Can you fire now, Alves?

The cold-blooded attack on Thanh Hoa's central defender Dinh Tien Thanh in round 5 caused Alves to miss the last two matches of the Nghe An team (against SHB Da Nang and Nam Dinh). Including the 82 minutes in the match against Thanh Hoa (red card in the 8th minute), Alves has missed a total of 262 minutes in SLNA's jersey (not including extra time).

With extremely disappointing performances since the beginning of the season until now, the foreign player born in 1990 is more eager to play than ever.

Alves' time at Vinh Stadium is slowly counting down. Photo: Archive

Up to now, after 368 minutes, Alves has not scored any goals for the Vinh team. If he does not quickly prove his ability, the player wearing the number 19 shirt will face the risk of having his contract terminated early.

It is worth mentioning that in the last 2 seasons (2017-2018), SLNA had to replace foreign players after the first phase. In V.League 2017, the player who was "fired" was Henry Shackiel. In V.League 2018, former HAGL striker Osmar was the one who had to leave Vinh Stadium right in the middle of the season. However, before saying goodbye to SLNA, these 2 players still had goals for their home team (Henry 6 goals, Osmar 1 goal).

Foreign player Alves Dos Santos not only played poorly but also became a burden for SLNA when he received an early red card and left the field after a cold-blooded tackle in the 8th minute. Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

To reiterate, Alves’ time at Vinh Stadium is over. Therefore, the match against Viettel is one of the remaining opportunities for the Brazilian striker. If he plays disappointingly, not to mention being terminated early, but even the chance to play in the next matches of SLNA is quite fragile for Alves.

Unfortunately for the 29-year-old foreign player, Viettel's defense is quite solid (9 goals conceded in 7 matches), especially since coach Lee Heung-sil has just welcomed the return of center-back Que Ngoc Hai. It seems that Alves' goal-scoring task is not simple./.