The youth training dispute between Sporting Lisbon and Benfica is heating up.
But both sides also have other troubles.
Benfica's first team is under huge pressure in the title race.
They are clinging to Porto, but the initiative lies firmly with Porto.
Sporting Lisbon U15 faced Torino U15 in the final group match of the UEFA Youth League.
Sporting Lisbon had six points, while Torino had seven. Torino held the initiative.
The Torino club was once an unquestioned giant of Serie A.
But after the Superga air disaster, they were never able to fully recover, and a long era of decline began.
Three years ago, Torino were relegated in the 1995–96 season and fell into Serie B.
This year, however, they were very likely to win the championship.
Coupled with the rise of their youth teams, Torino was showing clear signs of revival.
Previously, Sporting Lisbon had taken the initiative and lent their first-team stadium to the youth side. The youth team defeated Feyenoord, the strongest team in the group, sold a massive number of tickets, and gained both fame and money.
Torino's top management also took action.
Before the match, they applied to UEFA to move the game to the Stadio delle Alpi, the first team's home ground, with a capacity of nearly 30,000.
UEFA strongly applauded this proactive move.
This year's UEFA Youth League could be described as an unprecedented success, and the enthusiasm shown by participating clubs far exceeded expectations.
Although the group stage was not yet complete, UEFA had already decided that the UEFA Youth League would continue long-term.
Many wealthy clubs had also contacted UEFA, hoping to gain qualification for future editions of the competition.
…
Stadio delle Alpi.
The referee blew the whistle for half-time.
In the first half, both teams performed fairly average.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Fabio Quagliarella each had one or two bright moments, but neither was able to change the score.
"If the match ends like this, Sporting Lisbon will be eliminated from the knockout stage!"
"In terms of raw strength, Sporting Lisbon are slightly weaker than Torino, but the gap isn't huge."
"Chris and Quagliarella both have the ability to decide the game."
"But besides them, there's another man who can do it. That's why more people are optimistic about Sporting Lisbon in this match."
"Not only because of their recent form, but also because of their core midfielder — Kai!"
"This player is known as the 'Football Caesar' by Lisbon fans. In his two European matches, he scored three goals and provided two assists."
"However, Kai's performance in this match has been quite average. He has been completely frozen by Torino's midfield."
That's right.
Kai was completely frozen.
And the reason was simple… he is a typical right-footed player.
At the pre-match press conference, the Torino coach explained their analysis of Kai to the media:
"We admit that Kai is an excellent midfielder. His passing is fast, aggressive, and extremely effective. He can easily tear apart any defensive line."
"But we analyzed all of his dangerous passes in league and European matches. More than 94% of them were made with his right foot."
"We will restrict his right-footed passing. That will be the key to winning this game."
The facts proved the Torino coaching staff right.
Throughout the first half, Kai produced only one truly threatening pass, a through ball played to right winger Marcelino on the same flank.
A right-footed push pass.
In the past, he was best at receiving the ball on the right and immediately sending a lofted pass to the center or even the left side, but this never happened even once.
This was also why Ronaldo's first-half performance was slightly inferior to Quagliarella's.
He could only receive passes from left-back Araújo behind him, then dribble forward to challenge Torino's defenders.
He couldn't use Kai's passing to fully maximize his off-the-ball runs and explosive pace.
After fifteen minutes, the second half kicked off.
Kai adjusted his position, trying to move closer to the center.
But it didn't help much. Torino focused entirely on cutting off Kai's right-footed passes to the left.
As for Kai passing to the right with his right foot, Torino didn't care at all.
Because Marcelino on Sporting Lisbon's right flank was far less threatening than Chris on the left.
His ability to reach the byline was decent, but his passing was poor.
His ability to cut inside and shoot was even worse.
Even if he did get the ball, Lourenço in the middle of Sporting Lisbon was not a traditional target man, but a poacher who relied on speed and movement.
Ronaldo had already proven in the previous match that while he might not be better as a striker than as a left winger, he was definitely better than Lourenço.
In the 68th minute, Kai raised his right foot after receiving the ball.
The defender stood to Kai's left, clearly trying to prevent a long diagonal pass.
Boom!
Kai knocked the ball directly to the left.
Then he chased it himself.
A fake-and-go!
"Oh! Kai carries the ball laterally. He wants to move into the middle. From here, he seems to have more passing options."
"But when the left-side passing lane is blocked, moving like this actually narrows his passing angles even more."
"Sure enough, when the Torino defender steps up, he still guards against Kai's right-footed left pass."
"Chris makes a run, but he's tracked tightly, and the passing lane between him and Kai is cut off by a Torino player."
"Hey! Marcelino has great off-the-ball movement! He's accelerating down the right wing and there's a huge gap. It would be perfect if Kai could pass the ball now."
"But that's very difficult. From our God's-eye view, we can see Marcelino, but Kai may not be able to. Even if he can see him, his current body position makes it hard to pass to the right."
"That's the limitation of right-footed players, unless Kai can use the outside of his foot."
"Just like Ricardo Quaresma from Sporting Lisbon's U17s. His outside-of-the-foot technique can handle this situation."
Boom!
Kai struck the ball with the outside of his right foot, and the ball curved around the defender and flew toward the right.
The commentator was stunned.
This…
Kai used the outside of his foot!
The Torino head coach was stunned as well.
This wasn't in the scouting reports.
In all previous matches, Kai had never used the outside of his foot for a key pass — he had barely used it at all.
Yet the power, speed, curve, and accuracy of this pass were all excellent.
"Marcelino cuts inside without the ball… one-on-one! This outside-of-the-foot pass directly creates a clear chance… shot—!"
"Oh no! Marcelino hit it straight at the goalkeeper's chest. How could he make such a brain-dead decision?"
"A low shot would've been much better."
"Marcelino's finishing is always this reckless. With Chris attracting defenders, he's actually had plenty of chances this season — nearly half as many as Chris."
"But in terms of goals? He hasn't even scored a quarter of what Chris has!"
"What a fucking waste of Kai's exquisite outside-of-the-foot pass!"
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