Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 21 - Union Bielefeld's

From the first day of school, Raynaldi never chatted with Irene again, but met occasionally at school, and she just greeted politely and left.

Raynaldi's classmate tells him that Irene's father once came to school to make trouble in junior high school, so Irene's reputation isn't very good. Ever since Irene entered Saint John Eiswald Highschool, she had often gotten insults and taunts from her classmates.

Raynaldi felt sorry for the girl, but they were not very familiar, so Raynaldi only put this matter aside for a while and focused for the next German Youth League to face the Union Bielefeld Youth Team.

So time passed by, until Team Yunior Leverkusen went to Bielefeld, Raynaldi never spoke to Irene again.

On the bus heading into the away game, Timo announced the preliminary list of matches.

After a winning streak in ten games, and the atmosphere of the team is very good. The young players are discussing the game today and the starting list. Today, Raynaldi, who performed well in the previous ten games, is still on the starting list and continues to partner Herman Fuchs as a double forward.

Victor Ogbona, Raynaldi's hostel friend, was also selected as a starter today. For him, this is his 5th appearance as a starter. Victor could not keep the main squad because of his poor ability in midfield organisation. It could almost be said that Victor's only method of attack was his long bait. However, he has a good defense in midfield and Timo often used as a sweeper machine in Leverkusen midfield.

Timo again used his original 4-4-2 formation, with two midfielders, Victor and Ronald Bauer, then left and right wingers Joshua and Ivan Schultz.

Bielefeld is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region of northeastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of about 342,000, it is the most populous city in the administrative region of Detmold and also the 18th largest city in Germany.

Bielefeld is now a rebuilt city after half of the city was destroyed in 1944 by World War II. In addition, the city is also the city with the most ethnic in Germany, given its history many family members of soldiers or war victims from various countries who remain in this city until now.

But when looking at the city buildings are quite good, Raynaldi also felt the city that was once hit by war was well organized. The Leverkusen bus also passes through Sparrenburg Castle which is a landmark of the city. Unfortunately, Raynaldi and his partner did not come here for a vacation so a glimpse was also fine.

In recent years the improvement experienced by Union Bielefeld is also quite good, from the Bundesliga 3 German team increased to the Bundesliga Team in 5 years relying on their youth training. Although there are no superstar players out of this club, but in the span of 5 years many young players built them who joined the Bundesliga team and 2.Bundesliga.

Now in the Youth Union Bielefeld Team also has players who are on the rise, namely defender Tenga Helfer and Toprak.

At 4:30 pm, at the Schuuco Stadium, home of the Union Bielefeld Junior Team, the match is underway.The Union Bielefeld Youth Team has the most distinctive characteristics of the German team. The tactical execution is excellent and the style is also very tenacious. Facing two speed-type strikers and a Leverkusen finisher, Union Bielefeld's Junior Team's tactical goal was clear, limiting Herman's movement and isolating Raynaldi by stacking defensive midfielders and defenders in his playing zone.

Less than twenty minutes after the start of the game, Raynaldi had been dropped four or five times, and Herman wasn't much better. He ate the tackle from the opposing defender and lay on the ground for a long time and failed to get up.

Timo is deeply dissatisfied with Freiburg's fighting spirit and has complained to the referee on the sidelines. Even his team's players had already started to get upset and almost clashed directly with his opponent if not stopped by Alex Khan and Raynaldi.

At this moment, the players of the Union Bielefeld Junior Team slightly gathered under the yellow cards of the referee. In fact, Raynaldi also did not care about their actions. Although these players play hard, they are actually very clean and rarely have dangerous actions.

Their movements were unlikely to cause any injuries, and they were basically normal battles, but they became bolder, and Raynaldi really wished for this situation even more.

Being brave and brave is scary, but in other words it is also an opportunity.

Among them, Hefler is a typical example. He was different from his defensive partner Toprak. Toprak was the type of observer and delayed, and Hefler was a very aggressive player in pursuit of the ball, but this good point was actually considered an advantage by Raynaldi.

Raynaldi who has been dropped several times. Finally found the skills to deal with Hefler. Since this person is too interested in the ball, then let him see the ball more.

Raynaldi then told his team to make shorter one-two-touch passes more often to create a gap on the aggressive defense of the Union Bielefeld's Junior Team. In addition, Raynaldi also began to think of several ways to get past opposing defenders.

And in this game, Tony mentions that one of the opposing defenders fights fiercely, and the other is weak in style but has a good defensive position. Raynaldi intends to use concise movements that can be executed quickly in this game.

After mastering the intensity of Hefler's fight, Raynaldi began to move. He could easily get rid of Hefler with the simplest smash, but Toprak was very clever at the back. As soon as Raynaldi broke through, Toprak directly blocked the position, making Raynaldi unable to continue the attack.

To pass two people in a row? Raynaldi knew he wasn't that good. Moreover, Toprak and Hefler would not give him enough space to breakthrough two people directly.

Raynaldi thought about his plan again for a while, and finally decided to break through Hefler's pass. After all, it is impossible for two centre-backs to stand in a vertical line all the time.

In this game, Timo and Tony are surprised by Raynaldi's technical level. In the junior team competition, such progress was apparent. In training games Raynaldi's technical ability is not very visible, as he rarely holds the ball and only needs one or two touches to complete the attack.

Raynaldi usually directly chose the best position to shoot in practice, but here he chose to outperform his opponent with a concise dribble. “This boy is really confusing.” Timo Mumbled.

The first to break the deadlock in the first half was Leverkusen. It was a cross Raynaldi sent against Hefler's breakthrough. Leverkusen midfielder Ronald Bauer shot from outside the box. Honey, the ball shot soared.

The first half ended without a goal.

The trend of the game was very good, but there was a change in the second half, Hefler who performed poorly in the first half was substituted, and the newly-entered defender did not give Raynaldi such a breakthrough opportunity under the coach's instructions.

Through this game, Raynaldi finds that despite his rapidly improving skills, he still has a major weakness in technical ability and physical confrontation.

Raynaldi was constrained, and the offensive pressure moved to Herman. The Union's Yunior Bielefeld team performed very well in the second half, breaking the relationship between Herman and the midfielder.

Although Team Yunior Leverkusen were not in a losing position, but Raynaldi realized that his team's attack was completely turned off.

Lucky in the 89th minute, Raynaldi's kick hit the hands of the youth defender of the Union Bielefeld Team inside the penalty box and the referee awarded the penalty prize to Team Yunior Leverkusen.

Raynaldi executed a penalty kick perfectly to close the match 1-0 to Team Yunior Leverkusen's win.