Chapter 643: Expert Analysis
The reporters rushed around, setting things up for interviews with the players who were calmly conversing and moving around on the pitch.
After the match that they had just witnessed, anyone who called themselves a sports reporter could not keep themselves calm and were just itching to question the players about the happenings on the pitch, hence their urgency.
In a nearby studio, the Champions League Tonight was already underway with the hosts already talking about the match and a match analysis was about to begin.
“Okay, let’s talk about Uventus’s coback,” Jamie began.
“Did you see it coming, Titi?” he asked Henry.
“I will say there were signs, yeah, there were signs,” Henry replied.
“Right from the beginning, we knew Uventus was a threat and they showed it with a few close calls in the early minutes,”
“They kept going too, but they were terribly unlucky in the early minutes,” he explained.
“And then Madrid scored three,” Micah chid in.
“Yes, and then Madrid scored,” Kate repeated.
“Yes, things changed after Madrid scored three, but it wasn’t the turning point for the Uventus team,” Henry took up the lead of the conversation.
“After scoring three, I think Madrid tried to slow the ga down, thinking they could relax and coast through, holding on to their three-goal lead,”
“They probably didn’t want to risk pushing forward too much while they were high off their goals,”
“Unfortunately for them, Uventus had this man,” Henry stated, pointing to Ronaldo’s picture on the screen behind them while getting up.
“Show his goal please,” Henry asked the dia team as he walked up to the screen.
In response to his request, the picture on the screen changed and showed Ronaldo receiving the ball, putting his head down and unleashing a rocket of a shot at the goal from far out.
“Wow, just wow, look at how he hit that,” Micah said, his tone full of awe.
“I couldn’t hit a ball like that. If I did, I’d have to go pick the ball from outside the stadium,” he laughed as he spoke.
“Well, you might have the power, but the accuracy to keep it down while putting that much power behind the ball is sothing only a few people can do,” Kate said, chuckling with a hand over her mouth.
“Even Titi would find it hard to pull that off in a match like that,” Jamie said.
“That’s true. I have my strengths and that is not one of them,” Henry laughed a little as he replied honestly, not a hint of sha in his voice.
After all, what Ronaldo had done was sothing even ssi, who was placed on the sa pedestal as Ronaldo would have a hard ti doing, so there was no sha in admitting his limits.
Turning back to the screen, Henry called out to pause the video at the point where the attack began.
“Look at him. Even before receiving the ball, he was scanning the area,”
“In this situation, most other players would realize that there was no good passing options. Not that there aren’t any options at all, but that everyone in a dangerous area was being tightly marked,”
“If he was to pass, then he could only pass the ball back and all that would achieve is them not losing the ball,”
“A bolder player would have thought to receive the ball and push it forward till he was at least near the edge of the penalty box, but him,” Henry said and played the video.
“He didn’t think too much. No one near, he could see the goal, no one was in the way, BAM, simple,” Henry said.
“This is where things now get interesting,” Henry continued, seeing he had everyone’s attention.
“That goal had changed the flow of the ga. Montum had switched sides and the Uventus team that was already being drawn into Madrid’s attempt to slow the ga began to react. Unfortunately, the Madrid players weren’t able to do anything about that,”
“I think the manager saw that, that’s why he made changes to bring in guys like Valverde and Nacho,”
“Fresh legs in defence to bolster the back line and youthful energy in midfield to shake things up a bit,” Henry said.
“If you can’t control them, distract them and stop them, hmmm,” Jamie mumbled, thinking.
“Unfortunately, even that didn’t work. You see, montum is a very powerful tool and in the hands of a team like Uventus, it can truly shine,”
“Soon, bam, they had their second goal. There was a lot of luck involved, but then, montum I guess,” Henry joked around a bit.
“With only one goal left between them, Madrid tried even harder to either stabilize the situation or get a goal to put them back in a comfortable position and a deadlock continued for a while, but then, this happened,” Henry said and on the screen the scene changed and began from the free kick in the dying minutes of the ga.
As the ball began moving across the screen, Henry pointed at Jason’s figure, “Watch how he moves,”
“Due to the free kick, most of the players were in Uventus’s half of the field. Seeing that, see how he begins to move forward as soon as he realizes that an attack was about to happen,”
“Now he’s in a dangerous position, but seeing Ronaldo moving towards the right, see how he moves to the center,” Henry said, pointing at Jason on the screen.
“Coming closer to give Ronaldo a passing option as well as getting into the best position to continue the attack. He killed two birds with one stone,” Jamie added to Henry’s analysis.
“Exactly. The pass ca in and everything else was a formality.” Henry said, dusting his hands harmlessly.
“We already know how dangerous he can be in one-on-one situations this near the goal, but this ti, he didn’t get too close, knowing that his opponent probably wouldn’t mind fouling him there,” Kate added.
“Ingenious use of the stop-and-go too. He created enough space and sent a rocket of a shot to a place Courtois couldn’t reach. Kinda reminds of myself back in the days,” Micah bragged, laughing boisterously.
“Yeah, you wish,” Kate slamd him.
“*Gasp!* You wound with your words,” Micah said dramatically.
“And they call a drama queen,” Kate rolled her eyes at this partner of hers and the studio erupted with laughter.
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