Four V-League Defeats in the National Cup: When Motivation Creates a Wider Gap Than Quality

On Sunday night, the clock at Quy Nhon stadium ticked over to the 90+4th minute when Hoang Anh Gia Lai finally pulled one back to 2-3 from the penalty spot. Before that, from the 77th minute, the mountain town club had trailed Hung Yen 1-3. At the same moment at Lach Tray, Hai Phong had already lost 0-1 to Thep Can Tho as early as the first half, the only goal scored by a striker who had joined the club just days earlier. In Thanh Hoa, the hosts collapsed 0-2 against Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, a side just relegated and now a promotion candidate.

Eight qualifying matches of the 2026-2027 National Cup unfolded across two weekend days, and four clubs currently playing in the V-League lost to First Division representatives. Three of those defeats came at home. Only Bac Ninh escaped, beating Long An 3-2 away. Hong Linh Ha Tinh lost to Phu Tho 2-3 on penalties after a 0-0 draw over 90 minutes.

This is the kind of data that makes me sit down. One Cup round, four defeats for higher-tier clubs against lower-tier ones, three of them at home. On the surface it looks like a wide-ranging shock. But I have followed Vietnamese football long enough to know that when a phenomenon repeats in four different places within the same two days, the cause usually lies in the structural layer rather than in any single team's momentary form.

For most V-League clubs, the National Cup is not a priority. The deeper you go, the greater the travel and accommodation costs, while the battle for V-League survival weighs far more. For teams without title ambitions, pouring resources into a secondary competition mid-season is an economic choice, not an emotional one. First Division sides are the opposite: they need big matches to prove themselves, to keep their squads, to attract sponsors. The motivations on each side diverge, and scorelines usually reflect that divergence accurately.

Thanh Hoa is the clearest case. The Thanh province club only confirmed its existence just before the 2026-2027 V-League kicked off, with a limited squad because it lacked the funds to retain key players or sign new ones. Before facing Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, the club faced another financial issue: FIFA ordered payment of more than 305,000 USD, roughly 8 billion VND, to Rimario Gordon after the Jamaican striker filed a complaint. The FIFA document was sent on September 16, and if unresolved within 45 days, Thanh Hoa will be banned from registering new players for three transfer windows. The matter arose during a previous sponsor's tenure, while the club has since been transferred to a new sponsor. A debt that does not belong to those now running the club, yet the sanction falls on them.

Looking at the 0-2 result, one might easily conclude Thanh Hoa are weak. In reality Becamex Ho Chi Minh City's squad is no weaker than the hosts', plus they had greater determination. Becamex were just relegated; they needed a win to rebuild confidence and demonstrate their ambition to return to the V-League. Thanh Hoa played in a defensive, holding mindset rather than one of pushing forward. The gap in mentality was wider than the gap in ability.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai is a different case, and worth analysing more because it concerns the playing environment. The Pleiku pitch is being renovated because of poor drainage during heavy rain, so the team must play in Quy Nhon. A temporary home ground far from home means Hoang Anh Gia Lai lose the advantage of familiarity, lose their consistent home support, and incur organisational costs every match. In data terms, that is losing home advantage while still having to act as hosts.

Coach Le Quang Trai's squad entered the match with a thinner roster than last season, after two consecutive defeats at the start of the 2026-2027 V-League. They fell 1-3 by the 77th minute against a Hung Yen side rich in ambition, then pulled back only through a penalty in the 90+4th minute. I rewatched the footage, and the notable part lies in the spell between the 45th and 77th minutes. Hoang Anh Gia Lai repeatedly exposed their midfield, their team shape stretched whenever they lost the ball, and Hung Yen exploited exactly that zone. Hung Yen's three goals came from the visitors keeping more bodies moving inside the box than the hosts.

At Lach Tray, I watched Hai Phong against Thep Can Tho live. This is a club that has just relocated from Quang Ninh to Can Tho and had just lost its opening match of the 2026-2027 First Division, so they entered with nothing to lose. Striker Thaileon, only signed days earlier, scored the only goal of the match in the first half. Hai Phong had more possession, but their shots on target were fewer than Thep Can Tho's in the first half. Possession is only the topsoil; what decides the outcome is the quality of the final action.

Phu Tho and Hong Linh Ha Tinh produced a different data sample. The two sides drew 0-0 over 90 minutes and had to be separated by penalties, with Phu Tho winning 2-3. Matches like this rarely say much about true strength, but they say a fair amount about which team prepared better mentally for the shootout.

The prevailing reading after this round is that V-League clubs look down on the National Cup. I do not fully believe that reading.

For Hoang Anh Gia Lai, an early Cup exit may be a good thing. The mountain town club faces a survival battle every season, their squad this season is thinner than last, and leaving the Cup frees them to concentrate all resources on the V-League. That is a sound decision about resource allocation, not a sign of unseriousness. Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh have started the 2026-2027 V-League acceptably with one loss and one win each, so their National Cup defeats also fit within a calculation to save strength for the relegation race.

The real issue lies elsewhere: how we use a single Cup match to judge a team's quality. The results of eight qualifying matches do not measure the gap in ability between the V-League and the First Division. They measure readiness, motivation, and squad depth in a specific week. I have fallen into this trap many times and drawn a lesson from it: one match does not make a talent, but it illuminates exactly the spot that needs excavating.

The question I carry home after the weekend is not whether the V-League has grown weaker. It is this: if First Division teams increasingly understand how to prepare for a Cup match, while V-League clubs increasingly have to balance resources, by what measure will the gap between the two tiers be judged over the coming seasons? This year's qualifying data offers a signal, not a conclusion. A single match only illuminates the spot that needs deeper digging. I will wait for a few more layers of sediment before writing further.