Four V-League Clubs Fall to First Division Sides in the 2026-2027 National Cup: When Survival Costs More Than a Cup Run

At the 77th minute at Quy Nhon stadium, the scoreboard read 1-3. The stands held a few dozen shirts and nothing else, no drums, no scarves, none of the familiar chanting from the eastern stand. Hoang Anh Gia Lai were playing a "home" match more than two hundred kilometres from Pleiku, because the Pleiku pitch had been dug up to repair a drainage system after a long stretch of heavy rain. Only in the 94th minute did the mountain club pull one back to 2-3 from the penalty spot. The final whistle arrived almost at the same moment as the sound of footsteps leaving the stands. Eight qualifying matches of the 2026-2027 National Cup across the weekend ended with four defeats for clubs currently competing in V-League against first division representatives. Three of those four defeats happened at home. All four finished without interruption, exactly the way a lower division side prepares for a game it treats as the opportunity of its season. Only Bac Ninh preserved some dignity for the V-League group with a 3-2 win away at Long An. Thanh Hoa lost 0-2 at home to Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, a club just relegated and now a candidate for promotion back. Hai Phong lost 0-1 to Thep Can Tho, a side that has just moved its registration from Quang Ninh to the Mekong Delta city and had lost its opening fixture in the 2026-2027 first division. Striker Thaileon, who joined the club only days earlier, scored the only goal of the match inside the first half. Hong Linh Ha Tinh fell to hosts Phu Tho 2-3 on penalties after a 0-0 draw over 90 minutes. For many V-League clubs, especially those without major ambition, the National Cup has never been the main stage. The deeper a run goes, the more it costs in travel and accommodation, the more rotation it demands, while the relegation battle in V-League decides whether the club exists at all next season. That lukewarm approach opens space for first division sides to show greater determination, and this time the space was wide enough for four of them to walk through. Thanh Hoa is the clearest case. The club from the central province only learned it still existed shortly before the 2026-2027 V-League kicked off, with a thin squad because there was not enough money to retain key players or sign new ones. Before facing Becamex Ho Chi Minh City, the club met a fresh financial worry: FIFA ordered it to pay more than 305,000 USD, roughly 8 billion dong, to Rimario Gordon after the striker filed a claim. If the matter is not resolved within 45 days of receiving the document on September 16, the club will be barred from registering new players for three transfer windows. The complication lies in the fact that the debt arose during the previous sponsor's tenure, while the club has since been handed over to a new backer. Every transfer is a quiet farewell wrapped inside a contract. When that contract is torn open midway, the loss usually stays with the person who signed it. Rimario Gordon is a Jamaican striker, and his name deserves to be written correctly. My own name was once misread over the training ground loudspeaker at Incheon in 2026, announced as "Park Ji-min" three times during a small press briefing. I did not correct it, I only smiled. Perhaps that is why I always write every name correctly, from the star to the man who sweeps the dressing room. Hoang Anh Gia Lai entered the season with a thinner squad than last year, after two straight defeats in V-League. Against a hungry Hung Yen, the side coached by Le Quang Trai fell behind quickly, trailing 1-3 by the 77th minute and pulling one back only from the penalty spot in the 94th. The Pleiku pitch is being re-laid because of poor drainage, forcing the club to borrow Quy Nhon as a temporary home. Without the drums and the familiar stands, home advantage all but disappeared. Based on my experience watching matches, a team that walks out prioritising its next fixture tends to reveal three signs very early. The midfield plays sideways more than forward. The two flanks rarely push up together. And the number of 50-50 duels in the middle drops sharply after the 30th minute. Possession can still look handsome on the stats sheet, but that number counts how often the ball passes through feet, not the intent behind keeping it. A side that grinds out 60 percent with meaningless square passes is still routinely described as the proactive one. For a club on a tight budget, the cost equation in the National Cup is far from trivial. A place in the next round does not cover several flights, several hotel nights and the risk of injury to two or three key players. Every point in V-League, meanwhile, can decide a relegation position, dragging along broadcast revenue, sponsorship and the very existence of the club next season. Weigh the two sides and the choice dismissed as indifference is in fact very sober. Calling these four defeats a shock is a one-eyed reading, driven by the habit of ranking the competition above actual form. First division sides enter with a full week of preparation, no other front to divide their strength, and in some cases a squad that is not remotely inferior to the hosts. Becamex Ho Chi Minh City were just relegated and are hungry for a return to V-League; they brought to Thanh Hoa a lineup good enough to win 2-0 with barely any difficulty. The real concern lies elsewhere: a national competition treated by its own top-tier members as a scored training session. Supporters still buy tickets, still travel hundreds of kilometres, still sit waiting in the rain. The first division clubs, the ones truly playing this match with a full season of savings behind them, are labelled the surprise packages, as if their determination were a minor variable rather than the main cause. Stoned on live television, I still stood by the goalkeeper. The truth needs defenders, not joiners. This time the ones needing defence are the clubs treated as minnows, the players who just changed cities, the strikers from distant countries waiting for a sum nobody will confirm a payment date for. For Hoang Anh Gia Lai, an early cup exit may be a blessing. Every season the mountain club finds itself near the relegation race, so withdrawing from a draining competition lets it pour everything into V-League. Hai Phong and Hong Linh Ha Tinh have started the season respectably, with one defeat and one win, so an early exit sits well within their calculations. The midnight call from Park Yong-woo's mother taught me that football never ends at the whistle. For Thanh Hoa, the 45-day clock is running faster than any match. For Becamex Ho Chi Minh City and Thep Can Tho, the National Cup qualifiers are only the beginning of a season in which they may go much further than most expect. At forty-two, I am old enough to know everything changes, young enough to still believe in one perfect pass. And patient enough to wait and see, in the next round of V-League, which club truly picked the right match to spend its strength on.