U13 PVF won the National Youth Football Championship

The goal celebration of PVF U13 players. Photo: Hoang Cuong

Impressions of the tournament

National Youth Football TournamentYamaha Cup 2021, co-organized by Thieu Nien Tien Phong and Nhi Dong Newspaper, Vietnam Football Federation and Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co., Ltd. with the message "Fostering Future Talents", took place from December 24 to December 31 in Vinh City. This year's tournament brought together 12 teams from provinces and cities across the country. The participating teams were divided into 4 groups, competing in a round-robin to select 2 teams from each group to play in the quarter-finals.

Completely different from the atmosphere in the final match.U13 NationalIn 2020, held at Vinh Stadium, this year's U13 final was somewhat quieter. Because the epidemic is still quite complicated, the Organizing Committee decided not to welcome spectators into the stadium to cheer. However, this is still considered a really attractive match. The two teams U13 Ha Tinh and U13 PVF have shown their class and excellent form throughout the tournament. Although they are only teams from relatively young training centers, this year's season, they have extremely impressive faces in their hands. Players such as Nguyen Van Khanh, Nguyen Doan Manh (Ha Tinh) or Tran Hoang Khanh (PVF) have affirmed their skillful playing skills. In addition, although they are teenagers, they have shown quite clear and coherent tactical thinking.

In addition, the two teams that entered the finals have talented coaches who have shown their ability to lead their teams by applying modern playing philosophies to their teams. These are the goals that the organizers and fans always want to aim for when the tournament is held.

When the tournament took place, the organization was given top priority, only delegates and members serving the tournament were allowed to be present at the stadium. However, that did not mean that the players lacked the fiery spirit before the battle.

Dream final of the tournament

As expected, the match was exciting from the start, although U13 Ha Tinh was considered to be slightly better. And in fact, they took the initiative to attack when the opening whistle blew. However, they were the first team to concede a goal. From a lightning counterattack, U13 PVF opened the score of the match, the goal scorer in the 2nd minute was Nguyen Van Bach. This number 25 received the ball from a beautiful pass from his teammate, then fired a diagonal shot, defeating goalkeeper Nguyen Duc Manh.

Scoring the opening goal made it easier for PVF to control the game in their favor. Mai Tien Thanh's team did not rush to pass the ball to the opponent's field but actively circulated the ball securely with each other, waiting for a gap to launch the decisive attack.

Despite conceding a goal, Ha Tinh did not seem too eager to score an equalizer. Because if Tran Duc Toan's team pushed up their formation, it would be easy to expose the gaps behind. Names like Tran Hoang Khanh or Hoang Trong Duy Khang of PVF are very good players when playing independently. These two stars are the ones who can create breakthroughs when given the opportunity.

Nguyen Van Bach was the only player to score the match. Photo: Hoang Cuong

Although the match was organized quite tightly by both sides, there were still coordination phases with strong technical, tactical and unique elements that each team had built. The two goalkeepers' ways to find the goal were still created quite diversely by the teams. Overall, in the first half, the two strongest teams of the tournament showed a lot of caution and not many opportunities were created. However, experts highly appreciated the professionalism of this match.

Entering the second half, the match speed was pushed up quite high by the U13 Ha Tinh players. Player Nguyen Van Khanh of this team played very energetically. With his specialty of holding the ball and breaking through, this number 10 has caused confusion for the PVF defense many times. Under the direction of coach Tran Duc Toan, his team had many sharp attacks from both wings, mixed with long shots from outside the penalty area. Proof of that was Nguyen Van Khanh's close-range tap-in, or Tran Thanh Binh's long-range shot, but unfortunately the ball missed the goal by a hair.

During the second half, witnessing the terrible pressure from U13 Ha Tinh, many opportunities were created, but were all missed by Mr. Tran Duc Toan's students. However, we must also give praise to the proactive defensive play of the PVF players. And the final result of 1-0 in favor of Mr. Mai Tien Thanh's team was a completely worthy result for their efforts.

With this victory, U13 PVF was officially crowned champion of the 2021 Yamaha Cup National Youth Football Championship.

Bursting with joy at the victory, Mr. Mai Tien Thanh shared: “The feelings when I was a player and when I was a coach receiving the championship are a bit different. When I stepped onto the podium with my children, I had an indescribable feeling. Thank you to my students for following the tactics set out by the coaching staff. Thank you to the Organizing Committee for organizing a very meaningful tournament, creating a useful playground for the children. Through this tournament, Vietnamese football talents will definitely be discovered.”