Defeating Gia Viet in the final preliminary match of the 2020 National Beach Football Championship on December 28, Khanh Hoa advanced to the final match and are facing an opportunity to retain the championship.
Defeating Gia Viet in the final preliminary match of the 2020 National Beach Football Championship on December 28, Khanh Hoa advanced to the final match and are facing an opportunity to retain the championship.
This year’s tournament is played at Tran Phu beach football ground (Thanh Nien Park, Nha Trang City). As predicted by experts, Khanh Hoa and Da Nang advanced through the final. The two sides will compete against each other in the final match on December 30. Comparing to the previous tournaments, this time, Khanh Hoa have met quite many challenges on the road to the the final. While some teams such as Da Nang, Gia Viet and Binh Thuan had made some quality investment to strengthen their team prior to the tournament, Khanh Hoa entered the tournament almost with no change of players. Besides the familiar players, some young players of the provincial junior teams were promoted to play for the provincial professional team this time. However, these young ones have still lacked of experience and skills.
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Before the final match with Gia Viet in the preliminary round, the hosts Khanh Hoa could not still be certain of a place in the final. They had three points after one win and one loss, behind Da Nang on the table. Meanwhile, hope was still alive for Gia Viet, who had one point, if they could overcome Khanh Hoa in the last preliminary match. Gia Viet started the match on the front foot. However, it was Khanh Hoa who scored the opener. Tran Vinh Phong with his experience put Khanh Hoa ahead with an early goal. Gia Viet answered with a leveler just one minute later thanks to Mai Duc Rim. Gia Viet performed a relatively better performance with many attacks initiated by long goal kicks from their goalkeeper. Khanh Hoa had to wait until the third half to find their second goal. The match finally ended 2-1 for Khanh Hoa.
The win propelled Khanh Hoa to the first place with six points and earned them a spot in the final. Their final opponent, Da Nang, is not an easy team to play. Khanh Hoa and Da Nang have faced each other four times in the final matches of the national championships. After an unexpected incident in their final last year, resulting in the discipline of their coaches, Da Nang are believed to put all their strength in the final to grab this year’s championship title. For the home team, defending the championship trophy is always one of the priorities of Khanh Hoa’s sports in order to assert their leading position in domestic beach football playgrounds.
An Nhien
Translated by H.N
