Song Lam Nghe An: It can only be love!

(Baonghean.vn) - I yI have loved football since I was 10, when I didn’t know what the definition of love for my country was. But every time I watch football and hear the commentator shout loudly: “Hooray for goalkeeper Nguyen Van Cuong” or “Hoan ho Hong Son”, “Hoan ho Huynh Duc”, I don’t know why I love the names and people of Vietnam so much.

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SEA Games 18 and 19 blew through our childhood as rural kids and left behind many memories. We, the little girls, often wore shorts and t-shirts to play soccer at the village communal house yard. And each of us chose the name of a favorite player to idolize. One chose Hong Son because he played very “flexibly”. Another chose Huynh Duc because he often “kicked in”…

As for me, I chose Huu Thang, the number 4 center back with dark skin and cold, decisive kicks every time the opponent brought the ball close to his own net.

Coach Huu Thang. Illustrative photo.

I loved Huu Thang so much that I was always angry with my friends because of arguments about idols. I loved him so much that I boldly rode my bike alone to the city nearly ten kilometers away just to find the apartment complex where he lived. I went there just to stand outside the window and look in before cycling back.

In 2005, when I entered university, I heard rumors that he was involved in something and was arrested, and then there was a scandal about our country's players selling matches. I felt a little sad, a little disappointed. Sometimes when I read the newspaper, I still saw people writing about SLNA, and I felt sad knowing that my hometown team was very poor, the good players left one by one, and those who stayed were always struggling for money.

And at that moment, Huu Thang returned after the storms. He refused the invitations of rich football teams to return to his homeland, to light the flame of hope with SLNA in the midst of many difficulties and hardships.

In the final of V.League 2011, SLNA won the championship, and Huu Thang's tears fell, joy turned into tears after 10 years of waiting. The press praised "SLNA's championship is deserved", and in professional football, sometimes money is not everything, but more than that, it is the power of will and love. It was he and SLNA who made Nghe An feel the ultimate sublimation of emotions on a late summer afternoon.

After SLNA won the championship, I met him at the “SLNA headquarters”. A friendly meeting, simple stories about my childhood memories were listened to by him with a gentle smile. Huu Thang in my heart from childhood until now is still the same, still simple but meticulous, still gentle and emotional.

My love for SLNA was ignited by Huu Thang. And then I fell in love with the SLNA Supporters Association, friends who have always stood side by side with the hometown team across the country with a fiery yellow color. Passionate and loyal fans, ready to call for both spiritual and material support for the unfortunate players of the hometown team.

I am a woman, I love football with a soft heart. Every time I watch football, of course I only hope my favorite team will win. But if they lose, I absolutely never get upset or criticize, just feel very sad and sorry. I remember once watching the SEA Games final, Vietnam lost. As soon as the whistle blew, people left one by one, while the players sat sobbing in the middle of the field. Watching that scene, I cried too, because I felt so sorry and loved them so much.

Every person's life is like a football match, full of surprises and rarely as perfect as desired. Today at the top, tomorrow may have fallen into the abyss. So after each time they fail, I am afraid to read the newspaper, afraid to hear the angry, critical, and cursing words. Of course, fans have the right to be disappointed because their love is not reciprocated. But has anyone ever tried to put themselves in the position of those people? The people who are known as warriors on the field. The people who carry the colors of the flag, and the hopes of millions of hearts, exhausted in each match until the last seconds, and then cannot distinguish whether the salty taste on their lips is sweat or tears.

So, when I heard SLNA fans sing the song “Gian ma thuong” to cheer for their team in a football match, I was moved. That is my Nghe An, that is my hometown with hearts that are always open and loving. People who seem to be dry because of the sun and wind are extremely soft when expressing their love.

Huu Thang said something that I really like: “When someone asks me where I come from, I will simply say: I come from SLNA”. Just like me, even though I am a daughter-in-law of the North, even though my household registration is no longer in Nghe An. But every time someone asks “Where are you from?”. I always answer “I am from Nghe An”.

There may be many people who do not like my hometown, because of the harshness of the sun and wind, because of the “truth and roughness” in every word, and because of the stubbornness in personality. But I fell in love with Nghe An, with Lam River because of things like that, a love that is burning and passionate every time I remember.

Le Giang

(Nghia Hao-Phu Nghia-Chuong My-Hanoi)