Do Luong: Waiting for a "miracle"?!

(Baonghean) - If we consider only the youth football teams, Do Luong has won the championship in both of the last two seasons. Last season, Do Luong was only a "wildcard" team, luckily replacing Thanh Chuong Youth in the final, but ultimately overwhelmingly defeated Thai Hoa Youth with a score of 5-1. This victory once again confirms the "toughness" of the traditional youth football teams in this tournament...

The squad that won the 2013 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament has now all grown up, and none of the players are continuing to compete in the 2014 season. This is a real challenge for Head Coach Tran Van Son. The pressure is heavier than ever because the team wants to achieve a "hattrick," winning the championship for the third consecutive year. Coach Tran Van Son: Normally, the district's youth football tournament only starts in August each year. Due to the time difference with the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament, finding suitable players is very difficult. Even if we manage to recruit them, most of them lack experience and competitive matches.

The Do Luong Youth Team lifted the championship trophy.

From the end of April, the Do Luong District Cultural and Sports Center assigned the youth football team's coaching staff the task of developing a recruitment plan. In a situation where they were "fighting a battle with nothing," Coach Tran Van Son's only approach was to go to all 33 communes and towns, observing village football matches to find potential players. Although the work was truly difficult and time-consuming, this method allowed the center's staff to closely monitor the grassroots level in searching for new talent. In addition, the center coordinated with the District Education Department to contact schools and work with physical education teachers to find students with football talent. Through preliminary rounds at various schools, the Do Luong Youth Football Team has now assembled 25 players. Since the beginning of May, the team has started training twice a week and will increase the training time after the students finish their semester exams. According to the plan, after about two weeks of training, the coaching staff will have the children compete against each other, and based on that, they will select and finalize the list to about 15 children to participate in the official qualifying round.

The joy of victory for the Do Luong Youth Team in the 2013 season. Photo: TH

Unlike the youth team, the children's team is very "abundant" in players, as the district is currently training players for the U10 Song Lam Nghe An team. This class has been maintained for many years in Do Luong district, and the children are trained according to a systematic curriculum covering skills, techniques, and physical fitness. With a schedule of 2-3 sessions per week, the more than 30 students attending this amateur football class are all carefully selected players from the grassroots level, possessing clear football talent. Furthermore, regular training helps them develop good ball control and strong teamwork skills. With this squad, Coach Tran Van Son has high expectations for this year's children's team.

However, he was not complacent, as he hadn't forgotten the lesson of the children's team's failure in the previous season. Explaining this, he said: "If we only use amateur teams, the advantages are clear, but there are also drawbacks. This way, we might miss out on more talented players who have been discovered at the grassroots level. In reality, many talented children haven't been brought together yet. Last season, because we only selected teams based on existing players, Do Luong suffered a defeat. Other teams, although the quality of players wasn't uniform, had outstanding players capable of changing the course of a match. Conversely, Do Luong's children's team lacked experience in tournaments, making them easily defeated."

For the same reason, this year, in addition to the main amateur team, Do Luong has allocated about 30% of its squad to newly recruited players, including some promising talents such as Sang, Loc, and Vinh, selected from My Son and Thuan Son communes. The District People's Committee has also promptly provided funding to ensure the coaching staff and young players can train with peace of mind. According to the plan, before the official tournament begins, the children will have about 10 days of intensive training in the district, dedicating all their time to football. This is also an opportunity for them to get to know each other, increasing their cohesion and teamwork. The coaching staff has also planned to organize a few matches between the children's and youth teams for them to gain experience.

For many years, Do Luong has "lost" the gold medal in the children's category, and with the desire to achieve a hat-trick in the youth category like this year, in its 18th season, the Do Luong youth team enters the competition with high determination…

My Ha