Football: King of Penalty Area
Ch. 72 - Ratingen United (1)

Koln Athletics' remarkable performance with an unbeaten record after the winter break shocked the whole of Germany. Many football watchers know that the strength of the Athletic Koln can make the top 4 in the 2.Bundesliga but their performances as well as poor attacking ability make them a mediocre team.

No one thought that just the addition of a player from the football desert could change the entire look of a team by 180 degrees. Because in 9 games after the winter break, Koln Athletics became the team with the most goals scored in the last 9 games.

They scored a total of 21 goals in 9 games which showed their incredible attacking power. But the most striking thing was his 16 goals and 3 assists since joining the team on loan in the winter that made Raynaldi the biggest contributor to Koln Athletics' performances so far.

Before the game, Ratingen United vice-captain and defender Wiesgerhof evaluated Raynaldi.

"Raynaldi you're talking about, I've watched his video game, he's scored a lot of goals, and is a very good player." Wisgerhoff followed the mainstream voice to tout for a while, then the conversation switched.

"But I think this compliment is too much. He is very young and his style of play is immature. He had some unexpected goals on the pitch. That's normal. Now after so many games, I think I've found a defensive plan for him."

Defender Ratingen United looked confident. "He's fast, he shoots emphatically, even jumps very high, and the confrontation is good, but he's too young, I think I'm the best player to defend him, the game that I watched in the video shows its strengths and weaknesses."

Wisgerhof says this is not without basis. Although Ratingen United have fallen behind a lot this season, their situation is very similar to that of Koln Athletics. The attack was not good, but the defense was quite good.

And Wisgerhof himself is a very experienced defender, he has played for the professional team at the age of 18. He has played for the first team at Ratingen United for 8 years, and he also played in the Bundesliga with Ratingen United for two seasons in 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 before his side were relegated.

Wisgerhof can play in many defensive positions but now plays more as a central defender. Its height is not very high and it is only 1.85 meters high, but it also means that it is very fast, has excellent jumping ability and explosive power, has a fierce defensive style and decisive action.

Players like this are very suitable to defend Raynaldi. Raynaldi had encountered many guards before, and there were many excellent guards, but such guards who were at their peak and had extremely balanced abilities in all aspects were indeed rare.

On paper, this type of guard was indeed the most restrained.

An all-round defender like Wisgerhof has no obvious weaknesses, and that is the biggest hurdle ahead of Raynaldi. But all-round can also mean mediocrity in all things which is also an opportunity for Raynaldi.

It's hard to say whether it's a good thing to publish such a statement before a game. After all, many defenders were required to watch Raynaldi's game before the game against Koln Athletics.

[Triggered mission: Respond to an opponent who provokes you during a match. As you wish, you need to change your way of playing and complete two assists in this game. Show him what a superstar is.

Gift : Mystery Box.]

Before the game, Raynaldi receives a new mission.

“Uh... It's really a difficult task..” Raynaldi.

Since Raynaldi became a professional player, Raynaldi has not completed two assists in a single game from his second to date, and there have only been three assists in total since he moved to Koln.

After all, an assist is not the same as a goal, and it depends on the performance of the team-mates. However, Koln Athletics' offensive players as a whole are not strong in scoring ability, which is a very difficult challenge.

In addition, in this game, Robert is still a substitute because Thomas Sobek is also thinking about the next game against Minden FC. This is another unfavorable factor in completing a task.

In terms of goalscoring ability, Robert should be the strongest player in the Athletics Cologne except for Raynaldi, but they may not play together.

In other words, I can only try to figure out a way to get some assists from an early teammate.

Aside from Robert, Koln Athletics have a poor ability to score up front, Buhari and Deschamp, but both are not very efficient in scoring.

Moreover Weisgerhof did not speak big, as at least he had the capital to be arrogant about his defensive abilities.

Soon after the opening, fans discovered that Raynaldi was being held firmly.

Wisgerhof continued to put pressure on Raynaldi and gave him no chance to attack at all. In many games it can be seen that Raynaldi's best ability is to run without his ball, so Wisgerhof had to stick to it tight while making sure his position was not too far from his partner in charge of taking the ball that was missed from him.

Ratingen United took advantage of the home field to take the initiative, while Koln Athletics more waiting for the opportunity to counter-attack. The strength of the two teams is not much different. The Athletic Koln could also play some strikes, while Raynaldi's speed advantage was completely lost in front of Wiesgerhof.

Raynaldi for the first time felt the breadth of the field within his range of sight. Before he could see things at a glance that's why he could take the best position to score, but now he can see more things and make him understand the game better.

Wisgerhof began his career as a fast full-back. Raynaldi's pride at his speed is not worth mentioning in front of Wisgerhof. As the two fought for speed, Raynaldi could not get the ball.

But soon, many fans familiar with Raynaldi discovered that Raynaldi was playing differently today.

Weisgerhof is proud. This guy passes the ball and rarely shoots. It seemed like his speech before the match was affecting Raynaldi.

Raynaldi often appears in midfield. This isn't news. Raynaldi, who had an excellent long-range strike, spent most of his time in midfield but this time was clearly different.

Raynaldi always gives a sharp breakthrough pass into the penalty box.

For the first time Raynaldi realized the usefulness of his broad vision. This made him quite excited as he found a new way to play. Earlier all the things that passed in front of him looked like a blurry big picture as he did not pay much attention to it.

But this time when he is focused on paying attention to the situation on the pitch, Raynaldi can clearly know most of the situation on the pitch.

For example, where a Ratingen United player wears a red and green jersey on the field, how far he is, the location of his teammates, the direction of action, the next likely location, and so on.

The unfortunate thing for Raynaldi is his passing ability which is only mediocre so the bait is often read by his opponent.

At the same time, the scoring ability of other Athletics attackers Koln is very average. Midway through the first half, Raynaldi managed to get the ball in midfield, getting rid of both players' defences from near the halfway line and sending a fine breakthrough pass to the right side.

Raynaldi who held the ball on the left side of midfield almost passed through most of the field and crossed the entire midfield from left to foot Deschamp on the right. Deschamp's pace was very fast, but unfortunately the stoppage of the ball was not done well.

The ball hurtled straight out of bounds in the end, Raynaldi was very helpless, but impossible. His task was more difficult than expected, Raynaldi decided to try another way.

The fans applauded Raynaldi's wonderful passing. They knew that Raynaldi had not played like this before. In their impression, Raynaldi's skills other than shooting, running, and speed were not very good.

“See the feed just now, Ray played in a different way today. But we can see that his abilities are increasing very rapidly. He really is a genius!” Andrei commented when he replayed Raynaldi's pass.