Chapter 70: Club Time
Back at his home in Buenos Aires, Santiago packed up a bit and headed to report to the club.
Originally, Mr. Bianchi was very humane to give the three participants in the Olympics a week off, as a buffer time for them to recover from a long fight, but Santhiago did not plan to rest, but wanted to go to the club as soon as possible to get acquainted with his teammates and the league at the same time.
You must know that he has been away from here for a few years, and the teammates who have trained with him have more or less gone to Europe, and most of the people who stay now are not high, plus he has been training hard when he was in the Boca Youth Academy, and he is not very good at interacting with people, so there are not many people familiar with Santilgo in this Boca Youth team, and it will take a lot of time to really adapt to the team and understand his teammates.
Integrating into the team is the most important thing for Santilgo at the moment, but he is not carried away by the Olympic gold medal, not to mention that only enough playing time can be exchanged for the opportunity of the national team!
Santhiago's idea coincided with Monzon's, and the two soon agreed to report to Boca Juniors, who also served as a bridge between Santhiago and his new team-mates. Riquelme, who was not in a hurry to return to the club, was also happy to see this scene, and told Santhiago not to go any further, and after maintaining the status quo, he patted his ass and said goodbye to the two and went home to pick up the child.
At this time, the third round of the A-League Spring League was over, and the fourth round had not yet begun, and the head coach Ischea was taking the players to daily training, and he immediately smiled when he saw the two who returned to the club in advance. Ishchea has always been one of the people who have a great interest in Santiago, and when faced with the news that Santiago offered to return to Boca, he immediately voted in favor.
The current success of winning gold at the Beijing Olympics has made Ischea more convinced of his vision and the chemistry that Santhiago will bring to his team.
After the former Boca coach Basile left to take up a new post in the national team and handed over the seal to Lavolpe, Boca Juniors actually began an era of constant change of managers. There was only one-third of the schedule left, but the stubborn Lavolpe couldn't keep Boca's finger on the pulse and ended up ruining the good fortune left by Basile, handing away the championship trophy that was almost in his hands.
After the turn of the year, one of Boca's new coaches, Russo, took office. In terms of coaching style, Russo is more rigorous, while Basile is a bit aura. Basile's aura lies in the fantastic mobilization of Boca's inner passion, playing a fluid soccer that gives a dazzling glow to the passionate style. Russo, on the other hand, is a one-man man who doesn't like to take risks, so he wants to reorganize Boca.
Russo is a typical trainer, and according to his theory, the tactical maturity of a team is closely related to training, which is very different from the style of his predecessors Bianchi and Basile.
Russo's training is very hard for the players, and he has repeatedly stressed the importance of strict positioning, safe passing, and reducing mistakes. In the actual battle, Boca became more than stable and passionate, which made fans who were familiar with the original style anxious. But Russo has always emphasized: "As long as you play patiently, scoring goals and winning will come naturally." Another of Russo's characteristics is that he is adept at using and even obsessing with the midfield, and it is an exaggeration to say that Russo may never have considered abandoning the traditional style of play. And Riquelme's strong return can be said to fill in the last and most crucial piece of Russo's tactical puzzle.
Since then, Boca has followed the path set by Russo to this day, and the current head coach Ischea is more of a combination of passion and composure than his calm predecessor Russo, he continues Russo's hard training system, but in attack, he is a typical South American manager, trying to impress everyone with his smooth attack. Ischea's approach has naturally been warmly embraced by Boca fans, and coupled with the team's continued improvement, his popularity and prestige have surpassed those of his predecessors.
In this situation, Ischea is less superstitious about Riquelme's traditional midfielder, and he wants his team to have a high-powered motor to power the team. Of course, in the case of Riquelmeibao's age, it is better to have players who can not only meet their own requirements, but also be in harmony with them, and even complement each other.
And Santhiago is undoubtedly the best choice, and even in Ischea's mind, he has already thought about the future of the team.
Continuing to dominate the South American arena is a matter of course, followed by regaining the A-League title in the hands of old rivals River Plate, both of which are indispensable, after all, clubs like Boca Juniors are too strong in the whole of the Americas, and there are too few honors that can be won in comparison, and the slightest loss of a title is likely to push him to the edge of the precipice!
The too narrow upside makes Ischia even think that he is walking a tightrope, and the slightest mistake will be doomed, and he can only keep spurring himself and the team.
However, compared to the enthusiasm of the manager, the players in the Boca Juniors team were lukewarm towards Santiago, watching a group of people laughing and joking around Monzon, while there was no one around him, Santhiago just smiled, and then changed into a jersey to participate in training.
It is not uncommon for the media to say that a team is underperforming and that they are affected by multi-front operations. This kind of multi-front operation is a test of the physical function of the players on the one hand, and a test of the thickness of the team's bench on the other hand. Another aspect that is actually more important is that the multi-front operation has reduced the number of training sessions in a week. The number of training sessions is less, and naturally the preparation for the situation that arises in the competition is relatively inadequate.
At the moment, Boca has plenty of time to train for the upcoming league opponents.
Traditionally, Boca conducts 10 training sessions between matches, starting with a few simple individual technical or tactical trainings and ending with targeted training.
In the morning, the coaching staff asked the players to do physical and tactical training, and those who needed it were allowed to stay in the gym for some extra strength training, and Santhiago was happy to go. In the afternoon, the whole team practiced tactics, and the tactics here are all related to the strategy of the next game, and it is completely necessary for the coach to tell everyone his intentions and game strategy during this time.
Since the next game will be against a team that is good at possession, the coaching staff used tactical training sessions to practice the players' ability and habits to deal with possession and pressing, and cut the space on the field by erecting some markers in the field to familiarize the players with where they should be in the game. This was followed by some set-piece tactical training, including video analysis of the opponent, and finally a tactical simulation of the actual game.
This simulated match is a slightly more intense training session that helps the players to maintain good physical condition and fitness, and it is through this game that the Boca players intuitively understand the strength of Santilago.
In the next few days, Santo Tiago has been spent in such a dull situation, not affected by the continuous fermentation of the outside world, which also makes the new teammates around him have a different view of him, coupled with his extraordinary strength, gradually, teammates began to communicate more with Santiago.
Soon, the match day came as scheduled.