After scoring the goal, Thapa opened his arms and rushed to the sidelines like a glider to celebrate his goal. Then his teammates also rushed over and jumped behind Thapa one by one.
Thapa was pressed down by his teammates, but he didn't care at all. He scored a goal in his national youth team debut, which made him very excited.
At the same time, the fans who came to the scene were also cheering excitedly. Among them, a few people were extremely excited. They were Thapa's parents and relatives.
They originally came to cheer for Thapa, but they didn't expect that their son would start in his first national team game and even score a goal in his debut. This was something they had never expected.
However, Thapa's performance was not over yet. In the 15th minute, MD Arbash sent a straight pass to the penalty area, and Thapa cut into the penalty area diagonally from the left.
The defensive player rushed over and saw that Thapa was about to stop the ball, but suddenly Thapa lightly tapped the ball with his left foot, and the ball rolled to his right side.
This handling successfully deceived the defensive players, the football came to Thapa's right foot, and there was a lot of space to shoot.
Thapa had such a good opportunity. He took a quick look and shot with his right foot. The football flew quickly to the right side of the goal.
"Thapa deceived the defender and shot!" the commentator was explaining the game.
But New Zealand goalkeeper Sale noticed Thapa and made a timely save. Although Thapa's shot was at a good angle, it was still saved by goalkeeper Sale.
"Ah! What a pity! The goalkeeper made a great save!" The commentator said regretfully.
"I have to say Thapa was very active today! He was everywhere!" The commentator kept praising him.
But some fans are worried that Thapa may not be able to sustain the physical stamina if he plays like this.
The captain of the New Zealand national youth team was very dissatisfied when he saw that his team's defense always missed people. He clapped his hands at his teammates and then encouraged the players.
"Focus! Don't let them score so easily!"
"We're behind! Let's score one goal first!"
Neil was very satisfied with the performance of the players on the field. Neil did not expect that the players played so well and had the advantage.
The Indian National Youth Team not only has Thapa, but Gomez stood out in the next play. In the 23rd minute, Gomez headed the ball under pressure from the opponent's defender, but the ball went wide. In the 26th minute, he headed the ball again after receiving a corner kick, but unfortunately the ball went over the goal post.
"Ah! What a pity! Gomez has another header. The opponent really can't do anything with him. He can always grab the header." The commentator looked at Gomez's performance and began to look forward to his future.
"National Youth Team head coach Neil once said that Gomez is the best striker of our young generation in India, and it really makes sense."
"Although it seems that Gomez's attacking methods are limited at present, all of them are headers, but Gomez's role is very significant. No wonder he is loved by the head coach."
In the following game, the New Zealand team finally found some offensive feeling. First, in the 33rd minute, they took a free kick. In the 39th minute, Rufer dribbled into the penalty area of the Indian team and shot directly.
Although neither of the goals went in, Neil was very dissatisfied with the problems in the back line. What worried Neil the most happened in the 44th minute, when De Jong took a free kick in the frontcourt and Dibujovic scored with a header.
Although the ball was eventually cancelled due to offside, this made Neil very dissatisfied. The biggest problem actually lay with Sumit Adhikari.
It was because of Adhikari's loss of position that Dibujovic had the opportunity to head the ball. Adhikari is 1.94 meters tall.
The first half ended unknowingly. The best performance in the first half was undoubtedly Thapa, who scored a goal. Not only because he scored a goal, but also because Thapa was equally active on the defensive end.
Then there is the forward Gomez. Although he did not score any goals, his role was very significant.
Next is Danny Meitei on the left. Although Meitei's ability is also low, he was very active in this game. He had several good breakthroughs and some of his passes were very threatening.
After returning to the locker room, the players were relatively relaxed. In the second half of the first half, although the New Zealand team had several threatening attacks, the Indian team was still in the lead.
Among this group of players, several are participating in official competitions for the first time on behalf of the National Youth Team. They were a little nervous before the game, but now they are all much more relaxed.
After Neil walked into the locker room, he saw the players talking and laughing, but he did not pour cold water on them. Except for the last few minutes of the first half, the players performed well throughout the game.
Neil first clapped his hands, looked around at all the players, and asked them to focus their attention on him.
"You performed very well in the first half of the game." Neil first acknowledged the performance in the first half.
When the players heard what Neil said, they couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. They were really worried that Neil would blame their defense because of that header.
"I hope you can maintain your good form into the second half."
"In the second half, I don't want to see you let your guard down just because you're ahead."
"We are the leading team, so we don't need to be too aggressive in the second half. But that doesn't mean we should give up attacking. Our defense needs to move back a bit."
"New Zealand will definitely step up their attack in the second half, so the defense must focus on Adhikari! I don't want to see the same loss of position in the first half again in the second half."
Neil specifically called out Adhikari's name. Adhikari couldn't help but lower his head after hearing it, clenching his fists with a determined look on his face.
"As long as we can defend our opponents, we will counterattack and catch them off guard."
"In this game, we will definitely be the one laughing last!" Neil shouted firmly.
When the players heard Neil's words, they all became more alert.
. . . . . .
In contrast, the atmosphere in the locker room of the New Zealand national youth team was relatively depressing. They had not expected that the Indian team, which they had thought was weak, would be so fierce in this game.
Especially when it comes to Gomez, they really have no idea what to do. They have always thought that Asian players have relatively poor physical fitness, but the appearance of Gomez changed their minds.
There is not a single player on the New Zealand team's defense who can defend Gomez one-on-one. Some players even wondered if Gomez's age had changed.
After thinking about it, they could only double-team Gomez. Not only Gomez, but Thapa also made them very uncomfortable.
Whether Thapa is defending or attacking, Thapa seems to be everywhere.
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