V.League 2022: SLNA's desire to reach new heights

Sports in general and Vietnamese football in particular, although more or less transformed into a professional operating model, in reality very few clubs have clear and persistent ambitions to go beyond the country's borders and build a brand at the regional and continental levels.

SLNA recently had the opportunity to expand to the region and continent. Photo: Duc Anh

Futsal football “short pole easy to turn” goes ahead to invite good players from abroad and let good players in the country compete, participate in club level tournaments in the region and continent as Thai Son Nam has done along with many other moves that have clearly helped Vietnamese Futsal have a clear position on the map of futsal in the continent and the world. That is certainly a useful lesson, very worth learning and promoting.

Vietnam women's volleyball team has also invited Thai female players, along with key players such as Ngoc Hoa, Dinh Thi Thuy... to Thailand or Japan to train and improve their skills, which are quite concrete steps. But in general, the country's leading women's volleyball clubs such as VTV Binh Dien Long An or the Information Command have not shown clear ambitions and of course, up to now, they have had to accept that Thai women's volleyball "blocks" them for many years in a row, continuously coming in second at the regional level.

Meanwhile, in men's football, HAGL, Viettel, B. Binh Duong or Hanoi FC are the leading clubs that have shown their ambition to reach the region and continent, but only Hanoi FC has achieved much when reaching the inter-regional final of the AFC Cup 2019, Binh Duong reached the semi-finals of the AFC Cup 2009.

SLNAIn the past, there was an opportunity to expand to the region and continent when they won the National Championship (2001 and 2011) and the National Cup 3 times, but due to many difficulties and lack of ambition, everything was still at the level of participating for fun, leaving early was the best, both to save costs and to have enough resources for domestic tournaments. Recently, it is worth noting that when the team had a new sponsor, the story of SLNA's expansion began to be talked about with a rather strong belief?

Of course, to ensure that this gradually becomes a reality, SLNA has been embarking on many important and essential tasks from meeting the requirements of training, competing at Vinh Stadium, shopping, retaining good players and will certainly set a high ranking target when competing in V. League 2022 and National Cup 2022. Head coach Huy Hoang and the coaching staff must lead his juniors to compete as best they can, to return to being a powerful force as the team's tradition. In short, Huy Hoang must truly bring SLNA back to its former glory and as expected by the majority of fans. Meeting this necessary condition is both possible (because SLNA has done it) and impossible or not yet possible (because many opponents have surpassed it), but anyway, setting this goal is a commendable and hopeful effort.

In addition, the sufficient conditions for SLNA are also raising many difficult questions? After being renovated and upgraded, Vinh Stadium can meet the standards, but are the accompanying conditions such as medical rooms, doping test rooms and equipment available, and do they meet AFC standards? The existing regulations such as international flights ensuring travel schedules, standard hospitals, communication work... are not currently met, so having to rent My Dinh Stadium (or like renting Hang Day Stadium for SLNA to play the second leg against Makassa Club - Indonesia in 2000) is very likely to happen again, even having to give up the right to compete to another club? Especially, in the conditions of Covid-19 prevention, there are many higher requirements on medical security, in all aspects it is even more strict...

Listing the necessary and sufficient conditions mentioned above is to celebrate, but also to worry, to see that there is still a lot of work to do ahead, not only for SLNA but also for the province and the whole country. While the two neighboring provinces, Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh, are making steps in socio-economic development, have boldly risen to meet the requirements of being the "center of the region" "new growth pole in the north...", if we are slow, it is very possible that everything for us will still be out of reach? It is known that all the sports and competitions of the upcoming SEA Games will be held in Hanoi and 11 neighboring provinces and cities, it will take a long time to reach Vinh, which continues to show the long-term disadvantage when we want to reach out but there are many things that are still extremely far away, cannot be reached or supported as expected?

Indeed, a team without ambition means having no real strength, no potential, and will never be able to attract players and fans. But even if there is potential in hand, with legitimate ambition like SLNA today, for example, the story is not as simple as wanting to have it, but will have to go through many objective and subjective obstacles.

For SLNA in the 2022 season, first of all, strive to return to yourself, turn Vinh Stadium into an "impregnable fortress", any opponent does not want to meet SL in Vinh (!) is more wonderful than expected. Because looking at V. League, just ensuring to win all matches at home can be assured of preventing relegation and easy with other long-term calculations?