Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

Bright Stadium, stands.

"Portugal has had too few talented players in the last two years; they are far behind the Netherlands."

"After Simão and Quaresma, it feels like Sporting Lisbon is experiencing a talent gap."

"Chris is already the best among the next generation of young players, but the gap between him and the players I just mentioned is also clearly visible. Apart from his speed, he doesn't have anything to be commended."

"Shoot? Who can't shoot? If you had as many shooting opportunities as him in a game, you could score too."

This is a conversation between several scouts, who know the background and characteristics of every player on the field like the back of their hand.

"Sporting Lisbon's goalkeeper, Christopher Pilar, has good goalkeeping skills, but his biggest problem is his height. Several clubs have already made it clear that they want goalkeepers to be at least 1.9 meters tall."

"There will be more and more clubs like this in the future, and Pilar is obviously not tall enough to be 1.9 meters, even 1.85 meters would be difficult."

"Pedro Araujo, Mico Angelo, Carlos Manuel, Ricardo Duarte—I bet none of Sporting Lisbon's defense will ever produce a national team player!"

"Don't be fooled by the fact that most of them have a chance to be called up to the Portuguese youth team. They are all mediocre talents and are just taking advantage of the youth training of big clubs."

"Paulo Sergio and José Semedo, one an attacking forward and the other a defensive midfielder who can move to center-back. Sergio was originally the midfield linchpin of this team, but after Duncan arrived, the difference between him and Duncan became apparent."

"Deng Kai's passing is professional-level, while Sergio is useless except for being stronger than Deng Kai. His future lies in establishing himself in the Portuguese league or even the Portuguese second division."

"Semedo has twice the chance of making it big compared to other players. But not because he plays exceptionally well, but because he can play both defensive midfield and center-back!"

"Center forward Lorenzo and right winger Edgar Marcelino, to be honest, neither of them impressed me."

"They're bigger than Chris, but much slower. Even their close-range ball control isn't as good as Chris's, which is Chris's weakness!"

The flaws of geniuses are already the upper limit of what ordinary people can achieve.

The word "talent" is just that cruel.

To the scouts, Sporting Lisbon U15 was like an ordinary person going to the market to buy potatoes and cabbage—completely unappealing.

Only rough stones like those of Chris and Duncan, who have the potential to yield imperial green jade, are the real targets of these scouts.

Moreover, experts believe that the chances of finding good jade in these two rough stones are very small, and they will most likely be a huge loss.

Chris has many strengths, but also many problems.

Deng Kai has many strengths, but his problems are also very prominent!

With the sound of a whistle, the competition officially began.

To support their youth team, Benfica even invited first-team stars João Pinto and Nuno Gomes to watch the game.

Both were representative figures of Portugal's golden generation.

Nuno Gomez is younger, and although he doesn't entirely belong to the Golden Generation, his peak period overlapped with that of the Golden Generation.

He is currently a rising star in the Portuguese league. Two years ago, he helped Boavista snatch the Portuguese league title from Porto and Benfica, but Benfica took it away from them. He has the potential to become Benfica's ace player.

Both of them are guaranteed a spot in the European Championship qualifiers for the Portuguese national team, and may even become starters.

Perhaps these star players showed the youth team kids what their future looked like, because Benfica's young players were incredibly aggressive from the start.

With a strong and aggressive style, they pushed Sporting Lisbon back into their own half and focused their attacks around them.

Their midfield interception ability is too strong. Even if Sporting Lisbon wins possession, they can't get past Benfica's midfield.

Cristiano Ronaldo waved several times, but the ball never came.

In Sporting Lisbon's positioning, Sergio is positioned slightly to the left, while Duncan is positioned slightly to the right.

Because Deng Kai is a right-footed player.

In the early days, all players were positioned with their feet on the opposite foot.

Stand on whichever side you're on.

Even wingers were like that, because back then wingers mostly crossed from the byline.

Or perhaps the 4-4-2 formation was popular at that time, with more wingers, whose main task was to cross from the byline.

Ronaldo's initial positioning was entirely due to Sporting Lisbon's attempt to mask his shortcomings in passing ability and overall vision, hence the right foot on the left.

Unexpectedly, this weak-footed winger became a dominant force in the youth team.

Sergio, who was behind Ronaldo, was indeed once the team's midfield core, but he was better at making forward runs after distributing the ball and was not talented in playmaking.

Portugal has never lacked this type of midfielder, including future stars like Bruno Fernandes.

This also meant that Sergio couldn't find any opportunities to pass the ball to Ronaldo today.

For Sporting Lisbon, the only player capable of consistently delivering the ball forward is Deng Kai.

However, the problem with Deng Kai is that currently only Cristiano Ronaldo is capable of consistently receiving his passes.

Benfica deployed a tight defensive formation against Ronaldo today.

Not to mention the marking by right-back Pereira, it's practically a gift to Ronaldo.

As expected by Duncan, right midfielder Amorim and defensive midfielder Alexander were responsible for ganging up on Ronaldo in their respective areas.

Benfica completely anticipated Sporting Lisbon's strategy.

Unless the players have an off night, it's impossible to play.

Therefore, Benfica U15's perfect league record so far makes sense.

They have not only high-caliber players, but also a very high-caliber coaching staff.

This tactic is absolutely worthy of the title "city derby".

In contrast, Maxa's side... he probably doesn't even understand Benfica's arrangements today.

……

In the eleventh minute, Amorim used his physical advantage to knock down Deng Kai and win possession of the ball, launching an attack immediately.

Deng Kai chased after Amorin, who then passed the ball to him.

Only then did Deng Kai have the opportunity to complain to the referee about the opponent's stealing foul.

But the referee shook his head; his application of the rules today was a bit too lenient.

It's a derby, after all.

Twenty seconds later, Amorim made a run from the back and scored with a long-range shot.

Benfica took a 1-0 lead.

The 40,000 fans in the stadium began to cheer.

Benfica fans even started singing their team song, as if they were leading not Sporting Lisbon U15, but Porto's first team!

The camera even specifically targeted Deng Kai.

Because possession of the ball for this goal originated from his loss of possession.

The director of the Estádio da Luz seemed to be trying to tell everyone through this action that even Kaiserslautern in Lisbon is no match for them.

While Benfica were celebrating, Maxala stopped Duncan to give him a pep talk.

After all, Maxa doesn't understand tactics, so all he can do is offer motivational platitudes.

But Deng Kai suddenly looked at Maxa and said, "Coach, if we continue playing like this, we'll be on the defensive. They've marked our key players tightly."

"When there is a gap in strength, the only way to win is through tactics, like the story of Tian Ji's horse racing strategy."

Maksa understood this: "You mean, use our ordinary players to replace their superior players?"

Deng Kai shook his head: "They are all top-tier players; we can't trade them all."

"But we can use ordinary players to extract our key players, which at least makes their tactical countermeasures ineffective."

"Coach, move Ronaldo to the center forward position!"

Looking at Deng Kai's determined eyes, Maxa really didn't have the confidence to refuse.

"Okay! Don't worry about kicking, I've got you covered!" Maxa patted Deng Kai on the shoulder.

After Deng Kai left, he muttered to himself.

The assistant coach thought Maksa was praying to God, because that was the only way Maksa could fight back against his opponents.

But he underestimated Maxa's shamelessness.

"It's a pity we didn't get a good result in this game, but I won't blame my players, even though Duncan made the decision to have Chris play center forward on his own..."

"On the contrary, I think this demonstrates the adaptability and thinking ability that a midfield core player should have on the field..."

"Ruy Costa's imaginative passes and Figo's exquisite support come from this."

"As the head coach of the youth team, my failure to provide the players with the best tactical options was due to insufficient preparation. But compared to that, I value the growth of young players more. I would never stifle their potential or imagination because of a single game; that would be a crime. I would rather lose than see the children lose their future..."

The assistant coach didn't quite understand, but was greatly impressed.

With so many cleaners at the club, how did you, Maxi, manage to climb to the position of U15 coach?

You're the one who got hurt!

Awesome!

With eighty minutes left in the game, instead of analyzing the opponent's tactical weaknesses, you're preparing interview transcripts for the reporters after the loss?

This kind of coach, who has no conscience, knows how to shift blame, and even tries to make himself look good... he could very well become the world's best coach in the future!