Chapter 218: Chapter 217: Kay Young Heads the Ball, Iron Trees Bloom and Water Flows Backwards
The forty-fifth minute.
Gil Vicente finally caught a chance to move into Moreirense’s offensive third, but eventually lost the ball due to Macedo’s interference.
After losing the ball, Gil Vicente immediately fought to win it back.
However, Kilop was more determined this time, and with a big kick, he deliberately looked for Deng Kai in the middle.
Deng Kai fell back near the center circle, jostling for position with an opposing player.
He was shorter than his opponent.
The power training had paid off for Deng Kai, and he had a decent ability to hold his ground, effectively blocking the opponent.
Bang!
It was another flick with the heel of his foot to meet the incoming ball.
Although it wasn’t a clean dribble past the opponent, this time Deng Kai effectively shouldered the opponent off and completed a beautiful pass.
The football rolled towards Emerson on the right flank, who played a couple of one-two pass exchanges with the retreating Flavio, then continued with the ball to find Alex, who was pushing up on the right side.
After shaking off his opponent on the right, Alex kicked in a cross.
Ronaldo, Anderson, and Emerson had already positioned themselves in different areas of the penalty box.
At the same time, outside the penalty area, one person was also running towards it.
And with Alex’s cross, this person changed his run from the middle to the near post.
It was Deng Kai!
As the ball flew in, Deng Kai leaped high, executing a Lion’s Header.
Ronaldo had a clear view of the action from the back post.
So majestic, Kai took flight!
That header, damn cool!
It totally outdid my awkward header just now.
This can’t be science!
This definitely isn’t a posture that can be mastered overnight.
This move, honed through thousands of repetitions, Kai has been secretly practicing headers behind my back?
No need for that!
You, a midfielder standing one meter sixty-five, what’s the point in practicing headers?
It’s completely unnecessary, right?
Not just Deng Kai.
Even the striker Anderson felt Deng Kai’s heading was a bit superfluous.
With his own height of one meter eighty-eight, why would they need young Kai for aerial work?
So dangerous!
Swish!
The football drilled into the net from above the left-hand side of the Gil Vicente goalkeeper.
Deng Kai scored with a near-post header!
The Moreirense players were stunned at that moment.
This... Kai scoring with a header, it’s like an iron tree blooming, water flowing uphill!
"Gil Vicente’s marking at the near post was too loose, they were too careless!"
"Twice now, no one was at the near post, and twice Moreirense found the net from this spot."
"Three to one, Gil Vicente can’t possibly drop all their points in the two matches where they had the best chance to score, can they?"
"The key is that even Deng Kai is scoring headers, Gil Vicente must regroup during the halftime, from their tactics to their mental state, a full overhaul is needed!"
Deng Kai: ’Even’? ’Both’? Say that again, I dare you???
The match then moved into halftime.
Coming back from halftime, Gil Vicente made two substitutions, one of which was a central defender.
Their head coach was obviously desperate.
If they lost this match, not only would they lose a shot at the championship, but they could also be overtaken by Moreirense and drop to fourth in the standings.
And in the Portuguese second division, there are only two promotion spots available.
As soon as the second half started, Gil Vicente erupted with new fighting spirit, their pressing far more intense than before, lacking nothing in their earlier efforts.
The only thing Moreirense could do was resort to frequent long-ball clearances.
The fifty-first minute.
Deng Kai received a pass from a teammate in his own half and looked towards Ronaldo to the forward left, raising his foot... and feinting.
The player coming up to press him was fooled, stretching out a leg to intercept.
Bang!
At that moment, Deng Kai switched to the right to launch a long ball.
Alex had already moved up.
Alex started bursting down the right flank with a series of darts, but his dribbling and one-on-ones fell short compared to Ronaldo. If he didn’t get past his opponent with speed in the first place, he couldn’t get past them at all.
By then, the players from Moreirense had also moved up to support.
Bang!
Alex passed it back to Deng Kai, who had run into position on the right.
But with someone chasing from behind, Deng Kai faced the goal, greeted the ball... and let it run past him.
The Gil Vicente player, who had been chasing after Deng Kai from behind, watched as both the football and Deng Kai passed beside him, standing there dumbfounded.
Had Deng Kai lost track of his own goal’s direction?
Even the commentator was confused, "What is Deng Kai doing... his separate movements with the ball were graceful, but why is he splitting from the ball towards his own goal, bypassing the defender behind him?"
"This is preposterous!"
"Just now, Deng Kai could have continued dribbling for a step or two, then tried a long-range shot."
"Even considering the pursuer behind him, he could have held onto the ball, steadied himself, and looked for an opportunity to pass to a teammate to initiate an attack."
"Isn’t this the same as retreating with the ball? It also gave the originally out-of-position defender behind him a chance to regain his footing."
Bang!
The commentator hadn’t finished his criticism.
Deng Kai, who had moved away from the ball in an opposite direction, had already caught up with it.
He was slightly faster than the ball.
He turned halfway, striking the ball with his left foot!
The football shot out like a cannonball, flying towards the left side of the penalty area.
The whole process was highly abrupt.
Every move was unexpected.
Full of suddenness.
The trajectory of Deng Kai and the football resembled the letter V.
He ran from the upper right of the V to the turning point, then delivered a pass, and the ball flew from the turning point towards the upper left of the V.
This pass was similar in thought to what happened last season, when a corner kick by Paris was headed away by the opposition, Neymar received the ball on Paris’ left wing and pretended to retreat, only to suddenly turn and make a long pass in the middle of his move, and Majinnius, who had been falling back, changed direction and scored with a header.
The element of surprise was the clincher.
Why was Manchester United’s tactic of crossing to Ronaldo so ineffective?
Ronaldo was almost the best header of the ball already.
It’s because everyone knows they’re looking for Ronaldo, even when they’re going to look for him; how threatening can such an attack be?
"Ronaldo is accelerating!"
"He’s through on goal!"
"Is that ball offside? No, it’s not; the linesman didn’t flag it!"
"He shoots! Brilliant!"
"Four to one! Ronaldo scores twice!"
"That’s surely the easiest goal of today! No one disturbed Ronaldo; his positioning, control, and shot were seamless, easier than shooting practice!"
"Deng Kai’s pass was simply divine! If he hadn’t retreated on that move, not only would Ronaldo have not been in position, but Deng Kai himself might have been entangled and dispossessed by the defender chasing from behind."
"The best-case scenario would have been to draw a foul from the opponents, earning a free kick from a considerable distance."
"The awkward part about tactical free kicks from a distance is that they require defenders to come forward for headers like corner kicks, risking a counter-attack. Yet angled crosses from 45 degrees are not as likely to result in a goal as real corners."
"Corners have many more advantages over tactical free kicks from distance in terms of location, the curve of the football, and the force behind the ball."
"So, it’s reasonable that Deng Kai was reluctant to settle for a distant free kick."
"Besides, drawing a free kick would mean he has to pay the price of being taken down. Even if Deng Kai wasn’t afraid of getting hurt or pain, he obviously wouldn’t choose this lower return approach if there was a better way to handle it."
