Ups and downs of Nghe An football

Fragile "hero" - "sinner"

Perhaps until now and in the future, many people still feel sorry for head coach Nguyen Huu Thang and the Nghe players in the U23 Vietnam team participating in the 29th SEA Games. Huu Thang and his students had an extremely impressive performance, "winning like a piece of bamboo" in the pre-SEA Games training tournaments and the opening matches of the group stage, but what was needed most was a point in the "life and death" match with the Thais, but they could not do it. But that's football, in addition to expertise, luck is an indispensable part. And at the 29th SEA Games, it seems that "luck" has turned its back on Huu Thang and his students!

SLNA with the club's 4th National Championship Cup. Photo: PV

From the "golden hope", U23 Vietnam was unexpectedly eliminated in the group stage. Huu Thang, with the character of a Nghe An native, "didn't try to force the issue" but stood up to take responsibility and announced his resignation to appease public opinion for VFF. Having made certain impressions with successful matches in the 2018 Asian qualifiers, but just because of a little carelessness of the U23 team, Huu Thang became the "sinner". "The rotten bird fell, the climbing ivy climbed", at that time many people turned back to criticize Huu Thang for being conservative, "local" when calling up 9 players from Nghe An football: Dinh Luat, Van Hoan, Dinh Dong, Dinh Hoang, Cong Vinh, Nguyen Manh, Phi Son, Ngoc Hai and Hoang Thinh to the national team, and at the SEA Games he trusted his former student Tuan Tai even though this player rarely played at SLNA Club.

But on the field, the Nghe An players showed that they deserved to be in the starting lineup, perhaps "luck" did not smile like in the AFF Cup 2008 - the year when the header of Nghe An striker Le Cong Vinh (now Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Club) at My Dinh Stadium in the last minute against the Thais brought the first Southeast Asian championship to Vietnamese football.

SLNA is always the football team with the largest number of fans in the country. Photo: PV

After coach Huu Thang, when coach Mai Duc Chung took over as interim coach and under the new reign of Korean coach Park Hang-seo, there was a time when no SLNA player was called up to the national team, even though they were all in very good form.

"When will Lam River dry up?"

It seemed that the door to the national teams would be closed for a long time for SLNA players, but with excellent performances, in the last days of 2017, Coach Park called up a number of SLNA players to the squad for the 2018 AFC U23 Championship, typically young midfielder Phan Van Duc. From an "unknown" player, Van Duc became "shining" in the National Cup with 4 goals in decisive matches, contributing to helping SLNA win the National Championship Cup after many years of the first team without a title. In particular, at the AFC U23 Championship Finals held in China recently, this player from Yen Thanh shone brightly, contributing significantly to bringing U23 Vietnam to the semi-finals, creating a milestone for the history of national football.

Before leaving SLNA, Phi Son and the Nghe An team won the National Cup Championship. Photo: PV

Not only did they introduce a promising young player, with their 4th National Cup win, the Nghe An team set a new record as the team that won the most National Cups. Also in 2017, after several “failed” seasons in youth tournaments, SLNA brought home another Championship Cup in the U11 age group and 3 Bronze Medals from the U13, U15 and U21 teams.

But the fate of “poor children” still haunts SLNA. At the end of each season, due to limited financial resources, SLNA does not have enough money to “bribe” players whose contracts expire and has to let them go.

This year, Vinh City’s audience witnessed the team’s best player, striker Phi Son, leave the team. Many people consoled themselves that perhaps the departure of “Nghe An Ronaldo” would be an opportunity for “new stars” like Van Duc to shine.

SLNA won the 2017 National Children's Football Championship. Photo: PV

In the context of Vietnamese football facing many difficulties, maintaining a training "furnace" with quality young players and opening amateur youth football classes to the districts, successfully organizing prestigious youth tournaments such as the Youth-Non-League Football Tournament Nghe An Newspaper Cup shows that the potential of Nghe An football "will never be exhausted". SLNA has become the place that provides the most domestic players for clubs in both the V.League and the First Division. And the good news is that these players, no matter which club they play for, leave a good impression.

As FLC Thanh Hoa Chairman - Doan Van Phuong (the club owns players who grew up from SLNA's "furnace" such as Van Binh, Dinh Dong, Hoang Thinh) commented: When working together, I was impressed by the professionalism of Nghe An players.

In addition to focusing on youth training, in recent years, SLNA players after retiring have continued to study for international coaching certificates. This year, Huu Thang, Duc Thang, Thanh Cong, Quang Truong are among the first Vietnamese coaches to complete the AFC Professional Coaching Diploma course, and receive an AFC Pro certificate.

With this professional coaching degree, now the football "scholars" from Nghe An can lead clubs abroad as well as national teams. Previously, when they were not properly trained, many coaches from Nghe An such as Nguyen Thanh Vinh, Nguyen Hong Thanh, Vu Quang Bao, Nguyen Van Thinh, Huu Thang, Van Sy Son, Quang Truong... also achieved certain successes with many clubs. In the 2017 season, although he had just taken over the SLNA first team, coach Duc Thang still managed to make his mark with the National Cup, Nhu Thuat in his first year leading U11 also helped his team win the Championship Cup...

Coach Huu Thang on the day he left the position of head coach of U23 Vietnam. Photo: PV

Despite the ups and downs, on the field, on the coaching bench, or in the stands, Nghe An people are still bright spots and have made contributions to the development of Vietnamese football.