As soon as these words were spoken, many people looked at Tobías again.
If the rondo just now only proved his defensive anticipation, then the upcoming scrimmage was the real test.
The rondo had small spaces and a fixed rhythm.
The scrimmage was different.
There was physicality, movement, transitions between offense and defense, and real-time decision-making.
Whether you are just good at small training drills or can truly control the game becomes apparent as soon as you step onto the field.
Sculli stood on the sidelines, his hands tucked into his coat pockets.
He didn’t speak, his gaze simply following Tobías.
Gil stood beside him, feeling a bit tense.
Tobías had already showcased his defensive talent, but a contract renewal wasn’t just a matter of saying a few words.
When River Plate increased the compensation and buyout clauses for young players, it signified a shift in resources.
If Tobías only had good defensive anticipation, his value would be high, but not explosive enough.
What would really make the club bet big was a player who could contribute to both offense and defense.
The whistle blew.
Team A kicked off.
Giovanni laid the ball back, and the defensive midfielder passed it to Tobías.
Team B was smart this time.
They knew Tobías was a good passer and that his defensive anticipation was absurd, so right from the start, they arranged for two players to press him.
“Don’t let him look up!”
“Stay on him!”
“Make him pass back!”
Team B’s defensive midfielder stuck close, while another midfielder blocked the path for Tobías to push forward.
This was standard pressure.
No space, no time, forcing you to play only safe passes.
The moment Tobías received the ball, he didn’t try to force a dribble.
He trapped the ball with his right foot, turned his body, shielded the ball on the side away from the defender, and then quickly passed it back to the center back behind him.
Team B players immediately shouted, “See that!
He can only pass back!”
“Keep pressing!”
“Don’t let him be comfortable on the ball!”
Scarcely had the voices died down when the ball was passed back to Tobías from the center back’s feet.
This time, Tobías still didn’t use any fancy tricks.
He played a horizontal pass to the right flank.
The player on the right was pressured and passed it back to him.
After several consecutive passes, Tobías’s handling looked very ordinary.
There was no exaggerated interception like before, nor were there any long passes cutting through the defensive line.
A staff member on the sidelines whispered, “Doesn’t seem as exaggerated as yesterday?”
Another nodded, “His passing and control are good, but not top-tier, right?”
Sculli also narrowed his eyes slightly.
Gil felt a pang of anxiety and, though he wanted to explain, he held back.
Because he saw that Tobías’s position was changing.
After passing the ball, Tobías didn’t stand still waiting for a return pass.
Every time he released the ball, he would move half a step to the side or press forward a little.
The movement wasn’t large, it was barely even noticeable.
But after three or four passes, Team B’s midfield positioning had been disrupted by him.
In the 6th minute, the Team A defender passed the ball to Tobías again.
This time, Tobías didn’t pass back.
He stepped on the ball and feinted to the right with his body.
The defender followed the lateral movement.
The next second, Tobías gently tapped the ball to the left front.
He didn’t force a dribble but sent the ball directly to the overlapping Team A winger.
Just as the winger received the ball, there was still someone in front of him.
But Tobías had already circled behind him.
“Give it back to me.”
The winger immediately played a return pass.
The moment the ball rolled back, Tobías didn’t trap it.
He pushed it gently with the inside of his right foot, and the ball slipped through the gap between two Team B midfielders; it wasn’t fast, but the angle was tricky.
Giovanni, as if he had heard a call in advance, made a diagonal run from behind the center back.
The Team B center back’s expression changed, and he hurriedly stretched out his leg.
He was a half-step short.
The ball rolled just past his toe and landed in front of Giovanni.
“Beautiful!”
Giovanni took the shot, and the goalkeeper dived to block it.
Although it didn’t go in, a few gasps of surprise were heard from the sidelines.
“How did he thread that pass through?”
“He wasn’t even looking at Giovanni, was he?”
“It’s not that he wasn’t looking, it’s that he had looked earlier.”
Sculli’s fingers moved inside his coat pocket.
Gil finally breathed a sigh of relief.
This was what he wanted Sculli to see, not just pure passing and control.
Tobías’s short passing, ball control, and rhythm management hadn’t yet reached the level of total dominance seen in top-tier midfielders.
But what was most terrifying about him was his movement and his imagination, which wasn’t like that of a typical youth academy player.
He didn’t wait for gaps to appear before passing; he used his own movement to draw the gaps out.
The game continued.
Team B was clearly unhappy.
That through ball almost led to a goal, and the faces of several defensive players had turned dark.
“Mark Giovanni tightly!”
“Don’t leave gaps in the middle!”
“Press Tobías as soon as he gets the ball!”
In the 10th minute, Team B finally won possession and wanted to launch a counterattack through the middle.
They had just pushed past the halfway line, and Tobías had already retreated to the front of the defensive line.
The Team B player in possession saw Tobías and clearly slowed down.
The psychological shadow left by the rondo earlier was still there.
He didn’t dare pass directly in front of Tobías and had to distribute the ball to the flank.
But as soon as he distributed it to the flank, Tobías immediately turned and ran into the gap in the middle.
Not to steal the ball.
But to cover the second ball.
The cross from the flank was headed out by a Team A defender, and the ball fell toward the top of the arc.
Team B’s defensive midfielder was just about to meet the ball for a long shot, but Tobías had already positioned himself in front of him. This story is hosted at g.com.
No foul, no hands.
He just blocked the space for the shot in advance.
Team B’s defensive midfielder was forced to stop the ball, and Giovanni rushed from behind and poked the ball away.
“Counterattack!”
Tobías shouted.
Giovanni passed the ball to him and sprinted forward himself.
Team B’s defensive line had just pushed up and hadn’t fully recovered.
Tobías dribbled forward two steps, with two lines of play in front of him.
The right flank was open, safe.
There was Giovanni in the middle, but he was being followed by two center backs.
A normal choice would be to pass to the right flank.
The Team B defender judged it the same way, and the right back had already started to shift to the flank.
But Tobías didn’t distribute to the flank.
He suddenly slowed his pace, tapped the ball in front of him with his toe, but shifted his body to the left.
With this slowing down, Team B’s defensive midfielder was drawn in by him.
With this lateral shift, he also pulled the center back out a small step.
It was this small step that created a very short gap in front of Giovanni.
Tobías planted his left foot and flicked with the outside of his right foot.
The ball didn’t go in a straight line but carried a bit of outward spin, curling behind the defensive players.
Giovanni rushed to the spot and pushed the ball into the net.
Goal.
1–0.
This time, the sidelines completely erupted.
“He could pass that too?”
“He slowed down on purpose just now!”
“He tricked both the defensive midfielder and the center back!”
Giovanni rushed toward Tobías, beaming with excitement: “Tobías!
That pass was ruthless!
I thought there was no chance!”
Tobías patted his shoulder: “If you make the run, there’s a chance.”
Several Team A players also crowded around.
“Tobías, that move just now was so nasty.”
“I thought you were going to pass to the right.”
“That outside-of-the-foot pass was truly incredible.”
There was silence on the Team B side.
Several defensive players looked at each other, looking a bit embarrassed.
They clearly knew Tobías was going to play a dangerous pass, and they clearly had focused on marking Giovanni.
But they were still carved open.
Sculli stood on the sidelines, his expression finally changing.
During the rondo earlier, he thought of Makélélé.
Now, with this pass, another name appeared in his mind.
Redondo.
Also from the footballing memories of Argentina, the most elegant and deadliest midfielder.
Not the kind of worker who only played horizontal or backward passes, nor the classical attacking midfielder who stood around waiting for the ball.
But someone who could protect the defensive line in midfield while also being able to kill the game with a single pass.
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