The journey of Nghe An football at the National Sports Festival
(Baonghean.vn) - At the final match of the men's football event of the National Sports Festival held at Cam Pha Stadium (Quang Ninh), Nghe An players excellently overcame tough opponents Hanoi to win the Gold medal.
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The joy of leaders, coaching staff and players of Nghe An after winning the Gold medal in men's football at the 9th National Sports Festival in 2022. Photo: CSCC |
Playground for young players
Held every 4 years,National Sports Festivalis a big playground where provinces, cities, and industries recognize and affirm their position in high-performance sports. Therefore, most of the competitions have fierce competition. However, football - the most familiar sport, is an exception, although at any Congress this sport is included in the competition program.
For localities and industries with football teams, the playground they prioritize the most is the national championships (V-League and the First and Second Divisions), followed by the National Cup. These tournaments start in February and end in August and September.
The National Sports Festival, although it only takes place once every four years, is a playground that football teams are not very interested in. The reason is that the Festival is usually held at the end of the year, the time when the national team is focusing on training and competing in the AFF Cup, so football does not have the participation of the best domestic players and does not receive much attention from fans.
On the other hand, this is also the time when football teams are in the process of light training, accumulating physical strength for the national championships taking place in the next 1-2 months, so the teams do not want their training cycle to be affected by participating in this playground.
Therefore, in recent National Sports Festivals, although the whole country has more than 20 localities with football teams participating in national championships, the number of football teams participating in the Congress is less than 10 teams. For example, at this 9th Congress, the number of registered teams is only 8 teams, including: An Giang, Dong Thap, Hanoi, Thua Thien - Hue, Nam Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh Phuc and Nghe An.
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A training session of Nghe An players. Photo: CSCC. |
Nghe An is also one of the very few localities that have never been absent from the men's football event of a Sports Festival. Like previous Games, Song Lam Nghe An Club is the unit responsible for the men's football event at the 9th National Sports Festival.
Unlike the V-League, First Division or National Cup, teams participating in the National Sports Festival are only allowed to use players with permanent residence in the locality, so this is an opportunity for localities to evaluate the training of young players.
Therefore, we participate in this playground, partly to affirm the brand of Nghe An football, and on the other hand, we also consider it as a training trip to prepare for V-League 2023. Besides, this is a tournament for players to have the opportunity to compete and practice, both to ensure their expertise (to determine achievements) and to stabilize the force to compete in the upcoming U21 Finals taking place at home from December 17 to December 30.
"Debt collection" successful
In the group stage of the men's football event of the 9th National Sports Festival, Nghe An was in the same group with An Giang, Nam Dinh and Dong Thap. In the first match on November 27, the team won An Giang with a score of 4-1.
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The match between Nghe An team (yellow shirt) and An Giang team in the group stage of men's football at the 9th National Sports Festival. Photo: CSCC. |
In the second round taking place 3 days later, the team beat Dong Thap with a score of 1-0, winning the right to enter the semi-finals 1 round early.
In the last round, the team tied Nam Dinh 1-1. At the end of the group stage, Nghe An ranked first with 7 points. Meeting the second team in group A, Ho Chi Minh City, in the semi-finals, Nghe An won with a score of 1-0, thereby registering their name in the final match with Hanoi...
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The two teams Nghe An (white shirts) and Hanoi before the final match. Photo: CSCC |
Even before the men's football competition started, Nghe An and Hanoi were considered the top candidates for the gold medal at this Games. Both teams used their strongest U21 squads and considered the Games as a "rehearsal" for the 2022 National U21 Finals.
All the players in the Nghe An football team participating in the 9th National Sports Congress are U19 and U21 players of Song Lam Nghe An Club, but there are still 9 players in the Song Lam Nghe An team 1 competing in the V.League 2022 recently, including: Goalkeeper Van Viet, defenders Khac Luong, Van Cuong, midfielders Nam Hai, Van Bach, Xuan Tien, Manh Quynh, Xuan Binh, striker Xuan Dai.
Among these, players Dinh Xuan Tien, Ho Van Cuong, Ho Khac Luong, and Tran Manh Quynh were called up to the National U20 and U22 teams.
These are also the two localities that won the highest title in men's football at the two most recent National Sports Festivals. At the 7th Congress in 2014, Nghe An won the championship. However, 4 years later, at the 8th National Sports Festival, Nghe An could not defend the championship when they lost to their opponent, Hanoi, with a score of 0-2.
With the determination to get revenge for the debt from 4 years ago, Nghe An players entered the match with great determination and created a tight game against Hanoi players. During the 2 regular and 2 extra periods, the 2 teams played a tight game and no goals were scored.
Entering the nerve-wracking penalty shootout to decide the winner, Nghe An players promptly showed their mettle to win with a score of 4-2, bringing home the Gold medal for Nghe An sports delegation.
This victory will create great motivation and excitement for the U21 Song Lam Nghe An team to achieve the highest results in the upcoming National U21 Tournament Finals.
