Argentine beast waist: Messi’s bodyguard

Chapter 125

As time went by, the overall state of the Argentine team became better and better, and Villade, who was new to the national team, gradually adapted to the running position and passing style of these new teammates, and began to join the team’s attack.

Mascherano is a pure defender and even plays as a centre-back at Barca, so Villad has taken on more back-line attacking tasks than in the last game.

The pair’s technical strength reached 84, and the opponent was only a striker, forward, and full-back with poor defensive ability, and Villade’s possession, dribbling, breakthrough, passing and receiving played a greater role.

In the 32nd minute, Villade received the ball cut off by Mascherano, but did not pass it in the first place, and was rushed by Ecuadorian full-back Ángel Mena from the side to close and pressed.

As a result, Willard seemed to look up at the front, but his eyes had already seen Mena’s movements, and a light smash slammed Mena away from him.

Before Mena could turn around and press again, Villade, who completed this smash, saw that Messi had run a good gap in front of him, so he passed the ball one by one, and then he bypassed Mena and continued to insert forward, running towards the Ecuadorian penalty area.

Anyway, with Mascherano in the back, Villard is not afraid that he will insert too deep in front and there will be too many holes in the back line.

Messi took the ball and was immediately surrounded by the teamwork of the opponent’s forward Lastra, full-back Bolaños and defender Walter Ajovi, but Messi’s strong dribbling ability to break through allowed him to keep the ball at his feet and wait for Willard to insert the top of the arc in the penalty area before passing the ball through the crack.

Messi alone attracted the competition of three men, coupled with the movement of two well-known superstars Aguero and Di Maria, attracted the attention of almost all other defenders in Ecuador, resulting in left midfielder Federico Manquillo in an unmarked state.

Therefore, Willard, who received Messi’s pass at the top of the arc of the big penalty area, did not hesitate, did not stop the ball, and did not give the opposing defender the opportunity to get close to the pressing interference, and directly kicked the ball diagonally without stopping, and stuffed the ball into the gap on the left side of the penalty spot in the big penalty area.

Left midfielder Manquerrho drove into the box, received a brilliant pass from Villade, and kicked the ball directly into the bottom left corner.

Villard crossed the ball and Manquillo played at the level and went straight into the dead corner, and goalkeeper Alexander Domingos made a save but failed to save the goal.

The ball presses against the left upright of the goal and burrows into the bottom left corner.

In the 32nd minute, Federico Manquerrho scored to extend Argentina’s 2-0 lead. And the one who provided the assist for Manquillo was Alan Villade. Earlier, it was Messi who controlled the ball in the crowd and waited for Villard to plug in and then send a wonderful pass.

Therefore, both Daisia and all the fans in front of the scene and TV applauded warmly, celebrating the team’s expansion of the score and the excellent performance of Messi and others.

This attack shows Villade’s excellent forward offensive ability, proving that he can not only defend, but also participate in the attack, and make Argentina’s attack more three-dimensional and rich, and also increase the cooperation of the frontcourt attackers, rather than all by Messi alone.

For example, if Willard plugged in the ball just now, Messi could not find the point to play the ball and could not pass the ball directly to Federico Manquerrho or other teammates, because other teammates were far away from Messi.

The point is that Willard is willing to run and has the physical strength to run.

Other players are different, all along, Argentina seems to have a mentality of handing the ball to Messi and everything is fine, waiting for Messi to complete the breakthrough or pass the ball again, everyone does not take the initiative to approach Messi and give him the consciousness of receiving it.

It’s as if Messi can make a breakthrough every time with N passes.

The saying that emotional intelligence is higher is that everyone trusts Messi and believes that he can highlight the heavy circle and bring the ball out. In fact, Argentina’s players are lazier, have fewer running connections, and give Messi less receiving cooperation.

Such a mentality makes Messi very tired and unable to play. No one can succeed in every breakthrough 100%, let alone pass N. And Messi’s own physical fitness is not good, and it is even more difficult to break through successfully with the ball frequently throughout the game.

Probably, this is one of the reasons why Argentina has not won important international championships over the years: even Messi can’t bring this group of teammates who don’t like to run!

And Willard now has this opportunity to change Messi’s survival in the national team, and naturally will not make Messi uncomfortable anymore.

He hopes that his system will help Argentina win the World Cup and help Messi become king.

He does not want Messi’s technology to leave regrets in the history of football, only the title of the king of the ball can be regarded as living up to Messi’s technical talent.

After celebrating the goal, the game continued.

Ecuador, who are two goals behind, stepped up their attack, after all, they are ranked 29th in the world, not pure fish belly, there is still some pursuit. Even if you can’t win against Argentina away, you don’t want to be unable to score a goal and be shaved.

Therefore, taking advantage of the kick-off in the middle circle, Ecuador pressed heavily and instigated a good wave of consecutive attacks.

At this time, Villade returned to his back position, using similar defensive ability as Mascherano, and at the front of the penalty area, together with Mascherano, built a steel wall, which repeatedly frustrated Ecuador’s attack.

In the 36th minute, Ecuador tried to attack from the left flank, left midfielder Bolaños and left winger Felipe Caicedo hit a wall and broke through the defense of full-back Zabaleta, and was about to drive straight in and cross from the bottom, but Villard rushed from the middle and made a sliding tackle to shovel the ball off the border.

If Bolaños hadn’t reacted quickly and jumped over Villade, he would have been overturned by Villade without fouling.

In the 41st minute, Ecuadorian midfielder crossed diagonally from a 45-degree angle, hoisted into the box, wanted to let center Renato Ibarra scramble for the goal, and it was also Villade who returned to the box, used his consciousness and physique to jam the landing point, and then jumped high to clear the ball.

Villade’s height and bouncing ability of 186cm well make up for the lack of aerial defensive ability caused by Mascherano’s height of only 174cm, and two top defensive backs with defensive ability close to 90, coupled with the assistance of the back line, build Argentina’s back line into a solid one, making it difficult for opponents to find loopholes that can be exploited.

Until the end of the first half, Ecuador could not break through Argentina’s goal and score. On the contrary, Argentina also played two good counter-attacks, and if it were not for the poor scoring and dribbling, I am afraid that the score would have been extended again.

Despite this, the score of 2-0 in the first half was not bad. Therefore, at half-time, everyone felt relaxed, there was no dignified atmosphere like in the last game, and coach Gerardo Martino did not criticize everyone.

After a 15-minute break, the second half was easy to fight again.

With a 2-0 lead, the Argentine stars don’t want to waste too much energy and affect the club’s matches.

As a result, Argentina’s attack was weak in the second half, allowing Ecuador to counterattack while defending and creating a dangerous situation with a free-kick in front in the 56th minute.

Fortunately, goalkeeper Sergio Romero blocked the opposing striker Noboa’s close-range shot from four or five meters from the goal in the small penalty area, and did not let the opponent score.

Seeing that the opponent is still not dead set and is still trying his best to counterattack, Villard feels that the 2-0 score is not very safe. If one more goal can be scored and three goals ahead, then this game can be regarded as a sealed win, and Messi, Di Maria and others who have played two games can go down early to rest.

Therefore, when the time came to the 63rd minute, Villard did not pass the ball after getting the ball near the center circle, but personally dribbled the ball forward, attracting the opponent’s forward Lastes to grab it, and Villard passed the opponent with a flashy motion of pedaling, which caused a round of applause from the fans in the stands.

After all, as a defensive back, Villard can make such gorgeous technical moves, which is still very eye-catching.

After passing Rusts on a bicycle, another midfielder stepped in to press for it, but Villard did not move forward with the ball because he had already seen Di Maria run with great space on the right wing.

Villade picked up a direct long-range pass and picked the ball past a number of players on both sides, picking the ball into the side of the Ecuadorian penalty area.

Di Maria cut in at high speed, overtook Ecuadorian full-back Paredes, received the ball about 10 meters from the baseline, and then rushed diagonally to the big penalty area with the ball, making it look like he was going to shoot into the box.

However, when goalkeeper Alexander Domingos and defenders blocked the near corner, Di Maria, who dribbled the ball to the rib area inside the wide penalty area, did not shoot, but crossed the ball into the gap in the middle of the penalty area.

Leo Messi, who was inserted in the middle, arrived and pushed the ball with a push, easily pushing the ball into the bottom left corner of the far end.

“Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooal……”

“The ball went in!”

“Leo Macy!”

‘Messi scored Argentina’s third goal, and Argentina led Ecuador 3-0 to seal the win.

‘The ball came from Alan Villade’s attack in midfield, who first broke through Ecuador’s forward Lastes with a bicycle, and then sent the ball near the bottom line with a long-range pick-and-go pass, Di Maria received the ball and cut inside, and Messi inserted an easy push into the far corner to score.”

‘Messi’s push is very steady, Di Maria’s cross is timely, Verard’s midfield pick is a stroke of magic, both in terms of breadth of vision and passing technique, it is very good.

“Who would have thought that Villard was just a player with a defensive background?”

“In less than a year, Villad has progressed from being a marginal substitute in the Second Division to a world-class level of both attack and defense.”

‘Now I can already be sure that Villard will be included in the squad for this year’s Copa America.’

“With Villade’s midfield bonus, Argentina’s Copa America this year may have a different result?”

Regardless of the Copa America in June, Messi was very happy to score the goal, and while running to the sidelines with Aguero and Di Maria to celebrate, he did not forget to wave back and let Villad step forward to join the celebration.

Messi can see it clearly, the most important thing about this goal just now is the pass that Villade picked to Di Maria, directly picked the entire Ecuadorian defense, and then formed a break, and then Di Maria crossed to him, and he pushed the far corner to receive this goal.

Villade’s improvement in both the offensive and defensive aspects of the team at the back is very huge, so Messi also has more expectations for Argentina’s prospects for this year’s Copa America.