Striker Ho Tuan Tai: The flag is in hand

(Baonghean.vn) - By continuing to shine to bring home 3 important points for SLNA in the away match against Long An Club in the last round. Striker Ho Tuan Tai is currently one of the most prominent players on the attack line. If he continues to maintain his stable performance as he has shown, Ho Tuan Tai will go further in the future.

As a talented player who grew up from the SLNA youth training center, striker Ho Tuan Tai has begun to make his mark in the hearts of fans since this Hung Nguyen player shone in youth tournaments such as the U17 and U19 finals. However, it was not until the U19 Asian qualifiers or the U19 Southeast Asian Championship in the U19 Vietnam jersey that Ho Tuan Tai became more widely known.

Because compared to the talented players of HAGL Academy at the present time including Cong Phuong, Tuan Anh, Xuan Truong, Van Toan… the striker who is considered as “the successor of Van Quyen” is not inferior. Overall, if we take the number of goals as a measure, this young striker has times shown to be more excellent than his teammates of the same age.

Ho Tuan Tai was once called up to the Vietnam U23 team by coach Miura.

Possessing a strong physical foundation, sweeping power, skillful ball handling ability along with strong acceleration to score goals. After an impressive performance in the U19 Vietnam shirt. So it is easy to understand, Ho Tuan Tai caught the eye of Japanese coach Miura in the U23 Vietnam team as well as being promoted to the first team by coach Nguyen Huu Thang very early.

It seemed that the “boost” from the success in the youth teams would create money for this striker from Hung Nguyen to shine in the colors of U23 Vietnam and SLNA. However, Ho Tuan Tai could not overcome the “curse” that has existed for quite a long time in the Nghe An team, which is that any player who shines in the youth tournament will play poorly in the first team. And other talents such as Phan Thanh Hoan, Ho Phuc Tinh, Nguyen Dinh Bao… are specific examples.

In the 2015 V-League season, Ho Tuan Tai was trusted by coach Ngo Quang Truong to lead the attack. However, all this striker could do was score a goal against FLC Thanh Hoa and celebrate the goal, which moved many people with a shirt printed with the words "I love you so much, Mom".

Ho Tuan Tai and Tran Phi Son celebrate their goal in the match against Long An Club.

Entering the 2016 V-League season, with the Nghe An team "tightening their belts" to buy the extremely expensive strikers Odat and Baba Salia, Ho Tuan Tai's chances of playing were further limited. In fact, during the first half of the season, the 21-year-old striker often had to sit on the bench and became nothing more than a "secondary player". Ho Tuan Tai could only play 4 times, 3 of which were from the bench.

The second leg of V-League 2016 started as usual for Ho Tuan Tai. He sat on the bench and turned his already sad eyes to the field to watch his teammates play. However, things took a different direction when in the match against Than Quang Ninh, while the home team had many difficulties in finding the net of goalkeeper Tien Linh.

Coach Ngo Quang Truong boldly brought Ho Tuan Tai onto the field and immediately that change brought immediate results when number 9 successfully finished, breaking the deadlock for the Nghe team. Since that goal, the SLNA players played an explosive match, scoring 3 more goals thanks to Baba and Phi Son. In which, this striker from Hung Nguyen himself closed a brilliant day of competition with a super goal to complete his own "double".

Since that match, the name Ho Tuan Tai has been regularly put on the field by the team's coaching board. In fact, through the matches with Hanoi T&T, Sana Khanh Hoa BVN and HAGL, this striker has also played very energetically and enthusiastically. The only thing lacking is that luck was not on Ho Tuan Tai's side when his shots either hit the post or were blocked by the opposing team's goalkeeper.

After 4 scoreless matches, in the last round against the team that was thirsty for points, Long An FC. Tuan Tai once again became the hero when he made a smart run to break the offside trap and scored the opening goal, and then Phi Son raised the score to 2-0 before Simic scored an honorary goal. With that victory, SLNA moved closer to staying in the league.

To be fair, if his finishing was better, Ho Tuan Tai's goal tally would not have stopped at 1. However, with such impressive performances, Nghe An fans have the right to hope for the brilliance of the striker considered the "successor" of Van Quyen in the near future.

Cao Anh