Football No. 10: God's Perspective

Chapter 17 League Begins

Portuguese Super League, the top football competition in Portugal.

In the first match, Porto, as the defending champion, sat at the Dragon Stadium at home and accepted the challenge from the newly promoted Famalicao team.

Coach Ola continued last season's starting lineup.

Wang Po, Silva and Muto entered the 18-man roster for this game and were on standby on the bench.

There is still a big gap between the two sides in terms of strength.

Having just been promoted from a low-level league, and the first game was the previous championship, the Famalicao team couldn't keep up with the rhythm on the field.

The score of 4 to 0 at halftime declared that the second half entered garbage time.

The top scorer in the team, Edu scored twice with a head kick. He was relaxed and happy. The opponent could not even organize a decent confrontation. In terms of statistics, the Porto team also showed the super strength of the class bully, with a possession rate of 59%, firmly occupying the initiative of the game.

Two or ten minutes into the second half, two more goals were scored, and the game was completely suspenseless.

Ola waved the flag, pointed to Silva and Muto who were on the bench, and replaced two teenagers in one breath, replacing Edu and David who were off the field.

It can be seen that the two are still a little nervous, out of tune with the team's rhythm, and even made several mistakes, which made Ola shake his head frequently on the sidelines.

The Porto fans on the sidelines were also disappointed with Muto and Silva, the two hopeful stars of the youth team.

This kind of performance made Ola wonder if his practice of replacing two teenagers in one breath was too radical.

With only the last 10 minutes left in the game, the Porto team with a big lead did not intend to make another substitution.

Wang Po, who was warming up on the sidelines and was always ready to play, began to feel a little impatient. However, to his disappointment, he did not get the coach's call until the final whistle sounded.

Facing a newly promoted horse, a big victory is not enough.

On the contrary, it was the poor performance of the two young players who were promoted to the sky, which attracted criticism from the media.

Some media even brought the topic to Wang Po, who did not play, questioning whether his ability can match Porto's almost breaking salary level for newcomers.

The pressure of public opinion from the outside world made Wang Po very distressed and aggrieved.

I didn't do anything, but I have to pay for the poor performance of Silva and Muto. What's the reason?
You have to accept the reality when you are depressed, this is what professional players have to face.

One game a week, the pace is fast.

In the second round of the league, Porto played against the underdog Tondela. This is a team that has been hovering in the relegation zone all year round, and its strength is slightly stronger than the newly promoted team.

I thought it would be easy to win, but the progress of the game really made Ola sweat. In the opening 10 minutes, Porto's central defender Rum gave the opponent a single-handed goal with a stupid disappointment, and fell behind.

In the second half, Tondela's team defended with five defenders and only half of the wingers. There was only one striker left in front, and the inner and outer layers surrounded by their own goals were impenetrable.

The iron barrel array, the bus, and breaking the dense defense are world-class problems, making countless famous coaches helpless.

Even with the overwhelming advantage, there are only blossoms but no results. As time goes by, the mentality of Porto's players began to show impatience.

The stalemate lasted almost the whole game. In the final stage of stoppage time, relying on the strength of the corner kick, the central defender Rum scored with a header, making up for his mistakes and luckily equalizing the score.

In the end, facing the underdog, the defending champion was tied.

After the game, Porto was attacked by the media from top to bottom.

"The Lost of the Defending Champions."

"The defending champion capsized in the gutter."

"Such a performance is not worthy of a championship"

……

All kinds of satirical headlines have brought great pressure to the club.

There is no room for loss in the third round.

Ola did his best to close the game with a score of 2-0. The process was bumpy, and the timing of the goals was one after another. It is hard to say that he is satisfied. In terms of state, he is still a little worse than last year.

Under the pressure of performance, Ola is more cautious in using young players. In the second and third rounds of the game, Silva, Muto and Wang Po did not get a chance to play.

Time flies, more than a month has passed in the blink of an eye, and the league has reached the sixth round.

Porto ranked fifth in the standings with a record of 3 wins and 3 draws, 10 points behind Benfica at the top of the list.

In the days when he did not play in the game, Wang Po practiced hard.

It's just that the quality of the training and the actual combat with real knives and guns are still a notch lower in intensity.

Not only that, if a football player has not played for a long time, it is not good for the maintenance of the state.

Although there is a time limit for the game in the contract, if the opponent really wants to take advantage of the loopholes, there are still many ways.

The unsatisfactory results made the atmosphere in the team start to become delicate.

As the old man of the team, the captain David is still very prestigious among the players. The recent formation of the coach Ola made him very dissatisfied, and put pressure on the club to dismiss him from get out of class on the grounds of performance.

Hearing the news, Ola was very angry, removed David's captain and kicked him out of the training ground, banning him from entering the team's roster.

Kill chickens to make an example to monkeys, and shoot birds that stand out.

The authority of the coaches cannot be questioned.

The loss of David is a huge blow to the strength of the team. The position of the defensive midfielder is very important to undertake offense and defense. One mistake will paralyze the offense and collapse the defense.

In the absence of reinforcements for the team, candidates to replace David must be carefully screened.

No way, Silva was driven to the shelves.

The performance in the first game was quite satisfactory. After two or three rounds of adaptation, it became better and better, and became more and more comfortable.

As expected of an SS player.

This discovery also made Porto fans excited, and it seems to have become their new favorite.

As for Wang Po, who they once chanted long live, he has long been left behind because of sitting on the bench.

The next two months will definitely be the darkest time in Wang Po's life. There will be no competitions, and only training will accompany him.

Silva's outstanding performance has made all the resources in the team tilt to him and focus on training.

With no thorns, coupled with the gradual grinding of tactics, Porto is also on the right track, and its results have skyrocketed. It is only one point away from Benfica, which is at the top of the list, and ranks second in the standings.

As for Muto, Wang Po has long been forgotten to the corner.

Starting from the eighth round, even the 18-man roster of the game cannot be entered.

There is no need to think about the European competition on a higher stage, and even the cup competition does not have a share, which makes Wang Po disheartened.

"I think we should have to choose again."

In the dormitory, Hamburg's expression was very serious.

Just now, he had communicated with the club's top management and the coaching staff, and the answers they gave were hardly satisfactory, even humiliating, and he felt that he was being played.

Now the coaching staff means playing time within the contract, and can only slowly look for opportunities in the cup.

These words undoubtedly completely killed Wang Po's league dream.

Obviously, in the eyes of Ola's team, Silva, who has already become popular in the upper ranks, is the key training target of their team, and the strength he has shown has also repaid the trust of the coaching staff.

(End of this chapter)