If one man guards the pass, ten thousand cannot get through
Later that night, Velarde called Kristina and told her the good news that she had made the starting roster and would definitely be able to play tomorrow.
That's a lot better than just making the roster before, but sitting on the bench with the complete unknown of whether or not you'll play, but it's a lot better.
Kristina squealed with delight in her dorm room and rushed to tell Alisa and Bertha the good news.
Alyssa and Bertha squealed with delight as well, and Alyssa grabbed Kristina's cell phone straight away and said to Velarde, "Alan, this is the first time you've made a start in your career, isn't it? You have to treat us, we came to cheer you on tomorrow, and after the game you treat us to a big dinner to celebrate."
Velarde laughed, "Yes!"
After hanging up the phone, a few of Kristina's people began to prepare for the next day's rush to the stadium to see the game live.
Naturally, both Alyssa and Bertha were going to be there with Kristina to cheer Velarde on. Kristina also invited Lorelle Molly, but Molly didn't think highly of Velarde just because he got his debut. After all, the debut was still just the second division, so Lorelle Molly excused herself from going on account of something.
In fact, Kristina was just being polite, she and Alisa and Bertha had formed a three-person coterie and didn't like Molly. She was still begging for Molly to stay out of their actions.
The next day, September 6, at 16:00, Hurricanes Athletic hosted Tucumán Athletic in the 6th round of the 2014 Argentine Bundesliga playoffs.
Tucuman Athletic hasn't had a turn yet, and has played all five rounds of league matches, with a record of four wins, one draw and zero losses, topping the table with an undefeated record of 13 points, and is also the only undefeated team in the A-League at the moment, which makes it quite strong.
The Hurricanes are in a bit of a tough situation as they are in 7th place with 5 points from one win, two draws and one loss in the first five rounds, except for the second round of the rotation.
That's why head coach Mario Binko made the bold change to newcomer Alan Velarde, hoping to use Velarde's greater physicality and skill to solidify the defense and give the attacking players in the midfield more energy to put into the offense and get the win.
Athletic Hurricanes' starting lineup for this match is goalkeeper #1 Marcos Diaz, three center backs #4 Santiago Echeverria, #6 Elamspey, and #2 Mancinelli, back #33 Alan Velarde, left winger #31 Germain Mandarino, two front men #8 Lucas Villarruel and #10 Gonzano Martinez, right winger #18 Toranzo, center #22 Alavi, and shadow winger #7 Espinoza. Alavi, and shadow forward #7 Espinoza.
In the double front, No. 10 Gonzano Martinez holds the ball more and organizes the attack, while No. 8 Lucas Villarruel is responsible for playing auxiliary to Martinez and is responsible for counter-striking and defending after Martinez loses the ball, that is, the role of the center-forward, and retreating to the back line when defending to form a double back line with Velarde.
As soon as the game started, Hurricanes Athletic took the initiative to attack using their home field advantage. Having gone three rounds without a win, there was no going back for the Hurricanes, this game had to be won and therefore had to be attacked.
What's more, the Hurricanes' 352 formation, which itself favors offense, is everyone's forte, and even if they were facing top-of-the-table Tucuman Athletic, no one was afraid.
The main reason is that the 2-0 victory in the first match against Boca Juniors in the second half of the year has made everyone's heart not yet lost, and there is still a lot of courage in our hearts: we can even win against Boca Juniors, are we still afraid of the second division team?
This mentality has both good and bad points. The good point is that they are confident, relaxed and not afraid of strong opponents. The disadvantage lies in overestimating oneself and being careless, coupled with the 3-0 victory in the first round of the league, which led to three rounds of no wins in the back.
Tucuman Athletic naturally knew what the Hurricanes' problems were, and undefeated in five rounds, they naturally had even less to fear from the Hurricanes, and instead played the Hurricanes against each other at Thomas Duke Stadium.
Tucuman Athletic, while not to be taken lightly, didn't take the Hurricanes' change of starting backs anywhere near as seriously as they should have.
The reason is that Velarde played for a short time in the Copa Argentina and the first round of the league, which was a good performance, but not at a very high level. And immediately following the automatic red card suspension, additional bans, and the window in between, Velarde's improvement was not known to outsiders, and the players of Atlético Tucumán did not know that Velarde's defensive prowess had reached the level of an A-League star, well ahead of Federico Bismarra.
Especially up to 80 awareness, in the level of the A.B. League, is absolutely second to none, can't say that no one is higher than him, but even if there is a level of awareness higher than him, I'm afraid that the physical fitness and defensive ability is much worse than him.
As a result, Velarde, with a whopping 80 awareness and 79 physique and 75 defense added to the mix, can make opponents insurmountable even if he's the only one.
Atletico Tucumán hit a quick counterattack in the fifth minute when they broke up a ball that Gonzano Martinez was trying to pass to Espinosa.
On the counterattack, Tucumán Athletic's front man Gral received a pass from a teammate, and instead of trying to break through him in the face of Velarde's tackle, he aimed at the run of his teammate, striker Menéndez, diagonally in front of him before he received the ball, ready to pass the ball straight through without stopping, creating a great pass for an assist.
As a result, Velarde saw through his intentions, and at the moment when Gral was about to start the pass, Velarde suddenly powered up to take a step across towards the passing route, and then decisively shoveled down diagonally, just in time to intercept Gral's non-stop diagonal pass and control the ball.
Gral was alarmed and tried to immediately counter-strike, but Velarde, who was lying on the ground, didn't give him a chance and immediately stabbed the ball he had shoveled down with his foot to center back Elamspey, who was not far to the side to receive the ball.
The commentators exclaimed:
"Beautiful!"
"Gral's pass was recognized when Allen Velarde, filling in for Federico Bismarra and making his first career start, recognized Gral's pass and made a sudden cross-frame shovel tackle that broke up Gral's shovel."
Kristina, Alyssa, and Bertha in the stands also happily clapped and cheered loudly.
They know that as a defensive player Velarde, a successful shovel tackle like that is a beautiful defensive play that will add up in the eyes of the coaching staff and the fans and the media.
The game continues on the field.
A Tucuman Athletic attack was shanked by Velarde, and then Hurricane Athletic launched a counterattack.
Because this itself is a counterattack of Tucumán Athletic, the result is that Velarde suddenly shoveled to start a counterattack, so in this attack, Tucumán Athletic's midfield and backfield personnel who are attacking forward are a bit untimely to get back to defense, and are penetrated by Hurricanes Athletic team which has enough 6 people in front of them to participate in the attack, and finally Espinosa took the ball and killed the Tucumán Athletic penalty area.
Atletico Tucumán defender Bruno Bianchi, who was scrambling back behind Espinosa's flank, reached out in desperation and pushed Espinosa in an attempt to interfere with his dribble or shot.
As a result, which expected Espinoza is also a human savant, was ready to shoot, he saw the goalkeeper in front of the goal waiting for the goal, not much sure, so in feeling the body was pushed by the opponent from the side of the back of the body, immediately exaggeratedly exclaimed, lost his center of gravity and fell in the penalty area, enough to roll a few times, directly rolled out of the end of the line.
"Doh ..."
The referee's sharp whistle sounded and Bruno Bianchi was awarded a yellow card + penalty for a push inside the box.
Although Bruno Bianchi tried his best to argue that it was just a normal push and shove during a ball grab and that he didn't use much force, Espinoza allegedly faked the fall.
But perhaps Espinoza's exaggerated screams and "agonizing" rolls fooled the referee, who ignored Athletic Tucumán's appeals and firmly upheld the original decision.
Making a play, Espinoza didn't see the referee awarding his opponent a yellow card + penalty, like some players do, and think he'd achieved his goal, then rolled over and climbed to his feet.
This is cool, but it will undoubtedly offend the referee, letting him know that you're rubbing his intelligence the wrong way, and you'll be in the referee's shoes later.
As a result, Espinoza lay on the ground for a few moments before standing up with the help of his teammates, making the illusion that he had broken his foot when he fell to the ground, limping back out to the line of the penalty area, waiting for the penalty kick, and fooling the referee.
The penalty kick was taken by center #22 Alavi.
Alavi is a fierce man who is only 177cm tall but weighs a whopping 93kg with an incredible physique. Although his shooting skills are average, he is strong enough.
As the saying goes, if you kick a penalty kick, Alavi just needs to kick hard and within the goal box, and basically no one will be able to defend it.
As expected, Alavi's penalty kick was not deflected out of the goal box, but hit the ball within the goal box and hit a powerful shot, Tucumán Athletic's goalkeeper Lucchetti was a step too slow to save the ball, and could only watch the ball go into the net.
Just five minutes into the game, Hurricane Athletics scored their first goal on a penalty kick to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
The Hurricanes fans, both on the field and in the stands, let out a loud round of applause and cheers to celebrate the home team's goal and lead.
Among them, those who cared about Velarde, like Kristina, Alyssa, and Bertha, remembered that the penalty was initially generated by Velarde breaking the ball at the back and launching a counter-attack, and recognized his performance all the more.
The Hurricanes' celebrations lasted almost half a minute before Tucuman Athletic kicked off in the center circle and play continued.
After the restart of the match, Tucumán Athletic, who were trailing, quickly launched an onslaught of attacks, hoping to score in the shortest possible time and equalize the score.
Nay Hurricanes' box front stood Alan Velarde.
Although he was the only one in the back line, he was as good as one man, firmly blocking the middle of Tucumán Athletic's attack.
Velarde's awareness, physique, defensive ability and mental age with, so that he is very solid defensively, and will not rush up to grab and let the other side with the technical advantage of breakthrough, but usually use the physical advantage of the position of the card to prevent the other side from breaking through, or the use of teamwork, and teammates to join hands to break the ball, or to force the other side to pass and slow down the attack.
Velarde, making his first career start, performed like an insurmountable mountain, giving Tucuman Athletic nothing to work with.
In just half an hour, Velarde contributed three positive tackles to the performance, forcing Athletic Tucuman to turn their attack to the side.
However, Villard could still try to neutralize the opponent's rib attacks or inverted triangle passes by making timely returns and defensive stands. For the rest, Atlético Tucumán will have to pass through the side and let their centers go for the top of the box.
And with Hurricanes Athletic's three center backs, plus Velarde not being too tall, it was difficult for Tucuman Athletic to grab the first point in the box.
It took until the 36th minute of the first half for Tucuman Athletic to get their center forward, Daya Garner, to grab the first point and fling his head at the goal through a cross from the wing for Tucuman Athletic's first threatening shot topside of goal range in the first half.
Nay, Hurricanes Athletic goalkeeper Marcos Diaz was also quite focused and reflexively jumped up and reached out, managing to tip the ball over the crossbar.
Athletic Tucuman wasted a great chance to head home from close range inside the box.
On the ensuing corner kick, Tucuman Athletic just couldn't grab the first point again, as it was cleared by Hurricanes center back Elamspey over the top of the box.