With the referee's whistle, the 20th round of Group B of the 2014 AL Playoffs, and the penultimate round of the season, the match between Atletico Hurricanes and Santa Fe United officially began at the Hurricanes' home court.
Although it is at home, most of the main players have been rotated. The Hurricanes Athletic Team, which is preparing for the next Argentine Cup final, will naturally not take the initiative to attack, but will conduct defensive counterattacks.
However, Santa Fe United did not attack rashly. After all, this is the Hurricanes' home court, and even the offense may not be able to break through the Hurricanes' defense. The two sides have the same points and are only separated by two goal differences. Santa Fe United can completely wait for the Hurricanes to make mistakes due to two-front operations and does not necessarily have to win this game.
In this face-to-face contest, everyone can accept a draw, but no one can accept a loss. Once they lose, they may completely lose the championship.
Therefore, at the beginning of the game, both sides had little desire to attack and were still in the testing stage.
After more than ten minutes, Santa Fe United couldn't help but attack. After all, although both teams are now tied on points, Santa Fe United is behind the Hurricanes on goal difference. If you can win the face-to-face competition, you will not only be able to overtake the rankings, but also widen the three-point gap and close the goal difference gap. There are many benefits.
Santa Fe United would definitely like to win if given the chance.
In the 19th minute, Santa Fe United forward Marcola crossed into the penalty area from the right, and midfielder Mauricio Martinez prepared to send the ball in with a pass and provide an assist.
However, Marcola's movement and Mauricio Martinez's passing intention were perceived by Velarde. He moved ahead and made a flying tackle, intercepting the opponent's pass halfway and resolving the opponent's threat. attack.
The fans were still applauding Willard's wonderful tackle. Three minutes later, Santa Fe United made a comeback. The same routine, this time switched to the left, another forward Lucas Gamba bypassed Bonny Fashaw, who had problems with his positioning, and inserted diagonally into the left rib of the penalty area.
Another Santa Fe United midfielder, Juan Rivas, passed the ball through the gap between Bonny Fashaw and Federico Bismara, and it just reached Lucas. ·On the route of Gamba's movement.
Gamba did not stop the ball to adjust. He directly kicked off the left rib of the penalty area about 18 meters away from the goal and volleyed from a small angle. Goalkeeper Marcos Dias blocked the near corner, but Lucas Gamba shot from the far corner. Dias dived to the outside and failed to touch the ball.
The ball escaped Marcos Dias's fingers, flew into the goal against the far post, and hit the side netting. Eduardo Domingos, who returned to defense at the far end and tried to clear the ball, failed to touch the ball and fell into the goal with the ball.
"The ball is in!"
"Santa Fe United easily penetrated Atletico Hurricanes' defense."
"It's not that Velarde didn't work hard, it's just that the Hurricanes rotated too many players this time. There were loopholes in the cooperation between Bonny Fashaw and Federico Bismara, which allowed Lucas Gamba to run out. There was a gap and Juan Rivas provided a through ball assist.”
"Villade was far away and had no other skills. He could only watch the ball being sent into the far corner by Lucas Gamba."
"Santa Fe United leads 1-0."
"If the Hurricanes can't change the status quo, Santa Fe United may continue to score goals."
"Bonnie Fashaw, Eduardo Domingos and others cannot say how weak they are. The main problem is the tacit cooperation of the defense."
"A talented offensive player can penetrate the opponent's entire defense line by himself, but defense is a team sport that pays attention to the whole. A strong player like Velard also maintains a high defensive success rate by commanding his teammates to assist in defense."
"But today's Hurricanes have too much rotation. Even if Willard directs it, he can't be flexible."
"Let's see if the Hurricane Athletics team has any way to deal with it."
Generally speaking, after losing the ball, the team that lost the ball will get angry and start to press forward to counterattack.
But this time, Santa Fe United ended its celebration and after the game restarted, the Hurricanes did not press for a counterattack, but continued to defend. Velarde even asked the two full-backs Fabianesi and Dalia to retreat deeper to help defend the two rib areas and prevent the opponent from hitting the ribs through the ball like before. A way to penetrate the defense line.
This made Santa Fe United, whose morale was boosted after the goal, ready to continue their efforts and score another goal, curbed, and never conceded another goal.
While stabilizing the defense, the Hurricanes certainly didn't have any counterattacks. After all, they are the ones lagging behind now, and they can't do anything without fighting back.
However, in the counterattack in the 32nd minute, the Hurricanes had little luck. Forward Avila received Dalia's diagonal cross from the frontcourt and headed the ball towards the goal. The ball hit the crossbar and almost missed the goal. .
"The Hurricanes stabilized their defense through the back-defense of the two full midfielders. They were no longer forced to break through from the wings and ribs like before, and began to counterattack from time to time."
"It's a pity that the Hurricanes, as the home team, were a little unlucky and the goal was blocked by the goal frame of their own stadium."
"Avila received Dalia's cross from the wing and almost scored with a header, but it finally hit the crossbar. It was a pity that the position was broken."
"However, now the Hurricanes are only one goal behind. As long as they stabilize their defense, there is still a possibility of tying, even until the last minute of the game."
"The key is not to concede any more goals."
We really can’t afford to lose the ball again.
After the ball failed to score, Velarde immediately called Dalia back after assisting him, and continued to defend the defense, making sure not to concede the ball first.
Willard's decision was prescient.
Seeing that there were only ten minutes left in the game, Santa Fe United, which had been slow for a while, suddenly pressed forward collectively and launched a wave of attacks, trying to catch the Hurricanes off guard and score a second goal to seal the victory.
Fortunately, the Hurricanes' defense had sufficient numerical advantage at this time, and with Willard's back-and-forth support and command, they withstood Santa Fe United's onslaught.
The most dangerous moment was a corner kick attack by Santa Fe United in the 39th minute. Center Enrique Terrio had already overwhelmed center back Bismara to grab the first point and scored with his head. Goalkeeper Marcos Di Asturias had already surrendered. Fortunately, Velarde felt the danger and retreated to the goal line first. He just happened to block Theriault's header and headed it out to clear the siege.
If it weren't for Willard's goal-line header clearance, this goal would undoubtedly have been scored.
In football matches, not only goals can boost morale, but defense can too.
Willard's goal-line clearance shocked the Hurricanes players and fans, but also boosted their morale.
It just so happened that after Santa Fe United attacked for a while, it was time to take a break physically. The Hurricanes took advantage of this opportunity and launched a counterattack.
In the 42nd minute, Avila passed the ball in an inverted triangle from the right rib of the penalty area. Velard rushed forward and shot a powerful long-range shot without stopping the ball, creating a world wave with excellent power and speed. Unfortunately, the shot was not accurate and missed the right post.
But under the Hurricanes' continued counterattack, Santa Fe United finally had defensive holes.
Before the end of the first half, in the 44th minute, the running gap of Santa Fe United's back line was discovered by Avila and Lucas Villaruel at the same time.
Avila made a diagonal pass into the space behind defenders Britts and Barisone, and Lucas Villaruel passed the ball through the gap between the two.
This goal is similar to Santa Fe United's goal. Avila also received Lucas's through ball in the ribs of Santa Fe United's penalty area. He volleyed the ball without stopping and kicked the ball in. Far corner.
Goalkeeper Nereo Fernandez also stood at the near corner to block the goal, but failed to save Avila's ball towards the far corner.
"Wow, the ball went in!"
"Avila has made a great contribution."
"He received a through ball from Lucas Villaruel and without stopping he volleyed the ball into the Santa Fe United goal."
"The goal was almost identical to Santa Fe United's goal, and the Hurricanes gave Santa Fe United an identical goal in return."
"The score of both sides was rewritten to 1-1, and they are back on the same starting line."
"Being able to equalize the score before the end of the first half will definitely give the Hurricanes a big boost in morale."
The commentators were right. Avila's goal helped the Hurricanes equalize the score. Everyone was very excited and gathered around Avila to celebrate enthusiastically.
In particular, Bonny Fashaw and Federico Bismara, who were the first to concede the ball due to coordination errors, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and their sense of guilt for conceding the ball due to coordination errors was much reduced.
The Hurricanes ended their celebration. Not long after Santa Fe United took the ball from the center circle, and before an effective shot was formed, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the two sides returned to the game with a 1-1 draw. locker room.
From taking the lead to being equalized, Santa Fe United was naturally quite unhappy, and the players were a little unhappy when they came off the field.
As for the Hurricanes Athletics, from falling behind to equalizing the score before the end of the first half, everyone entered the halftime break with a relatively relaxed mood.
At half-time, Mario Binco did not criticize the defense for their performance in the first half. Because, after rotating most of the players, he knew that mistakes and loopholes in the defense were inevitable, and it was normal for opponents to catch the loopholes and score goals if they were unlucky.
However, he still asked everyone to do what they did just now in the second half, not only to continue to defend the defense line and not to attack the offense easily, but also to increase the running range of the three players on the front line, increase the number of returns to defense, and ensure the back line of defense. Don't drop the ball again.
Mario Binco implicitly expressed a meaning: Anyway, you are all rotation players. You don’t have to start in the next Argentine Cup final. Therefore, you are not afraid even if you get cramps in this game. You must increase the number of defensive returns. , increase the frequency of sprinting back and forth to ensure that the Hurricanes have both offense and defense.
Fabianesi and others all heard the meaning behind the coach's words. Although they were a little uncomfortable, we are all professional players and we do need outstanding performance to win more playing time. Therefore, even if they felt that what Mario Binco said was unpleasant, everyone still nodded and said that they would follow his instructions in the second half and increase the frequency and speed of returning defenses.
After a 15-minute rest, the two sides changed sides and fought again in the second half.
At the beginning of the second half, Santa Fe United launched a sudden attack, trying to take advantage of the Hurricanes' unsteady foothold at the beginning of the second half to conduct a sneak attack, score another goal, and regain the lead.
However, the Atletico Hurricanes' defense had enough numbers, and the three forward players returned to defend. They took advantage of their numerical advantage to hold on to the defense and did not allow Santa Fe United to achieve results.
After attacking for more than ten minutes, it still had no effect. The players of Santa Fe United were also tired from running and finally slowed down their attack. The Hurricanes Athletic Team could also take a rest, and the two sides entered a stalemate.
