all, the locality is maintaining the gifted football class of Song Lam Nghe An Club, gathering many talented and passionate players; the football movement has developed widely in the villages, especially the Phu Dong Sports Festival organized regularly in the locality has contributed to discovering and nurturing many key players for the national team...

Thanh Chuong Youth Football Team in a training session.

Like many other districts, at this time, the two Thanh Chuong Youth and Youth Football Teams have passed the “warm-up” phase of playing 2 sessions a week, due to the influence of the students’ cultural study schedule, and are entering the acceleration phase, actively practicing every afternoon, on physical strength, technique, tactics… to accumulate the most “energy” to fight with other teams.

Compared to previous years, this year's Thanh Chuong junior athletes do not have many new features or outstanding skills. Most of them are children of farming families living far from the center (10 - 25 km), so traveling and moving during training is quite difficult. However, they are always enthusiastic, passionate athletes, ready to contribute to the season.

Compared to last year, Thanh Chuong this year does not have many new features, excels in expertise, but is very hard-working.

In the two teams of Thanh Chuong, some typical faces emerged such as Nguyen Quang Bao (Thanh Lam), Nguyen Lam Thanh (Town), Nguyen Dinh Thanh, Ho Sy Nguyen (Thanh Nho), Chu Ngoc Nguyen Luc (Cat Van), Pham Viet Khang (Thanh Thinh)... with good physical strength and personal skills, highly appreciated by the coaching staff. Especially Nguyen Dinh Thanh (Thanh Nho) has difficult family conditions but still studies well and plays football well.

Accompanying the children, in addition to the attention of the departments, the parents and families of the athletes are a great source of motivation. Almost all of the children are picked up and dropped off by their parents and relatives every practice session. Ms. Nguyen Thi Lam (50 years old), mother of athlete Nguyen Dinh Thanh, said: “My house is more than 25 km from town, every afternoon when going to practice football, both mother and son are present at the field. Even though it is the middle of the busy harvest season, I still put aside my work to take my child there. If my child is passionate, I have to support him. When he competes in Vinh, I will also go to cheer him on.”

The joy of athletes before the new season.

The biggest difficulty for Thanh Chuong teams in preparing for the new season is probably the technical facilities for training. In recent years, regardless of the weather, both teachers and students of the teams have worked hard on the two main fields: the concrete field in the district cultural house and the central stadium.

Plowing on the concrete field is more deployed when the weather is bad, but on good days both teams practice in the middle of the district stadium with natural grass. Practicing on the concrete field is often prone to injuries and abrasions, while practicing on the central grass field is passive because it depends on weather conditions.

“Compared to strong teams in the province, Thanh Chuong teams have not received much investment, do not have standard facilities for training, the desire to play on artificial turf is still our long-standing wish. In addition, the socialization movement for sports achievements in the locality is still limited, which has significantly affected the overall achievements of the teams” - Coach Van Thanh Chuong shared.

Coach Van Thanh Chuong is imparting experience to the athletes.

In the 22 seasons of the Nghe An Newspaper Youth and Children's Cup, Thanh Chuong has always accompanied the two teams and has achieved certain achievements. The youth football teams in the Nhut region have entered the finals many times, won the First Prize for the Youth Football Team, won the Second Prize 3 times (the Youth Football Team 2 times, the Youth Football Team 1 time) and won the Third Prize several times. The Youth and Children's Football Teams of Thanh Chuong are considered to play well, play with style, leave many impressions, but are not lucky. In some tournaments, they were eliminated for unreasonable reasons.

The strength of the two Thanh Chuong youth football teams this year, according to the coaching staff, is still their diligence in training, but their inherent weakness is their bravery, or in other words, their "weirdness" and "smartness" in competition. The athletes on the field are being influenced a lot by their psychology, lacking confidence, and "hesitant" in front of strong teams and new fields... Therefore, playing well but not being effective, to go further, is really not easy.

“If they meet teams with strong investment, class and long-term strategies like Tan Ky, Yen Thanh, Hung Nguyen… Thanh Chuong teams have little chance to continue, that has been a reality in recent years.”

Coach Van Thanh Chuong

Thanh Chuong is determined to "break the mold" and try to achieve his goals in the new season.

However, it is not because of “difficulty that limits intelligence”, but the youth football teams of the Thanh Chuong region are also struggling to rise up. In order to overcome the above limitations, the coaching board of the Thanh Chuong youth football teams has had to struggle and try every day, every training session, for the new goals that have been set.

Comparing the two teams of Thanh Chuong's Youth and Youth teams, according to the coaches, the Youth team has a team of athletes who are well-rounded, have expertise, and have competed in tournaments, so the quality is "better", and has more prospects in competing, while the Youth team is always better, so the competition is mainly for learning.

Mr. Le Duy Nam - a coach of the team affirmed: "After a period of training, I hope that the ND team can pass the first round, which is a joy, but going further will depend a lot on luck. As for the TN team, we are striving to achieve results in the new season, the Nghe An Newspaper Cup 2019".