National Cup 2026-2027: Four V-League Defeats and an Inverted Order of Priorities

In the 94th minute at Quy Nhon stadium, Hoang Anh Gia Lai pulled one back to 2-3 from the penalty spot. That goal saved nothing; it merely narrowed a scoreline that had already slipped to 1-3 by the 77th minute. A few hours earlier in Thanh Hoa, the home side lost 0-2 to Becamex Ho Chi Minh City. In Hai Phong, Thep Can Tho left with a 0-1 win thanks to Thaileon's only goal in the first half. Hong Linh Ha Tinh departed Phu Tho after losing 2-3 on penalties, following a 0-0 draw over 90 minutes.

Eight qualifying matches of the 2026-2027 National Cup across one weekend produced four defeats for clubs currently playing in the V-League against first-division opponents. Three of those losses came at home. Only Bac Ninh escaped, winning 3-2 away at Long An.

Read those results the conventional way and the talk turns to mentality, complacency, shock. That reading is not wrong, but it stops at the surface. The layer worth excavating lies deeper: the order of priorities at V-League clubs has been inverted, and the National Cup is being treated as a cost rather than an asset.

Raw jade does not lie on the grass; it lies beneath the years of neglect.

Four results, one shared logic

Becamex Ho Chi Minh City were just relegated to the first division and are among the favourites to go straight back up. Their squad is no weaker than the hosts', and more importantly they entered the match with a higher level of commitment. The 0-2 win at Thanh Hoa was therefore not exactly a shock; it was the product of two preparation curves moving in opposite directions.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai hosted Hung Yen at Quy Nhon, their temporary home ground, because Pleiku is being re-laid after repeated heavy rain exposed poor drainage. Losing the familiar home advantage, and with it the roar of the highland stands, the side led by coach Le Quang Trai faced a Hung Yen hungry for a win. The 2-3 scoreline reflected the run of play.

Hai Phong lost 0-1 to Thep Can Tho. Their opponents had just relocated from Quang Ninh to Can Tho and had already lost their opening match of the 2026-2027 first division season. Thaileon, a striker signed only days earlier, scored the only goal of the game in the first half. A new arrival who had barely settled deciding the match says much about the home side's level of preparation.

Hong Linh Ha Tinh were a different case. They did not lose over 90 minutes, leaving Phu Tho with a defeat in the penalty shootout. In terms of outcome, it was still an exit.

In another fixture, Bac Ninh beat Long An 3-2 away. That was the only exception of the qualifying round, and it illustrates that results in the National Cup depend more on how each club prepares than on their standing in the domestic league.

When the National Cup becomes an expense

For many V-League clubs, especially those without title ambitions, the National Cup has never been a primary stage. The deeper a team goes, the greater the travel and accommodation costs. Squad management grows complicated too: every cup tie pushes key players into injury risk, while survival in the V-League matters far more.

That lukewarm approach creates a paradox. First-division sides, with greater determination and clearer objectives, step onto the pitch as the party with more to gain. In a single match, a gap in motivation usually outweighs a gap in class.

The National Cup is not inferior to the V-League in football terms; it is inferior in its position on the coaching staff's list of priorities.

A knockout format makes every error expensive. A team rotating four or five starting positions can lose a match to a single set piece. There is no second leg for repairs, no time for adjustments.

Based on my experience following matches in both the V-League and the first division across several seasons, I keep notes in three layers: statistics, on-pitch behaviour, and the life of the club behind the league table. Over the past weekend, the third layer explained almost every result.

Thanh Hoa and a problem off the pitch

Thanh Hoa demonstrate that logic most clearly. The club from Thanh Hoa province only knew they still existed shortly before the 2026-2027 V-League kicked off. Their squad is limited because there is not enough funding to retain key players or sign new ones.

Before facing Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, Thanh Hoa confronted a fresh financial worry about keeping the club running. FIFA ordered the club to pay more than 305,000 USD, roughly 8 billion dong, to Rimario Gordon after the Jamaican striker filed a claim with FIFA. If the matter is not settled within 45 days of receiving the document on September 16, Thanh Hoa will be banned from registering new players for three transfer windows.

The complication is that the case arose during the previous sponsor's tenure, while the club has since been transferred to a new sponsor. For a club fighting every season to survive, the risk of a transfer embargo is far more serious than a defeat in the National Cup qualifying round. Thanh Hoa's rotation in the cup is a decision of survival, not negligence.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai and the subtraction of squad depth

Hoang Anh Gia Lai entered the 2026-2027 season with a weaker squad than the previous year, after two straight defeats in the V-League. The relegation battle is the realistic target. Under those conditions, a cup tie on a temporary ground, without home supporters and without pitch advantage, becomes a burden rather than an opportunity.

An early exit from the National Cup may allow Hoang Anh Gia Lai to concentrate fully on the V-League, a competition in which the highland club has faced a survival fight almost every season. The two remaining clubs, Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh, have started the 2026-2027 V-League reasonably with one win and one loss each, but their cup defeats were not outside expectations, as both need to conserve energy for the long race.

The counter-view

The 2026 World Cup taught me that dreams also need to be excavated, because sometimes they shatter before they can sprout.

Not every defeat of a V-League club against a first-division side automatically becomes a tragedy, and not every win by a first-division side is automatically a dream sprouting. Some matches are won because the lower-tier team was genuinely better on the day. Others are won simply because the opponent fielded a reserve line-up.

What needs testing is how much belongs to ability and how much to choice. Becamex Ho Chi Minh City are promotion candidates. Thep Can Tho had just relocated, had just lost their opener, and still won in Hai Phong. Hung Yen won at Quy Nhon. Those three cases differ in the origin of their motivation, but share one trait: they entered the match as though it were the most important game of the season.

The reverse view also deserves consideration. For Hoang Anh Gia Lai, an early cup exit may be a form of advantage. The V-League calendar is dense, the squad is thin, and every additional match erodes the group. The worry lies in the manner of the exit: a 0-2 home defeat generates no positive signal for the road ahead.

The latent risk of the season sits here. When a club grows used to treating one competition as a burden, that habit spreads to other competitions. What will young players handed cup opportunities learn, if the senior players around them are playing to conserve energy? One defeat does not bury a season. It simply marks the sedimentary layer the club stands on.

What remains after the weekend

The next round of the 2026-2027 National Cup will be missing four familiar names. That makes the tournament less attractive commercially, but raises a larger question: will the organisers redesign the format so V-League clubs genuinely have an incentive to take part, or will they continue to accept that this stage is where first-division teams express their ambition?

For Thanh Hoa, the answer lies in the FIFA document dated September 16 and a 45-day clock. For Hoang Anh Gia Lai, it lies in two straight defeats at the start of the V-League and a Pleiku pitch with no known completion date. For Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh, it lies in holding a steady rhythm through the final months of the year.

And for the young players handed opportunities over that weekend, what they carry away is the memory of how the adults around them treated a match, rather than three points or a place in the next round. How a club ranks its priorities today will shape how the next generation plays tomorrow.

This weekend's results will fade. The sedimentary layer stays, waiting to be read again.