The Team A defensive midfielder paused for a moment: “Great position!”
Tobías raised his hand and pointed to the right flank: “Switch!”
The defensive midfielder didn’t dare to delay and immediately passed the ball out.
Team A instantly transformed from being under pressure to launching a counterattack.
Although Giovanni’s final shot was saved by the goalkeeper, Gil and the assistant coach on the sidelines had already exchanged a glance.
The assistant coach lowered his voice: “He wasn’t like this before.”
Gil nodded: “Previously, his positioning relied on instinct; when it was good, it was beautiful, but when it was bad, he would completely lose his spot.”
“And today?”
“Today, it’s like he’s a different person.”
The assistant coach looked onto the pitch; Tobías remained unassuming.
Yet every time Team B wanted to pass into a dangerous area, he was always able to anticipate and block the most awkward position.
The Team B players found it increasingly frustrating to play.
“How is there someone here again?”
“No way, he was just in the middle; when did he get over here?”
“Don’t pass to his side anymore!”
The Team B coaching staff had arranged for a rapid advance, hoping to use the chaos of the rainy weather to attack behind Team A’s defense.
But Tobías was like a lock, sealing off all the key passing lanes in the middle.
In the 6th minute, the Team B defensive midfielder took possession, and Giovanni pressed up.
The defensive midfielder hurriedly turned, wanting to pass the ball to the center back behind him.
Tobías, however, didn’t follow the ball; he pressed forward half a step, perfectly blocking the path for the center back to distribute the ball after receiving the pass.
After receiving the ball, the center back looked up and found no options ahead.
During this hesitation, Giovanni had already rushed over from the side.
“Force him!”
Tobías shouted.
The three players in Team A’s frontcourt closed in simultaneously.
The center back panicked, kicked the ball wildly, and it went straight out of bounds.
Giovanni turned back to look at Tobías and gave a thumbs up: “Beautiful!
You locked him down!”
Tobías just nodded: “Keep pressing, don’t let them turn.”
On the sidelines, the assistant coach couldn’t help but speak up: “Gil, we can’t treat him as a fringe player anymore.”
Gil stared at Tobías’s positioning, his voice very low: “This sense of positioning of his isn’t something that can be trained through ordinary practice.”
“If he can play like this in the derby…”
The assistant coach immediately replied: “Then we need to handle his contract early.
His release clause is too low right now; those scouts from Europe would dare to make a move after watching just one recording.”
Gil finally turned his head to look at him: “Go prepare a report, package him first, and his name must be on the youth team’s priority development list.
We also need to negotiate his contract and significantly increase the release clause.”
The assistant coach took a breath; these words carried significant weight.
In the River Plate youth academy, for the head coach to say “priority development” meant that resources, exposure, and playing time would all change.
More importantly, raising the release clause meant the club no longer wanted to let him go easily. The source of this chapter is g.com.
And all of this was only because of Tobías’s performance in the first ten minutes of the match.
The rain grew heavier.
Raindrops pelted against the tactical board, making a pattering sound.
In the 10th minute, the scene became completely chaotic.
A long pass from Team B had its landing spot altered by the rain, and the Team A center back misjudged the header.
The Team B striker rushed up, almost creating a one-on-one situation.
Tobías tracked back from the middle; in the overhead view in his mind, that dangerous passing lane was glaringly bright.
He didn’t charge directly at the striker, because that would definitely be too late.
He ran diagonally to the spot where the striker would take his next touch, blocking the body position half a beat early.
Just as the Team B striker pushed the ball forward, he collided with Tobías’s shoulder.
Tobías’s body swayed, almost being knocked away; he was still at a disadvantage in physical confrontations.
But his positioning was so precise that this block caused the striker to push the ball too far.
The Team A center back turned back and poked the ball out, and the football rolled to Tobías’s feet.
The Team B defensive midfielder immediately rushed up.
“Don’t let him turn!”
Another Team B midfielder also pounced over.
The weather was rainy and slippery, with someone behind him and a pincer attack from the side.
In the past, Tobías would most likely have chosen to pass backward.
But this time, he lightly tapped the sole of his foot, swaying his body to the left.
The first defender was faked into extending his foot.
Tobías, however, used the outside of his foot to nudge the ball to the right and turned smoothly.
The second defender closed in, wanting to use his body to challenge him.
Tobías didn’t try to shoulder him head-on.
He lightly tapped the ball forward with his toe and slipped past the opponent’s side.
Both defensive players lunged into empty space.
Several people on the Team A bench stood up at once.
“Holy crap!”
“He can turn out of that?”
“He dares to play like that in the rain?”
Giovanni had already accelerated.
He cut diagonally toward the front left between the two center backs, but the normal passing angle was blocked.
The entire Team B defensive line retreated, trying to squeeze out the space.
Everyone thought Tobías would pass to the flank, because there was no obvious lane in the middle.
But Tobías only looked up once.
In the overhead view in his mind, Giovanni’s running path, the center back’s turning speed, and the goalkeeper’s position all connected into an arc.
It wasn’t a through ball; a through ball would be slowed down by the rain and would also be blocked by the center back extending a leg.
To pass behind the defensive line while avoiding the goalkeeper’s range of motion, it had to be a curve.
It had to be a curve.
Tobías planted his left foot and wrapped his right instep firmly around the ball.
The ball flew up through the curtain of rain; it wasn’t a simple long kick.
It carried a distinct spin, sailing over the head of the Team B defensive midfielder and bypassing the recovery route of the first center back.
When the second center back looked up, the ball was already descending diagonally over his head.
The rain blurred the vision.
But the ball seemed to have had its landing spot calculated in advance, piercing through the entire defensive line and landing right in front of Giovanni’s sprint.
Giovanni didn’t even need to slow down; he puffed out his chest, controlling the ball down to his feet.
The goalkeeper charged out, and Giovanni calmly pushed the ball into the far corner.
The football rolled into the goal, skimming the slippery turf.
1–0!
The moment the whistle blew, the training ground went quiet for half a second.
Then, the Team A side exploded.
“Great goal!”
“What the hell was that pass?”
“How did he see Giovanni?”
“That lane didn’t even exist!”
Giovanni rushed back, grabbed Tobías, and laughed, his face covered in rain.
“Tobías!
That pass was so comfortable!
I just had to run, and the ball was right there!”
Tobías patted his back: “I told you, keep running.”
The Team B center back stood in place, his expression ugly.
He pointed behind him and shouted to his teammate: “Why didn’t you follow him earlier?”
The teammate was also anxious: “I did follow!
The ball curved around!
How was I supposed to block that?”
The goalkeeper spread his hands: “Stop arguing, that pass went over all of us!”
On the sidelines, the assistant coach took two steps forward.
He looked at the goal, then back at Tobías, with only one sentence left in his mouth: “This is not a common pass for the youth team.”
Gil’s fingers tightened around the tactical board.
He could still explain Tobías’s defensive positioning just now as being in good form and focused.
But this long pass could not be explained.
In the rain, after a physical confrontation.
Just after breaking past two people, with vision shattered by the curtain of rain.
To still be able to see through the entire defensive line in an instant and deliver such a curling pass.
This is not ordinary vision; this is talent, talent that can truly change a game.
The assistant coach’s voice tightened: “Gil, we can’t wait.
The sporting director must know about this immediately.”
Gil didn’t object; his gaze remained fixed on Tobías.