On 6 December VAS Hanoi hosted another successful Gaelic Football tournament, the 4th edition of Hanoi Youth Cup. It was organised by the Viet Celts Gaelic Football Club of Hanoi.

VAS Hanoi and Hanoi International School (HIS) played off in all three finals, junior boys, girls and senior boys. The competitions were 7-a-side and 15 minutes a half.

VAS Girls    7.8 (29pts)
HIS Girls      2.0 (6pts)

HIS Girls were missing a few of their usual combatants and so had an uphill task. VAS Girls put on a powerhouse display throughout this contest and HIS Girls found it hard to get out of their own half for much of the game such was the VAS dominance. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Oanh won almost every ball in midfield and set up Nguyen Nga and her attacking partner Truong Thi Ngoc Anh who ran clever triangular patterns together on the way to combining for some fantastic scores.

Le Nguyen Hong Nhung was solid as a rock in defence and Vu Ha Anh had a fine game as goalkeeper. Vu Cong Ngoc Thu made a lot of good moves roving in the forward line.
Nguyen Nga won the VAS MVP (most valuable player) award for this game.  A lot of new younger girls joined the team for their first tournament which was great to see.

For HIS Girls, Karen Takahashi was the MVP as she ran her heart out and got to just about every ball she contested. Kaho Sato and Nur Diyanah Ahmad Zaki were solid throughout. Jasmine Haifa Zahrah and Roosa Aleksandra Kuparinen did well in their first competitive game. Reina Takahashi served HIS well in the goals in a difficult game making a few great saves and even scored one of her own when she went outfield.

VAS Girls :  Le Nguyen Hong Nhung, Bui Ngoc Anh, Truong Thi Ngoc Anh, Nguyen Nga (Capt.) , Ho Ha My,  Nguyen Thi Ngoc Oanh , Pham Luu Vi , Pham Hong Anh, To Nguyen Dieu Linh,  Vu Cong Ngoc Thu, Vu Ha Anh, Nguyen Phuong Thao, Nguyen Thuy An, Nguyen Thanh Thao, Vu Hoang Linh Chi 

HIS Girls: Reina Takahashi, Karen Takahashi, Kaho Sato, Jasmine Haifa Zahrah, Roosa Aleksandra Kuparinen, Thu Minh Lam, Nur Diyanah Ahmad Zaki

HIS Seniors    3.12 (21pts) VAS Seniors   2.04 (10pts)

HIS Seniors were well marshalled by the wily fox, Leo Dyar from Mayo and proved too much for VAS Seniors although VAS certainly had their chances to win the game. These chances were ably closed down in part by the HIS defender, Muhammad Shafiai who made many fine interceptions, set up attacks and got on the other end of some of them to score points. Jae Hoon Choi continually ran the flanks for HIS and was a general thorn in the side of VAS. Norihiro Miyazaki and Ansh Kapoor showed their impressive fielding abilities for HIS and supported the attack.

VAS Seniors played well in parts of the game and there were some good individual displays. As a team, had they gone for points rather than goals from the start, they would have been closer to HIS at the end. VAS MVP was Le Phuong Nam who scored a lovely point and set up a few more with some intelligent passing.

HIS Seniors:  Ansh Kapoor  (Capt.), Hoang Tran,  Patrick Le,  Sungwook Baek, Jihyuk Woo, Norihiro Miyazaki, Muhammad Shafiai, Jae Ho Cho, Jae Hoon Choi , Jin Seok

VAS Seniors:  Bach Xuan Bao Nhan, Nguyen Duc Manh, Nguyen Tung Anh (Capt.) , Nguyen Viet Linh, Nguyen Van Manh, Pham Viet Gia Khoa, Do Nhat Quang, Nguyen The Duong , Nguyen Trong Tan, Nguyen Quang Anh, Pham Duy Hung, Nguyen Thanh Dat, Le Phuong Nam, Do Tung Lam, Luu Hai Phong

HIS Juniors   8.3     (27pts)

VAS Juniors  5.11   (26pts)

This was a smashing game which would have had all the spectators on the edge of their seats had they had seats. In physical size, HIS Juniors were a much bigger team which put VAS at a disadvantage. At one stage, VAS Juniors were seven points down but fought back heroically to lead with five minutes to go. Indeed, the lead changed hands four times in the last five minutes. HIS Juniors ran out one-point winners of what was a tremendously exciting game.

For HIS, Jamie Martin was a colossal presence in midfield and scored the first goal after five seconds and the last goal with five seconds to go and so well deserved to be HIS MVP.  Cosmo Dippmar took some excellent scores early in the game and linked up well with the midfield. Tomaoki Ikeda defended stubbornly and stifled the scoring attempts of his marker all through the first half.

VAS MVP was Vu Cong Tuyen Thang who popped up with some stylish scores and general bravery going up against bigger opponents. Nguyen Gia Vinh was enterprising in his first competitive game for VAS.
HIS Juniors Farish Sulaiman, JinHa Hwang, Cosmo Dippmar, Joona Kuparinen, Jamie Martin, Nguyen C. Nguyen, Min Sub Jung, Tomaoki Ikeda, Almad Azi Ahmad, Aviral Sandilya, Yeong Hyun Kim

VAS Juniors: Vu Duc Dat , Pham Vu Ky, Vu Cong Tuyen Thang (Capt.), Cu Nam Khanh , Nguyen Quang Nghia , Tran Nguyen Nhu Toan,  Nguyen Tran Nam Khanh , Tran Gia Minh , Nguyen Gia Vinh , Nguyen The Duong, Nguyen Trong Tan, Vu Minh Hieu (injured)

Acknowledgements

Nguyen Nga won the overall Player of the Tournament trophy, the Jack Kiernan Award which was presented by his 12-month old grandson also called Jack Kiernan

Thanks to everyone at VAS Hanoi who helped out with logistics. Thanks also to former Vietnamese soccer international, Vu Cong Tuyen and Nuala O'Brien from the Irish Embassy who presented the medals which were organised by Lana Le.

Well done to the various coaches involved. VAS coach: Jim Kiernan, HIS coaches: the great Mike Clifford, Leo Dyar and Rob Walsh. Rob Walsh sadly leaves Hanoi but returns to Dublin as a Hanoi Junior Youth Cup winning coach.

Special mention must go to the energetic Dave Cunningham of the Viet Celts who did an excellent job of refereeing the three games and also helping out with the running of the tournament. Special thanks to Education in Ireland, Noble Education, the Irish Embassy and the DFA/GAA Open Call for their continued support of Vietnamese Schools Gaelic Football.

The Viet Celts

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