Chapter 228: Chapter 227: Morelence’s Triple High Strategy (Please share this book with your friends to read together)
Beep!
Following Emerson’s pass being blocked by the opposition, Deng Kai signaled to Trigella for a substitution.
Particularly, Deng Kai gestured towards Altino and Orlando, the two substitute center-backs.
Trigella had been waiting for this signal for a long time.
But he needed Deng Kai to confirm through some probing that the players of Rio Ave truly had no fight left in them before he could make this aggressive substitution.
"Oh! Trigella is going to make two substitutions at once, but why two center-backs?"
"It makes sense for Kilop to be substituted with a yellow card, but Feng Te seems fine. Is he planning to strengthen the defense by adding another center-back?"
"Wait! Altino is replacing the left-back Serafim, and though Altino is a center-back, he’s played left-back this season with decent results, quite the versatile defender."
"Orlando isn’t replacing Kilop, but... Flavio! This...."
"They’re up! Feng Te and Orlando have both moved forward. Are they going to join Anderson to form a trio of tall forwards?"
"Ronaldo on the left, Alex pushes forward during attacks and is very advanced on the right... Is this a five-forward formation?"
"Emerson, Macedo, Deng Kai."
"Altino, Orlando... This is insane! Have they formed a 235 in their positions?"
"Has Moreirense gone mad? What will they do if the opposition hits them with a counter-attack?"
"Feng Te has played as a striker once before and it turned out to be surprisingly effective. I thought the double striker tactic was the limit of Moreirense’s imagination, but this time they’ve come up with a triple striker strategy! This is sheer madness!"
Trigella’s mouth curled into a smile.
Madness?
Heh!
As he had said before, being pressed into their own half and forced to pass the ball just to avoid possession is meaningless and does not help the attack in any practical sense.
Counter-attacking sounds easy, but at this time it is still very difficult to execute.
At the very least, with three six-foot-three players standing in the box, are you sure you can hold them off with just three or four defenders?
If one-on-one defense was so reliable, then there would never have been a need for the iron-barrel defense.
Trigella bet that Rio Ave’s coach wouldn’t dare to gamble!
But Moreirense dared to!
In the 82nd minute, Alex delivered a cross from the wing.
The three towering over six-foot-three players overwhelmed Rio Ave’s penalty area, bombarding it and leaving it riddled with holes.
In the 83rd minute, Rio Ave players tried to snatch the football from Deng Kai’s feet again.
But with a turn and a sidestep, Deng Kai deftly passed the ball with his left foot, shifting play to Ronaldo, who had been widening the field on the left.
Ronaldo with a flick and a dodge, breezed past his opponent and delivered a cross.
The quality of his cross wasn’t great, the ball flew high and slow, and it seemed unlikely to pose a threat, but... Moreirense had their "triple tall" strategy!
These days, who isn’t afraid of the "triple tall"?
Bang!
Kilop leaped at the near post and got his head to the ball, directing it with a header.
Anderson judged that he wouldn’t reach the ball and simply pinned down the defender next to him.
This provided Feng Te with the space to take off freely.
Bang!
Feng Te headed for goal!
The football smashed viciously into the net.
"GOAL! Feng Te! Feng Te has scored a goal!"
"Two to two! Moreirense have equalized. They haven’t given up!"
"Oh! Anderson immediately runs to the goal to fetch the ball. Moreirense still need one more goal to advance and win the Primeira Liga title."
"Otherwise, if the match ends with the current score, they will only be fourth in Primeira Liga! They cannot settle for a draw!"
"This is also why Rio Ave previously pulled back to defend, their advantage is not just one goal, but two!"
"At two to one, if they concede one goal, they can still maintain their Primeira Liga champion status."
"Unless Morelense manages to score another goal."
"But given the efficiency with which Morelense scored this equalizer, it’s going to be hard for them to continue scoring, as there aren’t another twenty or thirty minutes left in the match."
If the midfield Commander of Rio Ave had held any thoughts of seeking counter-attack opportunities from Morelense’s offense before,
then from this moment on, no one in Rio Ave hoped to launch any more attacks.
They had to fight tooth and nail for the last ten minutes!
They must hold on!
As Rio Ave’s clearance failed to find their striker, Morelense regained possession in less than thirty seconds after the opponent’s kick-off.
Rio Ave fully contracted.
Similarly, Morelense’s three center-forwards plus Ronaldo on the left and Emerson all rushed to the forefront, waiting for their teammates to cross the ball.
Altino, Orlando, Macedo, and Deng Kai were all four in the midfield.
Deng Kai passed the ball to Alex, Alex
intended to cross from the byline but the defense was tight, and they blocked it.
Alex passed back, Deng Kai crossed at a slanting forty-five-degree angle, and the football was quickly cleared by the players in the penalty area.
Deng Kai again passed to Macedo on the left flank, who also met resistance from the opponent at the byline.
At this point, Morelense’s rear guard was relatively exposed, making it best to avoid any risky moves or attempts to dribble past opponents one-on-one.
Macedo, playing it safe, passed back to Deng Kai who had come over.
Deng Kai once again crossed at a slanting forty-five-degree angle, this time earning a corner kick.
This is why many teams, when continuously crossing to besiege the opponent in the final moments, opt for the less threatening slanted forty-five-degree cross over the more dangerous byline cross.
The player executing the slanting forty-five-degree cross stands near the flanks, inherently connected with the midfield, the defense, and even the front line.
When faced with an aggressive defense forcing a turnover, they have a thousand ways out, making it less likely to lose possession.
As for the byline cross... once the retreat is cut off by the opponent, it’s easy to lose possession, and then a simple clearance by the opponent...
I won’t say which matches this scene is reminiscent of, it’s blue thin.
Subsequently, Morelense earned three consecutive corner kick opportunities because of that one corner.
But without exception, none of them posed a threat to Rio Ave’s goal.
The closest one was when Deng Kai took a corner kick with a curve very near the goal.
The downside of this type of corner is that, due to its proximity to the goalkeeper, it can be easily caught.
But the advantage is the curve is in front of most of the attacking and defending players’ chosen positions, and if someone can get to the football before the goalkeeper, they will face almost no interference from anyone else.
Ronaldo had this kind of understanding with Deng Kai.
He made a feint run and then darted forward to jump.
At one point, his head was less than ten centimeters away from the football!
Bang!
The Rio Ave goalkeeper punched the ball out with a fist.
No matter how high the head reaches, it can never go higher than the hands.
There’s a reason this type of corner isn’t very threatening.
Ninety minutes.
Ninety-one minutes.
Ninety-two minutes.
Time was like poison, slowly strangling the hope in the hearts of the Morelense players.
Though everyone continued to struggle for the ball, their bodies were gradually becoming cold.
They had begun to feel an ominous premonition.
In the ninety-third minute, Deng Kai and Alex took a tactical free kick, with Deng Kai swiftly pushing the ball and running to the right side of the penalty area.
This wasn’t a wise choice.
If they lost the ball, not only would the attacking opportunity be gone, but they could easily be caught out by Rio Ave scoring a goal.
As expected!
