After a ceremony of taking photos, shaking hands, and picking sides, at 20:00 in the evening on November 26, 2014, with the whistle of the referee, the 2013/2014 Argentine Football Association Cup final between Rosario Central VS Atletico Hurricanes It officially begins at the famous Candy Box Stadium in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Commentators from all over the country and even other countries who broadcast the game all said excitedly:
"The referee blew the opening whistle and the game officially started."
"Rosario Central wears a blue and yellow striped jersey and attacks from the left to the right of the screen; Atletico Hurricanes wears a white jersey and attacks from the right to the left of the screen."
"Let's take a look at the starting lineups of both sides."
"Rosario Central is currently ranked 18th in Argentina, which is third from the bottom, but they shocked the country by beating Independiente Argentina 5-0 in the last semi-final."
"In this game, they played a 442 midfield diamond position. The goalkeeper is No. 1 Calanta, and the defenders from left to right are No. 3 Delgado, No. 21 Y. Gomez, No. 2 Donati, and No. 4 No. Paul Ferrari, the defensive midfielder is No. 5 Musto, the left midfielder is No. 8 Barrientos, the right midfielder is No. 7 Encina, the midfielder is No. 11 Pablo Becker, and the two high center forwards are No. 9 Nel and No. 17 Jose Valencia."
"Obviously, Rosario Central is going to use a two-center tactic to offset the aerial advantage of the Hurricanes' many tall defenders and strive for goals."
"Hurricane Athletic Team comes from the second division and is currently ranked first in Group B of the second division. It is also the team with the highest points in the second division."
"In the first few rounds, they eliminated four first-division teams, including Boca Juniors, Banfield, Estudiantes of La Plata, and Rafael, all the way to the finals. It was a black tie."
"If the Hurricanes can defeat Rosario Central and win the championship in this game, it will create a miracle for a second-division team to win the top cup in the country."
"Let's take a look at the Hurricanes' starting lineup."
"The Hurricanes did not play the 352 single defensive midfielder formation that they are good at, but played a 4231 defensive counterattack formation."
"Obviously, in the finals, facing Rosario Central, which had a 5-0 bloodbath against their opponent in the previous round, the Hurricanes decided to focus on stability, avoid their sharp edges, and defend their own defense first."
“Their goalkeeper is No. 1 Marcos Dias, left back No. 4 Santiago Echeberria, No. 2 Mancinelli and No. 5 Federico Bismara partner as a double central defender, and the right back is No. 6 No. Elam Spey.”
"The four defenders are all big men with a height of over 180cm and have strong aerial advantage."
"The double defensive midfielders are the current banner figures of the Hurricanes Athletics, No. 33 Alan Willard and No. 8 Lucas Villaruel. Whether the Hurricanes can win this game depends on Ai Len Willard's play and leadership."
"The left midfielder is No. 31 Jimán Mandarino, the right midfielder is No. 18 Toranso, the attacking midfielder is No. 10 Gonzano Martinez, and No. 17 Thomson Mira serves as the lone forward."
"At present, both sides are in the testing stage. Neither of them is aggressively attacking. They passed the ball back when there was a slight obstruction."
"This is a championship game that determines the outcome and no one wants to make a mistake."
"The so-called unnamed game in the final. After the Hurricanes changed their formation from their usual 352 to 4231, we can imagine that there will not be too many goals in this game."
"Even with Rosario Central's ability to annihilate its opponents 5-0 in the last round, I'm afraid it will be difficult to score too many goals against Atletico Hurricanes."
"After all, the defensive midfielder position of Hurricanes Athletic is occupied by Alan Willard, a defensive leader who has attracted attention among the top clubs in the A-League."
"If the Hurricanes hadn't completed the contract extension with Velarde in time, Velarde might have been poached by other teams after this season."
…
In the nagging of the commentators, the pace of the two sides was indeed relatively slow. No one wanted to make a mistake by conceding the ball, being counterattacked by the opponent, and passed the ball when they encountered a slight obstacle.
Except for deflected passes and mistakes, he generally does not dribble past others, and no one challenges Willard.
All Rosario Central players were sternly warned by the head coach not to try to dribble past Velarde, as the success rate was very low. Even though they are first-division players, Velarde is still a second-division player. But in terms of personal ability, Velarde is better than Rosario Central's defensive players.
Even in the entire First Division, he may be one of the top defensive players. More importantly, Velarde's skills are not bad and are improving all the time. Once Velarde steals the ball, it is easy to form a counterattack.
Therefore, the head coach of Rosario Central strictly prohibited his players from breaking through Velarde with the ball. This has led to Willard's current defensive data not being very good. He has not made a steal or made a clearance after playing for more than ten minutes, and has only one successful aerial challenge.
But Willard doesn't care about this. He is not really a 21-year-old young man. He knows what is more important as a defensive player. Therefore, since the opponent does not come to him, he goes to the opponent, closing in on the threat, causing the opponent to pass the ball hastily, making passing errors, and then counterattacking through the steals of his teammates.
After 15 minutes, the two sides began to gradually enter the game state and accelerated the pace of the game.
In the 17th minute, Rosario Central's right midfielder Encina and midfielder Pablo Becker played a wall-to-wall combination, broke through the interception of full-back Santiago Echeberria, and successfully passed the ball.
Two centers, Nel and Jose Valencia, rushed into the penalty area at the same time to fight for the top. The Hurricanes defender was unable to react in time. Jose Valencia was stuck in position and grabbed the first point, swinging his head towards the goal.
Fortunately, although captain Mancinelli did not grab the ball, he still pulled Jose Valencia from behind, which interfered with his bounce and caused him to fail to jump to the expected height. In the end, Valencia's header failed to hit the door frame and flew over the crossbar.
Although the goal was not scored, it could be regarded as the first goal attack of the game, and the rhythm of both sides began to speed up.
Five minutes later, Rosario Central full-back Delgado made a diagonal pass to the midfielder and sent the ball to the feet of midfielder Pablo Becker, whose back was facing the direction of the attack.
When Pablo Becker received the ball, Velarde was pushing and interfering behind him, but I don’t know what Pablo Becker was thinking. Perhaps he wanted to test Velarde’s condition and strength when he received the ball. When the ball was passed, he did not pass it out immediately. Instead, he hooked the ball to the right side of his body and then went around from the left side.
The ball jumped along the upper of Becker's shoe and flew past the right side of Velarde's body behind him. Becker went around the left side of Velarde's body.
This is a wonderful back-up pick and the ball passes. If successful, it will be quite exciting.
It turned out that Willard was not fooled.
Although Velarde was blocked by Pablo Becker, he turned sideways and saw Pablo Becker's outstretched foot touching the ball. With his high-attribute consciousness, he roughly judged what Becker wanted to do in an instant.
Therefore, when Becker completed the pick and went around from the left, Willard didn't care about him at all. Instead, he turned around instantly, blocked the position, jammed Becker who came around from the left, and then relaxed on his own. He caught up with the ball that was picked behind him and completed the steal.
"nice shot!"
"Pablo Becker tried to pick the ball with his back and pass the ball through Velarde, but Velarde saw through it and easily turned around and got stuck in position to steal the ball."
"Pablo Becker's lob failed."
"Alan Willard is indeed the anchor of the Hurricanes' defense. Pablo Becker, a technical midfielder, cannot easily break through Willard."
"Pablo Becker was educated by Willard. Now he should know how powerful Willard is."
On the sidelines, the head coach of Rosario Central also shook his head. He had warned before the game not to challenge Velarde easily. In the end, Pablo Becker still did this, maybe because he was a little unconvinced. After all, he was the core organizer of the first-class team and had very good skills, while Velarde was only a defensive player for the second-class team.
But it turns out that Velarde's defensive ability is not exaggerated. The probability that Pablo Becker wants to form a breakthrough on Velarde is really low. Presumably, after this, Pablo Becker should be able to be honest.
The fact is that after he failed to deceive Velarde this time with what he thought was a very sudden back pick and pass, Pablo Becker also knew that the head coach was right, Velarde’s ability , has indeed gone beyond the scope of the second-division team. Even if it is placed in the first-division league, he is still a top defensive player, and he cannot easily break through in a one-on-one.
Afterwards, Becker became much more honest. When he got the ball, he would usually avoid Velarde. When Velarde came to press him, he would immediately pass the ball out and not give Velarde a chance to steal the ball.
The other Rosario Central players did the same, trying to avoid Villard's defensive area.
Although this approach avoided losing the ball frequently, it also caused their offense to be less smooth. The Hurricanes Athletic Team also occasionally launches counterattacks when they get the ball, and sometimes they can pose a threat.
In the 30th minute, Villard forced the winger Encina to pass the ball in a hurry by rushing up and lost the ball. Lucas Villaruel intercepted the ball, and then formed a quick counterattack. In the end, Gonzano Martinez made a pass, and the ball passed defender Donati and fell into the penalty area.
Forward Thomson Milla rushed past Donati and volleyed the ball, but unfortunately he failed to suppress the ball and ended up flying over the crossbar.
Although the goal was not scored, it was considered a threatening counterattack by the Hurricanes and gave the players and fans a certain degree of confidence. As long as we can hold the defensive line, be invincible first, and then use counterattacks, there is still hope of scoring goals.
In the 35th minute, winger Jimán Mandarino went down the left wing and cut inside to pass the ball in an inverted triangle. Gonzano Martinez made a move to meet the ball and shot furiously, knocking down the two central Rosarios in front of him. A defender, but he faked the shot and missed it, passing the ball to Lucas Villaruel who came in from behind.
As a result, Lucas did not expect that Gonzano Martinez would miss the ball. By the time he reacted, it was already too late. He was too close to the ball. He bent awkwardly and barely managed to kick the ball, although it hit the goal frame. , but the power was too small and the angle was not tricky, so goalkeeper Kalanta threw him into his arms and confiscated it.
Lucas Villaruel, who missed a great shooting opportunity, was deeply upset and apologized to Gonzano Martinez who missed a good shot.
Although Gonzano Martinez was a little disappointed, it was hard to say anything since this was a game. He could only say that it didn't matter and keep working hard.
