As the old saying goes: 'One charge for spirit, the second for decline, and the third for exhaustion.' The players of Castilla had certainly never heard this principle, but the actual meaning behind it was something many head coaches understood.
Several consecutive attacks had missed scoring by a hair's breadth, causing the mental state of these young players to shift subconsciously. In the 27th minute, while battling Teixeira for the ball, Sergio González was unable to reach it because Teixeira had held his position. He pushed Teixeira directly. After being whistled for a foul by the referee, he continued to protest and was ultimately shown a yellow card.
This self-inflicted yellow card fully illustrated that the mental state of the Real Madrid B Team players on the pitch had undergone a massive change.
These developments were, naturally, noticed by Hierro and Dias.
Taking advantage of a dead ball situation, both head coaches pulled their respective team captains aside to give them a few instructions.
After the match resumed, everyone noticed that Oviedo's formation had retracted further. Meanwhile, the Real Madrid B Team formation, which had initially dropped back due to Dias's instructions, was subconsciously lured out again by Oviedo after several exchanges. Dias kept shouting at the players from the touchline, gesturing for them to pull back, but it had little effect. Actually, the best solution at this point was a substitution, but since only half an hour had passed in the first half, Dias knew that substituting a player now might not be good for their development and could very likely damage their self-confidence.
Yet while Dias was hesitating, Oviedo stabbed Real Madrid B Team in the chest once more, and the one wielding the blade was still André.
34th minute.
After several passes failed to tear through Oviedo's defense, the Real Madrid B Team players saw their opponent's line was very stable. They could only pass the ball back to their defensive teammates, who'd already pushed up near the center circle, in an attempt to reorganize the attack. After receiving the backpass, Javi Hernández stopped the ball and looked up to observe his teammates. However, panicked shouts from his teammates suddenly reached his ears. Hernández wasn't sure what was happening and was just about to pass the ball to his partner Javier when a sudden collision force hit his body. Unprepared, Hernández's footing became unstable, and he lost control of the ball. After stumbling a few steps, he fell directly to the ground. When he looked up, he saw it was André who'd come from behind him and stolen the ball. Sitting on the ground, Hernández protested to the referee about a foul by André, but the referee signaled for the match to continue.
Seeing the referee's gesture, André turned and accelerated toward the Real Madrid B Team's half, where only the goalkeeper remained. At this point, the Real Madrid B Team players didn't have time to complain to the referee. They could only chase after André with all their might, though their pursuit served only as a backdrop.
André once again demonstrated a speed that seemed inconsistent with his physique. His hundred-meter sprint speed of just over 10 seconds was displayed to its fullest. Only when he was about to encounter the rushing Luca did André's speed drop slightly. Facing the charging Luca Zidane, when they were still more than two meters apart, André performed a Pendulum dribble that was almost unique to him. It had completely moved beyond the style of the previous man also named Ronaldo. Facing André's pendulum, Luca became dizzy after a few moves. He even wondered if the opponent would snap his waist if he kept twisting like that.
The moment André bypassed him, only one word popped into Luca's mind: 'Freak!'
Having bypassed Luca, André faced an open goal and used his right foot to gently nudge the ball. The ball slowly rolled into the net.
2-0.
In the 36th minute of the first half, André Cristiano broke through Castilla's goal once again, helping Real Oviedo change the score to 2-0. After scoring, André didn't go to share the joy with the fans this time. Instead, he stood arrogantly in place, spreading his arms and roaring.
In the eyes of Hierro, Dias, and the Castilla players, this roar might have been André venting the injustice he'd previously faced at Castilla. In fact, after this roar, Marcus felt he'd completely and perfectly merged with this body. From this moment on, he was André. That last bit of subconscious dissonance had completely vanished at this moment.
Dias didn't know if Solari, who'd already become the first-team head coach, would regret his original decision after seeing the video of this match. But Dias knew he was feeling regret himself. He knew that Castilla, a youth academy very famous in Spain and even in world football, had completely missed out on an extraordinary talent.
No, perhaps because of the unpleasantness a while ago, Real Madrid might have completely lost a talent forever.
After the match resumed, Oviedo played with more ease. In contrast, Real Madrid B Team became somewhat disjointed. The players' mindsets clearly became divided. Some players were obviously snapped into sobriety by Oviedo's two goals and hoped to stabilize the defense until halftime so they could make adjustments in the dressing room. Once the opponent scored another goal, any adjustments would be futile.
However, some players were provoked by André's roar just now. For a guy who, in their eyes, was no different from rubbish to suddenly appear before them in such a superior manner one day was very provocative for those with a poor mindset.
In their hearts, they still hoped this 'rubbish' remained rubbish, while they remained superior. Naturally, every player who could enter Castilla was called a talent by the outside world. Talents often have their own dignity, and their inner pride made it impossible for them to accept the current result. So they naturally hoped to change the situation through their own efforts.
Ultimately, the result of this divided mindset was that the Real Madrid B Team players seemed to forget how to play football. After André scored the second goal, Real Madrid B Team's performance on the pitch became chaotic, with frequent errors.
Dias paced back and forth anxiously on the touchline. At this point, there were less than ten minutes left in the first half. Hierro shouted a few times toward the pitch and then made a hand gesture.
Upon seeing this gesture, the situation on the pitch changed immediately. Oviedo, which had been retracting its defense to lure the opponent into pushing up their formation, suddenly accelerated the pace of the match. They placed great importance on pressing and intercepting in the final third. Even André began to frequently pressure the Real Madrid B Team's defensive line.
The trap had been sprung.
And Castilla was falling apart.
Hierro watched with cold satisfaction.
This was what happened when you let a talent like André slip through your fingers.
This was the price of arrogance.
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