In this group match, what makes Willard worse is the cooperation level of his teammates.
If Verard was really alone with the ball in Longtan, and several people surrounded him, pulling and pulling him, even with Verard's physique and skills, he would not be able to completely control the ball.
All in all, sometimes teammates still need to coordinate, pass and cut, and hit the wall to cooperate. But here’s the problem. The teammates’ skills are not good. Sometimes when the ball reaches their feet, it either stops too big or fails to reach the point when it is passed back to Velarde. The ball is too small, too big, or crooked, etc. Waiting, preventing Willard from making the next technical move smoothly, delaying time, or even losing the ball.
These young people from the Olympic team are not the best young people in Argentina, but the U23 youth team that has been put together here and there. Together with the national team’s Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Higuain, Compared with Mascherano and others, the technical ability is indeed far behind.
If Messi's skills are 95, Di Maria's 90, and Aguero's 85, then the technical abilities of these Olympic team players may be less than 70.
This did make it difficult for Velarde to adapt for a while, resulting in many missed opportunities.
However, Willard's strength is too high after all. As long as his teammates cooperate well, he can seize the opportunity.
In the 31st minute, when Velarde dribbled the ball from the left past two people and penetrated diagonally to the front of the Portuguese penalty area, and was intercepted by two defenders, Velarde passed the ball to forward Carleri who was responding in the middle. Then he moved without the ball, squeezed past two defenders, and rushed into the penalty area.
Full-back Fernando Fonseca risked a foul and pulled Velard's clothes, trying to catch Velarde who was about to rush past him and prevent him from rushing past.
However, Velarde's physique was too strong, and the inertia of forward motion made Fonseca fail to pull him, but instead dragged Fonseca almost to the ground.
Velarde rushed into the penalty area smoothly. Calleri, who had just received a pass from Velarde, also received the ball from the top of the penalty area and passed a good ball, helping Velarde to successfully hit the wall. , passing the ball diagonally into the left rib of the penalty area, which is the route of Velarde's movement.
The ball was successfully coordinated and passed quite comfortably. Villard didn't even need to stop the ball to adjust. He rushed up to meet the ball and fired angrily. He whipped the ball to the far corner and hit a ground-breaking slash.
In this situation, most people would use push shots to be safe, but only Villard, who was an expert in skills, was bold enough to use volley shots.
His furious shot in the penalty area was powerful, fast, and had a tricky angle. Although goalkeeper Bruno Varela predicted that Willard would hit the far corner and immediately made a save, he still didn't Catch up with the speed of the ball.
The ball passed diagonally under the palm of the hand, flew into the far end of Portugal's goal against the turf, and hit the side net.
"Goooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!!!"
"Villade's volley from the penalty area sent the ball into the far corner of the Portuguese Olympic team's goal."
"This is Argentina's first goal in this Olympics and Velarde's first goal in the Olympic team."
"Argentina leads Portugal 1-0 and has the upper hand."
"It turned out that Willard was really the one who broke the ice."
"No matter how tightly Portugal defends him, as long as his teammates cooperate a little and pass a good ball to him, Velarde can send the ball into the opponent's goal."
"The opponent's defender Fernando Fonseca couldn't even pull Velard, but he was almost dragged down."
"Willard's strength is all-round. Regardless of his skills, physique, and speed, he can completely crush U23 players. He is truly invincible in the Olympics."
"Even if the Argentine Olympic team is a makeshift ragtag group, they are still the favorites to win the championship."
"Because they have Alan Willard."
After scoring his first goal in the Olympics, Velarde was also very happy. He rushed to the stands where Argentine fans gathered, interacted with the fans, and then hugged and high-fived his teammates in celebration before returning to his home. In the first half, Portugal took the ball in the circle.
After the game restarted, Portugal did not attack aggressively because they were behind in the score, because this was the group stage. Even if they lost to Argentina, it was not the end. As long as they could defeat Honduras and Algeria later, they could still qualify.
Therefore, the first thing they have to do is to stabilize their defense and lose less goal difference, and then wait for opportunities to attack.
This made Velarde want to take advantage of the opportunity that he just scored and the morale of his teammates to continue to attack in the hope of scoring another goal, which was not realized quickly.
However, Portugal did not have the ability to break through Argentina's defense, because Velarde's abundant physical fitness and return speed allowed him to quickly return to defense after losing the ball even if he had participated in the attack before. Even if the opponent gets the ball and immediately drives forward to form a quick counterattack, Velarde can also command his teammates to take better positions and cover defense by shouting, delaying the opponent's attack speed and providing him with the opportunity to return to defense. time.
It wasn't until the end of the first half, in the 43rd minute, that Portugal had a quality threatening shot. No. 10 Bruno Fernandez took an arcing shot from the left corner of the penalty area, but unfortunately it hit the goal post. It bounced back into the penalty area and was controlled by Argentina goalkeeper Rulli's second save.
Soon, the first half of the game ended, and the two sides entered the halftime break with a score of 0-1. The Argentine Olympic team temporarily took the lead by one goal.
During the halftime break, head coach Olaticochea commented on the problems that occurred in the first half, mainly focusing on the passing, receiving and running of the offense.
Oraticochea asked the players to move more loosely in the second half to leave themselves a larger gap for passing and receiving. Velarde is capable of passing the ball, as long as everyone can leave enough space for themselves. With the space to stop the ball, you can stop the ball, control it, and then wait for the opportunity to choose the attack method.
Of course, in defense, several defenders and midfielders cannot leave their posts without permission, for fear of being counterattacked by the opponent. In the offense, there are Velarde and three forwards, which is enough. As long as the defense does not give the opponent too many holes, the Argentine team will be invincible.
As for total offense and high-position pressing like the Argentina national team and Liverpool FC, that is unrealistic for the Olympic team, so don’t imitate it. The defensive players in the midfield and backfield should stay in the backcourt to defend. as well.
