[Football] Bad Boy Batty

7月6日, 巴西队3-0轻取阳了大半的秘鲁队，第二天，随着阿根廷点球4-3击败哥伦比亚, 最终争夺冠军奖杯的两支球队确定下来。

The Copa America final is between Brazil and Argentina.

The last time the two teams met in the Copa America final was 14 years ago, when Argentina lost 0-3 to Brazil. Just like in 2004, Argentina also fell to Brazil.

As time goes by, of the players who participated in those two games, only Messi is left on the Argentina team, while there is no one left on the Brazilian team.

The sun gradually sets and the bright lights of the Maracanã Stadium light up. In half an hour, the Samba Army will face their old rivals, the Pampas Eagles.

The popularity of this game can be seen from the fans' reactions.

Due to the epidemic, the number of people who can enter the stadium to watch the game tonight is controlled at around 6000 people. Tickets have been sold for 5500 reais (about 7300 yuan) on the black market, but even so, tickets are still hard to come by.

In addition, the Brazilian Football Association stipulates that in order to enter the stadium, a negative nucleic acid test certificate within 48 hours must be presented. Therefore, by reselling nucleic acid test appointments the day before the game, many scalpers made a lot of money from fans, and the South American Football Association also seized a batch of forged negative nucleic acid test certificates based on this.

"Ha! What a great way to make money, why didn't I think of it."

In the home team's locker room at the Maracanã Stadium, Batistuta stepped on a bench to put on his socks, and at the same time joked with his teammates about the fans in order to relax.

"That's absolutely right," Neymar said, having just finished his pre-match prayers, before checking his studs again. "We should ask the federation for some tickets and sell them to the fans."

"Sign your name, too." Jesus took over and said, "The price can be doubled."

Batty snapped his fingers and agreed with his suggestion.

"Yo--" At this time Richarlison passed by. He first tapped Batistuta's left shoulder, and then whistled provocatively like a street gangster.

"Why are you putting on your socks the same way you would put on stockings? It's so erotic!" He imitated Batistuta's movements, twisting his elastic band. "You know, I only liked black stockings before, but from today on, Wooooo! I think I'm going to fall in love with white stockings!"

"Hey!"
"What are you talking about!"
"Shut up!"

Telling such terrible dirty jokes in public in the locker room, especially to the core of the team, is too much even for the Brazilian team.

"Oh my god, pigeons!!"

Batistuta kept his feet on the bench, turned his head and looked at Richarlison with wide eyes, as if he was looking at the fossil of a prehistoric dinosaur that suddenly came to life.

He wasn't really angry, just a little surprised.

Although Richarlison is a bit rude, he has respected Batistuta since they met. Vinicius said that he knew Batistuta's name when he was still in the slums, so it was unexpected that this happened suddenly.

Is it because of the tension in the finals?
No, he also played in the final of the last America's Cup.

Is that because of Argentina?
That's not right. They played against Argentina in the semi-finals of the last Copa America. Richarlison started that game and performed well. He shouldn't be nervous.

"You're such a disgusting bastard! How can you say that!" Neymar was the first to react. He grabbed an empty bottle at his feet and threw it over, "Hurry up and apologize to Batistuta, Richard!"

He heard Richarlison say that he wanted to enter Batistuta's social circle, but doing it in this way was really unacceptable.

"Uh."
Since joining the national team, Richarlison has never been stared at by so many condemning eyes. He suddenly wilted like a deflated balloon.

"I'm sorry, Batty, I didn't mean it." He scratched his hair and apologized solemnly. "I was bored last night and found a movie to watch, Mission: Impossible 5: Rogue Nation. There was a scene in it where the heroine was standing on a chair and holding a sniper rifle. I don't know why it was engraved in my mind. I didn't pay attention just now, but when I saw you wearing socks, my mouth automatically said it. I'm really sorry."

Batistuta had seen the movie and was impressed by the assassination scene in the opera house, but he was more concerned about the fact that Richarlison was bored the night before the game.

"We're going to play Argentina soon, how can you be in the mood to watch a movie?" Batistuta put down his leg and kicked him in the butt. "Bored? If you're bored, watch more videos of our opponents!"

"I've seen it, I've seen it." Seeing that Batistuta was not too angry, Richarlison returned to his normal state, "You are too nervous, Batistuta, that's unnecessary."

"What's unnecessary?"

"Argentina, they won against Colombia only after the game was delayed until penalties. We watched the live broadcast of that game. Later I watched the clips provided by the analyst twice. Argentina played too chaotically and was no match for us."

Batty raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Isn't this a bit too confident?

"You just told us on the bus to cheer up. Those Argentines are no match for us. We are only one step away from defeating them and winning the cup again." Richarlison said with reason. "And don't forget how we won the last America's Cup. If we can beat Argentina once, we can beat Argentina twice, right?"

The air in the entire locker room was heated.

"Yes!" they shouted. "Kill Argentina! Again! We can do it!"

With the atmosphere at this point, Batty couldn't say anything discouraging anymore.

However, looking at his teammates who were in high spirits and couldn't wait to play, he inexplicably had a bad feeling in his heart.

……

Before this, Batty actually thought so too.

Although Brazil had a bad start due to the pain of changing coaches, after 4 group matches, 1/4 matches and 2 semi-final matches, Argentina stumbled and even had to rely on penalties to win and advance, while Brazil gradually stabilized and easily won 3-0 against Peru in the semi-final.

In addition, Messi was injured in the match against Colombia, so Brazil has a greater chance of winning the final no matter how you look at it.

But Richarlison's attitude reminded Batty that they should not be too complacent, as this would cause problems. This is a lesson learned from the blood of countless predecessors.

Argentina hasn't won a major championship in almost 30 years, but given the momentum they are holding back, they should never be underestimated.

Zidane had just pulled Casemiro aside to explain things, and now he called Neymar as well. Batistuta smoothed his hair, glanced at the captain's armband on Casemiro's arm, and walked into the player tunnel first.

Many Argentine players are already there waiting, including their team soul and his good friend.

Messi grew a beard again, and like he did in 17, he looked like a gold miner. Aguero wore an orange substitute vest, and if the situation permitted, he might be able to get a few minutes of playing time at the end.

They were chatting and the atmosphere didn't seem too serious.

"Hey!" Batty took the initiative to move over.

"I heard that someone has become a free agent and is currently unemployed, losing millions of euros every day. Is that true?" He jokingly raised his eyebrows at Messi.

"Yes, you heard it right." Messi smiled, not showing much hostility towards Batistuta. "I'm already 34 years old and just lost my job. I'm afraid I'll have a mid-life crisis in two days."

"Hi Batistuta! How are you?" Aguero interrupted the conversation eagerly. It was obvious that he wanted to apologize for his rudeness before, but he just didn't know how to start. He hoped Batistuta would take the initiative.

But he was destined to be disappointed.

The little king holds a grudge.

"Did you hear any sound, Leo?" Batty frowned and looked around. "It sounds like a fly, buzzing non-stop."

Messi looked at Aguero and then at Batistuta. It was obvious that he knew exactly what had happened between the two of them. After all, it was related to him.

"Bati..." "Damn it, there are too few fans in the stadium." Batistuta still pretended not to see Aguero, "They should let everyone in, 7 people cheer together, then I definitely won't be able to hear the annoying sound of flies."

Aguero opened his mouth and said nothing.

After receiving his friend's pleading look, Messi pursed his lips to prevent himself from laughing: "You know, Batistuta, I can hear that fly too, but I hear it differently from you."

"Oh?" Batty smiled, "What did you hear?"

"I heard the fly desperately saying he was sorry. He was so anxious that time that he couldn't tell good from bad. He was really sorry for hurting you." Messi said what Aguero wanted to say.

"Really?" Unfortunately, Batty didn't buy it. "Why didn't I feel that fly was sorry? It's been half a month. If he really felt that he did something wrong, why didn't he call me?"

Aguero: "Bati I——"

"Anyway," Batistuta interrupted Aguero's explanation and looked into Messi's gentle eyes. "Please tell Mr. Fly that I don't accept his apology."

Messi shrugged. He had no problem with being used as a mouthpiece.

"Hey!"

At this moment, a voice suddenly appeared from behind Batti.

"Leo!! What do you want to do? Stay away from him!"

The sound was so loud that everyone in the entire corridor, including the broadcast camera and staff, heard it.

Batistuta turned around and saw De Paul rushing towards him like a bodyguard, then stretched out his hand to block Messi and Aguero (incidentally) behind him, and then stared at his opponent vigilantly.

"Don't try to do anything, you cunning Brazilian!" the Atletico midfielder said fiercely, "Go away and go back to your place!"

Humph.

His place?

The entire Maracana Stadium can be said to be his place, he can stand there wherever he wants, except for the stadium, all of them are now in Brazil, it's really funny to hear this from an Argentine.

But as the game approached, Barty shut up.

After looking DePaul up and down with disdain, he sneered and turned to walk towards the team that was gradually forming.

"Let's talk about the apology later. See you after the game."

……

[Good morning, audience friends, welcome to watch the live broadcast of the 2021 America's Cup final between Brazil and Argentina. You can see that the two teams have entered the center of the field. The team wearing yellow jerseys and blue shorts is the Brazilian team, while the team wearing blue and white jerseys and white shorts is the Argentine team. 】

[Let's take a look at the starting lineups of both teams. Oh, the head coaches of both teams did not make any personnel adjustments and continued the lineups from the semi-finals. ]

[Brazil's goalkeeper is Ederson; the four defenders from right to left are Danilo, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, and Renan Lodi; Casemiro and Fred are in the midfield, Batistuta is in front of them, and Neymar, Richarlison, and Vinicius are on the front line. 】

[Argentina goalkeeper Martin; the four defenders are Acuña, Romero, Otamendi, and Montiel; midfielders De Paul, Paredes, and partner Di Maria; the forward line is Messi in the middle, Lo Celso and Lautaro on the left and right. 】

[As the referee blew the whistle, the game officially began... Oh, you can see that both sides played very fast, and the game was very intense from the beginning. ]

Yes.

Skipping all the probing and even ignoring the time it took for the players to get into the game, the two old Copa America rivals started off by fighting each other.

To be precise, it was Argentina that forced Brazil to speed up.

They wanted a fast-paced opening.

As if they wanted to convey to Brazil all the strength and madness of South American football that they had not felt in this Copa America, the Argentines got into the game from the first second.

[beep——]
Five minutes into the game, the referee had blew the whistle several times and both sides were in a state of chaos. Of course, it was mainly the Brazilian players who were upset, and Argentina almost took the lead at the start.

However, fate played a joke on everyone.

In the 6th minute, Batistuta made a strong breakthrough and rushed to the right side of the penalty area. Argentine defenders immediately surrounded him and a melee broke out in front of the goal. Batistuta could hardly see who was pulling him in the crowd, but he kicked the ball out with difficulty a second before falling to the ground.

Towards the goal, it looks like both a pass and a shot.

It was this ball that refracted when it hit the ground, and the originally deviated angle miraculously straightened out and rolled towards the lower right corner of the goal.

Big Martin judged the position correctly, but it caught him off guard and the ball rolled over his glove and into the net.

A complete, lucky shot.

[6 minutes! A goal was scored just 6 minutes into the game! Although this goal was largely due to luck, it was still a goal after all, 1-0! Brazil is leading at home!]

"It's in, it's in!"
"What did I say? We will win the America's Cup again!"
"Keep going! At least 5-0!"

However, even though the ball went in, Batistuta was not happy at all.

The blind confidence in the locker room just now was made worse by this lucky goal. It was like the zombie virus in "Resident Evil", spreading within the Brazilian team at a terrifying speed.

If you score too early, don't let up.

……

Sure enough, when the game entered the 13th minute, Batistuta's bad premonition began to become a reality, as the Argentine's defense became even more ferocious than at the beginning.

Vinicius passed the ball back from the bottom line, Batistuta did not dare to delay when receiving the ball and passed it to Richarlison in front of him. Richarlison passed the ball to Neymar, who was surrounded with the ball on the flank.

"Over there! Go over there!"

De Paul fought hard for the ball, and relied on his physical fitness to make Neymar flip over in the air before falling to the ground. The referee blew the whistle, but it was not a foul. He blew the whistle because Richarlison was in an offside position at the moment Batistuta passed the ball to Richarlison.

"Hey! He knocked me out of the way!"

Neymar sat on the ground and put pressure on the referee.

And Batistuta watched helplessly as his former teammate Otamendi, with 'I'm here to beat you' written on his face, went around behind him and pulled Neymar up like pulling a carrot.

"Get up and don't waste time!"

When Neymar's feet touched the ground, he looked dazed.

Batty: ...

(End of this chapter)