Impressions of the Phu Tho movement football

In recent times, the Phu Tho movement football has continued to have strong developments, attracting a large number of people from all walks of life to participate in many ages and backgrounds. Many popular soccer tournaments from grassroots to provincial levels, are held annually with the participation of many good clubs and players across the country, creating a vibrant atmosphere throughout the localities and leaving many good impressions for the fans.

Thanh Son district fans created a vibrant atmosphere on the stage of Viet Tri Stadium to cheer for the home team when facing the Provincial Police in the 2024 Hung Vuong Cup final.

The Men’s Football Tournament of Phu Tho province (Hung Vuong Cup) is an annual tournament and has become a familiar spiritual dish among the people of Phu Tho at every Hung King Temple Festival. Although it is just a movement tournament, its attraction is not inferior to that of professional tournaments because, in each match, the athletes compete on the most beautiful and best grass surfaces, under the cheers and enthusiasm of thousands of fans. At this year’s Hung Vuong Cup, after only 21 matches of the group stage, 104 goals were scored, with an average performance of about 5 goals/match. Not only that, the dedicated playing style of 15 teams from 13 districts, towns and cities in the province, along with 2 units, the Provincial Police and Hung Vuong University, created a highlight to help the Hung Vuong Cup take place in a friendly manner that was impressive and beautiful.

If in last year’s season, the Hung Vuong Cup gathered many of Vietnam’s top “stars” to participate, this year is no exception. Famous movement football players who have played for many years at Hanoi’s playground. In the Premier League (HPL), such as Hung “Giong” in Thanh Thuy’s shirt or Kha “Tho” and Cao Cuong in Cam Khe’s shirt, they have helped these teams have good performances to bring to the players spectators quality matches with high competitiveness. This year’s tournament also witnessed the excitement of the audience when many fans brought homemade drums, flags, trumpets, banners, slogans, scarves on their heads to cheer...

As one of the fans who always closely follows his home team’s playing, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoang, Thanh Son town, Thanh Son district, shared: "It can be seen that the teams participating in this year’s Hung Vuong Cup all have investments. There was a huge investment in force, creating many attractive matches with high professional quality. Although there were times when Thanh Son district faced many difficulties, the players played very hard and tried their best, responding to the love of home fans by winning the championship after overcoming the Provincial Police in the final match".

Thanh Son district players (yellow shirts) were crowned champions after a dramatic 5-4 victory over the Provincial Police on penalties, responding to the love of home fans.

In recent years, cultural and sports institutions at the grassroots level have gradually been invested in and improved. So far, most localities in the province have artificial football fields with modern professional equipment, meeting the needs of people to practice and compete in sports. In Viet Tri City alone, there are dozens of artificial turf fields and hundreds of clubs and soccer teams that have been established and maintain regular activities in the form of voluntary socialization. This not only creates conditions for all levels, sectors, localities and units to organize many movement playgrounds with the participation of all ages and backgrounds, but also helps athletes have the opportunity to exchange and meet exercise and satisfy their passion for football.

The Youth Men’s Football Tournament celebrating the 134th birthday of President Ho Chi Minh (May 19, 1890–May 19, 2024) in Dong Thanh commune, Thanh Ba district, has created a vibrant competitive atmosphere, attracting participation, attention and encouragement from the masses of people.

More impressively, in recent soccer tournaments, there has been a focus on live commentary and livestreaming on digital platforms and social networks to increase the vibrant and exciting atmosphere on the field. Thereby, helping the players save memories around the ball and allowing football lovers inside and outside the province to watch their home team play no matter where they are... be one of the members. Regularly supporting the organization of movement football tournaments across the province, Mr. Vu Dinh Chien, Head of the Movement Football Team of Phu Tho province, shared: "Recently, movement football tournaments have been born and become a familiar playground for thousands of players as well as hundreds of teams. Combining comments and live streaming on Facebook is an inevitable trend to serve football-loving audiences anytime, anywhere. Some matches at the recent Hung Vuong Cup have even attracted tens of thousands of viewers and comments, creating a highlight for the ancestral land movement’s football to continue to develop professionally and methodically next time".

In fact, the province’s football movement is growing stronger and stronger, with exciting and impressive tournaments organized increasingly professionally, on a large scale and methodically. Thereby, it not only became a highlight in the mass physical training movement in the province but also contributed to the effective implementation of the campaign “All people exercising their bodies to follow Uncle Ho’s example”.

Quoc Dai