U17 Song Lam Nghe An: Only when meeting a worthy opponent will we know where we stand?

Football in general and youth football in particular always have interesting surprises, things that happen over and over again but cannot be learned from or do anything. Even in the latest continental tournament, the U20 Asian Cup, the two powerful teams Japan and Korea won like cutting bamboo in the group stage, in the quarter-finals, but in the semi-finals against worthy opponents, they were confused, deadlocked and could no longer see any inherent strengths and had to accept defeat.

Trong Son missed many opportunities to score for U17 Song Lam Nghe An. Photo: Chung Le

U17 Song Lam Nghe An in this tournament also has that image when easily winning against weaker teams, not conceding any goals in both the group stage and the quarter-finals, considered "destructive form". This inevitably leads to a subjective mentality, underestimating the opponent, not being ready for difficult matches, surprises ahead. In addition, it is necessary to mention a bad precedent of both the first team of Song Lam Nghe An and the youth teams that recently when meeting Viettel, they often lose matches, lose early even before playing. The senior team of Song Lam Nghe An often loses from set pieces and the junior team also repeats that disaster without being able to overcome it.

In the semi-final match against U17 Viettel, Trong Tuan, Trong Son... after being surrounded by opponents and showing a rather tough face every time they faced each other, immediately became mentally heavy and played ineffectively. The free kicks that were previously executed brilliantly were now mainly... "looking for birds". Trong Tuan had at least 2 chances to bring the match back to the starting line but ruined the team's chances. With a heavy mentality, in a tense, unlucky afternoon, what will happen will happen. The opponent did not play well but had enough courage to execute a classy free kick and only one chance to make the victory. Meanwhile, U17 Song Lam Nghe An continuously had to play against their strengths after being led, becoming more and more confused and helpless...

Here, it can be clearly seen that the coaching staff was powerless to help the students remove the tension and find themselves again at decisive moments. This also proves that if both teachers and students are not regularly trained in harsh environments, and do not compete in many quality matches with worthy opponents, everything will be extremely difficult and awkward.

Obviously, the current coaching staff cannot inherit the experiences and lessons that successful predecessors have done well and passed on. Not to mention, youth football often easily loses itself like the way Japan and Korea lost the important semi-finals mentioned above, which is the price anyone must pay if they want to go the long way.

For a long time, people have been proud and excited when the Song Lam Nghe An youth teams easily won, easily won against their opponents in the qualifying and group stage matches, but forgot that, only when facing worthy opponents can we know who is who?

U17 Song Lam Nghe An is actually the "king of the youth tournament" with 8 titles, but the most recent time was when Xuan Tien and Van Cuong won the championship in 2020, and after that they continuously lost in the semi-finals, meaning they will have difficulty when meeting worthy opponents. U19 or U21 Song Lam Nghe An also fall into a similar situation, meaning the higher they go, the harder it is, and the clean story of U23 Vietnam many times in a row is proving that undesirable. That is the "threshold" that the Song Lam Nghe An team cannot overcome after the time of Van Duc and Xuan Manh.