Chapter 10

Manuel found that his friend's IQ was a little out of line today, although he usually looked stupid and sweet, but today he was really stupid.

"Walter, do you want to practice shooting with me?" Rafael happily waved at Walter, Walter's face turned green, and his head shook like a rattle, Raphael had to turn to the other goalkeepers, but unfortunately they were all ruthlessly refused.

Seeing that Rafael was holding the football alone and a little aggrieved for some reason, Manuel almost laughed out loud and hooked his finger at Rafael, Raphael's eyes lit up and hurriedly ran over: "Manu, let's practice shooting." ”

Manuel wrapped his hand around Raphael, pulled his head into his arms and rubbed it: "You even went to Walter to practice shooting? ”

The accuracy of this kid's fixed-point shooting is simply amazing, basically all dead corners, once Walter's brain was dizzy and asked Rafael to practice saving, twenty goals did not save, Coach Gordillo's eyes changed when he saw him, if it weren't for the other goalkeepers who were also destroyed, Walter's future was worrying.

"Uh...... Is that so?" Rafael was a little dizzy, no wonder Walter saw that he was either running for something during this time, "but I think my shooting speed and power need to be improved. "After all, there is not always a good time in a game for him to adjust his posture and then hit the ball into the corner, he needs to move faster, at least faster than the goalkeeper. If you miss the opportunity, you need to make up for it with speed and power, so that the goalkeeper can judge the way of the ball, and there is a high chance that it will cause a second chance.

"I'll practice with you later, but why are you so happy today, it can't be because of yesterday's newspaper, right?"

"Okay. Ahh ”

"Do you still mind the previous report? Ole is originally a more pro-Boca newspaper, you are from this background, and it is normal to see you, but the reporters and editors in it also have fans of our River Plate, so there will also be a column with positive reports on us, and Vicente, who praised you yesterday, is our fan. "Manuel knows more than Raphael knows more than he knows anything outside the window.

"Then is he so upright that he is not afraid of turning his face with his colleagues?" One said that there was an insider, and the other deserved it, this slap was too ruthless, and he could not be a colleague happily.

"One runs Boca, the other runs River Plate, it is destined to be two points of no return, some of them don't even say anything between them, and they are afraid of turning their faces?" Manuel smiled, "But for the national team, you still have to be mentally prepared." ”

"Huh?" Raphael was puzzled.

"If you can get into the first team next season and play in the main team, the club probably won't let you go to this kind of junior team, it's too much of a waste of time. "The club has its own interests to protect, the kind of senior team or the U20 team that has a major tournament to participate in is just that, the small echelon team generally plays friendly matches, if Rafael can really sit firmly in the main force, the club will not let go," Mori of the current first team, who could have joined the U19 last year, but did not participate because the club did not agree to release it. So don't expect too much from the national team. ”

Rafael smiled and didn't say anything, Manuel thought that Rafael was so happy because he knew that he could enter the national team, so he gave him a preventive shot, how did he know that Rafael didn't care at all, although it has been a year since he crossed, but he still hides the pride of Daming in his bones, and he is excited to enter the Argentine national echelon? What are you kidding?

Today is May 18th, as early as 2 days ago, the Argentine Autumn Football League has come to an end, River Plate has accumulated 22 points from 19 rounds of games, and is in 13th place in the standings. Next season is destined to fight for relegation.

The Argentine Football League and the Europa League system are not consistent, with a total of 20 teams participating in the First Division, which are played in a double round-robin in spring and autumn (double round-robin: two teams play twice as home and away respectively). Score calculation: 3 points for the winner of each match, no points for the loser, and 1 point for each team in the draw). There are 19 games in each of the two round-robins, for a total of 38 games, with the Spring and Autumn League champions respectively.

Due to its location in the southern hemisphere, the season is exactly the opposite of that in the northern hemisphere, and the Argentine autumn league is followed by the winter break (June-July). And its relegation system is also different from other leagues, it is based on the average points per game (total points divided by the total number of games) in 3 years and 6 short seasons to determine the relegation, that is to say, one or two seasons can have a chance to rescue if you don't play well, this relegation system is also to protect the interests of the giant team, to avoid it due to a temporary poor performance and relegation. But who knows that River Plate's two-year table is really worrying, the 08/09 spring league only has 14 points, ranking at the bottom, the autumn league 27 points ranked 8th, the first half of last year season 21 points ranked 14th, and the just-concluded autumn league 13th place is also not ideal. If they don't catch up in the new season, River Plate's future is bleak and they are likely to be relegated.

With the league over and the first team on break, manager Angel Capa is the only one left to brow and focus on preparing for next season.

Angel Capa took over the reins of River Plate manager from Leonardo Astrada in mid-April this year, leading the team to 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw in 6 games, which is not excellent, but it is not too demanding for a manager who takes over halfway, but if the results continue to improve next season, the former coach Astrada is a lesson for him.

But it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and now this River Plate team, the small state is up and down, the old body is weak, the club is now in debt, and the transfer budget for him in the new season is pitiful, there is no way, he can only look for good seedlings from the academy to see if there are good seedlings, join the preparation list for the new season, if you can find one or two geniuses, it would be great, but how can real geniuses appear so easily.

When he arrived, the sixth-line and fourth-tier teams were in a match. Today is also the last time the academy gathers for training, after today, these lads should also have a holiday, the first team has no games, some idle fans will meet to come to the academy, to see the table of the young players.

The match was arranged on a field with stands, and Capa was surprised to find that in such a small intra-team game, the stands on both sides were full of people, which was at least a thousand people in attendance. Today is not a rest day, why are there so many people?

Before I got closer, I heard the noise of the whole audience, in addition to the chaotic shouting, there were also uniform shouts, and I could hear it clearly without distinguishing.

"Raphael!"

"Raphael!"

"Raphael!"

Capa walked briskly, the shape of the field was already clear at a glance, the red team was attacking, the yellow team was defending, but obviously the yellow team's defense seemed to be powerless, the formation was a mess, at least four people were crowded on the side, and there was a gap in the middle, this defense was too amateurish, right?

Capa frowned, noticing that the red team player with the ball was rushing down the wing, the yellow team looked nervous, all four men came to chase and intercept, and Capa noticed that one of the defenders was the promising star Pezzella in the backline, that is, the yellow team is a fourth-line team?

The No. 27 player of the red team who was surrounded was not panicked, he leaned to the left of his upper body, making a posture to break to the left, one of the players couldn't bear it, and directly blocked his left, No. 27 twisted his body, flicked his feet, and flew past him with the ball, but the encirclement of the four was so easy to break through, Pezzella quickly stuck in position, and the other two defenders blocked his passing route.

No. 27 does not advance but retreat, the right foot will be the football back, as if a little out of control, the football rolls to the side, Pezzella's eyes lit up, good opportunity!

No. 27 instantly accelerated and changed direction, when the other two defenders did not react at all, crossed Pezzella to regain control of the ball, Pezzella turned to chase, the two defenders couldn't care about the position, directly followed up, and blocked him closely, but one of them was too anxious, the step was too big, the reaction speed of No. 27 was amazing, the left foot knocked lightly, and saw the crotch again!

The terrifying start-up power was once again displayed in front of Capa, and the ball went from the defender's crotchPassing through, others have rushed out of the encirclement of the two of them a position, as long as he breaks through, it will be difficult to stop him again, the right back of the yellow team is anxious, and he directly wants to pull the opponent's jersey, but the reaction is poor in this 0.01 seconds, he grabbed a void in his hand, but Pezzella has already rushed over, but No. 27 has touched the ball with his right foot, without the slightest hesitation, a straight stop, the ball rolled to the middle from the gap just pulled out, and the reaction was not as fast as the 27th Pezzella watched the ball roll past him.

In the middle of the field was the red team No. 10 Lanzini, who was cut in from behind at high speed, and he was unguarded, facing the goalkeeper and scoring with a single shot.

The pitch was noisy again, and Capa didn't look at Lanzini, looking at No. 27 who was giving Lanzinibi's thumbs up in shock.

"Number 27 is the Rafael Yun I told you about, you should have come to the Academy to see him, Angel. Hector Osvaldo Pitash walked up to Capa and whispered.

Capa was still immersed in the understatement but effective breakthrough on the 27th, muttering: "You know, his dribbling breakthrough reminds me of Messi." ”

Such a delicate and precise dribbling technique in a small range is what Messi is best at in the world, not fancy, but extremely practical.

"He reminds me of a lot of people, but the longer I look at it, the more I realize that he is himself, unique, and he is God's treasure to our riverbed," Hector said with some excitement, "Angel, give him a chance, he will definitely surprise you!"

The forty-five minutes of intra-team play was over, the 4th line team and the 6th line team played a draw, 3:3, although the 6th line team has a metamorphosis like Rafael, but their defense is still a notch worse than the 4th line team, if it were not for Rafael, it would not be difficult for the 4th line team to win this game.

But there is always a kind of person in this world, who is enough to rewrite the ending with his own strength, and their existence is so domineering that it makes his contemporaries dim, so that people can only see him in their eyes at a glance!

Rafael didn't know that his impeccable performance for months had finally impressed all the coaches in and out of River Plate and had been confirmed to be included in the pre-season squad for next season's first-team squad, and that there was a phone call coming to his home, which was a call-up from the Under-20 national team.