106. Showdown between prodigies (2)
Half-time.
The actual time players can sit in the locker room is about 10 minutes.
But those short 10 minutes are enough time to create a miracle.
As if a stimulant had been administered, there are frequent cases where a weak team turns into a strong team and turns the game around.
Therefore, the manager has the responsibility to make the most of that opportunity.
That’s the director’s job.
However, Guardiola did not enter the locker room right away.
Before that, I went into the players’ locker room only after reviewing the game with the coaches for five minutes.
He called over the players whose shoulders were drooping and spoke to them.
“We couldn’t even convert the easy passes and missed chances that should have been the finishing touches. You all have been complacent. Of course, I know very well that the opponent is not easy. however.”
Guardiola said, emphasizing that part.
“I can forgive defeat, but I cannot forgive laziness. We must always act more passionately than our opponents. If you truly want to win, keep these words in mind. And Bojan Krkic.”
“… yes.”
Bojan, the best prospect of all time.
Since it was a position, there was no friction with Woo Ho-young, but he could clearly feel it.
45 minutes in the first half.
The fact that he was miserably robbed.
‘shit.’
Boyan’s face became colored with contemplation.
Still, he was a boy with many mental flaws.
I was afraid of what the tiger-like Guardiola would say.
Because he used to say harsh things sometimes.
But Boyan’s predictions were wrong.
Guardiola, who was expected to be furious, spoke extremely calmly.
“Bojan. So close. “You didn’t use your abilities properly.”
“Ah…”
In the first half, Boyan looked like a bird trapped in a cage.
I had a lot of things, but I couldn’t unfold anything.
“sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me. Because I will give you one more chance. Now everyone, listen. “We will surprise our opponents with a new strategy.”
Halftime is over.
Busquets, who failed to properly perform his duties in the first half, was replaced and returned to the bench.
In his place, Thiago Alcantara, who is good at ball distribution and rear build-up, entered the field.
In addition, tactical changes were noticeable.
[Bojan, who was deployed as a right wing forward, was deployed as a central striker. Has Barcelona finally taken out their weapons? I think this is the first time this season that Bojan, who has speed and strong ability to penetrate the side, has been used as a central striker.]
[That’s right. Guardiola has followed his previous coach and placed Bojan mainly as a second striker or wing forward. But today, in the second half, I used him as a central striker. The game is not going as well as expected, so they will make a change.]
But what was interesting was that Bojan, who was placed in the center, was positioned on the 1.5 line between the defense and defensive midfielder instead of moving up to the first line.
His position is a striker, but his actual role is closer to an attacking midfielder.
It was Plan B brought by tactical genius Guardiola.
And it brought about a big change in an instant.
Miguel Torres, who was positioned at central defender, had to follow Bojan down to suppress his movements, which created a huge amount of space behind him.
fault.
Without missing the opportunity, Alcantara stabbed in a roving through ball.
Pedro, who was placed at left wing forward, continued to break through.
Space penetration.
The space behind Castile was opened up.
“Keeper!”
Castilla’s goalkeeper Adan hurriedly ran out of the box and launched himself.
Blame it!
“Ah-oh!”
It was a dangerous situation, but fortunately it did not result in a goal.
This was because Alcantara’s lobing through pass was slightly long.
Pedro made a disappointed face, but stuck out a thumbs up.
Even though I didn’t succeed in scoring, I saw the possibility of taking a leap forward.
[Guardiola’s winning strategy is working well. Although they lag behind in terms of possession, Barcelona is leading the actual attack flow.]
It was a tactic that Guardiola was experimenting with these days, and it was working better than expected.
This was a fact that anyone could tell just by looking at the embarrassed faces of the Castilian players.
Director Mandya’s voice was getting louder.
It was obvious that if things continued like this, a dangerous situation would arise, so we had to take action quickly.
But the problem didn’t end there.
Guardiola was not satisfied with this and even gave the players the task of switching.
Boyan in the center and Pedro on the left continued to change positions, distracting the Castilla defense.
3 minutes after that.
Miguel Torres had great difficulty coordinating defense.
The role of the fullbacks was very important, but Guillen and Javier were not performing their roles properly.
Jeonse reversal.
They could not withstand the waves of attacks that came in like the tide.
The same pattern of attack continued, and with that as a starting point, Bojan’s talent began to shine.
From the 10th minute of the second half, he showed off his skills more and more and quickly created a decisive chance.
That soon led to Barcelona’s goal.
Slosh!
Tactical management centered on Bojan opened the door for Castile.
[Barcelona is also great. As soon as the second half started, they turned the tide and before we knew it, they scored a goal.]
[That’s right. It can be said that leaving Busquets out was a big help. I told Coach Guardiola that he was inflexible, but it looks like he is gradually improving. Castile needs to stay alert as well.]
Hoyoung’s movements became busier.
‘We have to stop it.’
Due to the nature of the tactic, Hoyoung was not in a role to actively participate in the defense, but eventually moved down to the midfield.
Not only Hoyoung, but all of the attackers, including Gorka Callejon, lowered their lines and participated in the defense.
“I’ll cover up to here! Miguel! Cheer up a little more!”
Hoyoung’s voice cut through the air.
It was just a word, but it gave Miguel great strength.
If Hoyoung moves more actively and covers the midfield, the third line and defense will also be able to have more space as a result.
Miguel, who had taken on the responsibility of being the captain, finally seemed to be able to breathe a bit.
In fact, Castilla’s defense began to improve as Hoyoung joined the fight.
‘If you just block, you win.’
Hoyoung’s eyes turned to the electronic display board.
18 minutes in the second half.
If we lasted the next 30 minutes, we would be victorious.
Hoyoung was already doing his best, but on top of that, he burned his fighting spirit and moved relentlessly.
After the game, it may spread for a few days due to overwork.
Still, it didn’t matter.
I wanted to win today, no matter what.
‘First of all, we have to cut off that guy.’
In order to block the enemy’s attack, you must prevent the opponent from playing the way you want.
The first thing is to cut off the opponent’s flow.
Hoyoung’s feet headed toward the midfield.
Barcelona central midfielder Thiago Alcantara.
I put pressure on him from behind.
It was not long after that.
‘What the hell.’
It wasn’t long before Alcantara’s play began to decline.
Alcantara, who is only 174 centimeters tall, could not easily escape from Hoyoung’s pressure.
‘Isn’t this guy even tired?’
Even though it is overshadowed by his aggressiveness, Hoyoung’s pressing ability is above average.
No matter how much he refined his ball-cutting and pass-blocking talents, his high activity level and solid physicality were enough to embarrass Alcantara.
Alcantara narrowed his eyebrows.
“Won’t you get away from me?”
“Did you rent this place?”
Hoyoung did not lose.
Alcantara did not back down.
“What a real piece of trash. Your taste is truly unique. “I’ll give you my contact information later, so stop chasing me.”
“well. I must have good morals. “When I see trash, I have to clean it up to relieve my anger.”
A rare rival.
The two were nothing but trash to each other.
It made Hoyoung burn his competitive spirit.
‘He is talented as a future world class, but he is far short of me.’
Barcelona B didn’t just have Boyan and Busquets.
Thiago Alcantara Guy Ashlyn Pedro and more.
Everyone was a talented player, but there was no time to worry about them due to the conditions.
‘Bojan and Busquets come first today.’
The rest were planned to be targeted in the next away game.
“Where are you looking?”
widely!
Soon a war of nerves broke out between the two.
The war of nerves escalated into a physical fight, and Alcantara, who was small in stature, had no choice but to take a step back.
‘Tch.’
I wanted to subtly step on his foot, use his elbow, or get on his nerves, but I didn’t have the courage to do so.
‘This is a dangerous guy.’
Alcantara immediately reminded me of Sociedad’s Kovacevic.
I didn’t want to end up in the same situation as I did for no reason.
Alcantara, who thought he couldn’t do anything, showed off his talent, a battle of brains.
I tried to occupy space in advance by making full use of my predictive power.
It was a very good attempt.
Just try it.
but.
‘crazy.’
It was one step slower.
The main base where the ball was passed was already occupied by Hoyoung.
At first I thought it was a coincidence.
However, when the same situation was repeated, Alcantara swore.
“It’s a dog!”
He yelled at the back of Hoyoung’s head.
Then, by the third time, I realized it.
Ah, this is something I’m just not good at.
What I mean is that there is a difference in level.
‘No, it’s not that I’m bad at it, he’s strangely good at it…’
Of course, he didn’t show it on the outside.
I didn’t want to admit that even if I died.
Because he was a member of Barcelona who was a Cule that would be considered a disgrace to Real Madrid.
so that.
“You weak bastard!”
All I could do was relieve my stress by swearing.
I wanted to ask Hoyoung if he drank a bowl of medicine, but wasn’t the doping test already done before the game?
I consoled myself in that way, but the flow of the game had already stopped.
It was natural.
In soccer, the waist is vital.
It was as if Barcelona had lost its supply route.
It was not easy to produce results with supply routes blocked.
There are legendary players who made that possible, but Alcantara was a prospect who had just entered the trajectory of growth.
He escaped from Hoyoung with the help of his fellow midfielders, but it actually caused difficulties in his offensive development.
Basically, if you choose one, you have to give up the other.
The ball distribution to the first line was not smooth.
In the meantime, Castile reorganized its battle lines and established a stable defensive formation.
Afterwards, Coach Mandya replaced Callejon with German phenom Christopher Schorch to strengthen the defense.
[In the 32nd minute of the second half, center back Shorhi comes in and Castilla is down to five back. It could be said to be a death sentence for Barcelona, which cannot even dominate the midfield.]
[That’s right. The key is the stamina of Woo Young and Angel Nieto Gorka. In order to block Bojan’s play, we need to continuously put strong pressure on the midfield, right?]
It was the last time.
The end of a long, long fight.
The outcome depended on this moment.
36 minutes in the second half.
The time of death when just walking makes you out of breath.
“9 minutes!!”
Hoyoung’s voice spread out to the midfield.
Miguel’s cry returned.
“Hold on till the end!!”
Let’s hold on.
The words spread like a round song, and one by one, they started shouting out loud.
And the twelfth player.
The strong cheers of the supporters warmed the hearts of the players.
And Castile held on.
That hellish time.
Beep-
[Game is over! Real Madrid Castilla wins a dramatic 2-1 victory!]
[Amazing. Ahead of today’s game, weren’t many people looking forward to a matchup between each team’s prospects? However, no one would have predicted that it would end in Woo Ho-young’s victory. Boyan was an unrivaled prospect.]
Soccer is a team game in the first place.
It is impossible to manage an entire pitch exceeding 100 meters across by oneself.
Unless it’s ‘Di Stefano’.
But the team ultimately comes from the individual.
It is the individual who flies the plane and the rest of the team that provides the fuel.
Today’s pilot performed his role flawlessly, and the rest of the players burned their hearts out and achieved good results.
Hoyoung, who was so moved by that, let out a sigh and collapsed on the floor.
I’ve played many derby matches, but this was my first time seeing something like this.
It felt like I was fighting a real war.
While the fans were going crazy, the shivers didn’t go away for a while.
It was then.
“¡Buen trabajo.”
It was Miguel who came over and said thank you for your hard work.
Although he had a difficult look on his face, he was taking care of his players like a captain.
Hoyoung hugged him.
Even if he is promoted to the first team, he is a player we will likely see for a long time.
That time.
‘There’s no need for tactics.’
Although he lost the game, Guardiola did not show it.
When his image appeared on the electronic display board, he gave Hoyoung a friendly look that seemed to acknowledge him.
Perhaps today’s game could be an asset that would make his future even brighter.
but.
‘Ugh, that bastard.’
In fact, he was dying.
It was clear that today’s game would be the most painful day in my managerial career.
I was so angry that my fingertips were shaking.
‘We’ll see.’
Guardiola gritted his teeth with a poisonous look on his face.
I won’t forget today’s humiliation even if I die.
With that thought in mind, I left Valdebebas.