Chapter 236: 19-20 Season. (Part 2)
The third round of the La Liga between Barcelona and Valencia is being held at Camp Nou. Sir, how do you view today's match?
Considering that many players from Barcelona's national team have been called up, Barcelona is likely to face fatigue issues. And with a Champions League match against Dortmund in two days, that adds to the concern.
Yes. How will Barcelona overcome this schedule...?
I saw the announced Barcelona starting lineup, and it seems they're planning to rotate.
Let's check Barcelona's starting lineup. Goalkeeper: Maximilena. Defenders: Enri, Tiana, Suleime. Midfielders: Valentina, Joaquin, Wasila. Attacking midfielder: Camila. Striker line: Bruna, Arnal, Kang Yu-ri.
It seems they've given the players rest overall. Tiana anchoring the defense, Arnal anchoring the attack, and Camila stepping in for Ryu Ha-neul as attacking midfielder. Including goalkeeper Maximilena, that's four starters in the lineup?
Quite bold, isn't it? After all, even at home, Valencia isn't an easy team to face.
That's correct. Will Barcelona, by throwing in so many candidate players, still manage to secure the win...?
'Can I win this?'
Sitting on the bench, gazing at the pitch, the first thought that came to mind was whether we could win today's match.
Given the A-League and Champions League schedules, today's match was inevitably one where we had to deploy many candidate players for fatigue management.
Angela had told me she was ready to come on anytime, but since she wouldn't be subbed in from the first half, I couldn't help but worry if we could hold on through the first half.
'I wish I could have given up one Champions League match...'
In terms of importance, between Champions League qualifiers and league matches, I would have preferred to prioritize the league.
Unlike the Champions League group stage where dropping one game might still allow qualification to the top, the league this past few years had been decided by just one game difference between first and second.
Currently, Real Madrid was leading with 2 wins, 1 draw, giving us a slight edge, but considering the Club World Cup and the now four-team Spanish Super Cup, we needed to accumulate as many wins as possible before the grueling second half of the schedule arrived.
Moreover, although Valencia this season had a poor record of 1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss, they were the team that finished fourth last season...
I glanced at Angela's expression. But unlike my concern, Angela was wearing a confident smile.
'Am I overthinking this?'
Of course, there were reliable players on the pitch. Goalkeeper Maximilena, centerbacks Tiana, and striker Arnal were dependable.
And the friends who were deployed today were trustworthy from training.
...From training.
But this was a real match, and they needed someone to anchor the midfield, especially. With the starting midfielders Yelena and Lorenza absent, Valentina and Camila were taking on the crucial role of the central pivot in our tactics.
Worrying that if Camila or Valentina made a mistake and we lost, the fans might criticize harshly was unavoidable.
'Please, just don't make any big mistakes.'
With that worry in mind, looking at the pitch,
"Ha-neul."
...Angela called my name.
"...Huh? Already starting? We just began?"
"Haha. What are you saying."
"The coach called..."
"No, not that. Just don't worry too much."
"Was it that obvious?"
"If you have that worried dad face like you're putting your kids out by the water, anyone would know."
"...Sorry."
"No need to apologize. Just trust your friends a little more. And we're strong enough."
"...Yes."
Seeing Angela say that, it seemed she had noticed my worry.
Worried dad face...
The thought crossed my mind that since I had seen it from childhood, the worry had grown, but my worry wasn't due to that. Normally, to debut promising players, one would create as comfortable an environment as possible.
For example, would it be ideal for Camila, who took Lucia's spot, to debut among the veterans? The standard was to rotate just one or two in the starting lineup to cover mistakes by promising players.
But now, starting in this match where candidates are heavily deployed? It felt too harsh.
But Angela sitting beside me was looking at the pitch where the game was proceeding with her usual calm expression.
...Raising by pushing off cliffs?
The worry was real, but since the match had started, all I could do was hope the kids played well.
Enri and Suleime as defenders weren't reliable, but Joaquin and Wasila in midfield, having played 4-5 years at Barcelona and appearing in 20 games every year, were reliable.
Fortunately, in the initial minutes, we were in our pace. Valentina was strong in physicality, but compared to me and Camila, she was lacking, but with experience at Barcelona, her ball keeping and short passes were quite good.
Her passing style lacked creativity, but she delivered good through balls?
Valentina, playing as a defensive midfielder, was spraying passes all over, and Joaquin and Wasila in central midfield were passing to each other, gradually pushing the lines up. But it wasn't perfect passing like when the starters were on.
"Watch out!"
A Valencia midfielder pressured Wasila, snatched the ball, and attempted a counterattack.
Fortunately, Valentina quickly pressed and cleared the ball with a tackle, but possession went back to Valencia, who failed the counter and switched to long balls.
Looking at the players running around pressing Valencia, why did the Bilbao match suddenly come to mind?
The difference with Bilbao was that we had already synced for a year, and we had a solid anchor in defense.
"Taken!"
Under Tiana's command, occupying space, blocking the pass route, and intercepting the ball heading to the attackers, the ball returned to our side.
And if they do long balls, the back spaces are inevitably open.
Tiana whipped a long pass into the back space where the opponent was high up. And there, Yu-ri was already running from the center line since before Tiana sent the pass.
"Yu-ri! Run!"
In the perfect counter chance, I stood up from the bench without realizing and shouted. And Yu-ri caught the pass 4-5 steps ahead of the approaching centerback, and charged forward.
Now, including the goalkeeper, the remaining players were 2:2. Yu-ri quickly checked the players' positions and charged forward. And facing that, the Valencia goalkeeper rushed out, and Yu-ri shot half a step faster,
"Ah, close."
Yu-ri's shot just grazed the post, and our attack ended.
"How was it, Ha-neul."
"...It's fine?"
And from the series of exchanges, what I felt was that our game was sufficiently good.
First, Tiana's commanding defense line was quite solid, and Valentina was making the opponent uncomfortable with her unique activity. Moreover, the process of Yu-ri, the fastest on our team, attacking the opponent's back line when the opponent did long balls and spaces opened up was incredibly smooth.
If I had been there, we wouldn't have lost the ball in the first place, but it was hard to demand that much, so it was a level that could be given a passing grade?
After that, we exchanged several attacks with Valencia, and Camila, who had loosened up, began to lead the game by distributing the ball here and there from the center of the pitch.
When the first half ended, the score was 0:0. But we were leading in possession with 6.5 to 3.5, and we could claim a favorable high ground.
"All of you did well in the first half. If this continues, I think we can win without any trouble. Believe in yourselves wearing the Barcelona uniforms and fight to the end. Show those bats who we are!"
"Yes! Coach!"
And Angela started the second half without making a single substitution.
Valencia, trying to score a goal before I or other starters came on, increased the tempo and attacked us, and a chance came again.
The spearhead of that chance was again Yu-ri breaking through the opponent's lines.
This time, Yu-ri who received the long pass from Valentina charged forward again. This counter was 4:4. Arnal and Bruna were running beside Yu-ri, and Camila was chasing behind.
Yu-ri quickly assessed the situation and this time passed to Camila behind her, and Camila, receiving the ball, one-touched it to Bruna. And at the moment when Bruna, who was being tricky in the box, was surrounded by players, the pass from Bruna connected perfectly to Arnal in the empty space.
And Arnal was able to perfectly fulfill her role as one of the few starters in this match.
"WAAAAAAA!!!!"
With that, the score became 1:0. It was an unsatisfactory score, but my heart was fluttering at the fact that we had scored the first goal against Valencia even with the 1.5 team rotation.
'With this depth, the real treble...'
I felt that the path to the treble had opened.
To achieve the treble, the most important thing was the team's depth. A team aiming for wins in all competitions couldn't complete the season with only starters. With injury risks and having to reach the finals in all competitions, it would be quite a tight schedule to overcome.
And although the loss in the El Clasico last season was fatal, if it weren't for the depth issue, the head-to-head with Real Madrid would have been 1-1, making it possible to aim for the title.
But the Champions League schedule had slipped it, but beating Valencia with the 1.5 team was quite significant.
"Prepare Tenna."
And Angela began to move for the win. Preparing Tenna meant switching to a four-back and focusing on defense. After Valentina as DM was replaced by Tenna as CB, Camila came down to DM, and our formation switched to 4-1-4-1.
No, to be precise, 4-1-4-1 formation?
Camila who moved to DM pulled the ball as much as possible and bought time, and Valencia's attack was blocked by the two lines of defense, and time flowed helplessly.
Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Beep-beep!
In this way, we were able to hold the one-goal lead while neutralizing Valencia's attack, and the starters could take rest.
"How was it? Ha-neul. It was good enough, right?"
After the match, Angela approached quietly. As a Barca native, not a coach but in the manager's seat, Angela clearly knew the players perfectly. Was that the reason she had a confident expression from before the match started?
"...Yes, Coach."
Upon hearing Angela's words, I nodded and gave a thumbs up, and Angela smiled.
It seemed like this season, I might be able to lower my worries about depth a bit.