Thanh Chuong Children: Erasing the curse of 'good football but unlucky'

(Baonghean.vn) - Preparing for the Youth Football Tournament for Nghe An Newspaper Cup, Thanh Chuong Children's Football Team has been practicing hard. If lucky enough to join, surely the team from the land of the slugs will make history with high achievements.

Good but unlucky

In previous seasons of the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth Football Tournament, Thanh Chuong district's football teams were always highly rated, making opponents wary and unwilling to face them. The strength of the hometown teams lies in their desire to conquer the top, their tireless fighting spirit, along with the players' good physical and technical foundation.

Thanh Chuong has never lacked football talent. The presence of rising stars like Tran Quoc Thanh and Thai Bao Trung at the youth football training center of Song Lam Nghe An Club has demonstrated that.

Good but unlucky, in the tournaments, the two Thanh Chuong youth and children's football teams often had to stop playing quite early or were eliminated for unnecessary reasons.

The only free kick goal of NĐ Do Luong caused NĐ Thanh Chuong to be eliminated regretfully in the 2016 season.

In 2014 and 2015, Thanh Chuong FC team did not achieve satisfactory results due to bad luck when they were drawn into the death group with the presence of extremely strong opponents such as Tan Ky FC, Yen Thanh FC, Dien Chau FC, Hung Nguyen FC. These are districts with a tradition of training famous youth football players in the province, many times winning the championship and runner-up in previous seasons.

Entering the 2016 season, history repeated itself, the draw of luck put ND Thanh Chuong team in Group F with the presence of ND Do Luong and ND Quy Hop. If ND Do Luong is always the top candidate of the tournament (Bronze medal in the 2015 season), ND Quy Hop is the team that defeated ND Thanh Chuong in the previous season with a score of 3-1.

The 20th edition of the Bao Cup has 21 participating teams, divided into 7 groups, the teams compete in a round robin to select the 7 group leaders and 1 second-place team with the highest score and goal difference to advance to the next round. In the first match against Quy Hop Youth Football Team, Thanh Chuong Youth Football Team successfully “take revenge” with a score of 2-1.

Coach Van Thanh Chuong instructs his players to practice attacking strategies in front of the goal. Photo: Canh Nam

Entering the second match against the top team NĐ Đô Lương (previously won NĐ Quỳ Hợp 3-0), NĐ Thanh Chương played very well. The team controlled the ball, organized more attacks but were unlucky in the final shots. When the match was only a matter of seconds left, NĐ Đô Lương scored from a free kick.

With only 3 points and a goal difference of +0, NĐ Thanh Chuong sadly left the tournament. Surely the regret was even more prolonged when NĐ Do Luong - an equally strong opponent of NĐ Thanh Chuong - was crowned champion of the tournament with victories like "splitting bamboo" in the following rounds.

NĐ Thanh Chuong left the tournament early but the team left a good impression in the hearts of young football fans in the province with its enthusiastic, attacking and methodical playing style. The team also left “haunting” memories for opponents when in the 2016 squad there were many young players who were already in the starting lineup - “savings” for this 2017 season.

Efforts to "erase the curse", go deep into the next round

Talking about the achievements in recent years that have not been commensurate with their strength, coach of the Thanh Chuong Children's Team, Van Thanh Chuong, shared: "In fact, if we compare the quality of the squad, Thanh Chuong Children's Team is one of the teams with great stability and can compete fairly for titles. However, due to bad luck in the draw and lack of confidence in big matches, the achievements have not been high."

Luck has not accompanied but that does not reduce the spirit before each new football season, entering the 2017 season, ND Thanh Chuong has prepared its forces early to conquer the peak. After receiving the instructions and tournament regulations from the Organizing Committee, the leaders of the Center for Culture and Sports assigned the professional team to thoroughly prepare the human and material conditions.

The teams compete against each other on the concrete field to get used to the speed of the ball in the provincial gymnasium - where the matches within the framework of the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Tournament take place. Photo: Canh Nam

From mid-May until now, twice a day, the teachers and students of the Thanh Chuong Youth Football Team have been enthusiastically and passionately practicing under the scorching sun on the hot concrete field of the district's Cultural and Sports Center. The training conditions are very harsh, with sweat drenching the field, fierce tackles, and falls, but no one is discouraged.

Coach Van Thanh Chuong shared: "The tournament's playing field is a wooden field, but the district does not have a similar field for practice, so the players are forced to practice on a concrete field - almost similar to a wooden field. If they only practice on a grass field until they compete on a wooden field, the players will be more susceptible to injury and will not be able to keep up with the speed of the ball."

Despite the concrete field, Thanh Chuong's young players still try their best in training to catch the coach's eye. Photo: Canh Nam

At this time, the players have "swallowed" the physical exercises, performing the standard exercises set by the coach. In the Thanh Chuong ND team, there are 3 players who are very noteworthy: 2 players are on the U11 roster of Song Lam Nghe An Club and 1 player playing in the striker position named Ka Ka - (Named by his father after the famous Brazilian player Kaká - Golden Ball in 2007).

With a burning love for football, Mrs. Tran Thi Hoa (in purple shirt) and many Thanh Chuong residents follow every step of the young player from her district. Mrs. Hoa said that this time she will go all the way to Vinh to cheer on her grandson.

During the training sessions to prepare for the 2017 season, the Thanh Chuong youth football team always received support and encouragement from parents as well as young football fans in the district. A typical example is Mrs. Tran Thi Hoa (nearly 60 years old, grandmother of player Nguyen Quan Trung in Thanh My commune), for nearly a year now, every day she drives her grandchild 20 km to Dung town to practice; or Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Say, 70 years old, in Thanh Linh commune, every day goes to the district to cheer and encourage the young players...

Entering this season, the fans of the hometown football team are very confident that their team will make a difference and set a record; they hope that their talents will catch the eye of scouts and Thanh Chuong will have a national team player in the future.

Thanh Chung - Canh Nam