V-League 2022: When young players enter the game

In the opposite direction, for the first timeLam River Nghe AnYoung player Tran Nam Hai, 18 years old, entered the field in the 75th minute to replace senior player Van Duc in the match against neighboring team Dong A Thanh Hoa, but in the end the home team only had a goalless draw.

First of all, Vietnamese football, specifically inV. Leagueis showing a contrasting picture, both sad and happy, though very small and weak. A team that was once considered the “Chelsea of ​​Vietnam”, capable of recruiting many good players from all over the country to form a strong team, winning the championship 4 times in 2007, 2008, 2014 and 2015, is the place that contributed to Vietnamese football great strikers such as Anh Duc, Tien Linh… but is now entering a period of serious decline. To the point that the team had to “call” a good retired player to put on his shoes to return to the field to compete, then we know how urgent and deadlocked the situation was?

V-League 2022 will be played in a home and away format with 26 rounds. Photo courtesy of Minh Duc

Currently, Becamex Binh Duong also has good young players like Vy Hao, reliable pillars like Van Vu, but that is not enough for the long race in V-League. If Tien Linh is injured, the team will immediately lose direction. Bringing Huynh Kesley back to the field is certainly only a temporary solution and it is difficult to expect this veteran to do anything specific, directly impacting the team's activities. Overall, this is an "event" of V-League but a sad event, even though the team from Thu Dau Mot has 3 valuable points in the recent series of ups and downs.

Meanwhile, Song Lam Nghe An in the 2022 season is starting with a strong force including: pillars who have left and pillars who are retained, outstanding young factors and good foreign players. Most notably, Coach Huy Hoang promoted to the first team quite early a series of young factors from U19, the generation considered the most talented and promising of the youth training center in recent years.

Most recently, 18-year-old Tran Nam Hai was called up to the first team and immediately entered the match. So, up to round 11, Coach Huy Hoang has put most of the young players of the U18 and U19 age groups on the field, including Xuan Tien, Xuan Binh, Van Bach, Van Cuong, Manh Quynh, Nam Hai and Xuan Dai, in which Xuan Tien started 6 consecutive matches.

A training session of SLNA. Photo: Chung Nguyen

This can be considered a "record" in the use of young players by Song Lam Nghe An and is a positive sign of the team's rejuvenation. Of course, the number of players entering the field is large but the number of players remaining firmly is still something that will have to wait for time to have an exact answer. In addition to Xuan Tien who is increasingly mature and regularly occupies the starting position, the rare appearances of Van Bach and some other faces are considered valuable initial rehearsals and the young players must patiently wait for opportunities to open up.

If comparing the achievements of the young generation in the current V-League, only 3-4 players of the U19 generation have scored, including Phi Hoang and Dinh Duy (SHB Da Nang) with 3 goals each, Vy Hao (Becamex Binh Duong) and Ngoc Son (Nam Dinh) with 1 goal, Xuan Tien (Song Lam Nghe An) with 1 assist... it can be seen that the young elements of Song Lam Nghe An are numerous but not the strongest or most excellent. The Vinh Stadium team still has to rely on national team players and foreign players to maintain the top 3 of the V-League, while the above young elements rarely get to play as starters, because among the pillars and the young generation, there is also the U23 generation full of desire such as Van Viet, Sy Hoang, Van Lam...

To see, the fact that Song Lam Nghe An recently only put the 35-year-old veteran Dinh Dong on the field in the last few minutes of the match is because the team always has abundant forces and young factors mature early. The story of the contrasting use of personnel in round 11, the fact that Song Lam Nghe An put a series of young players on the field is really good news for the Vinh home team in the process of reaching out, finding back the glory of the past. Hopefully Nam Hai or Xuan Tien or maybe anyone will shine, making a surprise in the upcoming matches?