Preseason Showdown: Scoring Against Juventus
“Camila!”
In a situation where two players were pressing, and those two were the starting midfielders of Juventus, the leaders of Serie A in Italy, anyone would think it was dangerous. I couldn't help but shout Camila's name.
But Camila instantly used La Croqueta (phantom dribble) to slip between the two and passed to Lorenza.
As expected, Camila!
Honestly, before the preseason started, I was worried that her muscles might be too tight and her football skills might have declined, but after training together throughout the preseason and playing friendly matches, my impression was that Camila was just Camila.
At 17 years old, Camila had pushed out Lucia and taken the starting spot at Barcelona. She definitely had talent.
Of course, I didn't have time to admire Camila's talent. I saw that my marking player was empty, so Lorenza passed the ball.
The player in front of me is the candidate midfielder Mila. Actually, it should have been Yasmine, the starter, but because of some past sexual harassment incident or because it's preseason and we don't need to use the starter, Juventus used Mila as my marking man.
Well, except for Mila, most were starters, so it was probably the same.
And blocking my path, who was the best player in Europe last year, was practically impossible.
Since it's preseason, I ran towards the fans watching football in the US, dribbling the ball between my legs, touching the ball with my heel to bypass Mila.
“Ooooh!!!”
“Waaah!!!”
Ignoring the cheers of the spectators for my rainbow flick (heel), I signaled to Arnal.
Tuk.
The lightly pushed ball exactly hit Arnal, who was leading the Juventus center-backs,
Tuk.
Arnal lightly released the ball that arrived in front of me after bypassing the offside trap.
Now, only the goalkeeper Aliesia remained.
But no matter how much Aliesia, one of the world's top three goalkeepers, it wasn't easy to stop my one-on-one chance.
Bang!
She reacted to the shot half a beat faster than usual and threw her body, but the ball slipped past Aliesia's fingertips into the goal.
“Ha-neul! Your shots have improved?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It seems like it's definitely faster than last year.”
After showing my signature ceremony for the fans who came to watch me, Eloya, who was closest to me, was looking for the second ball and patted my head, saying the words I wanted to hear the most.
The words that my shots seem to have gotten faster.
Yeah, I did put in that much effort...
Honestly, even without Eloya's words, I was feeling that my shots had gotten a bit faster on my own. Comparing to when the season started last year, it was like from middle school level to high school level? It was definitely that my legs were getting stronger as I got older.
Of course, it wasn't exact numbers, but anyway, it felt that way to me.
And now, by scoring a one-on-one against Aliesia, one of the world's best goalkeepers, I could have some confidence. Mid-range shots were still out of reach, but this was enough to say that inside the penalty box, it would be no problem.
Of course, I wasn't going to take shots lightly, but it was a good feeling that my shots were getting faster and stronger.
If only my running speed could improve a bit too, but that might be difficult.
But unlike shots where power increases with muscle, running speed is something innate, so there were no signs of getting faster. Probably because of muscle issues, and there was nothing I could do about that.
Well, since it was a pointless thing to think about, after sharing applause with my teammates, I returned to the center line. After a few minutes, Angela started substituting most of the starters. Since it was a match against Juventus, it seemed like she was checking the form of the starting players, but seeing that she substituted before the first half ended, it seemed the players' forms didn't meet Angela's expectations.
No matter how much it was a friendly match, scoring a goal in 30 minutes against Juventus, it was natural for Angela to be satisfied.
Looking at the players who came in place of the starters, they were players like Valentina, Bruna, Joaquina, Enri, Lautina, etc., who could be trusted to fill in anytime the starters were resting.
And among them, Yuri, who entered as left winger instead of Albaria.
“Ha-neul, good job.”
“Yuri. Let's show it off once. Let's get past Albaria.”
Since speaking in Spanish, Albaria might hear it, so I patted Yuri's shoulder in Korean, which only we could understand.
“Okay, I'll try.”
Yuri, perhaps feeling confident from my cheers, laughed lightly and ran to find her spot.
“Sir Ryu. What are you looking at so smugly?”
“Albaria. Eventually, Yuri will take Albaria's spot.”
“Haha, well, that could happen. In about 5 years.”
“At that time, are you 37?”
“Women naturally get more flavorful as they age, you know.”
“Ah, yes...”
Behind Albaria pretending to be cool, sitting on the bench, I could see Yuri handling the ball against the first team players of Juventus.
“Are you only looking at Yuri?”
“I'm worried. Yuri also needs to secure a spot in the first team.”
“Well, that's true.”
For a few minutes, my looking only at Yuri, Camila threw a playful remark, but after hearing my answer, she nodded. Among our peers, only Yuri had an ambiguous position in the first team, so Camila seemed to understand my feelings.
Actually, I could see that Valentina and Bruna, who weren't starters, had perfectly secured their positions.
Bruna, who could play on both wings, was the first to come onto the field when either Albaria or Eloya was resting, and Valentina, who could play anywhere from center back, defensive midfielder, to midfielder, didn't lose out in playing time compared to the starters.
Moreover, when we were leading largely, she came in as first priority to strengthen defense, so Valentina was practically a starter.
At first, there was worry that she was being called too much without a fixed position, but since Angela's role for Valentina didn't change much even when positions shifted, there was no big problem. It was just that her activity range widened or narrowed.
Well, it was possible because Valentina was a player with quite high football intelligence, unlike what she seemed.
Anyway, compared to the starters like me and Camila, and Valentina and Bruna who could be used anytime, Yuri's position was narrow, so other friends were secretly a bit worried.
But seeing that when all the 1.5 team level players were used together, it seemed Angela evaluated Yuri quite highly, which was fortunate.
So, is it a competition between Yuri and Bruna?
Yuri and Bruna. Yuri's main position is left winger forward, Bruna's is right winger forward, but both could play both wings, so if one winger spot was vacant, it was likely a competition between the two.
Yuri with fast speed and strong shots, Bruna with excellent dribbling.
Their playmaking was similar level, so it didn't matter who they paired with, but Bruna had stronger destructive power. Yuri's fast legs were good, but there weren't many teams that pressed lines against us.
Slightly peeking at Angela's gaze, Angela's gaze was also fixed on Yuri and Bruna like me. Probably Angela was also troubled between the two.
Still, the loan experience wasn't in vain. Seeing Yuri push up.
I wanted to run with both of them, but in the pro world, it's decided by skill, not friendship. To do that, I had to get past Albaria and Eloya, who were active as starting wingers in the Spanish national team.
Under Barcelona's policy of bringing La Masia players until they were deemed unusable, there would eventually be a day when we all play together, but for now, it was right to wait for Angela and the coaches' evaluations.
Having made that internal judgment, the first half ended.
And the second half began. Angela took out all the players who started, and as time passed, even candidates including Athletic players came out, and the friendly match against Juventus ended in a massive brawl of 4-4 with Yuri and Bruna each scoring one goal.
With this, the all-out training schedule was over.
“Well, everyone, thank you for your hard work during the all-out training. Starting this season, you'll all know that the Super Cup will be held in January's rest period in tournament format. And at the end of the year, there's the Club World Cup too. This year might be tougher than usual, so after the all-out training, we'll give a 3-day rest.”
Whee!
After returning to Spain and giving rest, whistles blew from various places. Slightly looking around, I saw Camila also whistling, so I glared at her once, but Camila hardened her expression and pretended to be serious.
“Anyway, Camila is really... well, since she'll be in the dorm anyway, she won't be able to play.”
“Those who think that the preseason ends with this after the all-out training won't be on our team. There are many friendly matches and commemorative games left until the season starts. And I don't believe there are young players who came with the first team to the all-out training and feel at ease. When we return to Spain, we have to compete with all the players in the team.”
The players who participated in the all-out training for the first time this season became quite tense. And among them, Yuri also nodded seriously.
I wanted to tell Yuri that you don't have to worry, but since in the rookie season, having a clear position wasn't bad, I swallowed the words.
“Well, let's go back now.”
With that, our all-out training ended.
Now, what remained during the preseason were just a few friendly matches. It was a bit unfortunate that there were 3 weeks left until the season started because the Super Cup would now start in January. 40 minutes of rough play wasn't enough, and friendly matches didn't excite the heart.
But as training went on, 3 weeks didn't seem that long.
First, the first half goal was to show usual ability without getting injured as much as possible. Since I got all the awards possible after winning last year's Champions League and scoring the top scorer, as long as I don't lose the first half to injury, the Ballon d'Or would be almost certain.
The youngest Ballon d'Or winner in this world was Lima at 20 years old. If there was no World Cup last year or if Marisol didn't get injured in the first half, I could have broken the youngest record, but in the end, Marisol didn't get the Ballon d'Or.
In that situation, receiving the Ballon d'Or in my teens?
This was opening the way to becoming the greatest football player of all time.
Yeah, let's just settle for the Ballon d'Or. After all the regression, it's a bit disappointing if I don't even get the Ballon d'Or before becoming an adult.