U19 Song Lam Nghe An overcomes the "death group"

Song Lam Nghe An has outstanding players spread across all lines and if they play with focus and have clear goals, they will never fear any opponent.

U19 gradually regained form. Photo: Archive

In the qualifying round, U19 Song Lam Nghe An made things difficult for themselves in the first leg when they unexpectedly lost to two central teams, U19 Hue and U19 Da Nang. But fortunately, after that, coach Van Vinh and his team regained their form to win and draw the second leg matches, finishing second in the group, officially entering the final round, eliminating formidable opponent PVF from the tournament.

In the final round, U19 Song Lam Nghe An fell into the group of death with the presence of U19 Thanh Hoa, U19 Binh Duong and U19 Dong Thap. The opening match with U19 Thanh Hoa was a brain-teasing challenge when on the coaching bench of the neighboring youth team was a foreign coach who had coached in the V-League, carrying with him huge ambitions in this youth tournament. In fact, U19 Thanh Hoa was not an excellent team, the main thing was that this young team was quite confident, played tough and was lucky to get the opening goal from a rare attack in the first half.

This is the time when U19 Song Lam Nghe An is put before a very hot test when continuously missing equalizing opportunities. This is also the time when U19 Song Lam Nghe An needs to be flexible in approaching the opponent's goal, including long passes from defenders like senior Ngoc Hai often shows in the first team and the Vietnam National Team. U20 player Le Nguyen Hoang has made good use of that to create an opportunity for Quoc Hoa to head in and score, bringing the home team out of the deadlock not only of a match but also of the whole tournament.

In the second match against U19 Binh Duong (the team that lost 0-1 to Dong Thap in the opening match), U19 Song Lam Nghe An clearly played as the favorites against an opponent who had lost a player and had an incomparable force. The yellow-shirted team continuously attacked from both wings with the pioneering duo Van Tuyen and Long Vu thanks to the support of the energetic midfielders Quang Vinh and Van Bac. But the opening goal still came from a very quick transition when the ball was passed from the back line to the left for Van Tuyen to solo down the touchline and score a spectacular goal from a narrow angle.

Like the previous matches, U19 Song Lam Nghe An continuously created trouble in front of the opponent's goal, had chances to score but unfortunately missed them all. Very interesting and also very fortunate that after being equalized from a set piece, U19 Song Lam Nghe An was able to decide the match with an excellent move by Quang Vinh to maintain the necessary result of 2-1 for the race ahead.

The situation in Group C of the U19-2023 finals is leaning towards the advantage of U19 Thanh Hoa and U19 Song Lam Nghe An, when after 2 matches they both have 4 points but Thanh Hoa is temporarily ranked higher due to a better goal difference (5/3 and 3/2). In the final match, U19 Thanh Hoa only met U19 Binh Duong, who were eliminated after 2 losses, while U19 Song Lam Nghe An had to face U19 Dong Thap with 1 win, 1 loss (goal difference 3/4). In theory, only 1 draw is needed for U19 Song Lam Nghe An to enter the quarter-finals as second place in the group, while Thanh Hoa will certainly win to take the top spot in the group. But coach Van Vinh and his team may look for a win to keep their hopes of taking the top spot in the group, when who knows Thanh Hoa may not achieve the seemingly easy goal?

While goalkeeper Van Binh was happy to be promoted to U22 Vietnam, U19 Song Lam Nghe An had to continuously change goalkeepers from Huu Hau to Xuan Son in the last 2 matches. This is a big disadvantage because the deeper the team goes, the more the risk of being exploited from this position increases and the peace of mind for teammates in the front lines is reduced. Similarly, U19 Song Lam Nghe An can rest assured in defense with the duo Tien Thang - Nguyen Hoang but is quite worried about the instability on the 2 wings where Mai Hoang - Thanh Ngan are defending. Mai Hoang just played poorly and was replaced before the end of the first half of the match against Binh Duong is a specific example. In the qualifying round, U19 Song Lam Nghe An conceded 8 goals/8 matches, in the final round they are conceding 2 goals/2 matches, meaning that on average conceding 1 goal/1 match is a very worrying result and it cannot be said that the defense has created the necessary peace of mind even though they often play better, easily predicting all opponents.

Of course, the midfield is the most notable highlight of U19 Song Lam Nghe An with strong mobility, good connection, creating pressure on all opponents. The combination of Van Bac - Quang Vinh - Van Quy and the juniors Long Vu, Trong Tuan is providing abundant energy for the guns Van Quy, Van Tuyen, Quoc Hoa or Quang Luc... who can shoot at any time. What U19 Song Lam Nghe An needs is a real killer who can quickly finish off the opponent, because they almost attack a lot, run a lot but always lack a good, convenient final pass or lack a natural goalscorer, quick goal sense like senior Cong Vinh for example?

Once they reach the finals, there will obviously be no weak opponents. U19 Song Lam Nghe An had to draw 0-0 with Da Nang in the second leg of the qualifying round, drew 1-1 with Thanh Hoa in the final group stage and will certainly face tougher, more unpredictable opponents ahead. Abundant forces and increasing willpower every day will be favorable for the whole team. The problem is that the coaching staff "reads" every moment of each tough match well, creating confidence for the players so that they can best develop their existing abilities, not only easily overcome the group of death but most importantly, to reach the final match?