[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Penalty kicks, whether they are during a match or in the final penalty shootout to decide the winner, are actually a psychological game between the penalty taker and the goalkeeper, leaving aside all the techniques.

Damian Martinez is one of them.

But because his performance in saving three consecutive penalties in the match between Argentina and the Netherlands was too eye-catching, Batistuta and the coaching staff focused on studying him before the game.

Fortunately, Martin was the team's starting goalkeeper for a short time, so the research materials left for the Brazilian team were relatively concentrated and easy to organize.

According to statistics, his usual tactics include but are not limited to: trash talking; exaggerated body movements; constantly asking the referee whether the ball is accurately placed on the penalty spot, creating an atmosphere of 'this is my place and I am the master'; pointing to the side of the goal in a provocative manner; and dancing.

"Be careful not to get into his rhythm, give him too much attention, and don't give him any feedback. Just focus on the ball at your feet," the coach advised.

Batty stood in front of the penalty spot in a relaxed posture, looking straight into Martin's eyes, and then smiled slightly.

He also knows how to create atmosphere and so on.

Big Martin immediately stopped twisting his body in front of the goal. This trick would cause trouble to most nervous forwards, but it was obviously useless to Batistuta at this moment, and it might even interfere with his own judgment, so he decisively changed his strategy.

Like many excellent players, the Brazilian captain also has his own comfort zone for penalties. In many games, he would secretly aim at the upper right corner of the goal and then take high-quality penalties.

It was Messi who reminded him of this.

"Hey! You like to take the penalty here, come on, give it a try." Martin raised his finger and pointed at Batistuta's comfort zone, "You really should let him (Neymar) take the penalty, that guy is a goalkeeper's nightmare."

This is a sure-win interference method.

If Batistuta really intends to shoot free throws in his comfort zone, then Martin's clear pointing out will definitely make him tighten up instantly, and whether he changes direction or shoots according to the routine, it will be affected; and if Batistuta does not intend to shoot free throws in his comfort zone, this will create a psychological suggestion, and he will involuntarily question himself, thereby reducing the quality of his free throws.

So what is the real situation?
In fact, he really guessed it, Batty was indeed preparing to take the free throw in his comfort zone.

How to do?
The plan remains unchanged or...

Batty looked down at his eyeballs and toes, and suddenly an idea flashed before his eyes.

'Let him punish' 'Let him punish'

The fragments of Martin's continuous interference flashed before his eyes, and those English phrases with an Argentinian flavor gave him an idea. Didn't he say that Neymar wanted the penalty kick? Then he would give it to him.

Let Neymar take the penalty.

But it’s not the real Neymar, oh, nor the internet celebrity one, but the Batistuta brand Neymar that will be launched soon.

This was a really good idea. Barty felt a surge of excitement rushing to his head.

How to deal with a proactive goalkeeper like Martin?
Very simple.
Become more proactive than him.
Mainly anti-customer.

After the referee finished explaining all the precautions, he turned and walked towards the goal area. At the moment he turned around, Batistuta suddenly put his hands together in front of him, closed his eyes, lowered his head, touched his fingertips with the tip of his nose, and while keeping his feet still, his whole body began to shake.

Then, in the next second after the referee stood still, he opened his eyes with a swish, and separated his hands. He raised the index and middle fingers of each hand and placed them on his temples, while muttering something.

“▓▓▓!”

There was a moment of silence in the huge stadium.

Neymar: ?

Brazil & Argentina: ? ?
Big Martin: ???

[What is Batty doing?] The commentator was also shocked. [To put it in an inappropriate way, I have only seen these actions of his in the village, uh, the place where the shamans were invited to perform.]

"Was this rehearsed in advance?" Zidane immediately looked at the shooting coach, "You have studied Martinez before. Was that intentional?"

The coach in charge of penalty kicks was also confused, "No, we haven't practiced this."

Never practiced?
In other words, what just happened was just Batistuta's improvisation.

Zidane: …

Where did he think he was? On the beach in his hometown of Rio? How dare he do this? Didn't he think about what would happen if he messed up?
The head coach pinched his brows and seriously considered the feasibility of resigning and escaping the suffering after the World Cup.

the other side.

Big Martin clenched his back teeth and forced himself to calm down.

He is using your own methods against you. Calm down, Dibu, don't let him take your attention away. He is not that scary. Those little actions are just distracting you. Cheer up!
"Penalty, Batistuta," the referee said. "If you delay any longer, I will show you a yellow card."

Batty put down his hand obediently.

"Okay, I'll go right away." He apologized to the referee and Big Martin with a smile, then took a few steps back and got ready.

Feeling... a little bit inconsistent?
Neymar frowned slightly. He felt that this was not what Batistuta usually did when taking a penalty kick. It was more like -
he himself?
Then Batty moved.

[Here it comes! Batistuta's penalty! Let's see what he has in store - oh! This is Neymar's signature step-by-step change of center of gravity and rhythm! ]

Yes, Batistuta has completely transformed himself into Neymar.

They had talked about penalties and he knew what to do.

Without violating the rules, first run-up for half a second, then change the rhythm with small steps, then pause, change the rhythm again, and finally observe the goalkeeper's leg strength and choose the best side to easily shoot.

This is the experience of the modern penalty master.

Compare with the goalkeeper in patience, variety, rhythm and technique.

The first time Batty changed, Big Martin stood still and didn't move. The second time, he didn't move either. But the third time, when Batty shook for the third time, he exerted force with his right leg and unconsciously tended to the right.

And it was at this moment that the Brazilian captain seized the opportunity and gently pushed the ball into the lower left corner of the goal.

Big Martin's penalty kicks rarely go in the wrong direction.

But this time, he lost.

……

"Ohhhhhhh!" After scoring the goal, Batistuta turned and rushed towards the source of his inspiration. "See, that guy kept teasing me, saying something about letting you take the penalty, so I satisfied him, I used your way!"

"See it clearly!" Neymar hooked his neck and cheered, "That's beautiful, Batistuta! You are a genius, how did you think of using this to deal with the goalkeeper?"

Batty winked at him. "Just a little cleverness."

"What were you doing before the free throw?" Rafinha squeezed next to Batistuta and asked, "It didn't look like you were praying."

"Well, this." Batistuta concealed his smile with his lips pursed. "It's just a small prelude to enter Neymar's state. You are all stunned, right? Ha! Judging from the results, I succeeded!"

More than just success.

Everyone was shocked by the weird prelude. It was simply a complete victory.

[… Batistuta’s ingenious penalty kick gave us a good show and he successfully scored, 2-1. In the 48th minute of the second half, the Brazilian team overtook the score! ]

At the same time, in the live broadcast rooms of various countries’ competitions, the screens were filled with “Hahahaha”, “Laughing and crying”, and “Amazing”.

Highly praised comments on Twitter:
BBB: I invited penalty master Neymar in this event, you can come and try it too (Rose)
……

After taking the lead, the Brazilian team, under the instruction of the head coach, deliberately slowed down the pace, played steadily, and did not leave any empty spaces in the back defense to Argentina, to prevent them from taking advantage of the slight slackness on the Brazilian side to equalize the score.

Soon, the game came to the 65th minute.

As the Brazilian team slowed down their attack and began to control the ball, the Argentine midfielders fell into meaningless running several times, became impatient, and increased their physical confrontation, and the atmosphere on the court became more tense. Casemiro took the ball in the backcourt, and after a two-on-one situation with Guimaraes, he passed the ball to Neymar. Neymar turned around and tried to speed up and break through, but De Paul immediately stuck to him from behind and secretly pushed his back with his elbow.

Neymar fell to the ground and the ball was immediately transferred by Argentina.

The referee called a foul on the defending team, but because the action was not large (it seemed) and the enforcement standards for this game were not too strict, he simply gave the ball back to Brazil.

Over the next ten minutes, the same scene happened several times.

Although Brazil now has Batistuta to help attract attention and distract the opponent's firepower, Neymar appeared in the midfield today and reduced the frequency of position changes with his teammates in the frontcourt, so Argentina's midfield naturally kept their eyes on him.

Nearing the 70th minute of the second half, Neymar was the first to be designated as the designated ball among the three options, and his shorts were torn after a few minutes. (According to Batistuta, it should be Nico Otamendi who did it)

This pissed off Batty a little.

Because Neymar is easy to bully, they pay special attention to him, and simply do not regard them as a South American team. If it is not just about intensity, they will also do it.

"Ney! Over here!" Batty gestured towards the midfield after the game resumed, "Come up, I'll go over and hold on for a while!"

Neymar was a little hesitant and turned to look at the coaching bench. Zidane didn't say anything, so he nodded and changed positions with Batistuta.

"Be careful." He took the opportunity to pinch Batty's hand and reminded him, "Remember to jump in advance, don't wait for them to tackle you before hiding."

Batty nudged him and raised his chin to show understanding.

Then he turned his head and quickly observed the situation on the field. The ball was at Casemiro's feet. "Don't worry!" Batty shouted to their midfielder, "Look in front of you! Control it and pass it!"

While communicating normally, Batistuta secretly made a fist-to-fist gesture to Casemiro, which has two meanings: one is to speed up, and the other is to intensify the confrontation.

Casemiro was surprised for a moment, then calmed down and nodded slightly to Batistuta.

well.

The Brazilian captain raised the corners of his mouth quietly.

Let's also give Argentina some intensity.

……

[——Oh my, this time, Guimaraes was really fierce. De Paul lost the ball. Although this time, although it was ruthless and knocked De Paul to the ground, it was very clean. At least from what happened just now, according to the level of enforcement today, it is not enough to get a yellow card.]

【Oh! Argentina's counterattack, Paredes got the ball, this position is a bit dangerous - ah, Batistuta, kicked directly, and intercepted the ball with Guimaraes. Hiss - there are more small movements, the referee should have given him a warning. The camera pushed over, we can see Batistuta with a smirk and made a "I'm watching you" gesture to Paredes, haha, he really deserves to be called BBB. 】

【Oh oh oh! Brazil is here again! Since they scored a goal in the second half to overtake the score, or rather, since Neymar was targeted when he got the ball, the intensity of the Brazilian team has also increased. After De Paul, Paredes, Enzo and Alvarez, this time it was Messi who was knocked down, and the one who stole the ball from him was Batistuta.】

"You crossed the line, Batistuta," the referee said to him sternly, "This is the last warning. If it happens again, you know the consequences."

Batistuta responded to the referee in a friendly manner, and then reached out to pull Messi up from the ground: "Sorry, it was not intentional, I can't let you pass, you are too dangerous, Leo."

"I know." Messi didn't mean to blame him. There was no one guarding McAllister over there. If Brazil let him go, he might very well connect with Alvarez to form a threatening attack.

They all know this.

The two hugged each other briefly, then quickly separated and returned to their respective teams.

It also temporarily suppressed the anger between the two teams.

However, when the game reached the 79th minute, the tension that had slightly subsided rose again like a rocket.

The cause was Argentina's counterattack.

De Paul got the ball, Batistuta was following Paredes, Rafinha thought Neymar would fill the position but in fact Neymar did not, so De Paul had enough space to kick and made a long pass into the penalty area.

Spider Alvarez got the ball with his back to the basket, Danilo blocked him and unfortunately forgot to tighten his arms.

The ball hit his left elbow.

[beep——]
The moment the referee blew the whistle, the hearts of all the Brazilians in the stadium stopped beating.

About half a minute later.

The results came out, and the Samba Army was once again sentenced to death.

Fortunately, Danilo was not convicted of intentional obstruction and only received a yellow card. If it was a red card, the Brazilian team might really be finished.

From a distance, Batty squatted there and watched.

He watched Messi take the ball and walk to the penalty spot.

"Please, don't..."

Batistuta pressed his fingers on the grass and chose to close his eyes just before Messi's free throw.

'Boom—'

He seemed to be able to hear the sound of the ball being shot.

The next second, thunderous cheers rang out at the scene.

Batistuta felt the plane sinking into the deep sea, and a hand grasped the lower half of his heart. The Argentines were celebrating, and he imagined the heartbreaking scene in his mind.

But soon, he realized that something was wrong with the cheering.

Open your eyes.

The world is upside down.

Batistuta saw Messi surrounded by his teammates, Alisson punching the sky and roaring, and several Brazilian players in front of him hugging each other.

The yellow ones are celebrating.

"It didn't go in, Batistuta, it didn't go in!" Guimarães was about to cry. He rushed over and hugged the captain, "Alisson! He is God! We are still leading!"

The water in Batty's ears was receding.

He heard clearly.

Didn't make it.

Argentina missed the penalty!
The score is still 2-1!

Batistuta almost jumped up from the ground, waving his arms, and rushed into the middle of his teammates with the heavy pendant Guimarães behind him.

"Vamooooos!!! 10 minutes left! Everybody hold on!! Last 10 minutes!"

After 80 minutes of play, Argentina missed a great chance to equalize.

Will there be any changes?

(End of this chapter)