As time went by, the overall state of the Argentina team became better and better. Velarde, who had just joined the national team, gradually adapted to the running, passing and receiving styles of these new teammates, and began to join the team's offense.
Mascherano is a pure defender and even played the center back position in Barcelona, so Velarde has taken on more offensive organizing tasks in the backcourt than in the previous game.
The technical strength of this pair reached 84, and they only faced off against the opponent's forwards, midfielders, and wingers with poor defensive capabilities. Velarde's ball control, dribbling, breakthroughs, passing and receiving, etc. all played a great role. Great effect.
In the 32nd minute, Velarde received the ball intercepted by Mascherano, but did not pass it out immediately. Ecuadorian winger Angel Mena rushed over from the side and closed in on the ball.
As a result, Velarde seemed to be looking up ahead, but he had already seen Mena's movements from the corner of his eyes. With an easy smash, Mena was shaken away from him.
Before Mena could turn around to press again, Verard, who had completed the smash, saw that Messi had run into a good gap in front of him, so he passed the ball with a ground ball, and then bypassed Messi. Na continued to advance and ran towards the Ecuador penalty area.
Anyway, with Mascherano at the back, Velarde is not afraid that he will penetrate too deep and create too many holes in the defense.
After Messi got the ball, he was immediately surrounded by the opponent's attacking midfielder Lastra, full-back Bolaños, and defender Walter Ayovi. However, Messi's powerful dribbling and ball-controlling breakthrough ability allowed him to force the ball. He kept the ball under his feet and waited for Verard to reach the top of the penalty area before passing the ball through the gap.
Messi alone attracted the attention of three opponents, coupled with the movement of two well-known superstars, Aguero and Di Maria, attracted the attention of almost all other defenders in Ecuador, causing the left midfielder Federico to Manquillo was left unmarked.
Therefore, Velarde, who received a pass from Messi at the top of the penalty area, did not hesitate, did not stop the ball, and did not give the opponent's defender a chance to close in and interfere. He directly passed the ball diagonally without stopping, and stuffed the ball. He reached the gap on the left side of the penalty spot in the penalty area.
Left midfielder Manquillo entered the penalty area, received a pass from Velarde, volleyed the ball without stopping, and kicked the ball to the lower left corner.
The ball was passed by Velarde, and Manquillo also played well and went straight to the blind corner. Although goalkeeper Alexander Domingos made a save, he failed to save the goal in the end.
The ball hit the left post of the goal and went into the lower left corner.
In the 32nd minute, Federico Manquillo scored, helping Argentina expand its lead 2-0. It was Alan Willard who provided the assist for Manquillo. Before the update, it was Messi who controlled the ball in the crowd and waited for Velarde to step in before sending a wonderful pass.
Therefore, both Desia and the others, as well as all the fans at the scene and in front of the TV, applauded enthusiastically, celebrating the team's expanded score and the outstanding performance of Messi and others.
This attack demonstrated Velarde's excellent forward offensive ability, proving that he can not only defend, but also participate in offense, and made Argentina's offense more three-dimensional and rich in layers, and also increased the coordination of the frontcourt offensive staff. point, rather than all of it being borne by Messi alone.
For example, in the ball just now, if Velarde had not stepped in to connect, Messi would not have been able to find the point where the ball was released, and would not have been able to pass the ball directly to Federico Manquillo or other teammates, because other teammates were far away from Messi. Farther west.
The key is that Velarde is willing to run and has the physical ability to run.
Other players are different. For a long time, Argentina seems to have a mentality of handing the ball to Messi and everything will be fine. They just wait for Messi to shoot or pass the ball as soon as Messi passes the N and completes the breakthrough. No one takes the initiative to move closer to Messi and gives the ball to Messi. He has the awareness to respond.
It's as if Messi can complete a breakthrough every time.
A higher level of emotional intelligence means that everyone trusts Messi and believes that he can break through the siege and bring the ball out. The fact is that Argentina's players are lazy, run less and provide less support to Messi.
This mentality makes Messi very tired and unable to play. No one can be 100% successful in every breakthrough, let alone one pass N. Moreover, Messi's own physical fitness is not good, and it is even more difficult for him to successfully break through with the ball frequently throughout the game.
Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why Argentina has not been able to win important international championships in recent years: even Messi can't lead this group of teammates who don't like running!
And now that Willard has this opportunity to change Messi's living situation in the national team, he will naturally not make Messi uncomfortable anymore.
He hopes that his system plug-in can help Argentina win the World Cup and help Messi win the championship.
He doesn't want Messi's skills to leave regrets in the history of football. Only the title of King of Football can be considered as living up to Messi's technical talent.
After celebrating the goal, the game continued.
Ecuador, which was two goals behind, stepped up its attack. After all, they are ranked 29th in the world. They are not just a loser, but they still have some pursuits. Even if they can't win against Argentina in the away game, they don't want to be unable to score a goal and have their heads shaved.
Therefore, taking advantage of the kick-off opportunity in the center circle, Ecuador pressed forward and launched a good continuous offensive.
At this time, Velarde returned to his midfielder position, using similar defensive abilities as Mascherano, and together with Mascherano, built a steel wall at the front of the penalty area, allowing Ecuador to The attack was repeatedly frustrated.
In the 36th minute, Ecuador tried to attack from the left. Left midfielder Bolaños and left winger Felipe Caicedo broke through the defense of full-back Zabaleta after a hit-the-wall coordination, and were preparing to drive straight in. The bottom pass was made, but Velard rushed over from the center and made a sliding tackle to shovel the ball out of the boundary.
If Bolaños hadn't reacted quickly and jumped over Velarde, he might have been tackled by Velarde without fouling.
In the 41st minute, the Ecuadorian midfielder made a diagonal cross from the wing at a 45-degree angle and dropped it into the penalty area. He wanted center Renato Ibarra to compete for the goal. It was Velarde who returned to the penalty area and used his awareness. His body and body caught the landing point, and then he leaped high to clear the ball.
Velarde's 186cm height and jumping ability well make up for Mascherano's lack of aerial defense ability caused by his only 174cm height. Two top defensive midfielders with close to 90 defensive abilities, plus the back line Assisting in defense makes Argentina's defense line impregnable, making it difficult for opponents to find loopholes that can be exploited.
Until the end of the first half, Ecuador failed to break through Argentina's goal and score a goal. On the contrary, Argentina had two good counterattacks. If not for the poor luck in scoring, the score might have been expanded again.
Despite this, the score of 2-0 in the first half was not bad. Therefore, at halftime, everyone felt relaxed, there was no tense atmosphere like the previous game, and head coach Gerardo Martino did not criticize everyone.
After a 15-minute rest, the game changed sides again in the second half.
With a 2-0 lead, Argentina's stars don't want to waste too much energy and affect the club's game.
Therefore, Argentina's offensive intensity was relatively weak in the second half, allowing Ecuador to still have room to counterattack after defending, and created a dangerous situation with a frontcourt free kick in the 56th minute.
Fortunately, goalkeeper Sergio Romero worked hard and blocked the opponent's forward Novoa's close-range shot four to five meters away from the goal in the small penalty area, preventing the opponent from scoring.
Seeing that the opponent still refused to give up and was still trying his best to counterattack, Willard felt that the 2-0 score was not safe. If we can score another goal and lead by three goals, then this game will be considered a victory. Messi, Di Maria and others who have played two games can also go and rest early.
Therefore, when the time came to the 63rd minute, Villard did not pass the ball after getting it near the center circle. Instead, he drove the ball forward himself, attracting the opponent's midfielder Rastus to grab the ball. Ladd passed the opponent with a gorgeous bicycle move, which attracted a burst of applause from the fans in the stands.
After all, as a defensive midfielder, Velarde's ability to perform such gorgeous technical moves is very eye-catching.
After passing Rastus on a bicycle, the opponent's midfielder came to cover and press, but at this time Velarde stopped dribbling the ball forward because he had already seen Di Maria running out from the right wing. There is a huge gap.
Velard directly passed the ball from a long distance and passed many players on both sides, and put the ball into the gap on the side of the Ecuadorian penalty area.
Di Maria jumped in at high speed, surpassed Ecuadorian full-back Paredes, received the ball about 10 meters away from the baseline, and then dribbled the ball diagonally towards the penalty area, pretending to enter the penalty area and shoot. .
But when goalkeeper Alexander Dominguez and the defenders blocked the near corner, Di Maria, who dribbled the ball to the rib area on the side line of the penalty area, did not shoot. Instead, he made a cross pass and passed the ball to the goalkeeper. In the gap in the middle of the penalty area.
Leo Messi, who was inserted in the middle, rushed over and met the ball with a push, easily pushing the ball into the lower left corner of the far goal.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball is in!"
"Leo Messi!"
"Messi scored Argentina's third goal. Argentina led Ecuador 3-0 and completely sealed the victory."
"The ball came from an attack launched by Alan Willard in the midfield. He first broke through Ecuador's midfielder Rastus with a bicycle, and then sent the ball to the wing near the bottom line with a long-distance pick. Maria successfully received the ball and then cut in and crossed, and Messi stepped in from the center and easily pushed the ball into the far corner."
"Messi's push shot is very stable, Di Maria's cross pass is timely, and Velarde's midfield pass is like a stroke of genius. Both the breadth of vision and passing skills are very good."
"Who would have thought that Willard was just a defensive midfielder?"
"In less than a year, Velarde has progressed from being a marginal substitute in League Two to a world-class player in both offense and defense."
"Now I can confirm that Velarde will definitely be included in the squad for this year's America's Cup."
“With Velarde’s midfield offensive and defensive bonus, Argentina’s Copa America this year might have a different result?”
Regardless of what happened in the Copa America in June, Messi was very happy after scoring the goal. While he, Aguero and Di Maria ran to the sidelines to celebrate, he did not forget to wave back and asked Velard to come forward and join him. Celebrating procession.
Messi could see it clearly. The most important thing about the ball just now was that Velarde passed it to Di Maria. It directly passed the entire Ecuador defense line and formed a breakthrough. Then Di Maria A cross pass was passed to him, and he pushed into the far corner to score the goal.
Velarde has brought huge improvements to the team's offensive and defensive aspects in the backcourt, so Messi has more expectations for Argentina's prospects in this year's Copa America.
