Chapter 49 Casemiro: Are you sure you are U17?

"1 to 1!"

Casemiro kicked the ball to Jiang Yuan, signaling Jiang Yuan to pass.

Jiang Yuan no longer refused and started to move the ball slowly with the outside of his foot.

Casemiro stood with one foot in front and one behind, which is the most common way to defend one side at a time.

When the defensive player faces the offensive player with the ball sideways, the back is the direction they need to defend, and the front is the direction they let go.

In this way, if the player with the ball wants to break through from the side in front of the defender, the defender only needs to turn half a circle to chase back.

As the side behind you is slower to chase back, defensive players usually strengthen the defense on the weak side intentionally.

For example, Casemiro now, when he turned sideways to face Jiang Yuan, he deliberately kept a distance from him, in order to give himself enough time to react.

If it were an ordinary player, he would have stopped by now, but Jiang Yuan just kept running, slowly slowing down until Casemiro was facing him.

Jiang Yuan shifted his center of gravity to the right, indicating that he wanted to break through from the right. Casemiro was also quite experienced and did not fall for the trick.

So, Jiang Yuan directly chose to break through to the right.

"shit!"

Casemiro reached out and grabbed a corner of Jiang Yuan's clothes, but Jiang Yuan had already successfully started, and he couldn't catch him by pulling now.

Jiang Yuan shook off Casemiro. Since it was a 1-on-1 situation, there was no one in front of the goal. Jiang Yuan slowly brought the ball to the vicinity of the goal line, turned to look at Casemiro, and shrugged.

"Are you coming again?"

"You are very fast, come on and keep going!"

Casemiro did not expect that Jiang Yuan, a U17 young player, had such a fast speed. Casemiro was unable to catch Jiang Yuan just now.

However, considering that he had not handled the situation well just now, Casemiro chose to have a few more 1v1 confrontations with Jiang Yuan.

For the second goal, Jiang Yuan still used the outside of his foot to slowly advance the ball. This time Casemiro suffered a loss from the last time and deliberately widened the distance between him and Jiang Yuan. This is a common tactic used when defending against speed forwards.

Jiang Yuan pretended to shoot, but actually accelerated past the opponent.

Helplessly, Casemiro knew he couldn't stop Jiang Yuan, so he chose to shovel the ball.

"Fuck!"

Jiang Yuan was so shocked that he blurted out his native language.

"You really play tackle football?"

Casemiro pulled Jiang Yuan up from the ground and said apologetically: "I'm sorry, it's mainly because you are so serious, I can't be careless!"

"All right!"

Jiang Yuan spread his hands. He had no intention of blaming Casemiro. Casemiro's tackle was indeed very clean. Jiang Yuan could only suffer in silence.

He also knew that the probability of him being tackled would increase in future games, and Jiang Yuan hoped to take this opportunity to practice how to deal with tackles.

Success is achieved through failure. But... it really hurts to be thrown on the grass!

……

Two hours later, Jiang Yuan and Casemiro sat side by side on the grass.

"Jiang, are you really from the U17 team? Playing with you gives me the feeling of facing the Portuguese Super League's forward line!"

Casemiro turned his head and looked at Jiang Yuan. The speed of this Chinese youth really shocked him. It was not just the speed, but Jiang Yuan's previous aiming and shooting also caught Casemiro off guard.

"Is that so? Hahaha!"

Jiang Yuan responded with a smile. To be honest, ever since the system strengthened his body and ball sense, Jiang Yuan didn't have a very good idea of ​​his own specific strength.

But Jiang Yuan had never played in the Portuguese Super League, so he just took what Casemiro said as a polite remark.

"Hey, Jiang! How many goals have you scored this season? With your ability, you should have scored at least 15, right?"

Casemiro took a sip of water and said with a smile.

"2"

"2?" Jiang Yuan's answer made Casemiro a little confused.

What’s going on? Are today’s young players so exaggerated? Even for me, a defensive midfielder of Porto’s first team, it takes some effort to defend Jiang Yuan alone, and yet he only scored two goals in the U17 league!
But then Casemiro came to his senses and asked, "Do you like to cross the ball? How many assists do you have now?"

While speaking, Casemiro couldn't help but look up to Jiang Yuan. If Jiang Yuan's breakthrough ability was used to pass the ball, he would probably provide a lot of opportunities for the team's center.

But Jiang Yuan's answer shocked Casemiro again.

"0... Mainly because I prefer to take control of my own destiny rather than leaving it to my teammates."

"0? Wait, Jiang, you didn't just get here?"

Casemiro reacted.

Jiang Yuan nodded.

"Yes, I was playing for our school's football team a week ago. Time flies!"

Casemiro was relieved. It turned out that Jiang Yuan had only been there for a week, so it was not surprising that he scored two goals.

Wait, one week, two goals?

"Jiang, I remember that the U17 only has one game a week. You won't start right after you arrive, and you can score two goals, right?"

Jiang Yuan shook his head: "I was definitely a substitute in the first game. I played for less than 10 minutes, almost 9 minutes. In fact, it was thanks to Mr. Losos who gave me the first free kick, otherwise I wouldn't have scored 2 goals..."

"..."

Casemiro suddenly fell silent.

He no longer looks at Jiang Yuan as a newcomer. In Casemiro's eyes, Jiang Yuan is now like a monster.

After a long pause, Casemiro finally spoke:
"Jiang, are you really a U17 player?"

Jiang Yuan spread his hands: "I'm not even 17 years old!"

"I'm going to go back this afternoon. Do you have any plans for the afternoon?"

Casemiro asked, in his heart he felt like he had made friends with Jiang Yuan.

Speaking of which, Jiang Yuan was the first Chinese person he met after coming to Portugal.

"What other plans do you have? Just keep training."

Jiang Yuan said indifferently.

"Do you still have to train in the afternoon? There's no need to be so hard!"

Casemiro's eyes widened. He had seen young players practice extra on weekends in order to qualify for the starting lineup, but this was the first time he had seen someone practice as crazy as Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan lowered his head, looking somewhat disappointed: "There is nothing I can do. My talent is not as good as other teams. I can only spend more time on training!"

Casemiro nodded with a hint of regret. Jiang Yuan, like him, had flown from far away to Porto to play football. It would be a bit unreasonable if he failed to make a name for himself after leaving his hometown.

"Jiang, believe me, you are very talented and you will have a chance!"

Casemiro stood up and comforted Jiang Yuan.

"Thank you very much!"

Jiang Yuan watched Casemiro leave, only to see Casemiro take a few steps and suddenly stop.

"Jiang, I have a feeling that we will play a real game together soon!"

"Hahaha, do you mean that I can become your opponent? That would be difficult!"

"No, I think you'll be my teammate. Trust me, Jiang, my intuition is very accurate!"

Casemiro nodded at Jiang Yuan.

"I hope so..."

Jiang Yuan lowered his head in thought. Casemiro's extra training was over, but Jiang Yuan's extra training was still a long way from ending.

……

(End of this chapter)