Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 69 - Velbert FC (1)

Three days went by after a narrow 1-0 win from league playmaker Dessau United. This time, Koln Athletics will face Velbert FC.

The team itself is also an interesting one as they managed to go from 19th in the standings before the winter break to 14th after being taken over by their reserve team coach.

Their previous coach was a former Dutch forward who led his country to the 1990 World Cup final, Mitchel Koeman. So at the start of the season he coached, he also brought a Dutch feel to the team, and made the whole team play exciting attacking football.

However, unfortunately the team's results did not match his expectations and caused Velbert FC to be stuck in the 19th position of the standings only superior on goal difference from Dessau United.

Then Club Board Velbert FC decided to sack Mitchel and replace him with a reserve team coach who was also Mitchel's compatriot at the 1990 World Cup, Enel Brandez.

Enel Brandez, the Dutch star who participated in the 1990 World Cup and played as a midfielder does not believe in Dutch football philosophy at all, because he is a pragmatic person, and as a relegation team, he said, there must be awareness for degradation.

The way this team is highly visible in their formation relies on defensive counterattacks and layered area defenses they play.

So in this game they did the same thing, which is to stack as many defenders as possible in the penalty area and wait for the opportunity to counter-attack.

Koln Athletics played very uncomfortable, and Raynaldi, who was again a starter in the game, felt the real thrill of bus parking.

“People, people, and people!” Raynaldi thought when he saw the entire penalty box filled to capacity as if there was a concert.

Velbert FC players are everywhere in the penalty area. More importantly, the Velbert FC players were all around Raynaldi which left him perplexed.

Brandez has studied Raynaldi closely, he can take the team to this height, of course he still has some ability. Raynaldi as the core figure of the opponent is the object of his great concern.

In addition to placing troops in their forbidden areas, they also needed to place troops as special guards for Raynaldi. Brandez knows that Raynaldi is a striker who is good at picking up points from defensive mistakes.

At the same time, Brandez also knows it is impossible for a defender not to make mistakes in the game. So he just takes the roughest solution by stacking players and letting them take turns watching Raynaldi.

Velbert FC firmly implemented 3-5-2 tactics with two wingers who will go down to be full-backs while defending. At the same time both attackers are waiting for an opportunity to counter-attack and disrupt their opponents on the front pitch.

So the remaining eight-man formation was basically surrounded by a large penalty area, especially near Raynaldi.

Looking down straight from the top, Raynaldi, wearing a red jersey, was just in the sea of yellow, cut off from his teammates around him.

Raynaldi was guarded and the Koln Athletics players had to look for opportunities on their own, but Velbert FC was quick to tell them why they managed to make a big improvement in the second half of the season.

Their counterattack was very fast!

Two Velbert FC Amoa strikers are very fast. On the counter-attack, the Togo international had a black blade that pierced through the heart, and the other was the tall centre-forward Tammels with a height of 1.9 metres. The front pitch has a very significant pedestal role, and a high ball can always reach Amoa's feet.

After Deschamp's dribble was broken, defender Velbert FCitu made a long pass to the frontcourt, Tammels' header dropping the ball in front of Amoa who immediately fired in full force, the Koln Athletic defender was completely unable to catch up with him, he could only see Amoa rushing out with a single shot, facing Tony Karl calmly and pushing the goal.

Starting from seizing the ball until the goal is created only runs about a short minute.

Thomas Sobek was really surprised by the sudden counter-attack from Velbert FC, he never thought that his team would lose the ball so quickly. The match is not 15 minutes yet.

Raynaldi who is in front is also a little confused, because since the start of the game he has not touched the ball even though. At first he thought that maybe he would be guarded man to man like in the previous game, but it was not.

This time the opposing coach applies a zoning defense that makes Raynaldi a little awkward at being isolated from his team-mates. In addition, the shortcomings that Raynaldi has are maximally enlarged in this match, namely his physical strength is lacking and his technical ability is only mediocre.

The thing that makes Raynaldi most dizzy is the position of each defender they are very regular and disciplined which makes it difficult to find empty space to play. On the other hand if he attempted to back off and receive the ball, Raynaldi simply did not have the confidence to penetrate the opponent's layered defense.

Velbert FC paid more attention to the use of space to block attacks, rather than directly on the body and making movements. As a relegation team, they are well aware that free-kicks are a good goal-scoring tool, so they rarely commit fouls in dangerous areas to stop their opponents if not needed.

Danny Hooks looked at the situation on the pitch, turned his head and said to Thomas Sobek. "I think we can try to get Dario Robert to partner with Ray, let them play doubles in the future."

"In this situation, it's very difficult for us not to have a high centre-forward. Look at Velbert FC, they have a high combination and a fast one, and they can easily

scoring goals."

Thomas Sobek nodded honestly and looking at the bench, he did not bring Robert to the game today either. Because the latter had already played the full match 3 days earlier and Thomas Sobek was worried that he would get injured again.

Although Robert has played the full game without any problems against Dessau United before. But Thomas Sobek could also see that he was still not in his peak condition and needed time to return slowly.

“Now I have to consider how to face them in this first half.” Thomas Sobek took his eyes off the bench and continued to look out onto the pitch. He walked to the sidelines and shouted, “Crossing! Play from the side and make a crossing to the penalty box!”

Danny Hooks quickly grabbed his shoulder. "Hey! Dario's not in the field right now!"

But Thomas Sobek was not calm, he still signalled to the team to make more passes and put the ball in.

Raynaldi who saw the coach's gesture could only fall silent. “Crossing? Then what?” Her thought.

After moving to Germany and undergoing a special diet did make Raynaldi's height did increase a little. Now his height has changed to 1.79 meters from 1.75 meters when he came to Leverkusen.

But what good is that? How could he compete with defenders over 1.9 meters tall? This coach doesn't lose his brain anymore, does he?

Raynaldi could only keep the grievances in his heart and struggled to get the ball in the middle of a defensive siege in the Velbert FC penalty box.

Buhari is the tallest player on the front court at 1.84 metres, but he is currently guarded by two Velbert FC players at his side. Buhari could only get rid of them and pass to the middle.

The ball flew high above Raynaldi's head and landed at Deschamp's feet on the other side. Deschamp initially wanted to pass the ball back, but remembered what the head coach had just said, so he kicked the ball hard in the middle.

Raynaldi kept trying to compete for the ball, but was easily pushed out of the box by defender Velbert FC. The spectator could only see the ball hovering over Raynaldi's head, or being pushed over by the opponent's centre-back.

Raynaldi is like a little ant. The forbidden area was the reinforced concrete city. Velbert FC guards are like skyscrapers on both sides of the road. All he could do was look down, watch the ball like a fighter jet patrol hovering above his head.

Raynaldi cursed in his heart. “The head coach is konslet.”

Velbert FC's two centre-backs, Jeremy and Kanoute are strong defenders over 1.9 metres tall, which is also an important reason for Velbert FC to fight back defensively.

The speed of these two friends was very slow, if pushed up, they would be easily blown up by the fast forward, so they stopped attacking and retreated to the backcourt, leaving no space to use behind.

In addition, there is still a Brazilian, Revel who has good speed and flexibility to cover their shortcomings both.

Raynaldi who lost space moving in the penalty area of Velbert FC was almost obliterated from the match statistics.

The first half match ended with an advantage while the hosts Velbert FC with a score of 1-0.