This big victory brought Velarde a high experience of 10 million for the first start + 20 million for 2 goals + 30 million for winning + 50 million for A-level performance = 110 million. It finally lived up to his efforts in the game.
The better news is that Ecuador, which had the same points before and was ranked ahead of Argentina due to goal difference, had a draw with Barra in this round of World Cup qualifying and only scored 1 point.
As a result, Argentina surpassed Ecuador and rose to the top of the South American group stage standings with 13 points from the first five rounds of world qualifying with 4 wins, 1 draw and 0 losses.
Ecuador ranks second with 11 points, Uruguay ranks third with 10 points, Brazil, Paraguay, Colombia, and Chile rank fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh with 7 points, Peru ranks eighth with 4 points, Bolivia ranks ninth with 3 points, and Venezuela 1 point at the bottom.
In South America, which has four qualifying places, Argentina's qualifying situation has become increasingly clear.
Of course, there are 10 teams in the South American World Cup preliminaries group stage, and there are 18 rounds in the double round-robin. It is too early to talk about qualifying before the first half is finished. It's just that Argentina occupies a relatively good qualifying situation, but the subsequent games must continue to be taken seriously and cannot be careless.
Back in Argentina, at 20:30 on Tuesday, March 29th, Argentina will face Bolivia at home.
The four girls, Krisna, Heidi Alyssa, Reth Bertha, and Desia, all appeared in the stands.
Except for Desia, the other girls have not seen Willard for a long time and miss him very much. Therefore, even if it is Tuesday, even if the home game of this game is not in the capital, Krisna and the others still miss him. I took a day off and came to the scene to cheer for my boyfriend.
There were more Hurricanes fans and Argentine fans in the stands holding banners welcoming Velarde home.
There were also many banners congratulating Willard on his 100th career game appearance.
That’s right, this is the 100th official game of Velarde’s career, including matches in the A-League B, A-League, Argentina Cup, Copa Libertadores, Premier League, EFL Cup, Europa League, and national team A-level competitions. The appearance in the game can be regarded as a very memorable milestone event.
To this end, Messi also specifically gave up the captain's armband to Velarde, allowing him to lead the team into the game wearing the captain's armband.
After the game started, Velarde's fighting spirit was also very high. He led his Argentine teammates to indiscriminately bombard Bolivia who was playing away.
Bolivia's strength is low. Currently, it has 1 win and 4 losses and only has 3 points, ranking second from the bottom in the standings, only higher than Venezuela, which has 1 point. In addition, this game is an away game, so we can only send out an extreme defensive counterattack lineup of 541 to defend to the death, and then retain a faint hope of counterattack.
However, under Argentina's indiscriminate bombardment, Bolivia's forward Duke had no chance to counterattack. In the end, he was forced to retreat to the penalty area to participate in defense, unable to attack at all.
Argentina's ball possession rate reached a terrifying 75%, almost four times that of Bolivia.
Although Bolivia used a dense defensive bus and iron barrel formation to defend, the huge gap in ball possession rate still gave Argentina a lot of shooting opportunities.
Although Di Maria and Messi had poor headers, center Higuain, who started in place of Aguero in this game, had good header skills. In addition, Velard rushed into the penalty area from time to time to compete for the top. Bolivia could not defend even if it was tight. withstand.
In the 20th minute, Villard broke through with the ball in the middle and passed it to Di Maria on the left. Then he rushed into the penalty area to participate in the top challenge. Di Maria also passed the ball into the penalty area in time, just in time. Arriving in front of Willard.
Velarde leapt high, overpowering Bolivia's two central defenders Luis Gutierrez and Mattelli, and hit the goal with a powerful header between the two, heading the ball to the upper right corner of the goal.
Although goalkeeper Ramper made a save, the ball was too close, too powerful, too fast, and came at a tricky angle. Ramper was ultimately out of reach and could only watch the ball hit the net.
Velarde's goal immediately ignited the Argentine home fans in the stands. Tens of thousands of Argentine fans jumped to their feet, applauded enthusiastically, cheered and screamed, as Velarde opened the scoring in the 100th official game of his career. And crazy cheers and congratulations.
The four girls, Krisna, Alyssa, Bertha and Desia, also hugged each other and cheered excitedly for their boyfriend's wonderful performance and goals.
The commentators also sighed:
"The ball is in!"
"It was an easy goal."
"Villad broke through in the middle and passed the ball to the side. Di Maria made a pass. Velard rushed into the penalty area, overwhelmed the opponent's two central defenders, and succeeded in hitting the goal with a strong momentum, helping Argentina open the scoring, 1- 0 lead.”
"Willard wore the captain's armband and scored in the 100th official game of his career."
"Without a doubt, this is the most perfect script, the most perfect gift."
"It should be easy for Argentina to win this game. Bolivia has no chance."
Indeed, after the game restarted, Bolivia took advantage of the kick-off opportunity in the center circle to launch an attack. As a result, it failed to score within 30 meters of Argentina's goal and lost the ball. Instead, Argentina made a quick counterattack.
If Higuain's volley shot hadn't missed the right spot in the end and kicked the ball out of the bottom line, Argentina might have expanded the score.
But Bolivia's defense did not last long.
Argentina's overall strength is too strong, and Bolivia has no resistance. Even center back Demichelis pressed outside Bolivia's penalty area to participate in the attack, which shows Bolivia's weakness.
If the strength is too weak, it will be useless no matter how many people set up the bus and iron barrel formation. Sometimes it will have the opposite effect.
In the 34th minute, Messi broke through two people on the right and then dribbled the ball to the outside of the penalty area. He passed the ball to the center of the penalty area, preparing for Velarde and Higuain to compete for a header.
As a result, the ball was not passed and was blocked by Bolivian defender Marvin Beharati who was standing inside the penalty area.
Of course, Beharati didn't do it on purpose, but because he didn't have time to stop. But when he touched the ball, his arms were open, which expanded the defensive area. No matter how he argued, the referee did not accept it. Instead, he firmly punished Marvin Beharati for a handball foul in the penalty area and gave him a penalty. A penalty kick for Argentina.
This goal was made by Messi, and Argentina's penalty kicks are usually taken by Messi. But this time, Messi did not take the penalty, but said to Velarde: "Villade, take this penalty kick and try to score a hat trick today."
I have to say that this is a good ideal. To score a hat trick in the 100th official game of his career is definitely a great gift.
Therefore, Velarde did not refuse. After thanking Messi, he took the ball and placed it on the penalty spot. He waited for all players on both sides to exit the penalty area. After the referee indicated that he could take a penalty kick, Velarde took a deep breath. In one breath, he took two steps and then volleyed the ball towards the lower right corner of the goal.
Fortunately, he did not miss the goal. His shooting skills reached 93, but it was not full. Velard breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, I saw goalkeeper Lamper judged the right direction and pounced in the direction of Velarde's ball. But Willard's shot was too powerful and too fast, and the ball finally flew into the goal before Lamper's palm was in place.
The Argentine commentators in the commentary box shouted excitedly:
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in again!"
"After scoring twice in the last round of World Cup qualifying, Willard scored twice in this round."
"Messi gave up the penalty he created to Velarde for the simple purpose of hoping that Velarde can score more goals in this game."
"After all, this is the 100th official game of Velarde's career, which is very milestone. Messi has already given up the captain's armband to Velarde before. It is not surprising to give up a penalty this time."
"And Velarde lived up to Messi's kindness and steadily kicked the penalty kick into Bolivia's goal."
"Argentina leads Bolivia 2-0 and basically booked another victory in this game."
For Bolivia, the score of 0-2 is not big, but they are away from home and facing the world-class giant Argentina. This score has actually declared their defeat.
But the game is not over yet, we have to continue playing. And, what follows is their kick-off. No matter how you think about it, they still have to attack after being two goals behind.
However, the result was as everyone expected. Bolivia's offense had no effect, and Argentina intercepted the ball and launched a counterattack.
If the Bolivians had not anticipated this and left a large number of defensive personnel in the backcourt, and others would immediately retreat to defend as soon as the ball was lost, Argentina might have scored again.
Even so, Bolivia's defense failed to last until the end of the first half.
In the 41st minute, Velarde continued to advance with Di Maria on the left, attracting five or six Bolivian players to intercept and surround him. As a result, Messi on the right was left undefended.
It's not that Bolivia doesn't know about Messi's threat, but that Messi has been walking and hasn't touched the ball, so the Bolivians have relaxed their vigilance.
Isn't this food delivered to your door?
Willard discovered Messi's opportunity, made a decisive move with his big foot, and accurately moved the ball into the gap outside the corner of the penalty area on the right side.
Messi easily unloaded the ball, moved the ball forward and then shot, knocking down center back Luis Gutierrez who rushed over to block the hole of the shot, and deceived goalkeeper Ramper into rushing towards the right side of the goal. side.
As a result, Messi's fallen foot did not shoot. Instead, he flicked the ball a second time, dodged Luis Gutierrez in front of him, and then used his left foot to shoot the second time and kicked the ball towards The lower left corner of the goal.
Goalkeeper Ramper had been fooled by Messi's first fake shot and rushed towards the near corner. At this time, when he saw Messi's shot and wanted to turn around and fight back, it was too late to change his focus. In the end, he froze on the goal line and made consecutive saves. Without even making any moves, he just watched the ball stick to the turf and drill into Bolivia's goal.
In the 41st minute of the first half, Velarde's big move assisted Messi to score another victory. Argentina led Bolivia 3-0 and secured the victory in advance before the first half was over.
Argentina is not AC Milan, and Bolivia is not Liverpool. Therefore, at halftime, the Argentine players and fans were quite happy and had already started celebrating in advance.
The Bolivians also knew that their defeat was certain, and they all looked dejected when they came off the field, as if they had lost the game.
