Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 52 - Oldenburg Armina (1)

February 16, 2008, Cologne, Germany.

It has been more than a week since the international match Raynaldi played in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. After returning to the club sooner, Raynaldi undertook recovery training arranged by Koln Athletic's physical coach Luca Misimovic and managed to recover well.

Raynaldi was on a bus with his team-mates to Koln City Stadium. Some fans had already entered the stadium, and some were waiting outside. Seeing the team bus approaching, there were cheers and chants. Raynaldi passed looking out through the gaps in the curtains, he saw many fans wearing his No. 99 shirt.

The love of the fans is cruel and direct. The easiest way to win a good impression is to score. No matter how Raynaldi looks on the pitch, as long as there is a beautiful goal, the fans love it.

"Mr Sobek, can you talk about Ray? He was the best player on the team recently!" Many Asian faces came to the press conference before the game. There were about ten people, almost like five or six mediums.

"The kid is really good. He can execute my tactical deployments very well." Answer Thomas Sobek.

The domestic media initiated a series of questions about Raynaldi to Thomas Sobek, leading to a discussion about Raynaldi during a press conference.

In the dressing room, Thomas Sobek made a speech with great enthusiasm. In principle he does not put too much emphasis on the results of this game on the whole team, but still encourages the players to show their best in the game. Thomas Sobek told the players to instill this idea.

“Gentlemen and ladies, welcome to Koln City Stadium! Here, we do not need to ask how many enemies there are, we just need to ask where the enemy is!” Andrei raised his chest and shouted his usual opening words.

Unlike before, Andrei is more confident in this game. The latest record is the basis for shouting slogans.

“Eh, from the information I got, today Spartan plans to play a 4-4-2 formation. Could Robert be back? No, today Deschamp also appeared in the front position.” Andrei holds a list containing the team line-up.

At this time, the broadcaster was live broadcasting the starting lineup.

“No 1, Tony Karl!” Cheers from the stands sounded. This is their old captain.

"No. 2, Drew!"

"No. 15, Promissory!"

"No. 7, Van Buren!"

"No. 10, Buhari!"

Loudspeaker reports the name of each player on the field. Every player on the pitch will win the cheers of the fans. At home, how much cheer a player can get also means the love of the fans.

"No. 11, Deschamp!"

"The last one is our number 99, Raynaldi!"

The most enthusiastic cheers erupted from the stadium. Dwiki Putra, a University of Cologne student from Indonesia who came today to watch the game with his friend felt the atmosphere at the scene was very enthusiastic.

“Is this a stellar treatment!” Dwiki was really amazed by his compatriots who could make the whole stadium full of enthusiasm.

“This feeling is very good.” Thought Raynaldi.

Although head coach Armina Oldenburg, Costel Srna is an unnamed head coach who has never coached a professional team before this season, he is still a veteran who has been immersed in football for many years.

Costel and his staff have done a lot of research on Raynaldi. In some of the games Raynaldi played, Costel and his team learned over and over again and came to the conclusion that Raynaldi should not be given the chance to shoot or get a good location.

On the field, Koln Athletics was unexpectedly suppressed by Armina Oldenburg, and only occasionally passed to the frontcourt and Raynaldi chose to return the ball immediately when getting the ball. He didn't want to try to break through Sepp or Vertonghen's defenses. Both are formidable centre-backs with rich experience in the Bundesliga. In the absence of a chance to shoot, Raynaldi kept on feeding back.

This left two centre-backs of Armina Oldenburg very helpless, and in their minds came up. “This person has no other ability than to send the ball back.”

Of course, they just think so. The tactics set up by the coach before the game are still very tight and the pressure on Raynaldi is very high.

Even if it was a back pass, Armina Oldenburg would keep a close eye on Raynaldi. This way, there are some errors in the back pass. In this match, Belgium defender Vertonghen became the player most directly faced with Raynaldi.

Vertonghen's defensive area was quite large, as long as he appeared behind Raynaldi, Raynaldi's back pass was unstable, and sometimes he could only bite a bullet and move forward.

And there was Sepp in front of him, the German centre-back playing right centre-back in this match, just like the duel with Raynaldi, who used to play on the left.

Sepp's defense was very tight, and he was also very decisive in seizing. As I said before, a great centre-back can always catch a small mistake of the attacker in the details of the ball. When actually facing a mistake, an aggressive player like this is likely to get the ball almost 100%.

It is also a breakthrough point. Once they make a mistake, these guards are easily labeled as curly and aggressive, and their own turnover rates will also increase.

After all, some mistakes are feigned, and a good attacker should catch the defensive player's mistakes.

Raynaldi is not yet a good striker, and can only wait for defender Armina Oldenburg to make a mistake and use her ability to catch gaps to make chances.

It's just that Armina Oldenburg won't give Raynaldi a chance to wait for them to make a mistake. Armina Oldenburg scored just after half-time.

Frontcourt duo Kruse and Di Stefano performed very well. The two attackers have complementary styles. Kruse is a terminator and Di Stefano is a versatile attacker, able to pass and shoot.

It was Di Stefano who broke through and made a mess in the box. Kruse, who ambushed outside the box, rushed into the box and shot into the net. Armina Oldenburg who played away, took over the lead with ease.

"In front of the mighty Oldenburg Armina, our players cannot give full play to their strength." Andrei began commenting objectively. As the game progresses, most of the arrogance is consumed.

The counterattack of the Athletic Koln was also not smooth. In this match, Thomas Sobek also tried to put Deschamp in front. Raynaldi is the most threatening when he gets the chance to shoot, and he needs a man to help him draw the opposing player's defensive line.

Koln Athletics, besides Raynaldi, only one striker can be used, namely Deschamp. Playing this formation could also maximize Deschamp's speed. When Raynaldi is delayed, he can also counterattack.

Armina Oldenburg had seen through this point, dragging her with the fast Vertonghen, and the more aggressive Sepp blocked forward. As a result, the two Athletic Koln attackers lost the corresponding effect.

Raynaldi is not the only one performing poorly. As a sharp counter-attack knife, Deschamp's performance was not satisfactory, or in front of Vertonghen, even if Deschamp had a chance of counter-attacking, it would have been destroyed by the Belgian defender, Deschamp's pace was very fast, he said, but Vertonghen wasn't too slow. The first half hour, Koln Athletics didn't even score.