SLNA - TP HCM: In gratitude!

Regardless of the result, SLNA will finish 4th in V-League 2018 after the strangest season in nearly 4 decades, since the team was founded. Meanwhile, coach Miura and his players even popped champagne to celebrate right after round 25, when they officially stayed in the league.

Black and white

The 2018 V-League season for the Nghe An team was divided into two distinct black and white halves. It was not until the end of the first leg that they managed to climb to 12th place in the rankings, escaping the red zone. During the entire first leg, they only had 2 wins, 6 draws and 5 losses, the same number of wins as Nam Dinh and 1 less than XSKT.Can Tho. The Vinh Stadium audience had to wait until the last match of the first leg against Hai Phong at Vinh Stadium to celebrate the victory.

Nghe An audiences always accompany SLNA. Photo archive

In the ranking chart, SLNA is only slightly better than Nam Dinh, but at Vinh Stadium, they lost to the team from Thanh Nam, having not won against anyone since the beginning of the season. At least once, Coach Duc Thang considered resigning.

But the miracle happened, from round 13 to round 20, coach Duc Thang and his team won 8 consecutive matches, not to mention the victory over FLC Thanh Hoa in the first leg of the National Cup semi-finals. After Dong Tam Long An, SLNA is the second Vietnamese team to achieve this feat, certainly this is also the longest winning streak of the Nghe An team in nearly 4 decades.

In its history, this is the first time SLNA has had such a big contrast between the first and second leg. A series of contrasting results has consumed a lot of ink from experts and "online coaches" of Nghe An.

A season in which the SLNA coaching staff will certainly have to sit back, dissect and analyze the reasons for many successes and failures. Some players like Manh Hung, Van Khanh, Tuan Tai, Ngoc Toan… will also have to look back at themselves and evaluate what caused their performance to decline.

As a thank you

This year, the number of spectators coming to Vinh Stadium increased by approximately 40% compared to last year. Despite the series of poor results at the beginning of the season, Nghe An spectators still did not turn their backs on the team. Vinh Stadium is no longer as enthusiastic as before, not as bustling as Nam Dinh, Hai Phong but the fans' affection for the team has not diminished because of that.

Regardless of winning or losing, Coach Duc Thang always leads his players to greet the fans after the match. Photo: Internet

Throughout the first leg, on social media, Nghe An fans always gave words of encouragement to the players and the coaching staff. Many birthday events and gift giving events were organized promptly to create a good mentality before the intense matches.

SLNA under coach Duc Thang has improved its image quite a lot, especially with the media and fans. Many times, regardless of winning or losing, coach Duc Thang always brought his players to greet the fans after the match. Therefore, the fact that SLNA opened the door and respectfully invited the audience to the stadium, instead of expressing gratitude, did not surprise many people.

More than half of the 12 SLNA players, including foreign players whose contracts with the Nghe An team are about to expire, will say goodbye to Vinh Stadium after this match. If any of them can score a goal against Ho Chi Minh City, it would be great. However, there probably won’t be many opportunities for the players as the SLNA coaching staff will reserve this match for players who haven’t had much chance to play this season.