The Day I Played with Ronaldo

The game quietly came to the 35th minute. In the previous 34-minute game, both sides were obsessed with hand-to-hand combat, and neither had a good chance.

Ricardo has tried to go forward frequently, also tried to retreat to catch the ball deeply, and also tried to overlap. But no matter where he went, Melo would never leave him, never giving Ricardo a chance to catch the ball comfortably.

This treatment is even higher than that of Fabiano and Kaka. Neither Fabiano nor Kaka was specifically marked. It can be seen how much Nelson O. Baptista attaches importance to Ricardo.

In fact, this trick did hit Osvaldo's life. In Sao Paulo's existing offensive system, Ricardo assumes the task of linking the past and the future, connecting Ricardinho back and Kaka and Fabiano forward. When Ricardo is closely guarded, Sao Paulo's offensive has reduced most of the threats, and the operation has become stagnant.

At this time, Riccardo was still only at the peak level of the national level after all, and it still seemed a bit difficult under this level of defense.

If he is two or three years older, his body grows a little more, and he has more confrontation ability, this kind of defense will not affect him too much. He can completely eat opponents raw with his body and speed.

But at this moment, he can only outsmart.

But outsmarting requires time.

Now that Sao Paulo is leading, the opponent is anxious. As long as the score is maintained, Flamengo will make a mistake sooner or later because they are eager to equalize the score. The time that Ricardo has been waiting for will finally come.

But football is round, and on the football field, any accident can happen at any time.

In the 37th minute of the game, Sao Paulo's right-back Simplicio fell to the ground in pain, clutching his ankle, after colliding with opposing striker Andrew Zinho.

Sao Paulo's team doctor quickly entered the field and carried him to the sidelines for treatment. In a short period of time, Flamengo launched several consecutive attacks, and even Ricardo, who seldom returned to defense, had to come back to participate in the defense, and finally withstood the opponent's offensive.

But Sao Paulo couldn't wait until Simplicio was back on the pitch. After a brief examination by the team doctor, he was deemed to have severely strained his ligaments and would not be able to play for the rest of the game. Osvaldo had to use up a substitution in the first half, replacing the young Gabriel Sent in to replace Simplicio's vacancy.

Although Gabriel joined the first team last year, he has few opportunities to play and lacks game experience. As a 21-year-old young man, he is still relatively good, but facing the experienced players of Flamengo, he is completely at a disadvantage.

After he played, Sao Paulo's situation did not improve, but the defense became even tighter.

However, Flamengo also had its own problems. They failed to seize the opportunity of the chaotic Sao Paulo defense in the past few minutes, and the score of 1:0 remained until the end of the first half.

After returning to the locker room, Osvaldo concealed his inner unease, praised the players' performance on the field in a calm and even humorous tone, and emphasized that he continued to play defensive counterattacks in the second half.

"Little Ricardo, are you okay?" Osvaldo couldn't help asking when his eyes shifted to Ricardo.

Licado was panting all the time, looking very tired.

"I'm fine." Ricardo shook his head. In fact, he has never been so tired in the first half of a game since his first start.

In order to run out of space to catch the ball under the marking of Melo, his physical energy consumption is very serious, not to mention being violated by Melo many times, confronting Melo many times, and actively returning to defense many times near the end of the first half , these are very physical.

But it's okay, I can make it through. Ricardo gritted his teeth. Before defeating Felipe Melo and giving him a loud slap with a goal, Ricardo would never give up.

Osvaldo withdrew his worried gaze and looked at Kaka again: "Little Ricardo is closely guarded, Kaka, you have to take on more offensive tasks in the second half.

When counterattacking, you must resolutely plug in and send the ball to Rico more often. "

Kaka nodded to show understanding. In the first half, he and Ricardo did not cooperate a few times. Both he and Ricardo had insufficient confrontation ability. They seemed too thin in front of the opponent's defense line composed of muscular men in the backcourt, and they were often interfered. Bad pass.

Osvaldo didn't say too many new things. He repeated "play defensive counterattack", "hold the ball", and "don't relax until you win the final victory."

Ricardo couldn't help but compare Osvaldo with those coaches he had met in his previous life.

Osvaldo, 52, was born in Rio de Janeiro. He has rich coaching experience. He has coached in strong teams such as Corinthians and Fluminense. He also had bright moments, but most of the time he was a bit mediocre.

From the perspective of coaching philosophy and tactical thinking, Osvaldo has been somewhat out of touch with the mainstream thinking in Europe. This is not just Osvaldo's fault, it can be said to be a common fault of Brazilian coaches, immersed in the dream of the football kingdom, stubbornly sticking to the old-school football style.

At least in Ricardo's view, Osvaldo's thinking is a bit rigid, his on-the-spot command is not flexible enough, his style of play is too old-fashioned, his offensive routine is relatively simple, and his defensive system is not formed. People are on tenterhooks.

In the process of coaching Sao Paulo this season, Osvaldo's greatest contribution is to discover and boldly use himself-this is not only what Ricardo thinks, but also the evaluation of many media. He didn't inject anything new into Sao Paulo, and Sao Paulo also stumbled in the national championship. If it weren't for the outstanding performance of the Trident, Sao Paulo might have difficulty entering the playoffs.

So for Osvaldo's tactical arrangement, Ricardo only superficially agrees, but he actually has other ideas in his heart.

He is just an ordinary player and cannot refute the will of the head coach. But he can play freely on the court occasionally a few times according to his own ideas, and Osvaldo will not have any objections to this.

When leaving the locker room and walking in the player tunnel, Ricardo pulled Kaka and Ricardinho with a mysterious look.

"What's wrong?" Kaka asked curiously. Ricardinho also pricked up his ears.

"When I get to the field, I will resolutely cover the sides. That Felipe Melo will definitely follow me and empty the center. Kaka, you have to resolutely go forward to attract the attention of the opponent's central defender. At this time , I will suddenly go in the middle. Ricardinho, when you pass the ball to me, it doesn’t matter if you give me a little more advance.”

Ricardinho hesitated: "But we have never tried such an offensive line."

Licado smiled and said, "Let's try it. Anyway, we are ahead, even if we waste one or two offensive opportunities, it's not a big deal, what do you think?"

After hesitating for a moment, Ricardinho nodded and said, "That's fine, just try."

"I'm fine too," Kaka said with a smile, "I'll create a gap for you, you have to seize the opportunity."