Head Coach's Appreciation, Substitutions

Entering the training base and making his way to the locker room, Velarde was, not surprisingly, the first player to arrive, aside from equipment manager Pressman.

Surprised to see Velarde, Pressman said, "So early, Velarde? I heard your parents passed away, are you okay?"

Velarde said, "It's okay, it's over."

Pressman nodded, "Come on, try to play more this season."

"Thanks!"

After saying his thanks, Villard went to his number 33 closet, took out his training clothes and changed into them, then said goodbye to Pressman and went out onto the practice field, jogging himself first to warm up.

It took more than half an hour for teammates and coaches, team doctors, etc. to arrive, and teammates who knew Velarde well expressed their condolences for the unexpected passing of his parents.

As 9:30 approached, Assistant Coach Andres Yarin greeted everyone as they gathered before Head Coach Mario Binko gave the opening pep talk for the new season.

"Good morning everyone, the World Cup is over and although it's a pity that Argentina didn't win, life goes on."

"The new season is about to start and today is our first day of practice."

"The season is only six months long, with 11 teams in each group and a total of 22 rounds of league matches, with two more rounds to be rotated, effectively only 20 league matches to be played, and yet there are five promotion places in each group."

"I've given my word to the chairman that if this doesn't lead to successful promotion to the top flight, I'll automatically step down."

"So this season, I want everyone to do their best and go all out to hit the A-League. Whoever falls off the bandwagon will go and sit on the bench or even report to the reserves."

"I'm not kidding, I'm betting on my job."

"There's over thirty in the first team, I wouldn't mind laying off a few."

"However, today is the first day of training for the new season, so we won't do any high level training, everyone will go to the infirmary for a brief medical checkup and then come back to focus on recovery training."

"Also, some players left this vacation and a couple of new players joined, so get to know them."

Mario Binko then called a couple of the new additions to the roster individually to the front of the line and asked them to introduce themselves and give everyone a chance to get acquainted.

After finishing everyone went to the infirmary first to do a simple physical examination, measuring height, weight, heart rate, blood pressure, etc., a bit perfunctory. After all, it's just the A-B team, neither the A-League stars nor the European teams are so rich, so it's a bit of a formality.

After the physical examination back to the training field began to do recovery training under the arrangement of assistant coaches and physical trainers.

Alan Velarde was highly motivated, had a great attitude, and did whatever the program was, without any sloppiness at all. Not only because he was a professional player for the first time since he was reborn after taking over his life, the first time he participated in the training of a professional team, there was a sense of freshness, but also because there was a system next to him, he knew that he could be successful, so there was hope and expectation.

Velarde, whose mental age is long past his prime, has a much different focus than the original host.

The first day of training was dominated by physical recovery drills, without much technical ball work. Even so, it was very informative.

Professional, it's just not the same.

Although all of these things were in the original owner's memories, it was still quite refreshing and rewarding for Velarde to experience them for himself.

After the afternoon's training, Velarde was still wondering how the system didn't release the training experience. It wasn't until he returned home and washed up in the evening and laid down on the bed ready to sleep that the system's electronic voice sounded in his head, "Host's training evaluation for today is level C, gained 2,000 points of experience, current experience level 0 2,000/10,000, please continue to work hard."

Velarde was amazed and questioned carefully, and this time the system finally revealed more.

It turned out that the training experience he gained every day was not fixed, the system would rate the host according to his performance and training effect, divided into four grades, A, B, C, and D. Grade A experience 5,000, Grade B experience 3,000, Grade C experience 2,000, and Grade D experience 1,000.

And again, the system doesn't say exactly what performance is what level, leaving Velarde to figure it out on his own.

Anyway, Velarde was seriously committed to today's training, but what he received was only a C rating, only 2000 experience points, and the system didn't give out the rating and distribute the experience until he was lying in bed ready to go to sleep.

Velarde pondered for a while, having some general guesses in mind, but still needing actual actions to verify them.

The next day, Velarde woke up even earlier and didn't even eat breakfast at home, instead arriving directly at the training base by car, then ate a free but terrible-tasting nutritional breakfast for athletes in the base cafeteria, then trained on his own for over an hour before his coaches and teammates arrived.

Velarde didn't go home for dinner immediately after the afternoon training, but ate a free nutritious dinner in the base cafeteria, then practiced extra hours on his own for more than three hours until the last buses were getting off work before Velarde ended his extra practice and left the base to go home.

Back at home, Velarde collapsed straight onto the couch, not wanting to move a muscle.

Her younger sister, Kristina, sat down next to her and asked with concern, "Brother, why are you back so late today and so tired?"

Velarde gasped, "I did my own extra practice today."

Kristina worriedly said, "Don't fight so hard, be careful of practicing injuries. Right now you are my only family, I don't want anything to happen to you."

Velarde nodded and said, "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on it."

That night, Velarde was about to go to sleep when the system broadcasted, "Host today's training evaluation of B, gained 3,000 points of experience, the current experience 0 level 5,000/10,000, please host continue to work hard."

Hearing that today's training result had changed from a C grade to a B grade, Velarde's heart rejoiced, it seemed that he had sort of found a way to improve his daily training experience.

However, a mere B grade would not satisfy him; what he wanted was an A grade every day. And that, probably, could not be achieved by simply piling on the time and practicing desperately extra.

So, after the afternoon training on July 17, Velarde took the initiative to find the head coach and said, "Guv, I want to practice on my own for a period of time every day to improve my strength. But what should be practiced, to what extent, and how much time is appropriate for extra practice every day, I need the coaching staff to give me some guidance."

Mario Binko already knew from equipment manager Pressman about Alan Villard arriving early and leaving late the last two days to put in extra practice on his own.

South American players are generally less disciplined, and it's only common for them to be late, leave early, drink, and go to bars; Alan Velarde's serious and hard-working attitude is a rarity, and one that Mario Binko appreciates more than any other.

So, instead of refusing Velarde's need for the coaching staff to give him a customized plan for extra workouts, Mario Binko obliged, saying that he and the coaching staff would help Velarde develop a plan for extra workouts based on Velarde's actual situation, just within the next day or two.

Later that night, Villard stayed for another extra practice and stayed until he was too tired to leave. And along with him were two of his teammates, 21-year-old forward Dalia and 22-year-old defender Bonnie Fashaw, both of whom are also fringe substitutes who rarely get a chance to play and are about the same age, so the three are on the best of terms.

When they finally left, both Dalia and Bonnie Fashaw exclaimed that they were so tired and overwhelmed.

It's not that Velarde isn't tired, but at 36 years of mental age, he knows how rare the chance to suddenly live again and be 15 years younger is, and he has to cherish it.

Most ordinary people, even if they want to work hard have no chance, all their life can't find a career worth working hard for, their own work but the more they work hard the faster they die.

So he told Dalia and Bonifacio, "If we don't work hard, even if the team does get promoted to the A-League, we'll be sold out and won't be able to play in the A-League, won't be able to be stars."

Dalia and Bonny Fashio sniffed with a torn expression on their faces, but eventually decided that they would come earlier the next day and join Velarde for extra training. After all, they also wanted to play in the A-League.

Returning home, seeing her brother who was again exhausted and collapsed directly onto the sofa, her younger sister, Kristina, said heartily, "Brother, this won't work, you'll injure your body from practicing!"

Velarde waved his hand and said, "I practiced blindly on my own for the past two days, and I didn't know how long it would be appropriate to practice, that's why I practiced until I came back now. However, I've already talked to the head coach, and he promised to help me make an extra practice plan based on my actual situation, so I'll be more efficient then, and I guess I won't have to practice until so late."

Slightly relieved, Kristina nodded, "That's good, and no matter what, I hope you stay healthy and don't get hurt."

Velarde nodded and took a moment to slow down before getting up to go wash up and go to bed.

With this day of training, Velarde gained another 3,000 experience with a B rating, and his experience rose to 8,000/10,000 at level 0. One more day of training tomorrow and he would be able to upgrade and receive his first upgrade bonus.

On the morning of July 18th, Dalia and Bonnie Fashaw didn't miss their appointment, arriving early together to join Velarde in extra practice. Although they are not as serious and hardworking as Villard, if they can stick to it for a long time, it should be somewhat effective.

Later that afternoon, the Hurricanes held a 60-minute intrasquad scrimmage, with those in blue undershirts representing the starters and those in yellow undershirts representing the bench.

Velarde was assigned to the Yellow Team, which represented the bench, but didn't get a chance to start and had to stand on the sidelines waiting for his chance to play.

When the clock came to the 37th minute and the score on the field had changed to Blue 2-0 Yellow, with the ball going out of bounds and creating a dead ball, Assistant Coach Andres Yarin yelled at Aaron Velarde, "Velarde, come on and replace Lucas."