A few days later, at 20:30 in the evening on May 2, the 11th round of the A-League between Rosario Central and Atletico Hurricanes officially started.
At the beginning of the season, Rosario Central and Hurricanes were tied at the top of the standings. Hurricanes could only rank first with a goal difference.
However, Rosario has not performed well in recent games and has now fallen to fifth place in the standings.
Despite this, Rosario still has to fight against Atletico Hurricanes in this game. Not only for the championship, but also for revenge.
Because in the Argentine Cup final last season, Rosario Central lost 0-1 to Atletico Huracán, and watched the Hurricanes win the double crown of Argentina B and Argentine Cup, becoming the Atlético Huracán to perform as a second-division team and win the double crown. King's stepping stone to miracles.
Therefore, now that they meet in the A-League, Rosario Central will naturally want to take revenge. What's more, this is Rosario's home court. The Hurricanes have also rotated several main players because the next game is the 1/8 finals of the Copa Libertadores. Rosario Central must seize the opportunity to take revenge at home. .
However, in view of the current terrifying defensive capabilities and counterattack efficiency of the current Hurricanes Athletic Team, Rosario Central did not attack aggressively to avoid being counterattacked by the Hurricanes.
They attack steadily every time. Once they encounter obstacles, they immediately turn around and pass back. They do not easily break through people or hang into the penalty area, which can easily lose the ball.
As for the Hurricanes Athletic Team, it is a defensive counterattack. In this game, both Alejandro Romero and Avila were rotated on the bench, so the frequency of attacks was also limited.
Both sides played more cautiously, and the game went on for half an hour without scoring a goal. Some neutral fans were already a little sleepy.
Even Rosario Central's own players were a little listless.
At this moment, in the 32nd minute, Alan Willard got the ball in the backcourt and suddenly found Fabianesi on the left side of the frontcourt in a huge gap.
Although there were many players from both sides along the way, and long passes on the ground could not pass, Willard decisively passed the ball with a big-footed long pass in the air.
Even though Villard's passing skills were not high, he was not accurate and even almost threw the ball out of the sideline.
But the problem is that Fabianesi is unguarded and can easily stand on the sideline, jump up and stop the ball with his chest.
This sudden change put Rosario Central's backcourt in immediate crisis. Because Velarde's long pass directly penetrated the entire central midfield of Rosario, Fabianesi, who took the ball off, was left with full-back Victor Salazar in front of him.
Of course, there is a centre-back in the middle, but he also has his own teammate Ivan Boglo.
Fabianesi immediately dribbled the ball down, and Victor Salazar retreated while blocking, preparing to slow down Fabianesi's speed, and then waited for his teammates in the midfield to double-team and steal the ball.
However, Fabianesi did not completely reach the base, and suddenly made a pass from a place level with the penalty area line.
The ball soared into the air, passed by the toes of Victor Salazar who reacted and tried to steal the ball, and flew diagonally into the penalty area in the center of Rosario.
Ivan Boglo seized a favorable position in the struggle with Rosario Central defender Y. Gomez. He faced Fabianesi's cross and made an extremely stretched dive to the top of the ball. It flew up, just past the goalkeeper Kalanta who hit the line of the small penalty area, and then drew a parabola and fell into the goal against the lower edge of the crossbar.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Ivan Boglo made a perfect dive to head Fabianesi's cross into the Rosario Central goal."
"This ball reminds me of Van Persie's textbook diving header in last year's World Cup in Brazil."
"The two goals are similar. Although Ivan Boglo's goal does not look as beautiful as Van Persie's, it is still a very good and exciting goal. There is no problem at all in being selected as the top ten goals of the week in the A-League. "
"In addition, this ball was initiated by Velarde's long pass from the backcourt, which flew directly over the entire midfield defense of Rosario Central."
"Willard's vision and awareness are really strong, and he is fully capable of the level of a master-level organizing midfielder."
"Such a defensive core is very scary."
"Atletico Hurricanes led Rosario Central 1-0, and the balance on the field was broken. Now, the home team has no reason to attack slowly and cautiously."
“They have to attack in a big way, otherwise it will be very difficult to score against the Hurricanes defense led by Alan Willard.”
This is also true. After the game restarted, Rosario Central could no longer be cautious because they were now behind. If they don't attack well and end the game with a score of 0-1, they will still lose as the home team.
Therefore, Rosario Central stepped up its attack. However, Hurricanes' defense could not even be broken by River Plate, let alone Rosario Central.
The only defeats of River Plate and Boca Juniors in the A-League this season were both to Hurricanes, which shows how strong the Hurricanes' defense and counterattack are.
Before the end of the first half, Rosario Central not only failed to score to equalize the score, but suffered a quick counterattack from Hurricanes Athletics in the 43rd minute. Alan Willard, Toranso, Turaza, Ivan Boglo fired four arrows, directly penetrating the backcourt of Rosario Central that was slightly empty due to the heavy pressure on the offense.
Finally, midfielder Turaza made a pass from the right. Velarde inserted in the back row, rushed into the penalty area, keenly judged the landing point first, and blocked the defensive midfielder Neri Domingos behind him. , jumped up and hit the goal with a powerful header, successfully heading the ball to the upper right corner of the goal.
The ball was powerful, fast and had a tricky angle. Although goalkeeper Calanta tried his best to save, he still failed to touch the ball and could only watch the ball fly into the upper corner against the right post.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in again!"
"Hurricane Athletic scored again, 2-0."
“The goal was scored by Alan Willard. He came in from the back and participated in the attack. He received Tulasa’s pass in the penalty area and hit the goal with a powerful header. He pushed the ball into the dead center of the goal. "
“Rosario Central was down two goals and there was little hope for this game.”
"It's almost impossible to come back against Hurricanes Athletic who are two goals ahead."
"Willard's mere presence can make people feel hopeless."
"Atletico Hurricanes' defense has become a nightmare for all Argentine and even South American teams."
“Rosario Central, which is two goals behind, has basically lost this game.”
"Unless a miracle happens, we want to reverse the Hurricanes Athletics."
In fact, this was the case. After seeing Willard heading the ball into the goal and extending the score to 2-0, the Rosario Central players became quite discouraged.
Everyone knows that the current defense of the Hurricanes Athletic Team, under the command of Alan Willard, can be called an iron wall. The gap between the two goals is really difficult to recover.
At halftime, it looked like the Hurricanes had won the game. Rosario Central, playing at home, looked listless and dejected, with no energy at all to seek revenge.
However, I don’t know what happened in the locker room. After the second half of the game started, Rosario Central suddenly became much more energetic. The morale was high, the offense was fierce, and the defense was also very fast. They ran back and forth without any effort. , and really suppressed the Atletico Hurricanes who wanted to stay in the next Copa Libertadores knockout round.
In the 60th minute, Rosario Central, which continued to attack, finally succeeded. When forward Selvi tried to pass the ball on the right side of the penalty area, Hurricanes full-back Balbi accidentally touched it with his hand, forming a Penalty kick for handball foul in the penalty area.
Although Balbi tried his best to tell the referee that he was unintentional, it was in vain. There was no doubt that the penalty kick was awarded.
Under the nervous gaze of the home fans, Rosario Central's No. 9 Marco Reuven made a free throw into the lower left corner of the Hurricanes' goal.
Although goalkeeper Marcos Dias judged the direction correctly, the ball was too fast and flew into the goal from the lower part of his palm against the turf.
Rosario Central finally regained a point through a penalty kick in the 60th minute, and the score became 1-2. Forward Marco Reuven also reached 10 league goals, becoming the first in the A-League this season. The attacker who has exceeded the double-digit mark in goals scored ranks first in the scorer list.
Scoring 10 goals in 11 league rounds, Marco Reuven's scoring efficiency is quite astonishing. Unfortunately, he failed to lead Rosario Central to the top of the standings. The top scorer in the league does not necessarily belong to the championship team.
However, no matter what, Rosario Central, which scored a goal to pull one point back, saw hope again. Moreover, the opportunity obtained by this fierce attack also boosted the morale of the home team. Amid the crazy cheers of the fans, the offensive became more fierce, trying to continue their efforts and score another goal to equalize the score.
But at this time, the Hurricanes Athletic Team also made substitution adjustments, using Eduardo Domingos to replace center back Nervo who had already received a yellow card, and a few minutes later used Federico Bi. Smara replaced Lucas Villaruel to strengthen the defense.
Two consecutive adjustments to the defense made the Hurricanes' defense more stable, and Rosario Central failed to get any more decent opportunities.
At the same time, in the 76th minute, Mario Binco also replaced Ivan Boglo with main center Avila.
Avila came on and made an immediate impact.
In the 81st minute, the Hurricanes stole the ball in the backcourt and launched a quick counterattack. Fabianesi made a pass from the left. Avila stuck the landing point in front of the small penalty area, crossed the ball with a header, and slanted the ball. The inverted triangle flew to the penalty spot.
Midfielder Toranso stepped in from the back, broke into the penalty area, leaned on the defensive midfielder Neri Domingos of the home team, raised his foot and made a powerful and heavy volley, hitting a volley that hit the ground.
The ball passed through the penalty area like a sharp arrow and entered the lower right corner of the goal against the turf.
The goalkeeper was originally standing close to the left, preparing to attack Avila's header. Unexpectedly, Avila did not swing his head to attack the goal, but instead passed the ball to Toranso.
Then when goalkeeper Kalanta tried to pounce on Tolanso and went straight to the far corner of the back end for a volley to the ground, he was already too far away and it was too late.
Therefore, in the end, the goalkeeper couldn't even make a save. He just moved two steps on the goal line and watched the ball fly into the goal.
Toranso helped Hurricanes score another goal, rewriting the score to 3-1 and regaining the two-goal lead.
At this time, there is only a little more than ten minutes left before the game time plus injury time. The two-goal lead was an insurmountable wall for the Hurricanes' defense led by Alan Willard.
