The game started on time.
With nearly 40,000 people cheering at home, Hurricanes Athletic, who had previously toppled Boca Juniors and were aiming for promotion, were highly motivated and unleashed an onslaught on visitors CA Tampolli from the first minute of the match with their 352 double front formation, which is already adept at attacking soccer.
CA Tampolli was promoted to A.B. from the 2nd place in A.C. last season, and now belongs to the promoted team. Facing Hurricanes Athletic Team, a strong A.B. team aiming to be promoted and with high morale, and on the road, they can't stand the Hurricanes' offense like a gale.
The Hurricanes gave the visitors a run for their money in the fourth minute when front man Gonzano Martinez took a powerful long range shot from just outside the top of the box and smashed the ball against the goalmouth.
Although the ball ended up bouncing out and not actually scoring, it did take the visiting CA Tampolli players and fans by surprise.
It's just an appetizer.
What followed was a wave of Hurricane Athletic offense that left CA Tampolli, who was promoted and playing on the road with an unsteady foothold, gasping for air.
In the 11th minute, front man Gonzano Martinez split the side, winger Espinoza crossed down the right side, tall 188 center forward Thomson Mira leaped high in the box to grab the first point and a header managed to tip the ball into the Tampolli's goal.
A long roar from the live announcer at Thomas Duke Stadium:
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball went in!"
"Hurricane Athletic scored in the 11th minute to take a 1-0 lead over Tampolli."
"The goal was scored by #17 Mira!"
"Thomson Mira!"
"Thomson ..."
"Mira ..."
The nearly 40,000 Hurricanes home fans in the stands leapt to their feet, let out a mountain of applause and cheers, and chanted Thomson Mira's name in adoration along with the live announcers.
The first goal of the new league season deserves this treatment.
Alan Velarde on the bench joined the rest of his replacement teammates in standing up and clapping excitedly to call a good goal.
Although he hasn't been given a chance to play yet, everyone benefits from the team winning and being promoted to the A-League next season, so it's not like he's indifferent just because he wasn't involved in the goal, that's a bit of collective honor he still has.
On the other hand, CA Tampolli's side, probably dumbfounded by the home team's stormy onslaught, held on for less than ten minutes after the game restarted and conceded again in the 19th minute.
This time it was right winger Tolanzo who cut down and in, making a move to cross the ball, which drew the Tampolli goalkeeper and defenders to block the near corner, but Tolanzo made an inverted triangle pass to the center of the box near the penalty spot.
Striker Espinoza was alert in the slot and managed to get a shot into the far bottom corner of the goal.
Only 19 minutes into the game and Hurricanes Athletics was already up 2-0. The entire Thomas Duke Stadium was a sea of raucous Hurricanes home fans.
Everyone knew that the game was basically settled. A two-goal lead is hard to turn around in soccer. Although there are, it is rare. When it does, it can be called a "big comeback".
And with his team taking a two-goal lead, head coach Mario Binco made timely and clinical adjustments, dropping center forward Lucas Villarruel back to partner Federico Bismara in a double back, and dropping his entire formation back to strengthen the defense.
After all, no team can keep on attacking for 45 minutes without a break. Switching from attack to defense with a two-goal lead allows players to rest and adjust their fitness on the one hand, and on the other hand attracts opponents to attack and then play a quick counter-attack by using the gap in the opponent's midfield and backfield.
Even though Tampolli knew what the Hurricanes were going to do, they were two goals down and had to go forward.
After Tampolli stepped up their attack, Hurricane Athletic's backline began to feel the pressure from their opponents as well, and the number of confrontations between the fullbacks and backline and the opposing team's shorthanded players began to increase.
In the 27th minute, Lucas Villarruel was shown a yellow card by the referee after he failed to touch the ball when he went up for a shovel and instead fell on Tampolli striker Brendan.
When he saw the referee pulling out his card, Villard was secretly delighted. Although it was an unkind thought, Lucas' yellow card could potentially give Villard a chance to come on as a substitute in the second half.
Generally speaking, if the side has a defensive player carrying a yellow card, the manager is very easy to find the time to replace it, on the one hand, the player carrying a yellow card in the defense process, easy to make mistakes, on the other hand, also to avoid eating cards again, two yellows into a red by the referee directly sentenced, and the next game will have to be automatically suspended.
Sure enough, for the rest of the game, Tampolli stepped up his attack on the already-carded Lucas Villarruel at this point, trying to cause a breakthrough from him at this point.
Lucas was also really deterred from making bigger defensive moves because of the yellow card he was carrying, and with Federico Bismara behind him to assist him, the number of times he was broken through the defense started to increase.
Mario Binko wasn't in a hurry to replace him though, after all it wasn't even half time yet. Barring injury, substitutions are generally rare in the first half.
Luckily, Federico Bismara does have a lot of experience and deflected quite a few of the attacks that Lucas leaked over. Even if there were still attacks that Bismara failed to neutralize, there were still three center backs coming behind him.
As a result, CA Tampolli still hasn't been able to score.
It wasn't until the first half was all but over, and many thought the teams were going into the halftime break with a 2-0 scoreline, that Hurricane Athletic suddenly struck with a blistering attack in the 45th minute, with Lucas Villarruel receiving a pass from defender Mancinelli, and then sending a long, direct kick to the front of the Tampolli penalty area.
With his back to the direction of the attack and being pressed by opposing defender Gaston Aguirre, center forward Milla didn't stop the ball and try to turn and shoot, but instead got stuck in his position and played a direct cross without stopping the ball to Gonzano Martinez, who was inserted in the back row, before he himself went around Gaston Aguirre who was behind him, and turned around and rushed towards the penalty area.
Gonzano Martinez was also facing a close press from Tampoli defender Patricio when he received the ball made by Milla, and he didn't stop the ball, directly sending it diagonally into the box again, to Gaston Aguirre's flank and in the direction of Milla's run.
It was a two-on-one collision on the front of the box that just broke through Gaston Aguirre, who was defending Milla, and sent the ball into the box.
Thomson Milla received a rebound from Martinez in the box, leaned on Gaston Aguirre, and calmly played a pushed ground ball that he managed to push into the bottom left corner of the net.
Tampoli goalkeeper Crivelli pounced, but Milla hit the far corner, he could not reach, his hand could not reach, he could only watch the ball swept from his palm diagonally below, against the far post rolled into the goal.
Milla scored twice to give Hurricane Athletics a 3-0 lead over CA Tampolli and seal the win for good.
A three-goal lead is almost always hard to turn around, and every three-goal deficit reversal and turnaround in soccer can be big news and called a miracle.
So, at halftime, the Hurricane Athletic home fans had been singing and dancing and celebrating as if the game was over and they had won.
As for the handful of Tampolli fans, they were left to sit depressed and listless in the away section.
After a 15-minute break, the teams changed sides and CA Tampolli made two substitutions at the start of the second half to bolster their offense in an attempt to wrestle.
After all, losing by three goals is a loss, losing by five goals is a loss, it doesn't matter. But it would undoubtedly be great to turn the tables and make a good start to the new season.
But with Hurricane Athletic's three-guard, two-back setup, coupled with a back-heeled forward line and the excellent play of goalie Marcos Diaz, CA Tampolli's offense has been thundering and failing to score a substantial goal.
When the match came to the 63rd minute and it looked like there was only about half an hour to go until the end of the match even with injury time, Mario Binco, who was standing on the sidelines directing the match, glanced back at the bench and shouted, "Velarde, Fabianesi, you two go and warm up."
Velarde and Fabianesi were delighted and immediately got up and started warming up in the open space on the side of the field to make their pre-field preparations.
Five minutes later, Mario Binko called both men to his side and after instructing each of them on their main tasks when they came on, he began to make substitutions.
In the 69th minute, Hurricanes Athletic made two changes in a row, with wingback Fabianesi, No. 16, replacing Toranzo, No. 18, and fullback Alan Villard, No. 33, replacing Lucas Villaruel, No. 8, who had already received a yellow card.
Lucas made his debut today and did well both offensively and defensively, so he came off the field in a good mood, hugged Velarde and said "go for it" before completing the substitution.
Following the Copa Argentina, Alan Villard also made his first A-League debut after taking the reins and stepping up to the Argentine second division.
In the stands, only after seeing her brother finally make his definitive entrance and run onto the field did Kristina say to her two roommates, Heidi Alisa and Reece Bessa, "You guys, look, that #33, Allen Villard, is my brother."
Heidi Alisa and Reece Bertha's spirits were lifted, looking at the spirited Velarde who ran into the ring, Alisa said, "Finally your brother is in the ring, it's not a waste of time for us to come to the scene to support him, let's just see if your brother is as good as you say he is."
Kristina raised her head proudly and said, "I believe in him!"
At that moment, a middle-aged fan sitting in the front row whipped his head around and looked at Kristina and said, "Alan Willard is your brother, huh?"
Kristina said suspiciously, "Yeah, what's wrong?"
The fan smiled and gave her a thumbs up, saying: ''I know him, I went to watch the last game against Boca Juniors, Alan Velarde was outstanding. The camera of the live TV broadcast just chased after the ball and couldn't reflect Velarde's greatness at all. Only those who watched the game live like me know that your brother's defense is at a very high level, very much improved from last season, and has a bright future ahead of him."
It was then that Kristina said, somewhat humbly, "Thank you for the compliment, I hope my brother won't disappoint you today."
This fan shook his head and said, "It won't happen, I see that your brother is very stable, and his mental strength is no worse than those veterans in their 30s. As long as we don't make any low-level mistakes, this game is a sure win for us."
Finally he said, "No more talk, watch the ball."
Then turned his head and said nothing more to Kristina.
Kristina turned to Heidi Alisa at this point and smiled, "How's that, I'd say you're okay my brother, look at all the fans here."
Alyssa laughed, "What kind of fan is that, it's just a regular fan, just a good opinion of your brother. Watch the game, watch the game, seeing is believing, let's see what your brother can come up with."