The fans didn't have to wait too long for Argentina's goal.
The strength of other teammates has not changed much, but as Velarde's attributes get higher and higher, he has become more and more crushing on others.
Abundant physical fitness, strong physique, superb consciousness, outstanding technology, etc., combined with all aspects, make the Chilean team simply difficult to resist.
After resisting for more than 20 minutes, in the 24th minute, the Chilean team's defense was finally broken by Velarde and Messi.
This was an attack initiated by Velarde who dribbled the ball forward from the backcourt. He first rode a bicycle and passed the Chilean team forward Beausejour, who stepped forward to intercept, and then passed the midfielder Marcelo with a fried ball. Dias then passed the ball to Messi and moved forward around another defender, Charles Aranguiz.
After receiving the ball, Messi used Matthews to pass a defender, and then passed the ball back to Velarde.
At this time, only center back Medel and full-back Isla were left in front of Velarde. Everyone else was attracted by the movements of Messi, Velarde and Higuain, and the left wing was already empty.
After receiving the ball, Velarde adjusted slightly, and after drawing the Chilean team's defense closer together, he did not rush into the penalty area, but decisively passed the ball into the left rib space of the penalty area.
Angel Di Maria came in at high speed from the left and rushed into the ribs of the penalty area. Without waiting for the defender in the center to move sideways to cover his position, he stopped the ball and volleyed the ball towards the near corner.
Although goalkeeper Bravo had already moved to the left side of the goal after seeing the direction of Velarde's pass, Di Maria's kick was too violent and too fast. The goalkeeper could only make a subconscious save and was unable to act accordingly. The ball path comes to the save.
In the end, the ball flew under his arm and into the goal.
With Velard assisting Di Maria's shot in the penalty area, Argentina opened the scoring, leading Chile 1-0 and scoring the first goal in this America's Cup.
In addition to the more than 20,000 Argentine fans who traveled with the team to the United States, a large number of American fans who came to the stands to chase stars all applauded and cheered enthusiastically for the wonderful performance of Velarde, Messi and Di Maria in this goal.
After taking the lead in the score, the game will be much easier to play. Although Chile's strength is not bad, there is still a gap compared with Argentina led by Messi and Velarde.
Especially Velarde. Although other teammates have just finished their seasons in Europe and are a little tired, Velarde's physical fitness has increased to 96 along with his physique. With this kind of physical attributes, he has no worries about fighting on multiple fronts in Europe, let alone having a few days of rest before participating in the less intense America's Cup.
Such high physical attributes can support Villard to run faster across the court and participate in most offensive and defensive battles. Even if the Chilean team gets the ball and attacks, it will be difficult to break through the Argentine defense line led by Velarde. And once Velard got the ball and started organizing the offense, the Chileans became even more uncomfortable.
In the 31st minute, the Chilean team finally made a good attack through teamwork and passed the ball into the penalty area. Forward Sanchez got a chance to shoot from the right rib of the penalty area. Moreover, the power and angle of this ball were so good that Sanchez thought it was going to happen.
As a result, the moment he hit the ball and kicked it out, Velarde, who had returned to defend in the penalty area, made a flying tackle and successfully shoveled the ball kicked out by Sanchez out of the baseline, resolving a goal crisis.
Sanchez looked in disbelief as he looked at Velarde, who was sliding in front of him, unable to hold himself back and even sliding out of the baseline against the post.
He remembered that Villard was still in the midfield before, but why suddenly when he shot, Villard had already run in front of him and destroyed the ball out of the baseline?
The speed and physical strength of the defense this time were too strong.
A few minutes later, the Chilean team, which was lagging behind, made a comeback. Right midfielder Charles Aranguiz and his teammates hit the wall and broke through Mascherano. Then another man ball passed through full-back Rojo and wanted to score. Bottom pass.
As a result, the ball passed by this man was too wide. Villard, who was moved across the middle to cover the defense, caught up with the ball at high speed and intercepted the ball before Charles Aranguiz.
Moreover, when Velard intercepted the ball, he did not kick it out of the sideline. Instead, he used his body and skills to resist Charles Aranguiz's counterattack, completed the turn through a change of rhythm, and then used Mathieu in turn. Si passed through Charles Aranguiz and then took the ball to counterattack along the wing.
Although Argentina's counterattack failed in the end, it did not prevent Velard's wonderful interception and counterattack from being praised by everyone.
Next, the Chilean team, which was lagging behind, tried its best to score a goal, but Argentina used its strong overall strength and Velarde's checking and filling in the gaps to resolve them one by one, and then counterattacked with the ball.
In the 39th minute, Argentina's second goal arrived as scheduled.
This time it was Velarde's high-speed attack again, forcing Chilean forward Eduardo Vargas to pass the ball in a hurry. When he wanted to pass the ball to his teammates, he made a mistake in strength and angle, and was blocked by defender Otamendi. Steal the ball smoothly and then hit a quick counterattack.
Velarde did not touch the ball during the counterattack, but his high-speed forward contact and movement still diverted a lot of defensive attention from the Chilean team. Finally, Higuain ran out of space in the penalty area and then took over. With an assist from Messi, he scored a volley into the Chilean goal.
Argentina leads 2-0 and the game is basically settled.
This is the group stage, not the knockout round, so even if the Chilean team has the hatred of losing to Argentina in the Copa America final last year, it will not allow them to fight Argentina to the end.
The top priority is to ensure that you get the top two in the group and advance to the knockout rounds.
Therefore, in the remaining time, although the Chilean team also tried to attack when they got the ball, they did not have the energy to go all out and move forward, and naturally they could not threaten the defense line led by Velarde.
Soon, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 2-0, with Argentina temporarily leading by two goals.
During the halftime break, Messi took the initiative to ask the coach for a substitution, because his physical fitness was not very good, and he had just finished playing in the European leagues and was relatively weak.
Since we are now leading 2-0 in the first half and it is the group stage again, even if something unexpected happens, it is not a big problem. What's more, with Velarde, a monster who uses plug-ins, on the court, it is estimated that it will be difficult for the Chilean team to reverse the comeback.
Therefore, Messi made such a request, and head coach Gerardo Martino agreed, replacing Messi with winger Lavezzi.
After the start of the second half, the Chilean team found out that Argentina had replaced Messi and felt that they had been humiliated. In everyone's opinion, Messi has always been the successor to the world championship and Argentina's number one star.
They replaced Messi at halftime. Isn't this looking down on them?
Therefore, the Chilean team started to attack aggressively from the beginning of the second half. However, Argentina's defense and Velarde's combination made the Chilean team's offense come back without success again and again, and they never scored any goals.
On the contrary, Argentina scored again in the 63rd minute of the second half.
This was a quick counterattack instigated by Velarde himself who dribbled the ball forward. Di Maria, Higuain and Lavezzi fired multiple arrows and ran to provide support. Finally, Velarde split the ball and passed the ball. Yaxia made a pass, Velarde rushed into the penalty area from the middle, overwhelmed the Chilean team's center back Medel, and headed the ball into the Chilean team's goal.
Velarde's header helped Argentina expand the score to 3-0, completely sealing the victory. Next, Martino also started to make substitutions, replacing Di Maria and Mascherano one after another for rest.
Even so, the Chilean team still had no results and failed to score until the last moment of the game.
In the end, Argentina defeated Chile 3-0. Velarde was elected the best of the match with a pass and a shot. The Pampas Eagles won the centenary America's Cup with a good start.
