Second Chances: Indonesian Football Player

Chapter 79's

Thursday, 23 February 2012.

Borussia Dortmund Academy are scheduled to face Atletico Madrid Academy in the race for third place that afternoon. But surprisingly, coach Marcel instead scheduled a light training session for the RSCA Youth Academy squad at the Olympic Sports Center.

Nero and his teammates warmed up by running around an indoor artificial turf field at the Olympic Center. He felt a bit tense from the expectations that came with the preparation for the final. He was surprised to learn that he could still be nervous on the day before the Youth Cup final despite having experienced so much in his past life.

Nero was relieved when the coach called up the squad for a last-minute training session that afternoon. This session will help calm his nerves. It was better than lounging in his hotel room, waiting for the match.

Exercise always relaxes him. With a little sweat, he can achieve the calmness he needs to play his best. That's his therapy.

He ran along the track with robotic precision and organic fluidity, step by step, nailed to perfection, leaving his other teammates in the dust. Sweat stuck to his skin as freshly melted snow crystals, making Nero feel as if stress was rising from his skin with every molecule of water.

After eight laps, he felt stress-free and ready for the training session. He added a few more laps to his tally at the coach's request before joining the others for a stretching routine.

Squads go through neck circles, shoulder rolls, arm circles, hip rotations, and other simple exercises to stretch their muscles before starting the training session.

As soon as they finished the warm-up, Coach Marcel blew his whistle, gesturing for them to return to the centre circle. He looks happy.

Nero has noticed that his unbridled confidence has made him home in his features since the RSCA Youth Academy's semi-final victory.

"Tomorrow is the day of the final" said Coach Marcel, letting his sights wander around the players.

"We will face VfB Stuttgart. They are not easy opponents. They're a better team at least on paper. To win against them, we have to take advantage of every chance we get in the game to score."

“We have to be clinical in our attack and make use of our dead balls. We have to make sure every corner and free-kick we win threatens their goal. We have to defend this during the game. . That's how we keep the pressure on them and score."

He stopped, smiling at the players before continuing. “For free kicks, we are protected. We have Nero, who has a good record with them. He will make the most of the dead balls we get. However, we still lacked area. did corner kick." He sighed, shaking his head.

"A corner kick can be a source of great frustration at all levels of football" Coach Marcel continued in a somber tone. “As I mentioned in our previous practice sessions, they can help you win or encourage you to lose. It depends on how you handle it. In the semi-final against Borussia Dortmund, we conceded a goal from a corner because we defended against him badly. We're here to make sure we don't repeat the same mistakes tomorrow."

"Today, we will have the corner kick training we trained before coming to Riga again. We will concentrate mainly on good deliveries, on-time runs to confuse the defence, being first on the ball, and hitting the target. We'll also work on the signal for communication when taking a certain type of angle."

"For example, before a short corner kick, anyone who picks it up can raise one hand or finger to signal the other to get ready."

"At the end of this session, I want everyone to understand their role when doing corner kicks. For example, we would choose our four best air players to always attack the ball directly when taking a corner kick. As we did at the back.in Trondheim, they would split their runs, attacking different areas to increase our chances on goal. We will also select the person responsible for pressing the goalkeeper, who targets the rebound, etc. We'll try to get through as many corners as possible to maximize our chances tomorrow."

"It's quite the theory" said Coach Marcel. "Let's start corner practice right away."

The players practice attacking and defending corner kicks for the rest of the afternoon. For a bit of an attack, they ended up perfecting just five angles of picking up the routine. However, Nero was satisfied with the results of the training session. Their chances of winning have increased thanks to their hard work on set pieces.

After the training session was over, they took the bus back to the hotel. They immediately cleaned up, had dinner, and headed straight to one of the conference rooms for Coach Marcel's pre-match briefing.

"Tomorrow," he started after all the players sat down. "We're going to play a completely different system. We'll play with a 4-2-3-1 formation instead of the 5-4-1 system we've used so far."

"But before I explain it, I will mention the squad tomorrow. Then, we can learn the tactics and discuss the game plan." Coach Marcel said, moving towards the board.

"The "Starting line-up is as follows:

Goalkeeper; Shirt No. 1 Damon Kvennson,

Centre-back; No.4 – Larsen Maguel, No.5 – Miguel Alaron,

Left-back; No.3 – Van Rochefort, Right-back; No.2 – Kierst Donovan,

Middle line; No.6 – Isaac Newton, No.13 – Simon Kevlar, No.8 – Nero Juniar, No.13,

Right wing; No.7 – Ryandi Ferdianur, Left wing; No.15 – Stefan Kvennson

"You all need to have a clear understanding of your position in a 4-2-3-1 formation because we train quite a lot in Brussels" he said. "But, I will go ahead and explain it again if anyone forgets or falls asleep during the training session before the Riga Cup."

The players laughed at that.

Coach Marcel waited for them to calm down before continuing. "We'll split into four groups on the pitch tomorrow. Our defensive unit will consist of two standard centre-backs and two wing-backs. Two defensive midfielders will sit in front of them, screening them as the next unit. They will play as double shafts on the field to ensure no exploitable space is left in front of our defence." He returned to the board, circling the second position of the midfielder.

"I don't need to tell you how lethal the attacking midfielder VfB Stuttgart is when left with plenty of space in front of the defence. You watched their game against Tottenham." His tone turned grim.

"So Simon and Isaac" he paused for a moment, first directing his gaze to the corner of the room where the two were sitting. "As our defensive midfielder, you have to work hard and do your best to keep Kimmich and the other midfielders out of our box."

"Are we clear?"

"Yes, coach," the two answered in unison.

Coach Marcel nodded, pointing back to the board. “In front of our two defensive midfielders, we will have Nero playing as a central attacking midfielder and our two wingers Ryandi and Stefan on the wing. The three of you will complete our midfield together with Simon and Isaac. in every space in the middle of the pitch to block their quick passing ability."

"Are we clear?"

"Yes, coach," Nero replied, nodding along with the others.

He is delighted that the coach has considered his advice and brought in a second defensive midfielder off the bench. If the winger is counted, the RSCA Youth Academy can play with a total of five midfielders. Such an arrangement would make it easier for the agile midfielders of VfB Stuttgart.

Coach Marcel continued his talk for the next hour, explaining the placement of the entire squad. He set the role for each player in the starting line-up, highlighting what he expects from them on the pitch the next day. The coach even encouraged Nero to try to win as many free-kicks as possible in front of the box, even though it involved some theatrics. When he finished explaining the game plan, he answered questions from the players and released them for the night.

"I heard that Atletico Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 3:2 in the race for third place" Stefan announced to Nero and several others who walked with him. They climbed the stairs to the second floor of their hotel.

"They managed to get three goals against Borussia Dortmund!" nero was surprised. He could not hide the shock in his voice. The German team has given them a tough time during the semi-finals. However, ATM, the team that lost 3:1 to VfB Stuttgart, managed to beat them with a score of 3:2. Nero could begin to imagine how powerful the Stuttgart VfB team was.

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Simultaneously in one of the conference rooms at the Riga AC Hotel...

Coach and player VfB Stuttgart just finished discussing some tactics for the final. Unlike in other teams, the German pushed for independent thinking among his players. He often lets them give advice during pre-match briefings to shape their tactical prowess on the field.

Usually, they quickly make a game plan. However, on that day, they were still debating how they would handle one of the players on the RSCA Youth Academy side during the finals.

“I say we mark it using the same tactics we used against other creative attacking midfielders in Germany,” advises Joshua Kimmich. He sat in the front row of the room. "Only marking man to man in a textbook is enough."

There was a murmur, most agreed while some disagreed, around the room.

"Wait, let me explain" Kimmich continued in German. “If we allocate our two players to guard it, we will leave a gap in our formation. That gap will have a negative impact on our style of play. We will find ourselves in situations where we cannot pass the ball quickly. If that happens, we won't be able to create many chances to score up front. And, that's unacceptable."

"In addition, the tactic of marking it with more than one player has been ineffective in the past." Kimmich gave a small smile to his other teammates. "Zenit, Borussia Dortmund and Riga all tried to double it in their games against the RSCA Youth Academy. But he always manages to outwit his mind and score valuable goals. Since most of their attention was on him, they could not free players to go forward and support their attacks. That's why they failed to score a lot of goals. And, that's how the RSCA Youth Academy managed to win against all those teams."

"But we don't have to do the same. We can and should 'just' concentrate on playing our style of football. We have to focus on scoring goals rather than keeping one player."

He continued, his voice rising. "If he scores three goals, we score five. If he scores four, we score seven. That has to be our style, and we must not change that because we undoubtedly have the best attacking power in this tournament."

Coach Ilija Aracic decided to stop the discussion at the time. He has achieved his goal of making the players think independently before important games. "Kimmich has a point" he said, smiling at his players.

“We will stay true to our style of play and focus on attacking and scoring in the final tomorrow. We'll hand Nero Juniar over to Philipp. He will be responsible for keeping him throughout the game. If he makes it past Phillip , the defence has to react quickly and stop him before he reaches our box. The rest will play as usual and try to score as many goals as you can. That's the best way to play against weaker teams."

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