Michael Olaha's burden in SLNA's relegation race

The Nghe An team is at the bottom of the rankings, so if the tournament continues, they will be the team most in danger of relegation. If the tournament is canceled, Coach Huy Hoang's team will most likely "win without a fight", waiting for next year to start over from the beginning if the Organizing Committee stipulates that there will be no relegation.

Previously, Deputy Director Van Sy Hung had declared that SLNA was ready to play if the Organizing Committee could come up with a feasible plan to organize the tournament. Honestly speaking, as a new sponsor like Tan Long Group, it would be difficult for them to accept the gamble of bringing the sinking ship SLNA back to the V.League from the First Division.

However, recent moves show that SLNA has made positive preparations, aiming to win a ticket to stay in the 2021 season. They quickly re-signed the contract with iconic star Phan Van Duc, reached an agreement with Pham Xuan Manh and goalkeeper Nguyen Van Hoang. In addition, SLNA carried out a rejuvenation process, when promoting a few young factors who have affirmed their talent in the U-teams such as Nguyen Van Bach, Dinh Xuan Tien...

Olaha is part of SLNA's big plan to aim for relegation. Photo: VPF

Regarding foreign personnel, SLNA is undergoing a blood change. Center back Igor Jelic and striker Bruno Henrique are two names that have to say goodbye to Vinh Stadium early when the season has not passed half. SLNA's big goal is to bring back the old player Michael Olaha at all costs, to improve the strength of the attack, which has been playing extremely poorly recently. The Nigerian player previously played for SLNA for about 2 years from 2017 to 2019 and left a lot of impressions in the eyes of Nghe An fans.

SLNA fans especially love Olaha after the years he devoted to the Vinh team. Even after he left the team, Nghe An fans still regularly follow and share regretful thoughts about Olaha whenever the team is not successful.

Not only because of his talent, but in Olaha, people can feel the sincere affection he has for SLNA. Many foreign players when coming to Vinh Stadium are unfamiliar with the V.League football field, they only choose Vinh Stadium as a transit station, a place to affirm their name, before leaving to find a new destination with more financial potential.

Olaha practices with SLNA. Photo: Duc Anh

WithOlahathen no, even if just playing forSLNAfor more than 2 years, but that was enough for him to clearly feel the sacred affection he has for the land and people of Nghe An. The time devoted to SLNA is probably also filled with the most beautiful memories in Olaha's professional playing career.

The Nigerian striker has scored 18 goals in 76 appearances for SLNA. The achievements are not outstanding, but Olaha's contribution is not only in scoring goals. With a good technical foundation and a strong physique, Olaha is really effective in connecting the two offensive and defensive fronts of the Nghe An team.

After leaving an impression at SLNA, Michael Olaha has received attention from many teams from Indonesia as well as V.League. He decided to go to Israel to play for Hapoel Tel-Aviv Club, with the desire to find bigger challenges, to affirm his name in Europe.

Olaha and Phan Van Duc will be two important partners in SLNA's attack. Photo: VPF

“I love Nghe An fans, they are passionate about football and really enthusiastic in every match we play. They always stand on the side of the players, on our side, so I have a lot of motivation every time I play. And moreover, at SLNA Club, the coaching board always trusted me, always put their trust in me, so I didn’t want to join another team to compete with the club,” Olaha said.

At his new team Hapoel Tel-Aviv Olaha did not play very successfully when he could not score a goal in 15 appearances in the 2019 - 2020 season. After that, Olaha moved to play for HAPOEL KFAR SHALEM FC and had a good performance with 11 goals in 34 appearances in the 2020 - 2021 season. With the striker born in 1997, it seems that he did not feel happy after leaving Vietnam and many times through social networks about a reunion in the near future with his old team SLNA.

“In 2020, SLNA called me, wanting me to return. However, at that time, I still had a contract with Hapoel Kfar Shalem. Then in the 2021 season, SLNA continuously contacted me, and with special affection for Nghe An fans, after the contract ended, I immediately decided to return.

Right after sponsor Tan Long took over from Bac A Bank as SLNA's sponsor, the Nghe An team showed that the most important thing is to create great trust from fans and understand their wishes. SLNA not only invested heavily in rebuilding the infrastructure, but also quickly implemented goals that seemed very difficult like previous seasons, they successfully retained attacking star Phan Van Duc, and brought him to Olaha to improve the strength of the attack in the upcoming difficult journey of the season.

With Phan Van Duc, when his future was secured, he could devote himself wholeheartedly to his hometown team. However, if he only relied on Van Duc, it would still be very difficult for SLNA, and he needed a partner to share the burden of the attack. That was none other than Michael Olaha.

After 2 years playing in Israel, Olaha decided to return to his old team SLNA. Photo: Duc Anh

Returning to SLNA, Olaha clearly understands that his current responsibility is extremely large, with the hope of saving the fate of the Nghe An team to successfully escape relegation after the end of the 2021 season. Most likely, SLNA will still retain striker Peter Onyekachi, even though he has not played as well as expected before.

Thus, SLNA will use both Peter and Olaha to form two attacking spearheads with the task of scoring goals. Reality shows that Olaha can complete this task well with what he has shown before, while Peter needs to continue to show his talent.

At this point, Phan Van Duc's role is really important, no longer having to shoulder the main goal-scoring task, Duc "tiger" will focus on the role of attacking midfielder. The ability to coordinate between Phan Van Duc and Olaha will be the main attack, solving the goal-scoring problem for SLNA. Besides, when having to retreat deeper, Van Duc will attract the opponent's defenders, thereby creating gaps for both Olaha and Peter to exploit.

It will be difficult to say about Olaha's success in this comeback. Whether Olaha can still show the same explosiveness as before is still a big question mark. However, with the situation that SLNA is facing, the return of the Nigerian striker at this time is really important, even vital for the fierce relegation race ahead of the Nghe An team.