The Day I Played with Ronaldo

A Milan today is a 432 formation, goalkeeper Dida, defenders Karadze, Maldini, Nesta and Cafu, the three midfielders are Pirlo dragging behind, Seedorf and Gattuso escorting him. The double midfielder Kaka and Rui Costa, of which Rui Costa is responsible for the frontcourt connection, Kaka is more responsible for the high-speed insertion of the back row, more like a shadow striker. Single striker Crespo.

They can be said to have 4 No. 0 players on the field. Pirlo, Seedorf, Kaka and Rui Costa all have delicate footwork, excellent passing and organizational skills.

And Inter Milan's formation is 442, goalkeeper Toldo, defender Favalli, Mikhailovich, Cordoba, Zanetti, although Mikhailovich and Favalli have repeatedly proved difficult to be big. , but they are Mancini's direct descendants, so Mancini continues to trust them.

The midfielder is the quartet of Zanetti, Cambiasso, Stankovic and Veron. It can be seen from this configuration that Mancini pays great attention to defense in this game. The four are basically in a shallow dish position, with Zanetti and Cambiasot behind, Stankovic on the left, and Veron on the right.

In fact, before the game, Mancini lacked confidence in winning. He always emphasized the need to stabilize the defense first and not rush to attack. For him who has been playing offensive football this season, it can be described as a rare tolerance. After all, the opponent is A Milan, and the attack power is even worse than the current Juventus.

The double striker is the partner of Ronaldo and Ricardo. Adriano entered the squad, but when the team doctor checked him before the game, he thought he had not recovered to his best condition and could only play 60 minutes, so Mancini put him on the bench.

And Vieri and Cruz didn't even enter the big list. The three forwards who entered the big list are Adriano, Recoba and Martins.

In the locker room, Vieri has complained more than once about his lack of playing time, and he doesn't know when this contradiction will erupt.

When the players were waiting for the kick-off in the middle circle, the coaches of both sides, Mancini and Ancelotti, looked very confident. I don't know if they really have the confidence to defeat their old enemy, or if they pretend to be calm and confident to reassure the players.

The referee DeSantis blew his whistle and the game started.

A Milan kicked off the ball first, and after hitting the backcourt, a long pass from the backcourt directly launched an attack. The ball was cleared by Inter Milan defender Cordoba with a header, and the football flew to the midfield. Gattuso fouled Veron when pressing in midfield.

At this time, less than 30 seconds had passed since the start of the game. This small detail had already indicated that this would be a fierce competition.

According to Mancini's instructions before the game, Inter Milan played at a very fast pace in the first few minutes and launched a high-intensity frontcourt press.

A Milan is the same, not giving an inch, both sides pass quickly, fight fiercely, and the ball is constantly changing, but they don't get any good opportunities.

So after playing for 7 or 10 minutes, the two sides seemed to have a tacit understanding, both slowed down the rhythm and began to pay attention to defense.

Ricardo felt a little regretful. He originally wanted to take advantage of the opening minutes, when A Milan's foothold was not stable, to find opportunities to help the team take the lead, so that the subsequent games would be easier to play.

But A Milan is also very sophisticated, and did not give the Nerazzurri such a chance at all. The attack with the best chance for Inter Milan was when Stankovic launched a long pass over the top to find Ricardo after stealing from the midfield. Cardo was too late to catch up and collided with Dida.

Stankovic's footwork is still a bit poor. If the ball was passed by Veron, it may be just right.

Ke Veron will basically not pass the ball to Brazilian players other than Ronaldo, so this is a paradox.

And the number of passes he gave to Ronaldo is not too many.

So as long as Veron plays with Riccardo and Adriano at the same time, most of his passes are horizontal or backward.

Even if Ricardo and Adriano run out of space, Veron is likely to transfer the ball to the wing, and the full-back player will insert the kicker to cross, instead of directly inserting it to Ricardo or Adriano. promise.

Over time, as long as they saw Veron taking the ball, Ricardo and Adriano habitually stopped moving, so as not to waste energy.

Ronaldo is different. After all, he is the leader of the team, and Veron would never dare to offend him blatantly. Although he often pretended not to see him, sometimes when Ronaldo ran into a good position and Veron didn't pass the ball, Ronaldo would complain, and Veron would pretend to apologize.

There are also times when Veron will pretend to pass him a few insignificant balls.

In the 9th minute, Inter Milan attacked, and when Cambiasso tried to pass the ball to Ronaldo, Maldini destroyed the ball. But Maldini's big foot could not see the distance, Ricardo rushed to the landing point, stretched out his foot to catch it, and the football stuck to his foot like glue. Ricardo was about to plug the ball to Ronaldo again, but was knocked down by Pirlo.

The referee De Santis gave a free kick. Mikhailovich took the penalty and blasted it heavily on the wall, wasting a free kick in this excellent position.

In the first minute, Stankovic launched an attack with a long pass again. Ricardo grabbed the ball with his head before Nesta and gave it to Ronaldo.

Ronaldo and Maldini entangled and ran to the ball. Before the ball landed, they volleyed directly. Maldini stretched out his foot in time to block the ball out of the baseline.

In this game, Maldini focused on defending Ronaldo, almost inseparable.

Although he is old, his speed and explosive power have decreased, and his confrontation ability is not as good as before, but his rich experience allows him to intercept and block in the most labor-saving way. Ronaldo has not yet been able to create threats under his defense.

Ronaldo gave Ricardo a thumbs up, indicating that he passed well. Ricardo shook his head, not satisfied with himself.

In fact, he just saw that Ronaldo hadn't gotten rid of Maldini, so he shouldn't be in a hurry to ferry the header, but he should hold the ball first and wait for Ronaldo to run out of space before passing. But he lacked confidence in getting the ball under Nesta's defense, so he chose to play the ball directly, which wasted an opportunity instead.

Nesta, who is in his prime, is now a proper world-class defender. He is strong, agile, quick to turn around, decisive in defense, and not lacking in experience. It is the peak age of a defender. Get the ball in front of him It does take courage.

Ricardo naturally does not lack this courage, but in the situation just now, it is not easy to stop Stankovic's pass. His choice cannot be said to be wrong.