On the weekend, September 27, in the 26th round of the A-League, Hurricanes faced Sarsfield at home.
Sarsfield are currently ranked 23rd, but are only 5 points away from the relegation zone and have not yet succeeded in relegation. Therefore, Sarsfield needs to score points and avoid relegation in this game, but facing the top-ranked Hurricanes Athletic, it is impossible for them to play against the Hurricanes at their home court.
During the game, Sarsfield adopted an intensive defensive strategy of setting up a big bus and iron barrel array. All players retreated within 30 meters of their own goals and defended strictly. Even the forwards withdrew near the penalty area line, preparing to use the big bus iron barrel array to watch. Can you hold on to one point?
Even if they get the ball, they will not attack collectively. At most, two or three forwards and midfielders will try to counterattack.
For Sarsfield, even just one point would go a long way in their fight to avoid relegation.
Except for Willard, the strength of the other players in the Hurricanes Athletic Team is actually at the middle and lower reaches of the A-League. At first, there was really no good way to defend this kind of intensive defense.
For example, Avila, although he has a strong physique, is not tall enough. He cannot fight for headers in this kind of intensive defense, and he cannot rush for shots on the ground.
Romero, Toranso, and Turaza also had difficulty dribbling the ball into the penalty area and shooting, and their long-range shots were not good enough. The Hurricanes did not create any threatening offense for Sarsfield in the first 20 minutes.
But fortunately, the Hurricanes Athletics still have Alan Velarde, and Velarde is versatile both offensively and defensively.
Seeing that his teammates in the frontcourt were unable to create pressure on the opponent's defense, Velarde, who was originally a defensive midfielder, decided to position himself, and instead of mentioning the central midfielder position, he directly passed Toranso and entered the opponent's penalty area, becoming forward.
With a height of 186cm, a weight of 86kg, a physique of 90%, awareness, speed, heading, etc., Verard is equally powerful when fighting for the top in the penalty area.
After Willard entered the opponent's penalty area and became a center, his teammates had a direction.
Romero, Toranso, Turaza, Avila and others began to frequently take the ball from the wing, allowing Velarde in the penalty area to fight for the top.
Although Sarsfield needs points to avoid relegation, their ranking means that their need for points is not so urgent. In addition, Willard himself has a good reputation and is extremely intimidating. Sarsfield's defenders did not attack him too fiercely. Physical confrontation to avoid accidentally provoking him and being retaliated by him.
This makes it extremely easy for Willard to fight for the top in the opponent's penalty area.
Although the passes of Romero, Turaza, Toranso and others cannot always find him accurately, nor can he accurately top the ball every time, but the more times, the goal becomes Something that comes naturally.
When the time came to the 32nd minute, Villard grabbed the spot of his teammate's cross for the third time and headed the ball towards the goal with his head. Finally, he pushed the ball within the goal frame and hit a good goal. From an angle, he avoided goalkeeper Agre's save and sent the ball into the goal.
Sarsfield's intensive defense was finally broken, and Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead with Willard's header.
After the game restarted, Sarsfield did not counterattack just because they were given the right to kick-off in the center circle, but continued to cautiously maintain their intensive defensive strategy. When attacking, only two or three people move forward. Once the ball is lost, they immediately return to defend.
After all, they were only one goal behind, not too far behind, and could equalize at any time with luck. Therefore, ensuring not to concede more goals is the first priority.
This prevented the Hurricanes from even counterattacking and could only continue to maintain a positional battle, allowing Willard to play as a center forward and go to the opponent's penalty area to fight for the top.
However, the efficiency of aerial attack itself is very low. If the efficiency is high, the super wealthy teams with top centers will easily break through the dense defense.
The key is not Velarde's header skills and ability to compete for the top. The key is that in such a large penalty area, teammates must accurately pass the ball to Velarde's head every time, which will test his teammates' passing skills.
The Hurricanes players do not have world-class passing standards, so it is difficult for Velarde to grab the landing point just right and then header the ball.
In the last ten minutes of the first half, neither side scored again, and the first half ended with a score of 1-0.
In the second half, Mario Binco made substitution adjustments and removed Avila, who was not tall enough, and replaced him with No. 29 substitute center Campana, who was taller and had better headers, to take on the challenge for the top in the penalty area. important task.
Willard withdrew from the penalty area and began to strengthen the ball control and defense on the outside to prevent the opponent from counterattacking in the second half.
After Willard retreated to his midfielder position, the Hurricanes' ability to compete for the top in the opponent's penalty area was greatly weakened, but Sarsfield did not dare to completely ignore Campana and press out to defend. This allows Velard, who is in the midfielder position and is positioned relatively deep, to have more opportunities and time to control the ball, and the probability of being surrounded is also lower.
As for the counter-attacks from the opponent's forwards and attacking midfielders, Velarde basically ignored them. His skills are no problem at all in defeating the opponent's forwards and attacking midfielders with low defensive abilities one-on-one.
In addition, Willard also has good long-range shooting skills, which allows him to have good attacking ability even if he withdraws from the penalty area.
In the 68th minute of the second half, Velarde broke through the opponent's wing-back Assad on the left side of the frontcourt. Instead of making a pass, he cut inside and took it outside the penalty area. Although Sarsfield's players had a premonition that Willard might shoot and tried their best to block it, Willard still used skillful dribbling and rhythm changes to shake off the defensive players in front of him and gain space for his kicks. Finally, he took a shot from the left side of the penalty area about 26 meters away from the goal. He hit an arc and hit the far corner.
The defender in the penalty area tried to clear the ball with a header, but failed.
Goalkeeper Agre moved two steps back and then made a save. However, Velarde's ball had a good arc and just missed the goalkeeper's fingers.
Goalkeeper Agre watched helplessly as the ball passed in front of his fingertips, then circled into the goal frame and flew into the goal against the far post.
The commentators shouted wildly:
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Long shot!"
"Willard scored a long arc shot and succeeded in the far corner."
"Two goals!"
"Villade scored both goals for Hurricanes Athletic, completing his brace."
"so perfect."
"Strong defense and versatile offense. Apart from goalkeeping, there is nothing Villard can't do."
"Willard dominated this game, Hurricanes Athletic sealed the victory 2-0 Sarsfield, this game is definitely won."
Indeed, with this score, compared to Sarsfield, who did not have a strong desire to attack, the Hurricanes Athletic Team did seal the victory and basically won.
Velarde, who rarely scored twice, also celebrated warmly with his teammates and was worshiped by fans in the stands who kept chanting his name.
After the game restarted, Sarsfield finally began to strengthen its attack a little bit, but the offensive intensity was still not great. Losing to Hurricanes Athletic was something they expected, and getting a point away from home would be a miracle.
They weren't going to press hard, get countered by Hurricanes Athletic, and lose even more on goal difference.
The Hurricanes Athletic Team, which was already leading 2-0, was not aggressive. To win this game, it would be enough to get three points.
In the end, the game ended with a score of 2-0. The Hurricanes once again took all three points and continued to lead the standings.
It is a pity that Boca Juniors also won this round. The Hurricanes continued to lead the opponent by 11 points and failed to win the championship in advance.
However, with only 4 rounds left in the league, the championship is already beckoning to Hurricane Athletics. In the next round, no matter how Boca Juniors plays, as long as the Hurricanes win, they will win the championship three rounds in advance.
