Nghe An win back-to-back title at National Youth Football Championship

A convincing 2-0 triumph over QHFLS Thanh Vinh U13s in the final on July 15 grants Song Lam Nghe An U13s their back-to-back title at the National Youth Football Championship.

Song Lam Nghe An successfully defend their championship title at the 2019 National Youth Football Championship. (Photo: Nhi Dong Newspaper)
Song Lam Nghe An successfully defend their championship title at the 2019 National Youth Football Championship. (Photo: Nhi Dong Newspaper)

The final match of the 2019 season was held at Vinh Stadium in Vinh city, Nghe An province, on Monday afternoon, seeing defending champions Nghe An face underdogs Thanh Vinh in the title clash.

It was an impressive year for Nghe An province as the hosts had two teams participating in the tournament and both deserved to be the finalists.

Nghe An U13s side were active and quickly overwhelmed their rivals right from the opening whistle. Greater in terms of competency, Nghe An found the net in the 15th minute, when midfielder Nguyen Trong Tuan broke from the left corner and made a close header to score the opener for his team.

The early goal inspired the yellow-jersey team. With the introduction of substitute Nguyen Dinh Cuong - the highest striker at the tournament, Nghe An were the better side in attacks. However, their strikers didn’t manage to win more goals in the remainder of the first half.

It was not until the 51st minute that Nghe An double their scoring. From a fast attack in the middle, Quoc Trung escaped to face the Thanh Vinh goalkeeper in an one-on-one situation before firing home the second goal for Nghe An.

Song Lam Nghe An (in yellow) beat Thanh Vinh 2-0 in the final match on July 15 to defend their championship title. (Photo: NDO/Minh Giang)

Both teams pushed for goals in the remaining minutes but the 2-0 lead for Nghe An remained until the final whistle, helping the defending champions to win their seventh title.

No. 6 Nguyen Ngoc Trung from Nghe An was honoured with the most valuable player at the tournament, while Nguyen Quang Lam of runners-up Thanh Vinh was named top scorer with four goals. PVF U13s and SHB Da Nang U13s shared third place.

The finals of the tournament, held by the Nhi Dong (Children) Newspaper for the 23rd time under the official system of the Vietnam Football Federation, saw 12 youth teams competing from July 5 to 15.