National Cup 2026-2027: Four V-League Clubs Fall to First Division Rivals and the Silences That Follow

The ball was placed on the penalty spot in Phu Tho in the late afternoon. I sat in the press area, close enough to hear the boots of Hong Linh Ha Tinh's goalkeeper scraping the grass, far enough not to hear the captain's whisper. After 90 goalless minutes, the shootout began at a slower rhythm than I expected. There was no roaring crowd like in the big V-League matches. Only breathing, footsteps, and a very particular belief from the home side. When Phu Tho won 3-2 in that shootout, I understood that the result did not lie in the final kick. It lay in the way Hong Linh Ha Tinh walked into this match, and in the way they walked into this season.

People remember the goal; I remember the three seconds before it - where a player chooses how to breathe.

Eight qualifying matches of the 2026-2027 National Cup took place across two weekend days. What matters is not the number of matches, but that four clubs currently playing in the V-League lost to first-division representatives. Three of them lost at home. Apart from Bac Ninh winning 3-2 at Long An, the other four V-League representatives exited the tournament at the qualifying stage. First-division sides upsetting cup favourites is not new. But the density of defeats this time was thick enough that one has to look again at the rhythm of an entire league.

Thanh Hoa lost 0-2 at home to Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, a club just relegated to the first division and now a promotion candidate. With a squad no weaker than the hosts, and playing with more determination, Becamex Ho Chi Minh City won without much difficulty. Following Thanh Hoa, Hoang Anh Gia Lai also lost 2-3 to Hung Yen at Quy Nhon, the mountain city club's temporary home, because Pleiku Stadium is being renovated due to poor drainage during heavy and continuous rain.

Without the familiar home support, and facing a Hung Yen full of ambition, Hoang Anh Gia Lai trailed 1-3 from the 77th minute before pulling one back to 2-3 from the penalty spot in the 90+4th minute. Playing at home, Hai Phong also lost 0-1 to Thep Can Tho, a club that has just relocated from Quang Ninh to the Mekong Delta and had just lost its opening match in the 2026-2027 first division. Having only joined the club a few days earlier, striker Thaileon scored the only goal of the match in the first half. Hong Linh Ha Tinh, meanwhile, lost to hosts Phu Tho 2-3 in the penalty shootout after a 0-0 draw over 90 minutes.

There is one thing I always notice when covering early-season cup matches: how V-League players walk onto the pitch. Not in their faces, but in their hands. Their fingers tend to relax more than usual, not clenched as when they play a relegation match. That is the sign of a match they have filed in a different drawer in their minds, a less important one.

For many V-League clubs, especially those without ambition, the National Cup is not their main arena. Going deeper costs more in travel and accommodation, and demands attention to squad depth, while survival in the V-League matters far more.

That is why these V-League representatives approach the National Cup quite indifferently, giving first-division teams room to surprise when they show greater determination. When a first-division side enters the pitch with the attitude of someone who has nothing to lose, while the V-League side enters with the attitude of someone conserving energy, the gap in quality flattens far faster than the table suggests.

In the Hong Linh Ha Tinh versus Phu Tho match, I noticed how the visiting players lined up before the shootout. Their shoulders drooped slightly, their eyes looked down at the grass more than toward the goal. That is the sign of a team that has already spent most of its mental energy before stepping into a nerve-racking shootout. Phu Tho, by contrast, stood straighter, and that showed clearly in every kick.

Thanh Hoa is the team that embodies this most clearly. The Thanh Hoa side only knew it still existed right before the 2026-2027 V-League kicked off, with a limited squad because there was not enough budget to retain key players or sign new ones. Before facing Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, Thanh Hoa also faced a fresh money concern to keep the club running.

FIFA has just ordered the club to pay more than 305,000 USD, equivalent to about 8 billion Vietnamese dong, to Rimario Gordon after the Jamaican striker filed a complaint with FIFA. If the matter is not resolved within 45 days of receiving the document dated September 16, Thanh Hoa will be banned from registering new players for three transfer windows. The complication is that the matter dates back to the era of the previous sponsor, while Thanh Hoa has now been transferred to a new sponsor.

That 8 billion dong sum is larger than the travel budget of a mid-tier club in the National Cup for an entire season. When a club is worrying about paying off old debts, choosing to play the National Cup with its lightest possible squad is a life-or-death decision, not random indifference.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai is also facing a season full of difficulty in the relegation battle after two consecutive defeats at the start of the 2026-2027 V-League. The squad this season is even weaker than last year, so against a more ambitious Hung Yen, the troops of coach Le Quang Trai lost quickly. But an early exit from the National Cup may actually be good for Hoang Anh Gia Lai, allowing them to focus on the V-League arena, where they almost always have to fight for survival.

An empty stadium means a bigger goal, and the goalkeeper stands there like a keeper of his own rhythm.

This holds true for Hoang Anh Gia Lai at Quy Nhon. Pleiku Stadium is being renovated, so the mountain city club must play at a temporary home, where there is no familiar drumbeat, no stands filled with the team's colours. When the goal feels emptier in terms of sound, pressure also changes rhythm. Players no longer hear the crowd's shouts to hold onto, and sometimes that very silence makes them lose an invisible anchor.

The two remaining clubs, Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh, have started the 2026-2027 V-League reasonably well, with one loss and one win, but their National Cup defeats were also unsurprising, aimed at saving strength for the relegation race.

If one stops at accusing V-League clubs of not caring about the National Cup, one would miss more important signals. Thep Can Tho has just moved from Quang Ninh to Can Tho, has just lost its opening match in the first division, and yet won right at Hai Phong's ground. That club carries a very different energy: a new team, a new city, new fans, and a striker named Thaileon who had only joined a few days earlier and scored the only goal of the match in the first half.

A transfer is not a number; it is an old song sung by a new voice.

A late-arriving striker, not yet fully attuned to his teammates, ended up deciding the match. That shows that in the National Cup, individual factors can create bigger differences than the system itself. When a team has not yet gelled, a single flash of individual brilliance is enough to overturn the tide.

The counter-intuitive angle lies here: people often say V-League clubs lose because of a lack of determination, but looking closer, they lose because they are in a different operating state. A club worrying about relegation, worrying about debts, worrying about keeping its key players, cannot step into a cup match with the same heartbeat as a first-division team hungry for a chance to prove itself. The difference lies in circumstances, not in class.

It is also fair to acknowledge that first-division teams do not surprise only because their opponents are indifferent. They prepare better, run more, and seize precisely the moments when the V-League side switches off. A first-division team winning at a V-League ground is the result of preparation, not merely luck or the opponent's disregard.

Looking back at eight matches across two days, what I keep is not the scorelines, but the silences. The silence before the shootout in Phu Tho. The silence in the Quy Nhon stands when Hoang Anh Gia Lai fell behind. The silence in the Thanh Hoa dressing room when they knew they had just lost at home, while outside a letter from FIFA was still waiting.

There are training sessions nobody films, but I keep them in my ears - the sound of grass boots, the drilling rhythm steady as a heartbeat.

The National Cup is sometimes seen as a secondary tournament, but it is precisely these matches that expose most clearly the true state of each club. Thanh Hoa lost because they no longer have enough resources to manoeuvre. Hoang Anh Gia Lai lost because of a thin squad and the loss of their home anchor. Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh lost while saving strength for a bigger goal. And the first-division teams won through their own preparation and hunger.

What I look forward to in the next round is not whether the V-League clubs will take revenge, but how they confront their own internal problems. For Thanh Hoa, the answer lies in the FIFA letter and the 45-day deadline. For Hoang Anh Gia Lai, it lies in the upcoming relegation matches at Pleiku once the pitch is repaired. For Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh, it lies in whether they can turn this conservation of strength into a foundation in the V-League.

Football is decided by both those who play and those watching from outside. And sometimes, a defeat in the National Cup is the most honest signal of where a club truly stands in a given season.