Football giants

Chapter 659 We are waiting for you, Kaka!
September [-], [-], Saturday afternoon.

St. Mary's Stadium in Southampton was packed, with crowds and noises.

Saints fans, wearing red and white arrow-striped shirts, sat in the stands and cheered for their team with crazy shouts.

This is a match in the fourth round of the Premier League, and it is also another key match for the Saints after a two-week hiatus for the national team. The opponent is the Hammers from East London, West Ham United.

The opponent's head coach is Ferguson's best friend, Allardyce, who is known as the best data analysis coach in the UK.

The Hammers have always been a well-known tough player in the Premier League. This season, they first bought out local center Andy Carroll from Liverpool, and then introduced winger Downing. In addition to Joe Cole, Nolan, Aarau Diarra and other famous European players in the team, the strength of West Ham United is not weak at all.

Allardyce's team has a record of one win, one draw and one loss in the first three rounds, which happens to rank eighth in the Premier League.

When the old coach was interviewed by the media before the game, his goal for this battle was to score points.

This is also in line with his positioning for West Ham United, which is the top ten.

And his biggest bargaining chip is that West Ham United is not affected much by the national team's match day, especially the core players in the team are not international players, such as Andy Carroll, winger Downing and Joe Cole, etc., are not England international players.

This allows the players of West Ham United to have more rest time, recharge their batteries, and face Southampton in a leisurely manner.

On the other hand, the Saints, relying on the amazing performance of last season, the team can be said to be full of international players, not to mention running back and forth, some players even played two national team games in one breath, which was very exhausting.

This is also the reason why the fourth round of the league is the most difficult to play, and the upsets are frequently exposed!

Strong teams are seriously affected by the national team, which is tantamount to giving weak teams a chance to be upset.

Especially those teams participating in the European war have to save some energy to cope with the midweek Champions League group stage.

Therefore, when Allardyce was a guest at St. Mary's Stadium, he seemed ambitious, and the lineup obviously wanted to score points in the away game, and he did not adopt a steady defense strategy because of the strength of the Saints.

In the first 10 minutes of the game, Southampton's performance was not satisfactory, full of mistakes and omissions, and even gave West Ham United a chance to take the initiative in the game, which once made Allardyce think that his wishful thinking was right!

But when the game progressed to No. 16 minutes, the West Ham United goalkeeper sent a goal kick, and the Saints midfielder Matic overwhelmed the opponent and headed the ball across the half.

Suarez unloaded the ball on the front fabric, turned around, saw that the opponent's goalkeeper was standing a little outside, and directly volleyed vigorously.

With a violent spin, the ball turned a slight arc in mid-air and fell into West Ham United's goal!

For a while, the entire St. Mary's Stadium went crazy!

World wave!
An amazing world wave from 40 meters away!
Everyone in the audience cheered wildly, shouting Suarez's name in unison!
The Uruguayan arrived from Liverpool for a £4000m fee and many feared he would be overshadowed by two superstars, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Didier Drogba.

But judging from several appearances this season, Suarez has proved his strength very well!
With the first goal, the situation was completely opened up.

Buoyed by Suarez's goal, Southampton went on the offensive.

In the first ten minutes or so, the reason why the team was in chaos was due to the adjustment of the team's tactics.

The Saints still adopt a four-three-three tactic in this game, but the staffing is completely different.

The three players in the frontcourt are Suarez, Sturridge and James Rodriguez, but their positions are more blurred. From the perspective of the range of activities, Suarez and Sturridge are more like two forwards in the front, just pulling sideways frequently.

James Rodriguez, on the other hand, was like a number nine and a half lurking behind the two strikers.

Matic is behind the midfield, and the other two players are Modric and Pogba.

This is obviously also Bielsa's strategy, with Matic guarding and acting as the hub, Modric is responsible for sorting out the midfield and organization, and Pogba is actively pressing up to participate in the offense.

The team's two full-backs, David Alaba and Danilo, are also in a very high position. Whenever they have the opportunity, they will decisively move forward and participate in the attack. They are the winning weapons of the Saints' wing in this game.

Once the two full-backs pressed up, Matic dragged back, approaching the two central defenders Harvey Martinez and Nastasic, and formed a big diamond with goalkeeper Neuer.

It can be said that the purpose of Bielsa's set of tactics is to give full play to the personal abilities of the frontcourt players, play a sharper offense, and change the team's predicament of weak offense in the first three rounds.

In fact, after Suarez relied on his personal ability to break through West Ham United's goal with a sudden long shot, the Saints players seemed to be inspired with fighting spirit and self-confidence, and the offense played smoother and more determined.

Just 10 minutes after the first goal, Southampton created another chance.

Nastasic launched the attack with a long pass from the back, and James Rodriguez received the ball and split it to the left, giving it to Suarez.

Facing the incoming ball, the Uruguayan made a pick and passed a West Ham United defender. After passing a West Ham United defender, he went from the left rib to the front of the penalty area. Using his flexible body, he swayed a defender away, shot low with his right foot, and scored again!

Two consecutive wonderful goals completely ignited the passion of the fans in the stands of St. Mary's Stadium!
Awesome, awesome, isn't it?

Suarez himself seemed extremely excited, and he rushed to the sidelines quickly, waving his hands at the fans, indicating that their shouts should come more violently.

Southampton is completely activated!

When the game progressed to No. 305 minutes, Sturridge made a corner kick on the right, Modric took the penalty, Harvey Martinez nodded the ball in front of him, and the ferry went to the back point. Suarez rushed the ball into the goal before everyone else.

hat trick!

In just 35 minutes, Suarez scored a hat-trick at the St. Mary's Stadium!

With a score of three to zero, Southampton ended the first half.

But in the second half, the offensive remained unabated.

When the game lasted 8 minutes, it was Suarez again, pulling to the left. After receiving a pass from David Alaba, he broke through and made a pass from the bottom. Sturridge rushed to the goal and easily pushed and scored. Four to zero!

And reciprocated, Sturridge quickly received a pass from Pogba on the right, and passed the ball to the goal. Suarez scored with a header, [-]-[-]!

Big Four!
All the Saints fans in the audience went crazy!

Before the game, no one thought that after two weeks of national team competition, the team should be in a state of fatigue, and it should be quite difficult to win West Ham United.

Unexpectedly, Southampton actually won a hearty victory at their home court!

It's so exciting, so enjoyable, is there any?

Especially Suarez, the team scored [-] goals, he scored [-] by himself, and also assisted one, which is simply perfect!

Let me ask, who else would dare to say that such a player is not worth the 4000 million pounds?

But just before everyone got out of Suarez's fantasy performance, which can be called a top superstar, Southampton made a decision to make a substitution.

It has been nearly two weeks since he switched to Southampton, but Kaka, who has never been able to make an appearance on the court, suddenly replaced Modric on the field, which shocked everyone in the audience!

Scanning the live footage of Sky TV, it can be seen that many Southampton fans covered their mouths in disbelief, stared wide-eyed, and looked at the field. Kaka, who was wearing a red and white arrow shirt, hugged Modric, and walked into St. Mary's Stadium amidst the latter's blessing!
He still had a kind smile, and he was still so handsome, but there were wrinkles between the corners of his eyes and brows.

Time seems to be telling everyone in this way that he is no longer the high-spirited Brazilian boy he was back then!
Today, he is over thirty years old and has reached the twilight years of his career.

But so what?

More than 3 Saints fans in the audience stood up from their seats, and everyone stood and applauded.

Thunderous applause swept the entire St. Mary's Stadium!
Even the on-site commentator of the St. Mary's Stadium, which has always been known for its humor, gave Kaka a rare emotional blessing at this moment, hoping that he can regain his peak state and the style of the former World Footballer at the St. Mary's Stadium!
In the diehard stands in Southampton, Saints Harry fan clubs even put up a long banner with a moving blessing written on it.

"Take your time, Kaka, we'll wait for you!"

Obviously, they have made this banner a long time ago, and they are just waiting for when Kaka will make his debut!

In the stadium, Kaka was really moved when he saw this scene and heard the blessings and support from the fans.

The moment he walked into the stadium, Southampton players ran over to hug him one by one, congratulated him on his return to the stadium, and told him, don't have any pressure, take your time, don't worry!
Yang Huan was in the stands, seeing this scene on the court, he was also quite touched.

Although professional football has completely become a capital operation these days, it does not mean that football has become cold!

In front of fanatical and passionate fans, no matter how cold football is, there will always be a moment when it will be warmed up!
Yang Huan firmly believes that as long as football is played and watched by people with feelings, it will never be indifferent, and it will never lack warmth!

But unfortunately, in the end, Kaka's appearance did not bring the slightest performance to Southampton.

Everyone can clearly see that the former World Footballer, after many years of injuries, is afraid of physical confrontation and avoids physical contact.

After playing for 10 minutes, Kaka was far from the expectations of all fans, whether it was the number of touches or the performance after taking the ball, but this did not prevent the current Southampton fans from standing up again after the game and applauding him.

This is also the third round of applause in this game!
Once when Kaka made his debut, once when Suarez was replaced by Ravel Morrison, and once after the game, when Kaka left the field unharmed.

There are many ways to conquer fans.

One is like Suarez, who, with his world-class fantasy performance, brings fans the most pleasing football experience.

But there is also one like Kaka, maybe he doesn’t have the slightest performance on the court, and even his appearance may be the weakest link of the team, but he can walk into the court, which in itself conquers all the fans.

According to the on-site commentator at St. Mary's Stadium, although Kaka only played for 10 minutes today, he brought hope to people and made everyone believe that he will definitely come back!
"We're right here waiting for you, Kaka!"

(End of this chapter)