The opponent focused on disrupting the football at his feet rather than attacking him directly.
Moreover, with Lu Yang’s excellent breakthrough skills, the opponent often had fewer opportunities to directly engage in physical confrontations.
Even if there were, it would only be for a moment, and with Lu Yang’s balance, he could withstand that one or two seconds.
However... as a central forward, the grappling with the opponent’s defenders is a different kind of scene.
All along, Sogel has not been frequently mentioned in the game narratives.
If you watched the football closely, Sogel rarely appeared in the frame.
But off the screen, Sogel’s efforts were not less than any other player.
Sprinting back and forth, accelerating runs, withstanding collisions from the opposing central defenders during movement, engaging in minor tussles... these are stories that happen beyond the frame.
Lu Yang was surrounded by opponents on all sides, finding it difficult to even hold the ball.
Fortunately, Morici noticed Lu Yang’s predicament.
He looked at Lu Yang and shook his head slightly from side to side.
Lu Yang immediately understood Morici’s intention.
Currently, for Lu Yang to play as a central forward anchor is really too much of a stretch; he doesn’t yet have the necessary quality.
But if he played as a "Fox in the Penalty Area" type of forward, it would still be fine.
Although losing the anchor’s hold would allow the opponent’s defense to rise higher, increasing fault tolerance, it also created sprinting space for San Remo’s front-line players.
The fact proved that a San Remo with sprinting space, coupled with Morici’s playmaking ability, is terribly cruel to lower-level teams.
In the 29th minute, Lu Yang moved early, making a run to break the offside trap.
When Morici received the ball, he saw Lu Yang already moving and immediately launched a rocket pass without wasting a second.
Thus, the football and Lu Yang pierced through the opponent’s defense together, and with Lu Yang facing the goalkeeper one-on-one, he casually shot, leaving the opponent’s goalkeeper with no time to save.
At this point, San Remo broke the deadlock.
Padia began to fret over Lu Yang and Becher’s relentless offsides-trapping movements.
These two had excellent moves, forcing their defensive line into a frantic mission of reducing space, only to meaningfully engage the goalkeeper in defense and not allow any more clear-cut one-on-ones after an offside line break.
However, this caused their defensive line and midfield to appear disjointed.
Bang!
Belletti carried the ball on the right flank, breaking through the midfield and delivering a cross.
Morici received the ball outside the penalty box and fired a long-range shot, adding another goal for San Remo.
Padia’s defensive thinking was completely thrown off, losing autonomous awareness, and began being led by the movements of Lu Yang and Morici.
Before the end of the first half, Morici passed to Becher, who backheeled it to Lu Yang.
Lu Yang did not break through with a Fried Meatball, instead nutmegging a pass.
Bai Zhami succeeded in breaking the offside trap, getting to the ball just before the charging goalkeeper.
San Remo, three to zero!
After halftime, San Remo began their substitutions.
Fernandez replaced Bai Zhami.
Versachi replaced Belletti, trying to play as a right-winger.
Rondo replaced Palacios.
It was evident that in recent matches, San Remo had been continually rotating players, letting more of them find form and giving others rest.
Their purpose was obvious.
They were preparing for an important match.
In the 60th minute, Lu Yang scored with a header off Versachi’s bottom cross.
In the 81st minute, Morici displayed his precise passing skills as in the previous match, delivering a superb through ball to Becher, who scored.
In the 85th minute, the opponent’s midfield finally scored a goal.
Naji’s foot touched the football but failed to change its direction, instead causing a deflection that led to a goalkeeper mistake by Jalard, allowing the ball to glide into the net.
However, since the opponent’s shot was originally within the goal’s range, it wasn’t considered an own goal but the opponent’s scoring.
Here’s a shocking statistic: If you count such deflection goals as own goals, Naji’s own goals, added to league goals, have reached a terrifying eight!
He could very well become the first defender in the Italian Third Division to reach double digits in goals without relying on penalty kicks!
A veritable "defender with a knife"!
Except this knife sometimes turns back on itself.
Five to one!
San Remo celebrated yet another big victory.
And widened the gap with the second place on the standings.
San Remo has clearly accelerated!
They aim to create an unstoppable momentum in the league. Hence, opponents facing them would reduce their struggle and resistance as much as possible, making it easier for San Remo to resolve conflicts.
That’s how strong teams roll the snowball, by taking the initial position of dominance.
Throughout March, San Remo was immersed in an atmosphere of victories.
In the next three league matches, they all secured victories.
The team scored ten goals in three games, averaging more than three goals per game.
They conceded only one, which was again an own goal contributed by Naji.
Honestly, if you don’t calculate it, you never realize; once you do, it’s quite astonishing.
In these three matches, aside from an own goal, Naji also contributed a header goal.
His league statistics now bizarrely stand at 5 goals, 2 assists, 3 own goals.
Even without considering the aforementioned deflection goals, he’s just two steps away from reaching ten goals in the league.
Italian-related betting companies have already closed betting on whether Naji will score double digits in a single season, fearing he might be involved in match-fixing to score two own goals and trick the bookmakers.