Perfect Performance, Best of the Best!

As the first half drew to a close, and just as many thought the two sides were going to end the first half with a 1-0 scoreline, Atletico de Tucumán wingback Gaston Jiménez met a tackle from Velarde as he carried the ball up the left side of the pitch.

He probably didn't think Velarde was fast enough, so he tried to trip the ball past Velarde on the inside, and then go around the outside himself for a mano a mano.

As a result, Villard accurately predicted his movement and made a timely downward shovel tackle to intercept the ball that was about to roll past his feet, then without waiting for Jimenez to counter-strike, he lay down on the ground and swept the ball to his teammate Tolanzo, who was back to receive the ball.

Torranzo took the ball and immediately launched a counterattack, and through quick teamwork with Gonzano Martinez, Lucas Villarruel, Avila, and Espinosa, managed to penetrate the Atlético de Tucumán defense, and scored a low shot from the far corner of the box by Torranzo himself.

The commentator exclaimed:

"Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal ..."

"The ball is in!!!"

"Toranzo, powerful shot from inside the box."

"Hurricane Athletic leads Tucuman Athletic 2-0."

"The goal came from Hurricanes back-rower Alan Velarde on a break down the side of the backfield before Toranzo launched a counter-attack and scored himself."

"Velarde has been quite impressive in the backfield giving four steals and indirectly contributing to two goals."

"Velarde, making his first career start, was perfect."

"If Velarde continues to play like this late in the season, that's definitely a star defensive player in the AHL."

At halftime, Mario Binco praised Velarde's first half performance in addition to Avila and Torranzo, who scored the goals.

Mario Binko: "Velarde, you played well in the first half, continue in the second half, don't let up and try to help the team win the game."

Velarde nodded in confidence.

After a 15-minute break, the teams continued in the second half, with Athletic Tucumán making substitutions and ramping up their attack in the second half in a bid to score a goal to tie the game.

But Mario Binko also instructed center forward Lucas Villarruel to drop back in position to form a double back with Velarde and strengthen the defense.

Lucas, despite being older, was tasked with more of the uptempo, sweeping duties; Velarde, despite being a few years younger, was quite composed and calm, and was responsible for assisting in defense and checking on the ball.

Despite their personal relationship, the two have shown an ability to work together on the pitch that has allowed Tucuman Athletic to inch forward.

The two backs have made it difficult for the opposition to get through not only in the middle, but even on the sides, and have been unable to play a threatening offense.

Not only did Lucas feel good with Velarde, but the other three center backs, including the returning striker, wing backs, etc., all felt quite comfortable with Velarde.

It felt like Velarde was always on the perimeter in time when they needed it, allowing them to not have to worry too much about either pass catching or assisting on defense.

In fact, this is Velarde's "consciousness" at work, through the observation of the situation on the field, to make the appropriate running position, to take the initiative to cooperate with teammates, so that teammates regardless of the offense and defense are to save energy and efficiency of a lot.

Teammates just felt comfortable with Velarde, but Mario Binko and Andres Yarin, as professional coaches, could see the depth, and the two were talking on the sidelines:

Binko: "Do you see it? Velarde has a high level of ball movement, or awareness, and always takes the initiative to run to where his teammates need to be, to assist or cooperate, to neutralize the opponent's attack, or to allow his teammates to pass the ball comfortably."

Arin: "Look out, Velarde's teamwork is number one on the team, whether it's the fullback or the front man, he can take the initiative to make runs to match up, and the team has to be much more efficient both offensively and defensively."

Binko: "Velarde is progressing so fast, he's a different player from last season, and even at the beginning of this season, in just a month or so, it feels like he's been elevated from a second division substitute to the level of a star player in the A-League."

Yalin: "Yeah! The whole person has also matured and stabilized a lot, look at his daily training and extra training that energy, I have never seen anyway, never seen any professional player as hard as him."

Binko: "Not bad! If he can keep up this kind of energy, I feel that he can even go to the top five European leagues, not to mention the A-League, and we should focus on developing him."

Arin nodded his head in agreement, "Then you have to give him more playing time and work him out with actual matches, I have a feeling that right now is not his limit, he can continue to improve."

Binko laughed, "That's a must, just based on his performance today, he definitely deserves the starting back position."

Between the two men talking, they had stripped Federico Bismara of his starting back position and completely fixed Alan Velarde in the heart of the back four.

On the field, the game continued, and Velarde, making his first career start, not only made his teammates feel quite comfortable working together, but also made Tucumán Athletic increasingly desperate.

It wasn't until the 74th minute of the second half that Tucumán Athletic front man Gral avoided Velarde's defenses and lifted the ball into the box via a diagonal cross from the side, giving striker Menéndez a chance to side-foot a shot from inside the box.

Naija's shot was deflected off the interference of Hurricanes center back Mancinelli and failed to hit the goal box range.

Instead, it was Athletic Hurricanes, in the 80th minute, who, through another team effort, pushed the offense into the Athletic Tucumán penalty area, culminating in an inverted triangle pass from Alavi, which Gonzano Martínez managed to send into the lower right corner of the goal with a long shot from just inside the top of the box.

Hurricane Athletics locked up a 3-0 lead over Tucuman Athletics.

Hurricanes fans in the stands can finally feel free to boldly celebrate with abandon. With this score, there is no fear of their opponents turning the ball over, so they can completely celebrate their victory in advance.

Head coach Mario Binko also began to make substitutions, replacing Avila with Thomson Milla and Lucas with Bismara to begin to tighten up the defense.

In the last ten minutes or so, despite the fact that Tucumán Athletic pressed hard, it was still difficult for Tucumán Athletic to get their offense into the box to form a threatening shot with Velarde and Bismarck working in tandem.

Finally, after 3 minutes of extra time, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the match, and Velarde made his first career start playing all 90 minutes of the match, contributing 6 steals and indirectly contributing to the first 2 goals.

Although he had neither a goal nor an assist, he was unanimously rated by the media reporters as the best of the game and was voted MVP of the match.

As the commentators said at the end of the game:

"After three rounds without a win, Hurricanes Athletic finally declared their strong comeback in the 6th round of the A-League with a 3-0 top-of-the-table Athletic Tucumán win, proving that their 2-0 blowout win away to Boca Juniors was no fluke."

"Although the round is yet to be played, after winning this game, Hurricane Athletic can surely significantly improve their ranking, return to the promotion zone and make a renewed push for the A-League title."

"In this game, the top performer was not Avila, Torranzo or Gonzano Martinez, who scored the goals, but rather Alan Velarde in the back line."

"The 21-year-old from the Hurricanes' own youth camp, who only got two substitute appearances last season, has undergone a radical change this season, improving at a staggering rate, running a stunning 12,527 meters in this game, the longest of any player in the field, more than 2,000 meters more than the player who was second in terms of distance run, and directly contributed five steals."

"Of course, this is not all of Velarde's performance, those who watched the game at the scene can see that Velarde has a fairly high level of intelligence and sense of teamwork, and is quite calm and collected, and will never rush up to the ball, but when it's time to go up to the ball, he doesn't drag his feet at all. Together with his excellent position, the opponent could not pass the ball even if he wanted to, and Tucumán Athletic's whole attack line was defended by Velarde, which did not play the top team's attacking ability at all."

"Velarde showed no more defensive ability than any star defensive player in the AHL."

"The Hurricanes have really picked up the slack, and Mario Binko's decision to take Federico Bismarra's starting spot and start Alan Velarde couldn't have been more correct."

"If Velarde can maintain the defensive form like today's in the later matches, together with the Hurricanes' own not-so-impressive attacking ability in front of goal, then the Hurricanes will have no problem at all in advancing to the A-League, and can even take a shot at this year's B-League title."

"Of course, one game doesn't tell us much, and it's also possible that Atletico Tucumán didn't pay enough attention to Velarde."

"It remains to be seen if Velarde can continue to put in performances like today's behind the scenes, let's just hope he's not a flash in the pan."

"Argentina has too much offensive talent, instead a defensive stalwart like Velarde is what we desperately need. Maybe, in the future, we can see Velarde in the Argentina national team lineup and see him playing alongside Messi in the World Cup."

After the game, teammates also hugged Velarde and recognized him for his performance today.

Everyone is a professional player, although the vision is not as sharp as the coach, Velarde did not directly contribute to the goals and assists, but everyone can feel it, it is because of the presence of Velarde, the Hurricanes offensive line can be so smooth to suppress the opponent and play a big score of 3-0 to.

If, as in the previous games, the midfield has to spare more energy to participate in the defense, and naturally less troops will be invested in the offense, I am afraid that such a big win will not be possible. Even if we can win, I'm afraid it won't be so easy.

Head coach Mario Binko even hugged Velarde and gave him a direct notice in his ear, "Velarde, your performance today was very good, if there is no accident, the starting back of the next game is still you, pay attention in training, don't get hurt in practice, don't blame me if you can't make it out of the game then."

Velarde was instantly delighted and nodded his head in knowledge.

In addition to the recognition from his teammates and coaches, many of the fans in the stands chanted Velarde's name, showing considerable recognition for his performance today.

Usually, the fans only remember the player who scored the goal. Now that the game is over, there are still a lot of fans shouting Villard's name, which is indeed an extremely rare thing for a defense player.

Velarde himself also received an experience bonus of 10,000 for his debut + 3*10,000 for the win + 50,000 for his A performance = 90,000, taking his total experience up to 136,000/300,000 at level 11.