Challenging Supergiant Boca Juniors
With the head coach's approval and the coaching staff's extra workout plan for his personal situation out, Velarde was quite happy and thanked the head coach before going to assistant coach Andres Yarin for the extra workout plan.
Yalin also praised Velarde's performance today, and then took out a piece of paper from the folder, which was filled with additional training plans for Velarde, suitable for his individual physical quality and position, in the collective training every day, what items should be added to the training, how much time is appropriate for each item, how long to practice and rest for a while, how long is appropriate to practice on training days, rest days, and how long is appropriate to train, and how much should be paid attention to nutritional supplements, and so on. What should be paid attention to in terms of nutritional supplements and so on are all listed in detail.
Velarde was overjoyed, and after thanking the coaches, his extra practice that night seemed more scientific and effective, and he didn't have to practice until so late. According to the coaches, practicing too long is also easy to train the body injury, affecting the next day's group practice or official games, extra practice should also have a limit, not to the death.
Before going to bed that night, the system did give the highest A-ranked training evaluation, and the 5000 experience allowed Velarde's total experience to instantly rise to 13,000/10,000 at level 0, automatically upgrading him to 0.3/2,000 at level 1, and earning him an upgrade bonus of 10 skill points.
Unfortunately, even with the new skill points you can't add them to skills, you have to wait until next Monday to upgrade your skill attributes.
For the next two days, Velarde followed the individual extra practice plan set up by the coaching staff in addition to completing the classroom training in earnest, and also managed to get an A rating each day, totaling 13,000/20,000 experience at Level 1.
On July 21st, Monday, because he was worried about adding attributes, even though he was tired after practice, Velarde woke up once in the middle of the night and immediately added points. Sure enough, this time it was possible to add, and it took 2 skill points to add the 68 "Defense" to 69, leaving 8 skill points.
Also on this day, the Hurricanes played a pre-season friendly with a first division team in the same city and lost 2-3, losing only one goal against a first division team and scoring 2 goals against the other team, which is considered a very good overall performance.
At the back, Federico Bismara got the start and Lucas Villarruel came on for half an hour in the second half on 62 minutes.
The remaining three backs, Rolon, Velarde, and Carrizo, didn't get a chance to play.
Although there wasn't much formal classroom training on this day due to playing a friendly match, Velarde still did extra training on his own one morning and one evening according to his extra training program. However, the final evaluation obtained was only a B grade, which was probably still affected by the lack of training time due to the match.
The day after the warm-up match, after the extra practice on the night of July 22nd, Velarde gained another 5,000 experience with an A-rating, and his total experience rose to 21,000/20,000 at level 1, and was automatically upgraded to 21,000/30,000 at level 2, and he gained another 10 skill points as an upgrade bonus, as well as the new skill "Physique" because of the function of "Randomly activating a new skill for every 2 levels". And because of the function "Every 2 levels you can randomly open a new skill", he randomly opened the new skill "Physique".
As soon as this random skill came out, Velarde knew that he could only continue to weld himself into the back position. Trying to make a name for himself as a striker was out of the question for a short period of time.
"Physique" includes strength, confrontation, physical fitness, resistance to injury, power, jump, etc., the initial attribute is quite good, reached 72. If not for this physical fitness, based on the previous level of 56 "defense", I am afraid that he could not even be a marginal substitute, only to play in the C or D League. If it wasn't for this physique, with his previous "defense" level of only 56, I'm afraid he wouldn't even be a marginal substitute, and would only be able to play in the C or D league.
Now that we have "Fitness", we can add a little bit every week, and when the season officially starts, it's not a dream to get a chance to play.
When the skill attribute is between 70-80, each point requires 3 skill points, so Velarde first spent 3 skill points to increase "Physique" from 72 to 73, leaving 15 skill points.
The next time you add points, it will only be until next Monday, when both "defense" and "physical" can be added together, each adding a little.
After completing the upgrade additions, Velarde's skill attributes change to:
Host: Alan Villard
Club: Hurricanes Athletics
Grade: 2
Experience: 0.1 million/30,000
Skill Points: 15
Defense: 69
Physical fitness: 73
With the longer preparation time and more offensive and defensive drills and tactical training added to the routine, Villard's defensive ability has been recognized more and more by the coaching staff, who unanimously agree that he has improved very much compared to last season.
Coupled with his usual serious and hard-working training attitude, his initiative to train extra hard and his perseverance, which is rare in South America where the culture is relatively lazy, the coaching staff agreed that he should be rewarded with a little bit of playing time.
So, when they traveled to a southern suburban county on July 24 to play a warm-up game away from home against a D-League team, both Velarde and Lucas were given a chance to start on the bench.
Lucas came on to play in the center forward position, while Velarde came on to replace Federico Bismara at single back.
In the end, the team gained a sound victory by virtue of its strong overall strength and attacking power in a 5-1 bloodbath away from home.
And the goal that was conceded, which was conceded before Villard came on as a substitute, had nothing to do with him. When he came on, he stopped most of the attacks that came through his defensive zone with his strong physique and consistent defensive style.
Even if the opponent goes around him to attack through teamwork, he can block the passing route by jamming the ball or get back in time to prevent the opponent from getting an easy shot on goal in the penalty area.
Such a performance has made head coach Mario Binko quite happy, and in private discussions with his assistants, has positioned him ahead of Rolon and third in line for a start at the back.
And, although the day's game was an away game, resulting in Villard not being able to return to the training base for extra training, the system was still quite humane, equating Villard's substitution for a real warm-up game and decent performance with an A-level routine, giving him 5,000 experience.
At the same time, the real, live game earned Velarde a higher level of recognition from the coaching staff.
After training on the afternoon of July 26, Mario Binco gathered everyone together and announced the eighteen-man squad for the 1/16th final of the Copa Argentina the following day.
Naturally, Alan Villard's name won't be in the starting 11. However, his name was on the bench for seven men.
Dalia and Bonifacio both congratulated Velarde with both envy and admiration.
Those of them who didn't make the roster will have to take the welfare tickets given by their clubs and go to the stands to cheer on the team when the time comes.
Of course, players like Velarde and others who make the roster are given welfare tickets to give to their family and friends so they can go to the game and cheer them on.
Velarde got one too.
When she got home that night, Kristina jumped for joy and excitement when Velarde pulled out her tickets and told her sister that she had made the roster for the game:
"You're wonderful, brother."
"You've worked so hard and fought so hard this whole time, I knew you'd make it."
"Hopefully you'll get a chance to sub in tomorrow and I'll be in the stands cheering you on then."
Velarde smiled and nodded, feeling better as well at the sight of his sister, who had been showing a rare smile for some time now.
Of course, there was no shortage of calls to both Dalia and Bonnie Fashaw to take care of their sister in the stands tomorrow.
Dalia and Bonifacio were naturally full of promise.
The next day, Alan Velarde and the other players who made the roster, along with the coaches, team doctors, kit managers and so on, first gathered at the base before traveling together on the team bus to Boca Juniors' home stadium, while those who didn't make the roster traveled on their own, depending on the time of the game.
Boca Juniors, one of Argentina's two superpowers, is located in the Boca district of central Buenos Aires, and the Hurricanes are about 15 kilometers or so from their training base in the northwestern suburb by team bus.
Boca Juniors' home stadium, the Candy Box Stadium, is situated on the banks of the Rio de la Plata and is named after the candy box it resembles, while not many people remember the real name, the Bombernella Stadium.
If we were playing the national derby against another superpower, Argentina's River Plate, it goes without saying that not only would the 49,000 seats inside the stadium be filled, but even outside the stadium would be packed with enthusiastic fans.
But this Argentine Copa 1/16 final match, no one thinks there is much suspense.
With the strength of super giants Boca Juniors, wouldn't it be a handful to play a second division team?
So while the game was Boca Juniors' home ground, their fans didn't fill the stadium as many didn't bother coming to see a game that wasn't in doubt, with just over 20,000 home fans.
The same goes for the Hurricanes' fans, the vast majority of whom feel that they are certain to lose against Boca Juniors with little suspense, and therefore don't go to the game to avoid the abuse.
In the end, there were just over 1,000 die-hard Hurricanes fans who traveled to the away game.
This is still quite a lot, if it is Spain, even the first division team, go to play this kind of strength, no suspense away game, I am afraid that can not come up with 1000 people. If it is the domestic Chinese Super League, the cohesion of a little lower team to play away games, perhaps only a few, dozens of die-hard fans to follow, and still be sponsored.
The fact that an Argentinean second division team can have over 1,000 die-hard fans with them on their road trip to challenge the superpowers and giants of the first division is a testament to how strong the soccer atmosphere is here.
Be that as it may, not many of even these die-hard fans believe that the Hurricanes can topple Boca Juniors, not even the Hurricanes' own players.
Everyone felt that the game was a sure loss.
What turned out to be unexpected was that just as the two sides were doing their pre-match warm-ups and entering the locker room to make their final preparations, Mario Binko surprisingly made an impromptu change to the starting line-up announced yesterday in the locker room, removing a striker and adding a back, turning it from a 352 single back into a 361 double back, or what is known as a 3241 formation.
The double back is precisely the partnership of No. 5 Federico Bismara and No. 8 Lucas Villarruel.