HAGL’s personality
There are three factors for a team to rejuvenate strongly in the V-League. Firstly, having a good youth training system, closely linked with the first team. Promising young talents will be promoted straight to the V-League, without any barriers. Secondly, having a youth mindset, paving the way for new players. Thirdly, having difficulty recruiting stars, leading to having to rely on “home-grown” players.
HAGL is currently one of the few teams in the LPBank V-League 2024 – 2025 that possesses all three of the above factors. The mountain town team has a good training system, the U.21 team has just won the national championship. After appointing Mr. Vu Tien Thanh as director of the HAGL Academy, then becoming head coach and technical director (GĐKT), the Pleiku team has created a “path” of thinking from the youth training level straight to the first team.
Gia Bao scores in his V-League debut
With an average age of 24.67, HAGL is one of the youngest teams in the tournament. Coach Le Quang Trai has 9 players under the age of 23, including some faces such as Nguyen Quoc Viet, Tran Trung Kien, Pham Ly Duc, Cao Hoang Minh, who just won the national U21 championship after defeating U21 PVF, alongside “rising star” Tran Gia Bao.
In particular, Quoc Viet has proven his ability with the nickname “king of youth tournaments”, when he won the top scorer title of the national U.19 and U.21 tournaments, as well as the 2022 Southeast Asian U.19 tournament. The striker from Hai Phong has not yet made a breakthrough in the V-League, when he is still very young and does not have the ideal physique to dominate the striker position in the youth tournament. However, Quoc Viet is still very potential, as this player runs well, has a sense of position and finishing skills that are better than the average young player.
Goalkeeper Trung Kien has an impressive physique and was once promoted to the national youth team to learn. The remaining faces are also “rough gems” waiting to be polished.
Potential
In 2015, HAGL won 4-2 against Khanh Hoa in the opening match, but then suffered a series of defeats, having to wait until the final rounds to stay in the league. Therefore, the 4-0 victory against Quang Nam is only for reference. HAGL still has 25 obstacles ahead.
Young players can be bold, like the way young talent Tran Gia Bao delicately scored a goal in his debut match at the age of 16, but the excitement often does not last long. How to “restrain” students is a difficult problem for the HAGL coaching staff.
HAGL (yellow shirt) still faces many obstacles this season
HAGL has said goodbye to 80% of the “golden” generation that Mr. Duc nurtured and promoted to V-League 9 years ago. Cong Phuong, Van Toan, Hong Duy, Van Thanh are like children who have left the nest one by one to seek glory in adulthood, leaving a big void.
The new generation that was promoted a year ago has struggled to assert itself. In the 2023 season, HAGL fell into the relegation group in the second phase. In the 2023 – 2024 season, Mr. Vu Tien Thanh’s team had to wait until the victory over Hai Phong in the final round to be able to breathe a sigh of relief. In fact, it is difficult to blame the current generation of HAGL. The 1995 – 1996 generation, although highly rated, spent… 6 seasons wandering from the middle to the bottom of the table, only in the 2021 season did they really “raise their heads”. The current young generation of HAGL, mainly born in 2003, is not sure to withstand the storm of the V-League.
The key to developing HAGL’s youth is having experienced seniors in the first team to guide them. Hanoi FC has been successful with the “combing” strategy when placing Duy Manh, Quang Hai, Duc Huy, Dinh Trong interspersed with seniors like Van Quyet and Hung Dung to create a team that balances experience and youth.
HAGL currently has youth. But in terms of experience, can Minh Vuong, Ngoc Quang or Thanh Binh guide their juniors? The rest of the season will be the answer.