The qualifiers of the National U21 Football Tournament 2021 will take place from December 2-12 with the participation of 18 teams, and the final round will be held from December 16 - 25.

SHB U21s (in orange T-shirt) are regularly facilitated to take part in training sessions with SHB Da Nang (in blue T-shirt) to improve their professional skills. Photo: VIET DINH

Due to the complicated developments of the pandemic, all matches of the tournament will take place on the northern stadium cluster.

Specifically, in the qualifying stages, 8 teams in Group A, 7 teams in Group B, and 7 teams in Group C, will play in Hung Yen Province.

U21 SHB DN has been drawn to Group B with the home team U21 Hung Yen - PVF, U21 Thua Thien Hue, U21 Dong Thap, U21 Nam Dinh and U21 Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the assessment of coach Vo Phuoc, these are moderate opponents and the opportunity to win the right to the final round is divided equally among the teams.

With a fairly even lineup of players and regularly rubbing off on professional SHB Da Nang footballers, despite being listed into a difficult group in the National U21 Football Tournament qualifiers, SHB Da Nang's U21 squad are still determined to entering the finals.

Over the past decade, SHB Da Nang's U21 team which are considered the next generations of SHB Da Nang professional club have rarely won a ticket for finals or have soon be eliminated from the group stage.

After several months of taking the post of SHB Da Nang’s head coach, Phan Thanh Hung said confidently that he and other members of the coaching board will do their utmost to reshape the future of local football sector, with a focus on training young talented footballers for the club.

Most recently, coach Hung has facilitated 16 young footballers from the city’s young football club to take part in training sessions with the existing professional club. This is a good chance for young footballers to significantly improve their professional skills so as to gradually mature and make significant progress in their career.

Most notably, coach Hung regularly makes his presence at most of the U21 team's training sessions and encourages the coaching staff to let team members access the latest exercises, thereby bringing more excitement for players during training sessions.

Most prominent among the U21 team at this team are midfielders Bui Quang Huy, Pham Van Huu and Pham Xuan Tao or defender Vo Minh Dan.

However, coach Vo Phuoc’s assistant Le Van Ha said “We do not overemphasize individual roles and always want to build a strong football team, requiring excellent players to contribute effectively to the team. We hope that players with outstanding expertise such as midfielder Bui Quang Huy, and defenders Vo Minh Dan and Nguyen Phi Hoang who are playing for the SHB Da Nang professional club will be the mainstays in the team in forthcoming matches”.

Having been crowned 3 times at the National U21 Football Tournaments in 2003, 2008 and 2009 is considered a necessary motivation for the U21 team to be more confident in their shining comeback during this year’s tournament. Of course, it is difficult to demand positive results immediately, but such foundation from now on will be a stepping stone for Da Nang’s youth football to gain successes in the near future.

Reporting by BAO AN, VIET DINH – Translating by M.DUNG