Que Phong teenagers are ready to create surprises at the 2024 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Tournament

Ready to surprise

In late May, when the sun had not yet set, Que Phong district stadium witnessed the enthusiastic training atmosphere of the home team's young players.

At this time, the Que Phong Youth Team is entering the stage of completing technical and tactical exercises, enhancing physical strength, in order to bring the best performance to the players. Coach Ha Van Khanh (Que Phong Youth Team) continuously requires his students to smoothly perform exercises of dribbling through goalposts, controlling the ball, coordinating, and switching from defense to attack. In general, the players have quite skillfully performed the training plan given by the coach.

It can be said that with careful preparation, Que Phong Youth Team promises to bring many surprises when participating in the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Tournament in 2024, the most prestigious tournament in the province.

Que Phong has a team with equal skill level.

Looking back at the past 25 seasons, although Que Phong is a remote and rugged mountainous district of Nghe An province, this locality always considers the Nghe An Newspaper Cup an important tournament, a useful playground for children in the district. Therefore, after 25 seasons of organization, Que Phong has been on the list of participating teams 25 times. In particular, Que Phong made a strong impression when in the 2017 and 2019 seasons, the district's youth football team won the Bronze Medal.

Entering the 2024 season, Que Phong only joined the Youth team and was determined to bring new features in the way of playing compared to before. To do this, more than a year ago Que Phong decided to establish a community football class.

In order not to miss out on talent, the Que coaching staff went down to the villages to search for and discover talents with outstanding qualities to recruit for the team. Notably, there were 3 players from the remotest villages of the district. Among them, player Truong Thien My lives in Loc village, Thong Thu commune, nearly 60km from the district center. Although only 10 years old, Thien has an ideal physique, with a modern style of playing football, good technique and physical strength. She is considered a talented full-back of Que Phong Youth. Therefore, although the distance from home to the training place is very far, the coaches are still determined to convince and encourage Thien My's parents to bring their children to class regularly.

“Although my house is quite far from the training ground, because of my passion for football and the coaches' persuasion, I join the team every afternoon to practice, in order to best prepare for the Nghe An Newspaper Cup. I set a goal and will try my best to help the team pass the group stage,” Thien My said.

In addition, the team also has Vi Tuan Anh from Xom Cho village, Tri Le commune. Tuan Anh is also considered a full-back with a fast, aggressive playing style, very suitable for the tactics that the coaches here want to apply. However, the distance from Tuan Anh's house to the district center is more than 35km. Therefore, in order to have this player in the team, coach Ha Van Khanh had to bring him back to live with his family.

After a process of training and screening, the Que Phong Youth Team has now shortened the list to 14 excellent players to participate in the Nghe An Newspaper Cup in 2024.

Commenting on the team's ability, coach Nguyen Van Sau shared: "Our team currently has about 60% of players who are Thai ethnic, the remaining 40% are Kinh. After nearly a year of active training, the players have now made great progress. The Que Phong Youth Team players possess relatively even techniques. They practice together regularly, so they understand each other quite well in coordination. With the current force, we will demonstrate a different style of play than before. Que Phong Youth Team will not rely on a specific individual, but will organize football play with a high collective spirit."

The tournament is a catalyst for the development of the district's football movement.

Despite having a team with equal expertise, Que Phong Youth Team did not put too much emphasis on achievements at the Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Tournament 2024. Instead, this team wants the home players to perform a dedicated, emotional playing style, thereby attracting the attention and following of the district's fans. And also through the Nghe An Newspaper Cup, Que Phong district's sports officials hope to promote the development of football movement among local children.

Ms. Lo Thi Mai - Director of the Center for Culture, Sports and Communication of Que Phong district said: "Through research, I know that the 2024 Nghe An Newspaper Cup Youth - Children Football Tournament will be organized systematically, with the participation of most districts, cities and towns in the province. Especially this year, Nghe An Newspaper will promote communication work for the tournament. In particular, live television on digital platforms. This will help people in the mountainous district of Que Phong easily access matches with the home team participating. This will be a catalyst to develop the football movement in our district. In addition, participating in the Newspaper Cup will also be an opportunity for talented players of Que Phong district to be targeted by youth football training centers across the country"./.