Chapter 24: The Roar of the Cheetah
After receiving the pass from Tristan, Eto'o returned the ball and quickly turned to sprint forward.
N'Gonga stopped the ball at his feet but didn't pass it to the wings. Instead, in an unexpected move, he started to dribble forward—his ball control wasn't bad, but due to his age, his physical condition had declined, so he usually didn't make such runs anymore.
The traditional German sweeper tactic emphasizes the surprising forward run of a sweeper, who breaks the opponent's one-on-one defensive formation with a sudden burst, creating a brief local advantage to create scoring opportunities. For a veteran like N'Gonga, who rarely makes attacking runs, such a surprise move still served the purpose of a sweeper breaking forward to assist in an attack.
Guerrero, who was facing N'Gonga, was bypassed. The young Bilbao player wasn't particularly good at defense, and even though he was six years younger than N'Gonga, it didn't matter.
After passing Guerrero, seeing that the defense was slightly disorganized, N'Gonga immediately made the decision to pass the ball back to Eto'o, who had dropped deeper to receive it.
On the training field, the young forward from Cameroon had already shown off his technical ability and speed. Eto'o, with the classic flexibility and physical prowess typical of a black athlete, was a skilled dribbler!
He received the ball, turned, and charged forward!
Bilbao's defensive midfielder, Gurendos, barely had time to react when he saw a shadow flash past him. Eto'o was too quick!
In his mind, Gurendos thought, "How fast!"
Before his brain could catch up, his body reacted instinctively. He quickly turned half a step to try to block Eto'o's path, attempting to push him off balance while reaching for the ball with a sliding tackle!
Eto'o didn't seem very strong, so Gurendos thought his challenge would be enough to throw Eto'o off balance, slowing him down or possibly even intercepting the ball...