Chapter 337 Hardcore Trio
After returning to his home in Barcelona from Turin, the first thing Su Donggan did was to watch the video of the match between Valencia and Inter Milan.
He really wanted to know what caused his old club to suffer such an astonishing defeat in such a short period of time. You know, in the first seven rounds of La Liga this season, Valencia conceded eight goals. Although it ranked second, in fact, this report card was not ideal at all, especially in defense, which Valencia has always been good at.
As a result, they suffered a crushing 1-5 defeat to Inter Milan, with whom they had a long history of feuds, in the Champions League group stage, at home.
In the first three rounds of the Champions League group stage, they had one win and two losses, which does not seem like a team aiming for the top spot in the group.
After watching the game video, Su Dong got many answers to his questions.
When facing Inter Milan, Valencia made three adjustments to the starting lineup compared to last season. After Sudong's transfer, Di Vaio became the starter. Vicente was injured on the left, Rufete and Angulo were on the two wings. The midfielders were Aimar, Albelda and Baraja, the back line was Carboni, Navarro, Canela and Curro Torres, and the goalkeeper was Cañizares.
Both central defenders, Marchena and Ayala, are injured.
It is obvious that Valencia's overall strength has been damaged due to transfers or injuries.
But it definitely won’t reach this extent.
When the game started, Su Dong was surprised to find that Valencia actually did very well in the first half and successfully maintained the score at 0-0. Canela and Navarro also played very steadily. Facing the repeated attacks from Adriano and Vieri, they still defended the goal, which was quite difficult.
But in the second half, for some reason, the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.
At the beginning of the game, Valencia conceded two goals in three minutes. After Aimar scored a goal for the team, they conceded two goals again.
This reminded Su Dong of some media reports he had seen before. Valencia seemed to be suffering from some terrible disease, and would lose the ball in the second half.
Ranieri's ability is unquestionable, and his character is also very good, but his style of doing things is a bit conservative, which causes him to be hesitant in dealing with many things. For example, he focused on introducing several Italian players this season, but failed to handle the relationship between the Italian gang and the local Spanish gang.
This laid the seeds for Valencia's successive defeats.
…
After turning off the game video, Su Dong couldn't help but fall into thought.
He remembered that during the pre-season training, Rijkaard cast his precious captain's vote for Ronaldinho.
Is this really because he wants to promote Ronaldinho?
I’m afraid not!
With President Laporta and Vice President Rosell facing conflicts, there is actually very little he can do as the head coach. There are even many things he cannot make public. He can only do what he can within his own authority to try to mend the rifts in the locker room.
When he voted for Ronaldinho, several Brazilian players in the team had a backbone, and the Brazilian gang and the local gang reached a certain balance, which led to Barcelona's best start in recent years this season.
This may not be something within the scope of skills and tactics, but it definitely reflects the ability of a head coach.
Ranieri's technical and tactical level is definitely higher than Rijkaard's, but in terms of overall coaching ability, that may not be the case.
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At the weekend, Valencia lost to Sevilla and then to Inter Milan. After two consecutive defeats at home, they had a hard time in the away game against Real Madrid, and eventually lost to this arch-rival team 0-1.
This also brought more doubts and pressure to Ranieri.
…
Barcelona will face Osasuna at home in this round.
Although they had just fought hard against Juventus in the middle of the week, Su Dong, Ronaldinho and others all started this game, and the injured Giuly also returned in this round.
Ronaldinho, who did not perform well against Juventus, exploded this time at the Nou Camp.
After Osasuna defended their goal for more than 30 minutes, it was finally broken by the Brazilians.
After he got the ball on the left side of the frontcourt, he suddenly made a long pass and sent the ball into the penalty area.
Su Dong quickly rushed to the left side of the penalty area and shot directly with his left foot, breaking Osasuna's goal and scoring the first goal for Barcelona.
Five minutes later, Ronaldinho dribbled into the penalty area and was fouled by his opponent. The referee awarded a penalty without hesitation.
The Brazilian superstar took the penalty kick himself and scored.
After the second half, Iniesta, who came on as a substitute for Giuly, once again put in an outstanding performance.
During a midfield breakthrough, he took the initiative to find Su Dong for cooperation.
The two players made a quick two-pass pass outside the opponent's penalty area. After getting the ball, Iniesta rushed to the right side of the goal, attracted the attention of the defense, and made a horizontal pass, transferring the ball to the front of the goal.
Faced with this sudden pie that fell from the sky, Su Dong certainly would not spit it out. He followed up with a volley and sent the ball into the almost empty goal, scoring his second goal.
Three to zero! Near the end of the game, Xavi made a wonderful assist for Iniesta, who volleyed the ball from the right side of the penalty area and penetrated Osasuna's goal.
Four to zero! In the end, Barcelona defeated Osasuna 4-0 at home with two goals from Sudon, an assist from Ronaldinho and a goal from Iniesta, and continued to maintain their lead in the standings.
Although Valencia lost, Sevilla won, which means Barcelona's lead remains at seven points.
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In the middle of the week, the second round of the King's Cup was held.
Barcelona had been fighting hard in a row, and this game basically played with a substitute lineup. Players such as Iniesta, Messi and Larsson all started.
The opponent is Gramanet, a team from the Spanish Third Division.
Playing away from home, the pitch was very bad and it was raining, which made the game very difficult.
Barcelona controlled the situation but missed good scoring opportunities one after another, especially Larsson, who missed two good chances in the first half but ultimately failed to break through the home team's iron defense.
After the second half, Messi scored the first goal for Barcelona with a header just two minutes into the game after receiving a cross from Van Bronckhorst on the left.
This was also the only goal of the game.
Barcelona won the away game 1-0 thanks to Messi's goal.
Although he was the shortest on the team, he scored a header, which earned Messi praise from Rijkaard.
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On the evening of October 30th, in the ninth round of La Liga, Barcelona challenged Athletic Bilbao away.
When the game reached the 75th minute, Su Dong replaced Larsson.
At this time, the score on the field was one to zero.
According to international practice, the home team is in front and the visiting team is behind.
…
Due to the limited manpower of the first team, in order to better prepare for the Champions League in the middle of the week, Rijkaard kept Su Dong and Deco on the bench for this game, but unexpectedly, the game did not go smoothly.
Just thirteen minutes into the game, Athletic Bilbao used a quick counterattack to score a goal.
Afterwards, no matter how Barcelona attacked, the Basque Lions did not give Barcelona any chance at all.
After the change of sides in the second half, Barcelona's offense still did not improve.
In the 60th minute, Rijkaard made a decisive substitution, with young player Messi replacing the sluggish Giuly.
The French winger has not been in very good form since returning from injury. He was replaced by Iniesta in the last round and by Messi in this game, because Iniesta replaced Deco and partnered with Xavi in midfield.
Messi, who had just scored the winning goal in the King's Cup, was very active after coming on the court, but Barcelona's efficiency in front of the goal was still not high.
Ronaldinho, who won the best player of the match in the last round against Osasuna, did not perform well in this round. Without Su Dong, he was tightly controlled by the opponent and did not have a very good performance.
Rijkaard had no choice but to replace Larsson with Su Dong in the 75th minute.
…
Just two minutes after Su Dong came on the pitch, Messi got the ball on the right and tried to break through but failed. He suddenly dribbled the ball back, took two steps back, and then sent a cross with his left foot from the right side of the penalty area.
The ball crossed most of the penalty area and landed behind the goal.
Su Dong suddenly rushed forward, jumped high before the opponent's central defender Murillo, and headed the ball from close range.
Messi's cross was just right, and Su Dong headed the ball very comfortably, and the ball went directly into the left side of Athletic Bilbao's goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the 81st minute, Barcelona successfully equalized the score, 1-1!"
"This was a very tacit cooperation, a long-distance connection between Su Dong and Messi."
"Before, many people said that Su Dong and Iniesta had a tacit understanding, but now it seems that Su Dong and Messi also had a tacit understanding this time. Messi knew very well how Su Dong would run, how fast he would run, and where he would pass the ball, so he passed it to him very comfortably."
"We can see that Su Dong almost jumped up and went straight to the top."
After scoring the goal, Su Dong generously shared it with Messi. He held the young Argentine player's hand and celebrated the goal in front of the live TV camera, accepting congratulations from his teammates.
Barcelona players are no strangers to this.
Everyone knows that Messi has always been Su Dong's follower, and Iniesta has also recently joined Su Dong. The three of them are the hardcore trio of the indoor football team.
In fact, playing indoor football is really good for developing tacit understanding.
Both Iniesta and Messi have a very good feeling with Su Dong. They always have some clever cooperation on the court, and the inspiration comes from indoor football.
After everyone finished celebrating, the three of them were still celebrating on the sidelines, with Messi and Iniesta surrounding Su Dong on the left and right.
…
"I feel good today, how about one?" Su Dong asked with a smile.
"The one you talked about yesterday?" Iniesta asked.
"Yes." Su Dong was eager to try.
"No, we are tied now."
"Because of the draw, Athletic Bilbao defended so tightly that they certainly didn't expect us to make a surprise move."
"But are you sure?" Iniesta was still worried.
"Don't worry, as long as Messi passes the ball well, I'll be fine."
The two of them immediately looked at the Argentine teenager.
I don’t know if it was because of excitement or because of exercise, but Messi’s face was red.
Messi was slightly stunned by the stares from the two men, and nodded lacking confidence.
"I'll try my best!"
"It's okay, I'm here!" Su Dong was full of confidence.
He has wanted to try a new position for a long time! Sorry, I met some old classmates yesterday. I hadn't seen them for many years. I originally planned to update them at home in the evening, but I collapsed when I got home. Sorry! Sorry!
The next chapter will be at 12 o'clock sharp. I've set the timer.
(End of this chapter)
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