Chapter 158: The Ninth Ridge. (1)
Before the match began, when I saw the Real Madrid players, with Clemence, Iris, and Lucy all starting, I had assumed they would deploy Lucy as an attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1 formation. After all, Lucy had started her career as a striker. But as the game progressed, Real Madrid's formation revealed itself to be a 4-1-2-3, with Clemence dropped all the way back into the defensive midfield role. Moreover, Clemence was marking me like a primitive defensive midfielder, not even touching the ball during the build-up, just sticking to me. It was as if they wanted to erase me from the pitch entirely, especially if a counterattack developed.
To be honest, I hadn't expected a team like Real Madrid to assign a dedicated marker to me, but it was a testament to how well I had performed in the Copa del Rey final. It felt pretty good. Of course, I wasn't the only one surprised by the opponent's formation. Clemence looked surprised too, as if he hadn't anticipated Arnal and me starting together.
“Will you keep following me like this?”
“…You don't need to worry about that.”
“Our midfield is completely pushed back, so we can't develop attacks. Is it okay?”
Furthermore, with Clemence marking me, the midfielders on Real Madrid's side Lucy and Iris, no matter how talented, couldn't hope to win the midfield battle against us. Especially with Valentina and Yelena, who were running around like wet meat, forcing us into many back passes.
Incidentally, our formation, which only used the fullbacks and Tiana, meant that during defense, Valentina and Yelena would shift dynamically sometimes acting as midfielders, sometimes as centerbacks creating moments where three players were in the midfield or three at the back. Of course, this method placed a heavy physical burden on Valentina and Yelena, but since both were top-tier in stamina on our team, I wasn't particularly worried.
In fact, our current tactics were quite tactical, but to play in Barcelona, one needed basic football intelligence. It was fortunate that both Yelena and Valentina were following Angela's instructions. Particularly, despite her dog-like running style and the blonde white beauty appearance of Valentina, which might suggest she was airheaded, Valentina was surprisingly smart when it came to football. After all, she had held down the starting spot at La Masia for ten years.
Anyway, we gained the upper hand in both midfield and defense, pressuring Real Madrid's build-up and making Lucy, who felt the pressure, send a loose forward pass to Marisol.
“Ah!”
But loose forward passes often end badly. Ultimately, Valentina intercepted the pass to Marisol, starting our first attack. When it was time to attack, there was time to pass the ball around from the back and organize positions. Real Madrid's players pressed from the front, trying to block our passes, but Marisol, despite her excellent attacking talent, lacked defensive ability, and even one player couldn't stop the passing from three players moving around. Once the others had positioned themselves, we began to advance slowly around Lucia.
“After saying that, you're just standing here quietly?”
“I'm in my spot, you know?”
After parrying Clemence's subtly provocative remark, I subtly shifted my position, and Clemence followed right behind me. Following like this makes him feel like a dog. Well, since his role is that of a hunting dog right now, it's not entirely wrong.
Today, Clemence's role was the hunting dog. Of course, hunting dogs didn't always succeed in the hunt. Especially when the prey was someone like me, who was impossible to catch. In the midfield, the midfielder Anila spotted me under Real Madrid's strong pressure. In a strong pressing situation where the pass to Lucia and Valentina was blocked, she sent a slightly awkward pass in response to my eye contact.
Thud.
Anila's slightly awkward pass hit my foot and bounced up. And Clemence, thinking I had missed the touch, reached out with his foot toward the ball. But today, my role was to toy with the hunting dog as the hunted. The opportunity Clemence thought he had was my trap...
“Ah!”
After trapping the bouncing ball between my thigh and calf and spinning once, Clemence's surprised voice rang out. Ignoring Clemence's voice, I thrust my leg forward strongly with the trapped leg, dropping the ball forward and dribbling ahead. To the left: Albaria, center: Arnal, right: Eloya. The three players widened my options. Quickly turning my head to check Clemence's position, it was clear he was already balanced and chasing me, as befitted the best player on Real Madrid. And ahead, Josephin, whom Angela had warned about, was charging to block the pass path.
As expected here...
My team was Barcelona. No need to take risks here. After pulling Clemence and Josephin sufficiently toward me, I attempted a back pass with a heel kick. Glancing back, the ball passed exactly by Clemence toward Lucia...
“Ugh!”
At that moment, when I confirmed the ball's position, I felt a strong impact. I couldn't withstand it and fell to the ground, and in front of me was Josephin, smiling as he extended his hand. Sorry. I didn't know you could stop there. A blatant foul, obvious to anyone, in a situation where the ball had left. But the referee's whistle didn't sound. It was as if he didn't even care about me.
Hah... This is because it's home.
And instinctively, I realized that the referee hadn't whistled because of the advantage. It's okay. I should have evaded it. Well, since this kind of thing was routine at home, I quickly grabbed Josephin's outstretched hand and stood up. Defenders of this style tend to come out stronger the more the attacker shows fear. And the more composed the attacker is, the more their mental state wavers.
And as if my thoughts had hit the mark, when I stood up after grabbing his hand, the guy looked at me with a face like he had bitten into shit. Just standing up like that earned him such an expression...
It would be more delicious if I were to take him out. What expression would I make if I got rid of him? It would definitely be one of the best. I set that aside as future entertainment and refocused on the match. The build-up around Lucia, which had started again, went back and forth through me. While doing so, I checked Clemence's reaction to the first defensive failure, and it seemed Clemence was responding to me with maximum caution, having deeply engraved the failure. And once again, the ball was with me. Clemence kept his distance, waiting for my next move,
Thud, thud.
As I chipped the ball short and slowly dribbled forward, he backed away. This meant he was waiting for his teammate. And since football is a sport for an equal number of players, if someone approached me, the pressure from that side would be mutual. Come on, come. I kept the ball slow as possible, waiting for another defender to come, and Josephin charged at me. Yeah, you came. I adjusted the ball slightly and moved to the position where Clemence and Josephin overlapped, and the guy who couldn't take his eyes off my foot blocked Josephin's path to me precisely as I intended. And as Josephin moved, Clemence reached out with his foot. Thinking the two were blocking me, Clemence's foot had confidence. But in this case, it would be worse than one! Left foot to right, right to left. It was a basic two-footed dribble, but my two-footed dribble honed over thirty years as the world's best football player was perfect, and Clemence's body, which had lost its target instantly, lost balance. Ah, ah! Move! Completely blocking Josephin's path. At the moment Josephin hesitated, I charged straight forward, and no matter how much of a physical monster the player was, he couldn't chase back immediately. Of course, considering Josephin's speed, he would catch up in a few seconds...! Stop! I checked Josephin's position as he ran while shouting. And while sliding, I attempted a diagonal back tackle, which world-class defenders often try. But since I already knew that defenders confident in defense and physicality often attempted such back tackles, I immediately shifted the ball to the opposite foot. Swoosh...! Josephin, as if fully prepared for a foul, bent his legs to obstruct my path. The thought of getting a foul by tripping flashed for 0.01 seconds, but my choice was to break through. After quickly attaching my left foot to the ball, when the ball touched the back of my right ankle, I quickly lifted my body and wrapped the ball with my right foot. Then, I stepped on the ground with my left foot and landed. And the ball that had disappeared instantly fell in front of me in a curve from behind. Looks good. The expression on Josephin's face, which I checked while running forward, was indeed a delicacy as I had thought. But I saved the tasting for later. The gap created by Gabriela, Real Madrid's last line of defense, who had her eyes fixed on me, allowed Arnal to come inside from the line. Bang! With a light sound, the ball left my foot. And the ball that left my foot went exactly to Arnal. Before I knew it, a 1v1 chance between Arnal and the goalkeeper had been created. Now, only the goalkeeper remained. And at the moment everyone thought Arnal would take the shot... Eh?! The pass from Arnal, which she sent via heel kick without even looking at me, reached me, who was in a no-mark situation, continuing to run after receiving the pass. The goalkeeper's body was already leaning toward Arnal, Thud. It didn't take much strength to kick the ball into the corner of the goal without the goalkeeper. Waaaaaaaah!!!!!
The stunned Real Madrid players. And I turned my gaze back to enjoy the delicacy I had saved, checking Josephin's expression. Joseph's expression, with a face twisted like a ghost, was satisfying enough to taste again. Moreover, watching the Real Madrid supporters' seats, which had become a library of despair, was as delicious as seeing Joseph's face. And behind my back, Arnal ran over and hugged me. Ryu! I knew you'd come running! Honestly, the sudden pass surprised me a bit. Well, I knew you'd catch it. You'd choose the pass here. It seemed like her play was getting closer to mine lately... But it wasn't particularly new. It wasn't strange to learn her play by watching the world's best player up close. Then, please take care from now on. Yeah, stay on guard at all times.