princely elegance

Chapter 157 Knockout begins

After a day's rest, the Copa America knockout match finally arrived in the anticipation of thousands of fans.The first day is the start of the first half of the competition. First, the host Venezuela will face Uruguay. After this game is over, the Samba will face Chile again.The America's Cup does not have the same group avoidance principle, and the two games are fights from the same group.

Poor Chile finally entered the knockout round by relying on additional qualifications, and will face the favorites to win the championship with three goals in the group stage.In this game, 90.00% of the fans watched Brazil win. After thinking about it, Gago took out another [-] US dollars to bet on Brazil's victory.

Since tomorrow is the Argentine game, Gago has no time to watch the game live. They are conducting closed training in the rented stadium to make the last adjustment for the team.Especially the forward line, when Crespo can only catch up with the last final, who will partner with Messi.

According to tradition, it should be a center forward with characteristics similar to Crespo's, but Basile still hopes that Tevez will become the starter psychologically. After all, is he his direct descendant?But things can't be done like this, so in the end, after discussing with his assistant coaches, Brazile still let Milito start to partner with Messi.But Carlos Tevez also needs to be ready to start, so Argentina has to train different strikers to adopt different tactics of feeding the ball.

However, Riquelme and Gago were mainly responsible for this task. After all, they were responsible for feeding the striker.After the group stage, as the core Riquelme scored two goals and two assists, while Gago scored one goal and provided four assists.It can be said that 80.00% of Argentina's goals were created by the two of them.

Basile is very proud of the way he uses Gago. He is mentioned in the frontcourt and Riquelme cooperates with the striker to feed the ball, and he can score by himself when necessary.If Gago can maintain such progress, when he reaches his peak, he might be able to become a free man in the midfield comparable to Maradona.

At the start of the knockout rounds, Basile asked the players to watch the live broadcast of the game with the assistant coach.

In the first game, the host Venezuela failed to continue to create miracles. They lost 1-4 at the feet of Uruguay amidst the cheers of the home fans. The latter reached the semi-finals ahead of schedule. The winners of the kick-off Brazil and Chile.

It has to be said that even though Uruguay played in a mess in the group stage, they immediately became lively after entering the knockout round.They are just like Italy, the best way is to get rid of them in the group stage, otherwise Uruguay's traditional tenacious defense and never-ending offensive stars will let the enemy know why they are the team that has won the most Copa America titles.

Forlan, who just transferred to Atletico Madrid this summer, showed his European Golden Boot strength. In the first half, he received a free kick from his teammates and scored.Argentina's various free kicks have also been learned by Uruguay, a South American team. Recoba's free kick skills are no less than Riquelme's.He curled the ball around the opponent's wall and landed in front of Venezuela's goal. Forlan rushed to grab the goalkeeper in time to score.

But only 3 minutes later, amidst the crazy cheers of the fans, the Venezuelan team equalized the score.The same free kick opportunity in the frontcourt, but the difference is that Arango, the core of the Venezuelan team, chose a free kick to directly attack the goal. The ball went through the wall and went straight to the near corner of the goal.

Then the first half of the game ended, and the two sides temporarily shook hands 1-1.

However, after the second half, the experienced Uruguay showed its strongest strength. The core of the team, Recoba, let the opponent know what a star is. "Chinese Boy" dribbled past three opponents from the middle, and then returned the ball in time when he attracted all the defenses.

Pablo who kept up with him shot angrily, and the ball went straight into the upper left corner of the goal. Uruguay took the lead again, 2:1.Then they used their tenacious defense to block Venezuela's counterattack wave after wave.Recoba then sent a good pass in a counter-attack.Forlan scored twice with a vigorous volley from the unguarded area outside the penalty area. Venezuelan goalkeeper Vela only had time to wave his hand for the ball.

Fran's long-range shot made him feel that even Casillas could only stare blankly, let alone Bella, a little-known goalkeeper.

Seeing that the team led by three goals, Tabarez started to stay focused. The next opponent will basically be Brazil. It will be a tougher battle than iron.In order to allow the team to have the best lineup, he replaced the core Recoba with Gonzalez.You must know that this is an out-and-out glass man, who was injured in the first group match, otherwise why would Uruguay rely on additional qualifications to enter the knockout round.After his comeback, he used two assists to help the team win the game today. One can imagine the importance of Inter Milan stars to Uruguay.

However, Tabarez still sensibly did not replace Fran. Anyway, this player has relatively few injuries, and staying on the field can make Venezuela have some scruples and dare not make a big push.But it was his idea that allowed Uruguay to score the last goal. With the opponent on the whole line, Forlán got the ball and passed it straight. Rodriguez successfully scored the team's fourth goal against offside. .

4:1. This is the final score. Forlan's assisted goal came in stoppage time. Venezuela's situation is over.Uruguay told all the fans with a strong performance that they are still the strong team that won the World Cup twice.Recoba and Forlan can be said to be the most famous stars in this Copa America except for Robinho and Argentine players.And the performance of today's game also proved that they are indeed worthy of the title of star.

"Uruguay is good. According to today's state, it seems that they can play a very exciting game against Brazil."

After the game, Gago spoke first.When he said this, the entire conference room began to chatter, and coaches like Basile and Redondo did not stop the players from discussing.

"Let me tell you, if Fran and Recoba can play at today's level against Brazil, maybe they can overthrow Samba."

Tevez's big mouth directly expressed his mentality, wishing that Brazil would die.It's just that he is not the worst, Messi interjected gently.

"Maybe Brazil can't even pass Chile!"

……

As soon as these words came out, the entire conference room fell silent. Messi, who was stared at by more than [-] people, suddenly felt a nervous feeling, and he moved to Gago who was beside him uneasily.

"Yeah, why didn't I expect that this second team might not even be able to beat Chile."

Gago opened his mouth to ease the atmosphere of the cold scene.

Subsequently, the Argentine stars began to laugh and discuss the possibility of Brazil losing, which made Basile on one side dumbfounded.Although there are many things in football where the weak beat the strong, but no matter what, it's not Brazil's turn.But he didn't open his mouth to interrupt the atmosphere. Now that the team's self-confidence and state have reached their peak, he can't pour cold water on it.

Due to the absence of a championship in 14 years, Argentina attaches great importance to this Copa America, but it is precisely because of this that even if it is the biggest favorite to win the championship, the team maintains enough vigilance within the team and does not underestimate every opponent.This confident but not arrogant state makes Basile, who always pays attention to the mentality of the players, very satisfied.

This time in Argentina, he couldn't find any reason to lose.

Just as Basile was thinking this way, the match between Brazil and Chile began to warm up.

Due to the special format of the Copa America, the Chilean team, which was bloodbathed by Brazil 3:0 in the group stage, was not favored by anyone.After three group matches, Dunga finally decided on the main lineup. First, he replaced Alves with Maicon who returned from injury, and then confirmed Baptista and Joe in the positions of the double midfielders. Soy's combination.And the "Deng Jiajun", who had completed training in the three group matches, created a bloody case in this game that was not inferior to Argentina's massacre of the US team.

Although Dunga is a young coach, he still does a good job as a coach, and he has an excellent overall view.Ronaldinho's character can be seen at a glance. He is free-spirited and undisciplined. If he is the core of the national team, he will bring the youth team he has worked so hard to reorganize into nightclub regulars.

Kaka's good, sunny and self-disciplined image is what he has always advocated, so he braved the pressure of the media and fans, resolutely gave up Ronaldinho, and confirmed Kaka as the core.One must know that Kaka hadn't performed like a god this year at that time, and if he dared to do this, the pressure on Dunga can be imagined.

This year, Kaka alone led AC Milan, a group of remnant veterans, to the Champions League final and finally won the championship. The god-level performance made him feel relieved and also won more support from the fans.He thought that the Brazilian team, with this year's omnipotent Kaka at the core, could easily win the America's Cup all the way. Who knew that at the last moment, his most important Kaka stabbed him.

But it's no wonder Kaka, he is really tired, this year he can be said to have played all AC Milan's games with full attendance, and even played to the last game of the Champions League.Ancelotti, who doesn't like rotation, completely exhausted Kaka's physical strength. After the team finally won the championship, Kaka knew clearly that he had to rest, or his body would really collapse.

Moreover, Kaka really doesn't like the Copa America, but his refusal is considered a betrayal by Dunga.The team has been building tactics around him for more than a year. At this time, Kaka suddenly can't tell, this is cheating.Therefore, Brazil was easily defeated by Mexico in the first round in the group stage.

Changing formations before the war has always been a taboo for military strategists, but Dunga had to change. Without Kaka, he could only build tactics around the only big name Robinho.Fortunately, the other two opponents in the group stage were not too strong for Brazil. Dunga was lucky enough to survive and completed the change.

(End of this chapter)