Chapter 440 I know I was wrong!
Three days after the city derby, Barcelona faced the second leg of the King's Cup round of 16.
With victory already basically secured in the first leg, Barcelona played with an all-substitute lineup at Camp Nou and still relied on Larsson's two goals to beat Zamora 6-0 and easily advance to the quarterfinals.
The draw results for the quarter-finals were soon released, and Barcelona faced Zaragoza.
…
This weekend, in the 19th round of La Liga, Barcelona will face Athletic Bilbao at home.
After the Basque Lions took the lead in breaking Barcelona's goal with a corner kick through center forward Llorente, Barcelona launched a crazy counterattack, but it was not until the second half that Sudong assisted Ronaldinho to equalize the score.
Afterwards, Su Dong shot again, causing the goalkeeper to lose the ball, and Messi took advantage of the opportunity and scored the goal.
2-1, Barcelona finally reversed Athletic Bilbao at home.
…………
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On the evening of January 18th, in the first leg of the King's Cup quarter-finals, Barcelona challenged Zaragoza away.
From the beginning of this season, everyone at Barcelona, from the management and coaching staff to the locker room, had a very unified goal, which was to continue the outstanding performance of last season, strive for further breakthroughs, and aim directly for the treble.
Although Barcelona's lineup this season is stronger than last season, it still seems relatively thin if it wants to fight on three fronts.
The coaching staff has specially formulated a rotation strategy for this purpose, allowing the main players to have more rest in some more confident games.
Zaragoza ranks in the middle of La Liga this season and its performance is not very ideal. Rijkaard has some confidence in this game, and coupled with the continuous two-line battle, the team rotated.
Sudon, Deco, Marcos Senna and Puyol were all rested. Larsson replaced Sudon and formed a front trident with Ronaldinho and Messi. The midfield was a combination of Iniesta, Van Bommel and Edmilson, and the back line was Van Bronckhorst, Marcos, Oleguer and Belletti.
Rijkaard's wish is ideal.
In the first leg away game, Barcelona tried their best to attack and score goals.
Among the three midfielders, Iniesta is mainly responsible for passing and controlling the ball, Van Bommel is responsible for making runs from behind, and Edmilson is responsible for defense and maintaining the team's balance and stability. With Ronaldinho and Messi in the frontcourt, I believe the team's creativity is sufficient.
Facts also proved Rijkaard's guess.
After the opening, Barcelona took control of the game and launched a fierce attack on Zaragoza, frequently creating good scoring opportunities, causing panic in front of Zaragoza's goal.
But problems soon emerged.
Barcelona's attack seemed loud and powerful, but there was no real threat.
If Barcelona meets a Spanish Third Division team like Zamora, they would not be afraid, but the problem is that Zaragoza is a La Liga team. Although its performance this season has not been very good, its overall strength should not be underestimated.
After adapting to Barcelona's attack, Zaragoza responded quickly.
After failing to break through the defense for a long time, Barcelona's midfield naturally began to press forward. Iniesta and Van Bommel stood further forward, often leaving only Edmilson behind them. Van Bommel and Iniesta were too close to the opponent's penalty area.
At this moment, Barcelona is like a hungry beast, wishing to swallow the opponent in one bite.
But that's where the problem lies.
When the midfield presses too high and the frontcourt cannot suppress the opponent, the large gaps behind the back line allow the opponent to run freely.
In the 23rd minute, Zaragoza midfielder Cani made a precise pass, Diego Milito successfully made an offside move, broke into the Barcelona penalty area alone, and calmly scored, opening the scoring for Zaragoza.
Then, in the 25th and 27th minutes, Zaragoza made two quick counterattacks in a row. Everton's speed was fully utilized. He scored two goals in a row and scored twice.
Although Everton's second goal was an obvious misjudgment and he was indeed offside, Barcelona was completely stunned after conceding three goals in just a few minutes.
It was not until the third goal was conceded that Rijkaard reacted clearly and made adjustments immediately, which barely maintained the situation. However, the terrible score of 0-3 had already put Barcelona into a desperate situation.
…
"This season, when Barcelona was playing unstoppable and winning all the way, we all wondered how important Su Dong was to the current Barcelona team. Is he really as indispensable as the data shows?"
"This is not only in the outside world, I guess many players in the Barcelona dressing room will have such doubts."
"I've even heard an extreme saying before that with Barcelona's excellent midfield and Ronaldinho and Messi's ability to create opportunities in the frontcourt, even if you tie a dog to the front line, it can score goals and even compete for the top scorer."
"Extreme opinions are too extreme and are not within the scope of our discussion, but I believe that many people must have doubted whether it was Su Dong who made Barcelona successful, or Barcelona who made Su Dong successful?"
"After watching the first half of the game, I believe many people should have gotten the answer."
"Barcelona conceded three goals in a row, which is very similar to last season, but completely different."
"Last season, Barcelona's defense made mistakes, which is a problem of the defensive players' ability. But in tonight's game, we can see that even Oleguer, who made a mistake, was beaten by Everton in a one-on-one situation."
"This proves that Barcelona's problem is a technical and tactical problem. The team's frontcourt couldn't suppress the opponent, and the offense failed to create threats, resulting in the conceded goal after the opponent's counterattack."
"Even Rijkaard showed his coaching shortcomings tonight. His reaction was too slow."
"Diego Milito's goal had already reminded Barcelona to pay attention to their backs. However, Barcelona not only did not pay attention, but also intensified their efforts. Zaragoza used Everton's speed and hit them accurately, which directly crippled them."
This was the summary of the first half made by Jose Ramon de la Morena, the famous host of SER Radio, at the end of the halftime while he was live commentating on the King's Cup.
He believed that the entire first half was a crazy slap in the face to those who had previously denied the value of Sudong.
Without Sudon, Barcelona's attack completely lost its threat and Zaragoza scored three goals in a row.
Did other players perform poorly? No, Ronaldinho, Messi, Iniesta, Van Bommel, and even the two full-backs were still very active, and Barcelona even created far more offensive opportunities than Zaragoza.
Why is that? The answer is simple. On the one hand, Zaragoza defended tenaciously, and on the other hand, Barcelona's offense was not threatening.
The person is still the same person and in good condition, so why is there no threat?
Because of Su Dong!
"The most important decision Rijkaard made in this game was to underestimate Zaragoza's determination to win at home and rotate Su Dong, and the most correct decision he made was to put Su Dong on the bench."
"Perhaps Rijkaard should consider bringing on Su Dong directly at halftime."
"At least at this stage, the 34-year-old Larson can't replace Su Dong at all!"
"Sure enough, I am at the scene now."
"I saw Su Dong, who was training on the field with four substitutes including Sylvinho and Valdés, was called in by assistant coach Ten Cate."
"Rijkaard's reaction time was a little slow, but he was not stupid."
…
Su Dong followed Ten Cate to the locker room.
Along the way, the assistant coach was analyzing the situation in the first half with Su Dong, the problems the team encountered on offense, and the tactics and adjustments that the coaching staff planned to adopt in the second half.
"We must get at least one goal!" At the door of the locker room, Tenkata stopped Su Dong and said solemnly.
Su Dong nodded and pushed the door open.
The locker room seemed very depressing at this moment.
After Su Dong took a look around, he didn't see Larsson, but he heard the sound of dripping water coming from the shower area at the back. It was obvious that the Swedish veteran had gone to take a shower in advance.
When the other teammates saw him come in, they all looked up at him, and many of them had anticipation in their eyes.
Perhaps, many of them have questioned Su Dong’s importance to the team before, but no one can deny that at this time, they will unconsciously place all their hopes on Su Dong.
If even the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe can't do it, who can they count on?
"Su, you saw the first half, what do you think?" Rijkaard broke the awkward silence.
Su Dong glanced at his teammates, laughed out loud, and looked very confident.
"In fact, it's not difficult to break their defense."
Everyone was very surprised.
You know, Su Dong is usually very low-key and down-to-earth, so why does he seem a little arrogant today? "I looked at it and found that one of the main reasons why our attack was frustrated in the first half was that the cross from the wing did not pose a threat. Later, we switched to the middle, but that didn't work because the opponent had deployed a large force in the middle. So I suggested that we go to the wing and kick the ball high."
As soon as Su Dong finished speaking, he heard Dutch midfielder Van Bommel shaking his head vigorously, "No, we played like this after the start, but Zaragoza's defense against high balls was very good, we had no way..."
In the end, Van Bommel's doubts became weaker and weaker.
The Dutch midfielder came to the Barcelona locker room with a sense of arrogance. He was not particularly convinced of Su Dong, the rookie. He believed that Su Dong could score so many goals thanks to the contributions of other Barcelona players, but all the limelight was stolen by Su Dong.
But the process in the first half completely overturned Van Bommel's stereotype. When he and Larsson both started the game, they had no way to deal with Zaragoza.
He had the advantage of strength in the Eredivisie before, but the situation was different in La Liga.
Su Dong waited until Van Bommel's voice became weaker and weaker, and finally he simply shut up, then he smiled and asked, "Mark, are you sure their high ball control is in place?"
Van Bommel waved his hands awkwardly.
Don't laugh, I know I was wrong!
The others also laughed, and many even laughed out loud, which greatly diluted the depressing atmosphere.
I also know I was wrong!! Reflect on it!!
(End of this chapter)
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