It's cheating, but Hazard

Chapter 245: The Man-Eating Devil Heads Towards Cape Town
"This is the fourth time Charles has stepped on the penalty spot."

"In the previous three penalty kicks, Charles scored two of them, and the one he missed was because the goalkeeper moved early."

Putting the ball away, Charles slowly backed away.

The half of the field belonged to the French fans. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

But on the side belonging to the Uruguayan fans, there was a lot of boos and curses.

They were trying their best to interfere with Charles and prevent him from scoring the penalty.

Muslera looked solemn.

Spoon penalty?

Hitting a blind spot?
Left foot or right foot?

Change the rhythm?

If he changes the tempo, how many times will he change it?
he does not know.

Before the game, under the training of the goalkeeper coach, he had watched countless videos of Charles' shooting highlights and habits, especially his few three penalty kicks.

All I can say is that Charles is extremely good at changing the rhythm when taking penalty kicks.

But his rhythm changes are not constant, he may change once or twice.

What he is best at or what is most deceptive is to run slowly for a certain distance to torture the goalkeeper;

Then he would use his exaggerated explosive power to suddenly speed up, and just when the goalkeeper thought that was it, he would quickly retract his foot;
After a short half-second pause, Charles will shoot after observing the goalkeeper's behavior.

This is the specific process of him changing the rhythm twice, slow-fast-pause-shoot.

There is another type, based on summary and analysis, which is a relatively simple shot with a change of rhythm.

The simpler way is to start slow and then speed up, taking the opponent by surprise;
A more complicated approach is to move fast at first and then slow down, and just before shooting, suddenly pause or change feet to shoot.

This is just Charles' shooting method and rhythm selection, and it does not take into account whether he will eventually use his left foot or right foot.

Generally, the goalkeeper can save the ball as long as he guesses the direction of the penalty shooter's shot.

But this only applies to the most classic penalty kick tactics where you don't look at the goalkeeper but only at the ball.

But it is obvious that Charles' penalty kick tactics are not classic penalty kick tactics.

"Beep——"

As the referee blew the whistle, Charles also started to run.

Muslera stared at Charles's movements, but he didn't expect that when he looked at Charles, Charles also looked at him.

Charles had a slow start.

The next step should be to speed up and then change the rhythm.

Muslera guessed in his heart.

However, as if he had predicted his prediction, Charles paused the moment he looked at him.

For a moment, Muslera felt a little panicked.

Oh no, he had never seen this rhythm before.

He didn't know whether he should continue to focus on Charles's footwork or on the ball.

Anyway, at this moment, Charles was no longer looking at him, but focusing all his attention on the ball.

Muslera lowered his center of gravity and calmed himself down.

But unconsciously, his actions had already revealed everything.

Charles raised his eyes again and looked at Muslera calmly. At the same time, he slowed down again.

Just as Charles once again focused his attention on the ball, Muslera immediately fell to the ground and dived to the right.

That's it!
At the same time, Charles also made his choice.

"call out--"

The ball flew straight in the opposite direction of Muslera's fall and finally hit the net steadily.

"Ouch!" Uruguay's goalkeeper coach patted his thigh regretfully.

Charles's running distance this time was very short. The total time from starting to shooting was definitely less than half a second.

In the video of Charles' penalty kick that he had shown Muslera before, Charles' technique was still at the stage of confusing the goalkeeper and making the goalkeeper guess the wrong direction of his penalty kick.

But after missing the penalty, Charles quietly upgraded his tactics.

The first team to be targeted was the Uruguayan team.

Now, what Charles seeks is not to "deceive" the goalkeeper, but to observe the goalkeeper's movements and eventually hit the ball to the opposite position.

Although the time was short, Uruguay's goalkeeper coach saw it very clearly.

The run-up started slowly, and then Charles began to observe Muslera while running in place almost at a standstill.

Muslera began to panic.

At the same time, I unconsciously lifted my left foot and put my center of gravity on my right foot.

This is telling Charles which foot he will use to jump and where he is going to jump.

After knowing the exact information, Charles observed the ball again, this time in order to shoot more accurately;

This was followed by a second, less noticeable pause, just to shake Muslera out;

Then, Charles lowered his head again and easily sent the ball to the opposite position.

This was the silent confrontation between Charles and goalkeeper Muslera in less than half a second.

It was obvious that in less than half a second, Muslera was defeated completely.

Even if Muslera stood still and didn't give Charles any signal.

With Charles' shooting skills, the goalkeeper had no time to react at such a short distance.

The end result is still the same.

"Hit the door!"

"The ball goes in, France 2:0 Uruguay, Charles scored this fatal penalty!"

"After opening the scoring for France, Charles once again used a penalty kick to put Uruguay on the brink of life and death."

"Time is running out for the Uruguayan players."

"How to deal with the core members of the Triple Crown, how to deal with the sword bearer of the Gallic rooster, perhaps the answer to this question is difficult to find;"

"But at this critical moment, Uruguay must find the answer in order to qualify from the group."

But as time went by, until the end of the game, the Uruguayan players and coaching staff had not found the answer to limit Charles.

He is so flexible.

The Uruguayan players had to use up all their strength just to block the crisis created by Charles, let alone shoot and counterattack.

The only thing that could make them happy was that they did not allow France to expand the score in the end, and the goal difference remained at -2.

After the game.

Muslera took the initiative to walk towards Charles.

He thought he was very good at saving penalties, but in the end he didn't expect to fall to Charles' penalty.

Is he really a genius?

"Can you change your jersey? You're really good at taking penalties. I've never encountered a change of pace like you before."

Without saying a word, Charles took off his jersey and handed it to Muslera.

"Thank you, you are also very good, and your reaction speed is also very fast."

Muslera put the jersey on his shoulders, finally covered his mouth, and said a little embarrassedly, "Are you interested in coming to Lazio?"

Ciel looked at him in surprise, "What?"

Muslera scratched his head. "Ah, nothing. I just hope you can come to Lazio. Lazio is still very good." "I'll consider it."

……

France's second game will be on the 18th, six days later.

Although Domenegue was very happy, he did not give the team a holiday.

Because not long ago, when Argentina was training, dozens of fans came to the Argentine team’s base.

This was nothing, as there were many fans gathered outside the French team's training base just to catch a glimpse of the players.

But it's different on the Argentine side.

The fans took advantage of the moment when the security personnel were slightly careless, rushed into the base, and headed towards the team's training ground.

Several crazy fans jumped over the fence and ran straight towards Maradona, one of them shouted: "Maradona, I'm going to kill you!"

He didn't dare let the players go out casually.

This is South Africa, not France.

At present, the first round of Group A matches have all ended.

South Africa 1:1 Mexico, France 2:0 Uruguay.

So now the French team ranks first in the standings, with 3 points and a goal difference of 2.

Following them are South Africa and Mexico, which are tied for second place, with 1 point each and a goal difference of 0.

Finally, there is Uruguay at the bottom, with zero points and a goal difference of -2.

There are two rounds of group matches left. As long as France beats Mexico in the next round, the situation for qualifying for the next group will be very clear.

If South Africa beats Uruguay, they will basically qualify together with France;
If South Africa loses, then Uruguay and France will qualify together.

On the Group B side, as the French team's game ended, the result was the same.

To everyone's surprise, the team currently ranked first in Group B is not Argentina, but South Korea.

The second place is Argentina, the third is Nigeria, and the last is Greece.

The matches from Group C to Group H have not started yet.

After emphasizing the safety issue again in the locker room, Domeneg finally stopped speaking and took the players back to the hotel.

Just as the French team returned to the hotel to rest, all the mainstream media were reporting on this game.

The Daily Sun is South Africa's best-selling newspaper, with its headquarters in Cape Town. It has 44 pages a day and sells 50 copies a day.

Although the name is similar to The Sun in the UK, it is a serious newspaper.

"Although Uruguay lost 0-2 to France, Uruguay coach Tavares was not very sad, even though Uruguay is now at the bottom of the group."

"He said that although Uruguay lost two goals, its defense withstood the test in the face of France's fierce bombardment."

"If you want to go further in a game like the World Cup, it ultimately depends on the team's defensive ability."

"Tavares also used the example of Italy, the last World Cup champion."

"He said that Italy had kept five clean sheets in seven games. Although goals still matter in a game, the prerequisite for scoring is to defend one's own city first."

"Finally, he used the French team, our opponent, as an example."

"In 1998, France won the championship on home soil, and the French team was only conceded a penalty by Laudrup in the last round of the group stage."

"In addition, in the semi-finals, the Golden Boot winner Suker scored a goal while offside. In the same period, they only conceded 7 goals in 2 games."

"Finally, Tavares concluded that it was their excellent defensive players that prevented France from scoring more goals."

Cape Town Times: "France beat Uruguay 2-0 in the first round of Group A of the South Africa World Cup with two goals from Charles."

"In the match, the French team completely controlled the tempo of the game and dominated it."

"At the same time, Uruguay has not lost hope of advancing. As long as they win in the next round, they will most likely advance together with France."

"Uruguay coach Tavares admits France are superior."

"'Before the game started, we were also full of confidence. We had planned to let France take all three points, but Charles' first goal was not what we expected, which directly interrupted the team's deployment.'"

"'And when the second penalty was taken, Charles scored, and that killed our hopes.'"

"When talking about the gap between the two teams, Tavares sighed and said: 'I think we never lack enough confidence and courage when facing strong opponents.'"

"'But France dominated the tournament and they had a phenomenal group of players.'"

"'Charles, Ribery, Benzema, Anelka... their forwards and midfielders are all very impressive, and their defence of Gallas and Evra is also very solid.'"

"'They controlled the game and created a lot of scoring chances, and we were dwarfed by them.'"

"Finally, Tavares also mentioned Charles."

"'The French team is indeed a world-class team, and their value also proves this. Especially Charles, his performance is definitely worthy of his world-class value.'"

No one is paying more attention to this game than the French.

In addition to the similar post-match reports, French newspapers also pay more attention to the domestic situation and the players themselves.

L'Equipe: "A few days ago, we were reporting that the French team's training base was very lively. Local South African fans and fans who came from France, as well as reporters from major media outlets around the world, all gathered together to get the latest news about the French team."

"In the resort, especially wherever the French team went, they were the center of attention."

"Many fans were holding up Charles' posters, T-shirts, hats and footballs with Charles's portrait printed on them, and standing outside, shouting, 'Charles, please take a look here!'"

"Among them, 23-year-old Pasha Archer, who travelled all the way from France to South Africa, almost fainted from being too excited."

"In addition to the fans who travelled from France to watch the game, Shire also has a lot of fans in South Africa."

"Igni Alia, 45, is a South African of French descent."

"In order to get a good viewing position at the training ground, he set out from Johannesburg to Knysna Headlands with his wife and three children before six in the morning."

"'Charles is a true gentleman, it's very rare to find someone of his age who can achieve so much and still remain so humble.'"

"'When he's with the fans, he never has a cold face or any big shot airs.'"

"When asked which team he supports more, South Africa or France, he said that he supports South Africa, but in his heart, he also supports Charles and hopes to see him perform well on the court."

"But at this moment, after what happened with Maradona, we should be more concerned about the safety of our players."

"Not all fans are as rational and calm as Igni Alia."

Le Parisien published a close-up of Charles looking up at Muslera while taking a penalty kick.

"The World Cup is more than just a carnival for fans."

"According to the study, the World Cup will make a significant contribution to the economic growth of France."

"If France advances to the round of 9.66, the industry will receive 18 million euros in revenue, and if it reaches the final, the figure will rise to billion euros."

"During this period, TV sellers will offer great discounts during the World Cup."

"Many families are willing to replace their TV sets in order to better watch the game, for example, to see this close-up shot more clearly."

"The Audiovisual and Electronics Industries Association predicts that the French will spend at least 2.72 million euros on electronic and audiovisual products;"

"If the national team can reach the final, the industry's turnover is expected to reach 6 million euros."

"In addition, the company is expected to sell an additional 25 television sets, of which 3D flat-screen TVs are a popular trend this year and are expected to sell 10 sets."

“And alcohol sales will also increase significantly.”

"In addition, the jersey is also a key point that cannot be ignored."

"Before the game even started, the French team's clothing supplier had already rushed to produce 30 jerseys."

"At present, all these jerseys are sold out. Among them, the shortage of Charles' jersey share has reached 5 pieces, and this is already under the situation that 15 pieces have been rushed to produce."

“It is estimated that the gap in Shire’s jerseys will widen further as the competition progresses.”

"This expenditure alone will generate an economic boost of around 1 million euros."

(End of this chapter)