Chapter 187: Chapter 186: A Good Teacher Makes Ronaldo Improve Quickly
Because Felimund’s attackers were all "besieging" the main referee,
the referee did not stop the game.
When the football fell to Deng Kai’s feet, he was almost without defense and he immediately launched an attack, pushing forward with the ball.
His run was far more technical than Anderson’s.
Deng Kai’s run, coupled with Alex’s rapid charge up the right flank, forced Felimund’s defensive line to disintegrate on their own.
Bang!
Deng Kai made a surgical through pass.
Looking for Ronaldo!
This caught Felimund’s defenders off guard.
Because from a positional perspective, there were fewer defenders on Alex’s side, and Deng Kai should have passed to Alex.
However, Deng Kai was determined to find Ronaldo.
Why?
Because Alex was slightly further back, and with the ball, he couldn’t directly threaten the goal. By the time he got into the danger area, Felimund’s defense would be stable, and a counterattack would have turned into a positional battle.
On the other hand, Ronaldo was closer to the penalty area; it was harder to get the ball to him, but once the football reached Ronaldo’s feet, he could immediately go for goal, creating an absolute attacking opportunity.
Ronaldo was cutting inside from the left flank without the ball, fiercely contesting with the right-back marking him.
Ronaldo’s speed was clearly faster than his opponent’s.
Deng Kai’s pass was a race for speed.
Bang!
Ronaldo directly entered the left side of the penalty area without performing a conventional ball-receiving maneuver, but instead got in front of the football and made a heel-flick to change direction.
Felimund’s right-back flew past Ronaldo.
Ronaldo adjusted the ball and took the shot!
Whoosh!
The football hung perfectly in the near post’s corner.
Although the angle wasn’t wide, the quality of the shot was too high.
Felimund’s goalkeeper spread his arms but couldn’t touch the football.
"A beautiful goal! Ronaldo scores his second of the game, making up for the one he didn’t score last match!"
"That heel-flick change of direction was just too nimble. How is this any different from Ronaldo during his youth academy days?"
"The media are all saying that Ronaldo is done for, that Ronaldo has fallen. But now it seems, Ronaldo has fully adapted to the pace of the Portuguese league in just two games."
"Unlike midfielders who can choose how they play, forwards often have to engage in direct confrontations with the opposition. So adapting is much more difficult for them than for midfielders."
"Felimund’s right-back is clearly unable to contain Ronaldo, they need to double-team him!"
Even the commentator saw the issue clearly, but Felimund’s head coach did not.
Or perhaps he planned to make adjustments during the halftime break.
As a result... in the forty-second minute,
Deng Kai actively ran to complete a midfield interception, then backhandedly played the ball to Ronaldo’s side.
Ronaldo, now exhilarated, this time used his body to shield the ball from his opponent, flicking it deftly.
The football rolled between the legs toward the rear.
Ronaldo turned and dashed for the ball.
The opposing right-back kept pulling, but couldn’t stop him.
After getting past his man, Ronaldo cut inside, ready to take the shot.
Bang!
With a mix of emotions, Felimund’s right-back tackled Ronaldo from behind.
The Morelense side immediately protested.
Trigella almost charged onto the field, yelling towards it.
The Morelense fans on the sidelines, who had come to watch the game after a hard-fought winning streak, were also enraged.
They swore vociferously.
On the field, the main referee arrived at the scene promptly and decisively showed the red card!
He was sent off the pitch!
The Felimund players pleaded for their teammate, but there’s no taking back what’s already done.
The outcome couldn’t be changed anymore.
Subsequently, Ronaldo personally took the free-kick from a fairly good position.
The football, as expected, flew way over the goal.
"If it weren’t for your impressive performance today, I wouldn’t have let you mess around with that free-kick," Deng Kai dissed Ronaldo.
Ronaldo didn’t even realize that while at Sporting Lisbon, free-kicks were his to claim, but at Moreirense, it seemed Deng Kai had the final say.
The match then moved into half-time.
Trigella emphasized the playing style for the second half, pushing Alex up front to exert greater offensive pressure on the opponent.
It wouldn’t matter if they usually couldn’t score after a goal.
Today, with the advantage in numbers, if they still couldn’t find their momentum, then there was really no hope for the team.
Luckily.
As the second half began, up until around the 60th minute, Moreirense attacked with great ease.
It was almost like a siege against the opposition.
Although they didn’t score, there were plenty of good chances, and not just dependent on Deng Kai’s creativity.
In the 64th minute,
Deng Kai passed the ball to Flavio, who had pulled out, and the latter passed it forward to Alex.
Alex, unguarded, easily lifted his foot to cross the ball.
Felimund had many players in the penalty area and managed to head the football out.
Macedo, from the outside, received the ball and passed it to Deng Kai.
Deng Kai didn’t stop the ball and instead chipped it forward, playing a quick flick.
Alex, who had already charged into the penalty area on the right, successfully stopped the ball along the baseline and then swept it across the goal.
Anderson, tall and powerful, relied on his strong physicality to outmuscle the competition in front of the goal and pushed the ball into the net.
Three-nil!
Unless something unexpected happened, Moreirense was in for a big win!
This victory was completely different from the first two matches.
If the previous ones were lucky,
this time, it was a matter of real strength.
The team was quickly absorbing some excellent elements and becoming a cohesive unit.
In the 69th minute, Moreirense’s left-back Serafim received a yellow card and was then substituted by the experienced captain Altino.
Because Alex needed to push forward, Serafim was required to stay behind more.
But as a full-back, his defensive capabilities weren’t that strong.
Serafim could be considered the weakest performer on the field for Moreirense at that point.
Although older, Altino could still be useful in this position by adapting central defense tactics to play full-back.
Of course, the current underperformance of Serafim didn’t mean he would always be ineffective.
Later, when the team coordination improved, the role swapping between center-backs and defensive midfielders became more in sync, then the team could truly take flight from both wings. Ronaldo, with the help of a left-back, would then become the true complete entity on the left wing.
The currently overwhelmed Ronaldo from Felimund was just an early taste.
In fact, Trigella’s forward-thinking tactical planning and development could save a team from taking many detours.
If a player isn’t useful now, sell him.
When you’re familiar with the tactics and want to upgrade, you might find you sold him short, and then you have to spend even more to buy a similar type back. However, integrating with the team’s synergy then becomes another issue.
Why bother?
That’s why some players suddenly become effective within a team.
Excluding the chance that a player’s skills have spontaneously improved, it could only mean that the coach has come up with new instructions that align with the player’s strengths, once the team’s tactics have matured.
It’s not that the players mysteriously became more effective.
Clubs that cling to underperforming players without a coach’s guidance and strategy to assign and position them are likely to face locker room problems. Then, no matter who comes in as a coach, it doesn’t work out well in the end.
