Returning to Argentina, Mario Binco gave everyone two days off to rest. After all, it is an away game, traveling back and forth is tiring, and there is a week between the two games, and the total score has already been decided, so I have two days off.
Someone happened to be interested in the old house that was put up for sale. He took advantage of the two-day holiday to sign a contract with the other party. After receiving the payment, he paid back part of the purchase money he borrowed from Desia, and Vera had to pay for the rest. De slowly played football and paid off his salary.
In terms of endorsements, in addition to renewing the contract at the Gonia restaurant and increasing the annual endorsement fee to 100,000 yuan, Douglas Johnson also helped Willard find an endorsement for a large supermarket located on Rivadavia Road, which also cost 100,000 yuan. One year, Willard's signed photo was hung in the supermarket to attract surrounding citizens and Hurricanes fans to come in and shop.
For a defensive player who has just been promoted to the A-League, he can now have two endorsements and earn an additional 200,000 pesos a year, which is already very good.
You know, except for Mancinelli and Toranso, who have small endorsements for hometown products, no one else in the Hurricanes team has even a small endorsement.
Moreover, this year the A-League has expanded to include as many as 30 teams, and the value of A-League players is not as high as before when there were only 20 teams.
Both career and love are developing for the better.
On Monday, February 9th, Willard spent another 33 skill points, increasing his defense, physique, awareness, and speed from 85 to 86, heading from 82 to 83, technique from 79 to 80, and shooting. From 69 to 70, reverse foot from 41 to 42, passing from 69 to 70, there are only 5 skill points left.
Two days later, on February 11, in the second round of the Copa Libertadores qualifying match, Atletico Hurricanes faced Lima Union at home.
Although the 4-0 away victory in the first round had killed the suspense of the game, as the first home game of the new year and the new season, and the first home game of returning to the Copa Libertadores after many years, the Hurricanes' The fans still enthusiastically filled the entire Duke Thomas Stadium.
In terms of lineup, the Hurricanes Athletics only rotated Santiago Echeberria and Mancinelli, with Federico Bismara and Bonny Fashaw as the starters, and the others were the same as the first round lineup. Same.
After captain Mancinelli was rotated, it was vice-captain Alan Willard who led the team wearing the captain's armband.
When Willard, wearing the captain's armband, followed the referee team and led the Hurricanes into Duke Thomas Stadium, the 48,000 home fans at the scene burst into thunderous applause.
Yes, when the total score was four goals behind and the loss was certain, there were no fans from the Lima League who followed the team on the journey and came across the country to cheer for the visiting team. There were 48,000 fans at Duke Thomas Stadium. The seats were all occupied by Hurricanes home fans.
"The game is about to begin."
"We saw that wearing the captain's armband and leading the Hurricanes Athletic Team into the field was No. 4 Alan Willard."
"Villade has become the leader of the Hurricanes Athletic Team. When captain Mancinelli was rotated, Velarde put on the captain's armband without hesitation and shouldered the important task of leading the Hurricanes Athletic Team on the green field."
"And this is the first home game for Hurricanes Athletic in the new year and new season, which shows Mario Binco's trust in Velarde."
"What kind of performance Willard can show today is exciting."
The game started at 20:00 in the evening, so even though Krisna and the other three had classes during the day, they were picked up by Desia after class in the afternoon and rushed to the stadium to cheer for her boyfriend.
Seeing Willard leading the team into the game with the captain's armband, the four sisters felt quite proud. With admiration and obsession in their eyes, they applauded Willard.
After the game started, Lima Union, as the visiting team, took the initiative to launch an attack. Although they were four goals behind, they still wanted to fight. Even if you lose in the end, you can't surrender in the first minute of the game, right?
Besides, even if we really lose in the end, it would still be good to score one or two goals to save some face.
But the Hurricanes Athletic Team doesn’t allow it!
Especially goalkeeper Marcos Dias and captain Alan Velarde. As a goalkeeper, Dias never wants to pick up the ball from the goal behind him, even if his team is already leading by a big score, it doesn't matter if he concedes one or two goals.
And Willard, wearing the captain's armband for the first time and leading the team in a game, is still the core of the team's defense. Naturally, he has an even greater responsibility. He must resolutely prevent his opponents from breaking through his defense and goal.
In the 3rd minute, Lima Union kicked the ball in the backcourt and the ball reached the half of the Hurricanes Athletic Team. Velarde and the visiting team forward Gevchochian rushed towards the ball landing point at the same time.
As a result, Velarde reached the landing point first, jumped up to fight for the top, and passed the ball to his teammate Toranso.
After Gevchochian saw that he was one step behind Velarde and had a high probability of not grabbing the ball, he simply didn't even jump to avoid the possibility of a mid-air collision with Velarde.
Meigues, who was hit by Willard in the last round and suffered a dislocated jaw and bleeding gums, is still recuperating at home and has not yet returned. He does not want to become like Meigues.
In the 7th minute, Lima Union played a good wing attack. Finally, the full-back Basilio Costa made a pass from the right, deceiving the full-back Balbi into flying into the hole of the gun and throwing himself out of the baseline. But Costa dunked the ball inside and then cut inside with the ball.
Center back Eduardo Domingos stepped forward to block, Federico Bismara was closely guarding forward Gevchochian, but Basilio Costa, who cut inside with the ball, was about to challenge Eduardo Domingo. When Goss met, he directly passed the ball through an inverted triangle and sent the ball to the space on the right side of the top of the penalty area.
No. 8 midfielder Cueva stepped in from the back row and took a powerful long-range shot without stopping the ball. He kicked the ball towards the far corner of the goal.
Alan Velarde has been attracted by Lima Alliance midfielder Sedyu to the left area at the top of the penalty area and can no longer block Cueva's shot.
Perhaps the passing route chosen by Basilio Costa was to avoid Velarde.
However, just before Costa was about to pass the ball in an inverted triangle, Velarde, who was far away and seemingly beyond his reach, shouted to his partner Lucas Villaruel who was returning to the penalty area. He made a sound, and then pointed to the empty area on the right side of the top of the penalty area.
At this time, Costa's ball had not yet been passed, and Cueva had not yet run into the gap. As a result, Velarde had already discovered the loophole and directed his teammate Lucas to step forward and block it.
Lucas understood and immediately moved laterally, preparing to plug possible loopholes.
Sure enough, as soon as Lucas moved, Basilio Costa's inverted triangle pass came.
Then, when the ball was passed in place and Cueva rushed up to complete the shot, Lucas Villaruel also moved laterally to the position, made a decisive flying tackle, and successfully blocked the ball with his fallen calf. .
Although the ball was not completely blocked, the ball bounced upward on Lucas' calf, changed line slightly, and continued toward the far corner of the Hurricanes Athletic goal.
But at this time, the speed of the ball has slowed down a lot, not to mention that it is still drawing a high parabola in the air. Goalkeeper Marcos Dias can naturally move to the landing point, jump up and hug the ball with both hands, and easily confiscate the ball. .
With an awareness and defensive ability as high as 86, Willard's ability to discover his own vulnerabilities and command his teammates to help defend in a timely manner has reached a top level.
Even if the opponent avoids him and attacks other weak defensive areas, Willard will remotely command other teammates to help defend and plug the loopholes.
Unless there is a dribbler like Messi who can get past the N, even if Velard directs his teammates to help defend, he can't stop him. That's another story.
However, Willard has not encountered this situation yet.
There are only a few players in the world who can surpass N and have the ability to reduce dimensionality, so they are not easy to come across. What's more, even if they encounter it, there is still a problem of on-the-spot condition and luck. Whether they can truly break through the defense line led by Willard in the game is still unknown.
After attacking for more than ten minutes, Lima Union failed to break through the Hurricanes' defense. Instead, they suffered a quick counterattack from the Hurricanes in the 17th minute.
Lima Union winger Landauri was intercepted by the Hurricanes defender and tried to pass the ball across to his teammate Sedeyou. The two made mistakes in passing and running awareness, and Landauri passed the ball over. By the time, Sedeyou had already taken a few steps forward.
By the time he realized that the ball passed by Randauri was passed behind him, and wanted to brake, turn around and catch the ball again, it was already too late. The ball was rushed over and taken away by Alan Willard, who was the first to react.
Sedyu turned around to counterattack, but Velarde used his strong physique to hold Sedyu behind him. He looked up and observed the movement of his teammates and the position of his opponent in the frontcourt, and did not send a through ball. Instead, the ball was passed to Dalia, who was running in from the wing and almost unguarded.
Perhaps because he had not played much time before, Dalia was not heavily marked by his opponents. Especially in this counterattack, the Lima League defensive players focused on marking the forward, attacking midfielder, and No. 10 Alejandro. Lo Romero went, and Dalia on the right was unmarked.
So Velarde chose to pass the ball to Dalia.
After receiving the pass from Velarde, Dalia moved forward at high speed along the wing. When the Lima League defender who was returning to defend was about to catch up with him and interfere with him, Dalia decisively passed the ball to Lucas Villaruel comes in from the back and is also unmarked.
The defender who was originally marking Toranso had to give up Toranso and came to intercept Lucas. The defender who was marking Romero moved over to mark Toranso.
This is what is said by pulling one hair and moving the whole body.
Football is about creating space and scoring opportunities through movement. Through the continuous passes of Velarde and Dalia and quick counterattacks, Lima Union's left wing was completely empty, and the defense around Alejandro Romero The player moves away and is in an unmarked space.
Then, Lucas Villaruel made a diagonal pass and sent the ball into the left rib space of the penalty area. Alejandro Romero rushed into the penalty area diagonally and fired a heavy shot without stopping the ball. Hit the goal and successfully kicked the ball into the goal.
Although the angle of the ball was not awkward, the distance was too close and the speed was too fast. Goalkeeper Frost opened his arms and subconsciously passively defended and failed to touch the ball. The ball passed over goalkeeper Frost's arms and flew into the goal.
With Lucas Villaruel assisting Alejandro Romero's goal in the 17th minute, Atletico Hurricanes led the Lima League 1-0 at home and 5-0 in two rounds. Killed all suspense.
Hurricanes fans in the field and in front of the TV celebrated happily. Senior fans and professional reporters, commentators, coaches, and scouts were all aware of the situation and clearly understood that this ball was an attack initiated by Velarde who intercepted the ball in the backcourt.
In addition to defense, Velarde can also contribute a lot of strength in offense, and offense and defense are becoming more and more integrated.
Next, Lima Union must score at least five goals in a row to equalize the total score in order to eliminate Atletico Hurricanes with the advantage of more away goals.
But this is completely impossible.
If Lima Union can score 5 goals against Atletico Hurricanes, it will not fall behind 0-5. What's more, even if Lima Union goes all out and scores a goal, the Hurricanes' sharper counterattack can also score a goal.
There is no possibility of a comeback for the Lima League.
