AFC Cup 2012: Playground for reserve players!

(Baonghean) With the 2010 National Cup, in 2011, SLNA participated in the AFC Cup for the first time and reached the round of 16. This year, with the 2011 V.League championship, SLNA participated in this tournament as the Vietnamese champion.MaleWith its new position, the Nghe An team is expected by fans to create new miracles for Vietnamese football.Malein the continental arena. However, with SLNA's current difficulties, it is likely that the AFC Cup will still be a playground for reserve players!

In the 2012 AFC Cup group stage, SLNA was placed in Group F with opponents considered to be of equal strength: Kitchee (Hong Kong), Terengganu (Malaysia) and Tampines Rovers (Singapore). In the opening match at Vinh Stadium tomorrow afternoon (March 6), SLNA will host the visiting team Terengganu, the runner-up of the 2011 Malaysian Championship. This will be the first challenge for SLNA when in recent years, footballMalaysiaThere have been significant advances in the Southeast Asian region.

Always "wearing out his pants" on the bench, Van Quyen was still given the captain's armband in the 2011 AFC Cup.

Although expected to be the defending V.League champion, SLNA is in a situation of "lack of players". While other clubs are spending a lot of money on shopping, SLNA has let many key players go and only signed contracts with 3 foreign players: Hector, Bebbe, Abass. Therefore, if just one foreign player gets injured or has a penalty card, SLNA will have to fill that gap with domestic players.

The match against K.Kien Giang in the 8th round of V.League recently revealed that weakness when Hector was carded, Abass was injured, SLNA's starting lineup had only 1 foreign player, Bebbe, and as a result, the Nghe team played erratically against the rookie K.Kien Giang and almost had to "lose face" right at home against the team that is at the bottom of the rankings. With such a force, the financial potential of the Nghe team this season is not much better, so every time they play away, SLNA's coaching board only sends enough players to play, the rest stay home to practice!

Despite facing many difficulties, Coach Huu Thang still affirmed: "No matter what tournament we play in, every time we step on the field, we still play our best. With the experience of last season, this year we will try to achieve the best results in the AFC Cup arena."

That said, "difficulties dictate wisdom"! With the current number of players and a tight schedule, if they try their best to compete in both the V.League and AFC Cup, it is inevitable that they will lose players. Therefore, SLNA's coaching staff will carefully calculate which arena to focus on. And so, most likely, "history will repeat itself" when SLNA will continue to send out the "second team" to compete in the AFC Cup.

In fact, in recent years, for Vietnamese football teams, the AFC Cup arena has been a "debt" because participating in this tournament is both costly and prone to losing players, while the potential of our teams is not strong enough. In order for Vietnamese clubs to compete to their full potential in the AFC Cup, it is necessary to have the attention and maximum support from the VFF in terms of both finance and match scheduling. In addition, clubs also need to see the responsibility and honor of representing Vietnamese clubs.Malecompete in continental arena.

Duc Dung