After practice on the morning of Aug. 17, Virchowald held a meeting to emphasize the importance of the game.
This is the first official match after the establishment of "acf-Florence Violets", and the fans and media are watching the team's performance. Failure to win the first match will affect the fans' confidence in the team. On the contrary, a big win will attract more fans to the home stadium.
The Coppa Italia is a knockout tournament, with the exception of the semi-finals, which are played in two rounds, and the rest of the rounds are decided by a single match; a 90-minute draw is followed by 30 minutes of extra time, and if the match is not decided in extra time, then a penalty shootout is played to determine the winner.
A loss in this game would see Fiorentina knocked straight out of the Coppa Italia.
After the meeting, a few young players took the initiative to speak to Arthur, and the pleasing attitude was very obvious. If anyone on this team could become a star in the future, everyone believed it would be Arthur.
To say that Italy's local players to Arthur this British foreign aid is not half jealous is impossible, helpless physical quality difference is too much, and the coach likes him ah. The coach sent word to let him do the core, how can others compete?
It took Arthur only a week to establish himself as second only to DiLevio on the team, and the promotion couldn't have come faster.
Fiorentina's Coppa Italia opener was played at the Stadio Franchi in the afternoon, and more than 9,000 fans turned out to cheer on the Nirvana newcomers.
The Stadio Franchi has a capacity of 47,282 fans, with the biggest attendance record being 58,271 against Inter Milan in 1984. It's great to draw close to 10,000 against an underdog today, and the new players are looking forward to the day when the place fills up with fans.
Despite the team's relegation to C2, the fans wasted no time in giving their applause and cheers to the Scouts, led by Virchowald. There were plenty of Purple Legion flags and scarves in the stands, and some fans had a large portrait of former team hero Buddy.
Most of the fans in this city still love Batti and understand his choice to leave. Joining Roma was the best decision of Batti's life, otherwise he was too miserable to win a single league title.
Arthur came out infected by the atmosphere, like a fire was burning in his heart.
I made the right choice to come to Florence, there are a lot of hardcore fans here, and it's fundamentally different from a normal C2 team.
There are still so many people willing to come and support, how many fans will there be next year when we get promoted to Serie B? Maybe I won't have to wait for Serie A to become famous.
Of course, not all the players are happy, "Brute" Rigano is now depressed.
Rigano was willing to leave League 1 to join Fiorentina in League 2 because of the exposure. Both he and his agent thought that it would be easy to become famous in Fiorentina, and if he won the title of "the new Bardi" and then moved, his salary would not be a dream to multiply ten times.
Unfortunately, Viljovod couldn't see past Rigano and started Arthur in the starting lineup with loanee Quagliarella. The Brute, who picked the No. 18 jersey, was unfortunate enough to sit on the bench with a huge mental gap.
The coach's arrangement makes sense, Arthur is not good at breaking with the ball, and there is a bit of positional overlap with Rigano. With Quagliarella on the field, the team can not only make long passes, but also play fast counterattacks.
Quagliarella is even faster than Arthur and is said to have tested 100 meters in 11 seconds multiple times while with Torino. In just one area of speed, he is at the top of the game in football.
Emily Blunt hasn't returned to the UK yet, taking the team's in-house complimentary tickets to the venue as a spectator.
She was a little nervous, it was the first time she had ever been to a live soccer game, and it was in a foreign country. At the same time she was proud of Arthur, having so many fans watching him play in his first game.
Captain Di Livio made his debut playing right back. Just the first round of the Coppa Italia, the members of the upper national team seemed to be a bit of a bully. The opponent was weak, but Viljovod wanted to speed up the team's bonding, and Di Livio himself did not want to rest.
In a parallel world, this Di Livio came on as a second half substitute and failed to lead his team to an equalizer. Now he likes to play with Arthur and doesn't reserve his strength.
At left back is 25 year old, 175c Marco Andreotti, the speedy homegrown player.
Central defender Rafael Longo, 25, is a key organizer that the team has scooped up, having played for Napoli in Serie A at the age of 18.
He played four seasons at Napoli where he made a lot of appearances and often started. He then joined Serie A rivals Parma for two seasons, suffering from injuries and making only 13 appearances. He got worse and worse and last season he was only able to play Serie B. His athleticism declined, but his ability to pass the ball was always there.
Fiorentina's only known name at the back is center back Roberto Ripa, and the weaknesses are more obvious.
These are the core of today's Fiorentina lineup, formation 442, a relatively conservative lineup.
Fiorentina fans were a bit disappointed when the match started. Because the home team was surprisingly pressed by their opponent for 15 minutes in the first round of the Coppa Italia.
Viljovod is a coach who comes from a defender background and pays special attention to defense. In the case of the team's lack of backfield stars, he made the defense as a whole move back, and did not rush to press in front of the field, while organizing a lot of troops in the middle and back field to stand in good defensive positions.
The back line is more solid this way, but what kind of strong team will face a weak team and "set up a bus"?
Fiorentina's attacking players also lacked coordination, and the midfield could barely hold the ball, making several mistakes.
Quagliarella, who will be known as "Mr. Fantasy Goal", is still very young, trying to use his speed and skill to get rid of the ball, but he can't make good use of the ball when he is caught in a trap, and makes the most mistakes.
The only one who did well was Arthur. He ran with the opposing center back and when his teammates sent long passes towards him, he swung them solidly to his teammates as long as they weren't too big. When receiving ground passes, he was also able to pass to his teammates after observing the situation, but just didn't attempt a shot from a distance away from the goal.
Arthur is aware of his weakness, the range is too close. It's quite hard for him when the opponent's formation is pressed forward, and it's impossible to stay in the box all the time, receiving the ball will be blown offside.
Rigano on the sidelines to see the head big, Arthur even if not scored a goal also played a pivotal role. If the team has been playing 442 formation, the coach did not allow him to play that can be a big problem, he can not compete with Arthur.
It's true that Viljovod didn't like Rigano, disliking him for his slow speed and lack of explosiveness. In a parallel world, Viljovod would not have gone down early if he had used Rigano well in the opening round.
The biggest butterfly effect of having Arthur on the team now is that Viljovod may not be off the bench. The team has a power play point of attack and players who don't work well together can score goals.
In the 18th minute, Fiorentina counterattacked and organized a decent attack. Longo advanced past a man in the center, drew the defense and split the ball to the left.
Longo has great vision and good ball handling options, the downside is a terrible shot and a fear of confrontation. But he draws defenders to the ball because opponents know he played Serie A for many years and are focused on defending him. ap.
With Dilivio also keyed in on the right, the Romanian defense was relatively weak on the left. Andreotti receives the ball and distances himself from the wingbacks with his speed, and sees the opportunity to cross into the box.
Arthur saw the ball coming and ran at full speed, the unnamed Romanian center back with his empty 190c frame and slow, average bounce was easily gotten rid of.
Arthur judged the right place for the ball to land, grabbed a body high up in the air, and headed the ball straight into the corner of the net from the middle of the field!
He got the ball in front of his forehead and pressed it downwards, it was fast and bounced off the ground, the goalkeeper had no reaction.
The gift of "eagle's eye" allowed Arthur to play well in official matches and to spot openings on the field. After practicing in London for a few months, his header became more and more outstanding, and his technical attributes of shooting were mainly based on his header.
Arthur's celebration was very simple, just a clenched right fist that didn't seem to care much.
In fact, he was overjoyed that the task of scoring a goal in the first professional game of his career had been accomplished and that he would be rewarded again after the game.