When he heard that the assistant coach asked him to play, Willard suddenly felt happy and secretly said that the opportunity had come.
The Hurricanes play a 352 formation, with three center backs, one defensive midfielder, two attacking midfielders, two full midfielders, and two forwards, focusing on offensive football.
As a result, the defense is naturally weak. The defensive midfielder serves as a barrier in front of the three defenders, and there is only one person, so the importance can be imagined.
It's a pity that there are currently five defensive midfielders in the team, and Willard was promoted from the reserve team to the first team last season and ranked last in the order of appearance, so he only got two playing opportunities throughout the season. , which adds up to less than 20 minutes.
As a result, Willard now got the chance to come on as a substitute in the training game before another defensive midfielder Carrizo. Does this prove that the serious and hard-working training attitude and self-training in the past few days have been recognized by the coaching staff, and they have been promoted from the last place to the fourth overall position in the defensive midfielder position?
If you perform better in today's training match, can you go one step further and be promoted to the third pick, sitting third and second?
The main midfielder of the Hurricanes is No. 5 Federico Bismara, who is 182cm tall and weighs 78kg. He is mainly responsible for defensive tasks. Although his height and weight are slightly lower than that of Velarde, he is 31 years old and has too much professional experience. He is the anchor of the Hurricanes' midfield, and his position as the main defensive midfielder is unbeatable.
The first substitute is No. 8 Lucas Villaruel, 24 years old this year. However, he is only 173cm tall and is better at organizing offense, similar to Pirlo of Juventus.
When the team needs to attack vigorously, Lucas may be sent to play as a midfielder or central midfielder to participate in the attack.
Therefore, Rolon, the third midfielder who mainly plays defense, has many opportunities to play, and he can often get the opportunity to enter the big list and serve as a substitute for Bismara or Lucas.
At this time, Willard had already squeezed out the fourth defensive midfielder Carrizo in the training match and took the lead in getting the chance to play. If he can perform well and surpass Luo Long and rise to the third overall pick, then the chance to play in official games will be considerable.
Thinking of this, Willard became even more energetic.
After Lucas Villaruel walked out of the sideline, Villard quickly ran into the court. His friends Dalia and Bonnie Fashaw, who had not yet had a chance to play, shouted from the side: "Villad." Come on, Germany!"
Willard nodded to the two of them, indicating that he had received it, and then immediately entered the game, very focused, with almost no unnecessary mental activities.
He knows very well that as a defensive player, only when he is highly concentrated and performs stably can he get into the coach's eyes. He cannot be like an offensive player who always thinks about showing off his skills, shooting, scoring goals, and showing off.
There is a saying on the Internet that a man dies when he is 30 years old and is not buried until he is 80 years old.
Willard, who has a mental age of 36, has indeed seen many realities clearly and given up many unrealistic fantasies.
Now he has been reborn as a 21-year-old boy, which is equivalent to having an extra 15 years of life out of thin air. There are also system plug-ins to help. It is a God-given opportunity. If you don't concentrate on your career and make money, what are you waiting for?
If a man has money, he is the eldest brother; if he has no money, he will be looked down upon by his own family members, let alone outsiders, including parents, wives, and children.
The game continues.
Although Lucas, who was just replaced, is a defensive midfielder, his defensive ability is also very good. Otherwise, he would not play as a defensive midfielder, but directly as an attacking midfielder.
Therefore, when Lucas is on the court, the blue team still has some scruples and will not intentionally break through with him one-on-one. Instead, they will more often cooperate with passes or simply attack from the side.
But after Willard came on as a substitute, the main players of the blue team felt that they had found an opportunity.
Although after the start of the new season, Velarde's training attitude has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to last season. He has become very serious and hard-working, and even practices for several hours in the morning and evening, but everyone does not think that his strength will be better. What a leap forward.
With the yellow team having only one defensive midfielder, the blue team's frontcourt attackers began to strengthen their attack in the middle, taking turns to attack Willard's defense zone.
What shocked his teammates and coaching staff was that Willard's defensive interception ability was more than improved compared to last season. (Of course, it’s more than one point, it was raised from 56 to 68, an increase of 12 points)
The first skill "Defense" randomly opened by the system is a collection of many defensive skills including defensive positioning, blocking, marking, attacking, stealing, interception, reasonable collision, and tackle. It can cut off players from a long distance. From defensive positioning and blocking in passing routes to reasonable collisions, steals, tackles, etc. in close contact, every small skill is improved by 12 points, and the effect is still quite powerful.
After all, the Hurricanes' own players are only at the level of Argentina's second division league, and their overall abilities are generally only between 60 and 70, with very few above 70.
Therefore, Velarde's comprehensive defensive ability of 68 and the physique and collision resistance brought by his good height and weight may not be enough to face world-class stars with an offensive ability of 80 or 90, but his offensive ability cannot match his defensive ability. His second-level teammates, who were equally capable and even lower in defensive ability than him, performed quite amazingly.
Velarde had only been on the field for two minutes. The blue team midfielder Gonzano Martinez, who was also 21 years old but extremely talented and had already attracted the attention of the entire Argentine football world, subconsciously thought when he got the ball and faced Velarde. The contempt caused him to ignore his teammates who came in from the side to receive the ball. Instead of passing the ball, he directly rushed to Velarde with the ball, trying to single out and break through.
As a result, Willard had no intention of challenging him in a duel. Instead, he retreated while stuck in position, and used the corner of his eyes to observe the surrounding environment, thereby adjusting his retreat speed and position to prevent Martin from getting involved. Si's sudden pass caused the defense to be broken.
This is where "defensive positioning" and "blocking position" come into play.
The players couldn't see this way of handling it, but the head coach Mario Binco, who was looking at the overall situation from the sidelines, could see it clearly.
For the Yellow Team, which only has a single defensive midfielder and only three central defenders behind it, Willard's handling method is the most reasonable.
But it remains to be seen whether this is a coincidence or intentional, whether it is fear of being broken through by the opponent or a proactive tactical retreat.
Gonzano Martinez, who was dribbling the ball forward on the field, did not think that Velarde was actively retreating to maintain the stability of the defense. He felt that Velarde was afraid of a duel with him.
After all, he is a talented midfielder who is famous in Argentina. He has attracted the attention of many A-League giants and has firmly established himself as the core of the Hurricanes' frontcourt. Velarde, who is also 21 years old, is only a marginal substitute. It's appropriate to challenge him in a duel.
It was a pity that he was too young and had too little experience. He was not able to analyze Velarde's movements and expressions, and failed to judge that Velarde was not afraid of a duel with him, but was calmly and tactically retreating.
Martinez, who made a misjudgment, was full of confidence and took two steps forward more firmly, approaching Velarde. He even thought about using a gorgeous bicycle fake to stun Velarde and go straight to the penalty area line. The script for a nearby field goal.
Then, just when Martinez was about to make a pedaling action, and the force of the last stroke before pedaling was a little bit stronger, Velarde, who seemed to be lowering his center of gravity and retreating, suddenly stopped and supported his foot back. Kick off, seize this fleeting opportunity and rush forward with all your strength.
By the time Gonzano Martinez saw Velarde's action, he was shocked and wanted to stretch his feet to regain control of the ball, but it was already too late.
Velarde not only grabbed the ball, but also made a decisive tackle, successfully scooping the ball away before Martinez, and shoveled it to the yellow team's midfielder Ferrero who followed behind Martinez and followed back to defend.
Seeing that Martinez could not touch the ball, he had no choice but to jump over Velarde. Velarde kept his feet close to the ground. There was no contact between the two sides, and no one was injured.
Head coach Mario Binco's eyes lit up when he saw it on the sidelines. He couldn't help but applaud and shouted "OK".
Judging from the fact that Velarde seized the opportunity and made a decisive tackle without hesitation, Velarde's retreat just now was indeed a tactical retreat, rather than fear of a duel with Gonzano Martinez.
Willard completed a beautiful defense and the rest was left to the offensive players.
From the side, after receiving the ball tackled by Velarde, the yellow team's midfielder Ferrero immediately caught the ball, turned around, and launched a counterattack.
Although the overall strength of the Yellow Team is weak, it may be that the Blue Team underestimated the enemy and failed to organize a defense line in time to resolve the Yellow Team's counterattack. In the end, it was kicked by another attacking midfielder of the Yellow Team, Djimon Mandarino. Diagonally inserted the ball into the gap on the right side of the blue team's penalty area.
Yellow team forward Triverio rushed over, and before the blue team defender returned to defend and tried to clear the ball, he volleyed the ball directly into the far corner of the goal.
Goalkeeper Gonzano Marinelli failed to react quickly and failed to touch the ball, only to watch as it sailed into the far corner.
The substitute team wearing yellow vests finally launched a counterattack through Velarde's backcourt tackle. Mandalino assisted Triverio with a volley in the penalty area and scored, rewriting the score to 2-1. One goal behind.
Triverio was so excited after scoring the goal that he went to Giman Mandalino, who assisted him, to hug and celebrate. Then when he returned to his own half, he intentionally took a few more steps and gave Velarde a high-five. .
Apparently, he still remembered that the ball was a counterattack initiated by a tackle by Velarde, who was also the hero.
Head coach Mario Binco and assistant coach Andres Yalin applauded on the sidelines, obviously very satisfied with the performance of the yellow team.
Unfortunately, due to overall strength, the yellow team failed to score again in the subsequent games, and in the 53rd minute before the end of the training match, the blue team scored again.
In the end, the yellow team representing the substitutes lost 1-3 to the blue team representing the main team and lost the team training match.
However, Willard's performance for more than 20 minutes was obvious to all. Not only did he play a key tackle role in the counterattack that turned from defense to offense and scored a goal, but he also directly or indirectly resolved the blue team's offense many times. The performance was outstanding.
Therefore, at the end of the game, head coach Mario Binco specifically found Velarde, patted him on the shoulder and said: "Willard, you performed well today, a big improvement over last season, keep up the good work. In addition, the coaching staff has already discussed your additional training plan. You can go to Yalin later and ask him to give it to you."
