Nam Dan tries to find himself again at the Youth - Children Football Tournament - Nghe An Newspaper Cup

Practice effort

Despite the unpredictable weather conditions, on the artificial turf field behind the Central Cultural House, both teachers and students of the Nam Dan youth football team are still actively practicing to prepare for the G.Youth Football - Children's Football Cup Nghe An Newspaper24th time.

Watching the young athletes enthusiastically doing physical exercises, juggling, kicking free kicks… under the guidance of the coach made many people around the field extremely excited.

Coach Tran Dinh Viet said: Although this year, Nam Dan is quite busy with many cultural and sports activities, especially the Provincial Sports Festival, participating in 13/18 competitions, and the Sen Village Festival, the preparation of forces to participate in the Youth - Youth Football Tournament - Nghe An Newspaper Cup is still given careful attention, the work of searching and selecting typical athletes, forming teams, and organizing training quite early.

Coach and students of Nam Dan youth soccer team exchange skills before practice. Photo: Huy Thu

Unlike previous seasons,Nam DanUsually, there are 2 teams, Youth and Children, participating in the tournament, but now only the Children's team will participate. This team was selected from the gifted class organized by SLNA Club in the district. The team of 20 athletes has started training for many months now.

At the time when schools were still teaching, students were busy with cultural studies, so the team only practiced on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Now that the schools have entered the summer vacation, the coach has adjusted the schedule, increased the practice time, the two weekends practice both morning and afternoon, and gradually practice all week.

According to Coach Tran Dinh Viet, this year’s Nam Dan Children’s Team has good balance in terms of physique, fitness, awareness, and training discipline, but does not have many outstanding and outstanding players. Due to the lack of outstanding “players”, the coach must step up training, improve the fitness, skills, and tactics on the field for the “little warriors”.

This year's Nam Dan Children's Team has quite even physical strength. Photo: Huy Thu

The basic advantage in training for the Nam Dan football team this year is that they can practice on the artificial turf field right next to the central cultural house, close by, less tiring, not having to practice on a natural grass field depending on the weather or renting an artificial turf field far away, passively like before.

After a long period of the pandemic, the young athletes entered the field with excitement, eagerness, and desire to compete. Like many other localities, parents in Nam Dan always care and enthusiastically support their children during the training process.

Ms. Tran Thi Minh (33 years old), mother of Pham Gia Duc (12 years old) in Kim Lien commune, said: “He has been passionate about football since first grade. Last year, SLNA came to recruit in the district, he took a bus to town to participate in the selection, then my husband and I found out. My family respects and supports his passion. On days when there is a practice schedule, my husband and I take turns driving him to the stadium, watching him practice until the end of the session before returning home.”

Parents of Kim Lien commune accompany their sons during training. Photo: Huy Thu

Among the parents of the Nam Dan youth football team, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuyen (80 years old) in Thuong Tan Loc commune is probably the most special person. Although he is old, he still regularly takes his grandson Nguyen Minh Tri (11 years old) to the training ground for every practice session of the team. Mr. Tuyen shared: Because his son and daughter-in-law are both busy with work, he takes on the responsibility of taking his grandson to football practice, so that "both he and his grandson can satisfy their passion".

Find yourself

Over the past decades, the sports movement in Nam Dan has developed quite strongly, notably wrestling, traditional martial arts andfootball. Especially since the SLNA Club's gifted classes opened here, finding personnel for the youth football teams is not difficult. However, to have a strong team depends on many factors, in which the talent and basic quality of the athletes are extremely important.

In the summer, the team's training schedule has accelerated. Photo: Huy Thu

The lack of outstanding young athletes is a concern for the coach. With the efforts of teachers, students and parents, by the end of May, the Nam Dan youth football team is ready to accelerate.

Bright faces like Nhat Long, Gia Bao, Minh Tri… with good physical strength, agility, and skillful techniques, hopefully will contribute to bringing new achievements to the young team from Uncle Ho's hometown.

Participating in training on the field with his friends, Pham Gia Duc from Kim Lien commune said: “My commune has 2 friends selected for the team participating in the Nghe An Newspaper football tournament. Since participating in training, I feel that I have matured a lot. I will try my best in the upcoming match.”

The Nam Dan junior players went to the training ground with excitement and enthusiasm. Photo: Huy Thu

Continuously accompanying the Youth Football Tournament – ​​Nghe An Newspaper Cup for 23 seasons, Nam Dan once won the Children's Football Championship (2014). However, the joy of victory of the children's football team from Uncle Ho's hometown did not spread for long because of the growth of many other football teams in the province, from the mountains to the plains.

In the most recent tournament, in 2019, the Nam Dan Youth team was defeated by the Que Phong mountain town team before the quarter-finals. The Nam Dan Children's team advanced further, but also lost to the rain of goals from the Tan Ky team. At the end of the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament in recent years, the youth teams from Uncle Ho's hometown all had to leave with regret.

Nam Dan junior team strives to find themselves again in the new season. Photo: Huy Thu

As coach Tran Dinh Viet said, this result shows that Nam Dan youth football is not "going downhill", but that the sports movement in other localities is rising strongly.

This year, according to new regulations, athletes trained at football clubs in and outside the province are not allowed to participate in the tournament, which means SLNA will not return "senior" players to their localities, so Nam Dan also has some advantages that need to be promoted.

The ball is round, nothing can be confirmed yet, but with optimism, trust, and trying their best, the young football team from Uncle Ho's hometown is still trying hard, determined to find themselves again.