National U13 Football Tournament: Nghe An excels, Ha Tinh rises

SLNA's dominance

At the end of the journey at the 2023 National U13 Finals, Coach Le Manh Huy's students won all 6 matches, scored 24 goals and did not concede any goals. With a total of 10 championships, 5 consecutive championships, it can be affirmed that SLNA's input and training quality is still high.

Ending the journey at the finals, U13 SLNA also won individual titles such as Top Scorer Pham Nguyen Tuan Anh (No. 7, scored 9 goals); Best Player of the tournament: Hoang Anh Tuan (No. 14). Players included in the typical squad include Bui Van Tu (No. 10), Pham Nguyen Tuan Anh (No. 7), Hoang Anh Tuan (No. 14), Nguyen Hong Quan (No. 6).

The most regrettable thing is that although goalkeeper Tran Quang Hung kept a clean sheet in all 6 matches, he did not make it into the Best XI or Best Goalkeeper, but clearly, SLNA is still dominating this tournament. Leading U13 SLNA is coach Le Manh Huy - a military leader who owns a prestigious A-level certificate from the Asian Football Confederation - AFC. And this championship of U13 SLNA is also extremely important because this is also the first time coach Le Manh Huy has won a championship title.

There is something very special about this year's tournament. In addition to showing their talent, courage and expertise, U13 SLNA's students, coach Le Manh Huy, also left a beautiful image for the tournament with very humane gestures such as shading the sun for the opposing team's players. In addition to educating the players on football skills, tactics and courage, training in personality, ethics and love is also very important.

Thus, U13 SLNA has successfully completed its mission, bringing home the first championship for Nghe An youth football in 2023. This year, SLNA will participate in many more youth tournaments such as U9, U11, U15, U17, U17 and U21. Perhaps in Vietnam, there is no youth training center that participates in all the tournaments to find the next generation of players like SLNA. And most likely, SLNA's young players will continue to bring home the title this year.

Besides, this championship shows a responsible way of doing football by the provincial leaders as well as sponsors. Domestic enterprises are facing many difficulties, many localities are having difficulty in supporting funding for youth training. For example, unfortunately, U13 Thanh Hoa could not attend the final round due to lack of funding, this championship brings a lot of motivation to those working in football at SLNA.

And the progress of Ha Tinh youth football

In the national U13 final, Nghe An fans saw two generations on two sides of the battle line. Next to head coach Nguyen The Mao was expert Nguyen Van Thinh in the technical booth of U13 Ha Tinh. And his student Le Manh Huy, the student he led at the U16 Asian Finals in 2000.

And in that match, although U13 SLNA won, it cannot be denied that Ha Tinh youth football is also following the path of SLNA, making significant progress. Not only did U13 Ha Tinh play well in the final match, U13 Ha Tinh caused many difficulties for U13 SLNA, but since coach Nguyen Van Thinh from SLNA returned to Ha Tinh, Ha Tinh youth football has had very positive titles.

In 2021, when U13 SLNA could not participate in the National Youth Finals due to Covid-19, U13 Ha Tinh excellently entered the finals and won the runner-up position. In 2022, it was the runner-up position of the national U17 team and this year it was the runner-up position of the national U13 team. Although losing to U13 SLNA due to the difference in class, the fact that Ha Cong Nam Khanh, Nguyen Thanh Binh and Nguyen Pham Khac Huong were included in the typical squad of the National Youth Finals 2023 is also a very encouraging achievement.

Those achievements compared to the depth of SLNA are still a huge gap. But clearly, if there is a serious, systematic and in-depth investment, local youth football in Vietnam still has the ability to reach the ladder of success like SLNA. To achieve that, Ha Tinh youth football has made efforts to retain talents for training, instead of letting other training centers such as PVF, Viettel, Hanoi, HAGL compete in their own locality.

SLNA’s dominance in youth tournaments and Ha Tinh’s rise are positive signs for Vietnamese football. Vietnam’s youth teams will have more choices in the future, and Vietnamese football will have more talent, relying on resources from different localities.

Youth football or professional football is the same, it needs attention and support from many different resources instead of just relying on one unit. Training centers that cost a lot of money like PVF, Viettel, HAGL are worth learning, but not every locality has enough conditions and resources to apply and follow. And SLNA, maybe later Ha Tinh, still have their own way to reach the ladder of success.