Chapter 51: Chapter 51 - I, Maxa, in the Pose of Universal Teaching (Added)
Luz Stadium, stands.
"Portugal has produced too few genius footballers in the past two years, far less than the Netherlands."
"After Simon and Quaresma, it feels like there’s been a talent gap coming from Sporting Lisbon."
"Chris is already the most outstanding of the young players to come, but the gap between him and the players just mentioned is visibly large. Aside from speed, he doesn’t have anything particularly remarkable."
"Shooting? Who can’t shoot? If you had as many shooting opportunities in a match as he does, you could score too."
This was the exchange between several scouts who knew every player on the pitch and their characteristics by heart.
"Sporting Lisbon’s goalkeeper Christopher Pilar has decent goal-line skills, but his major issue is his height. Some clubs have already made it clear that they prefer goalkeepers to be no shorter than 1.9 meters."
"More clubs will be looking for that in the future, and Pilar obviously won’t grow to 1.9 meters; even 1.85 meters would be a struggle for him."
"Pedro Araujo, Miko Angelo, Carlos Manuel, Ricardo Duarte—Sporting’s defensive line—I bet not one of them will make it to the national team in the future!"
"Don’t be fooled by the fact that most of them may get called up to the Portuguese youth team; they’re just mediocre talents benefiting from being at a major club’s youth academy."
"Paolo Sergio and José Semedo—one an attacking midfielder, the other a defensive midfielder who can also play at center-back. Sergio was originally the midfield linchpin for this team, but after Deng Kai arrived, the difference between him and Deng Kai became apparent."
"Deng Kai’s passing is professional-level, whereas Sergio, apart from being stronger than Deng Kai, is useless. His future lies in solidifying his place in the Portuguese Premier League or even the First Division."
"Semedo’s chances of making it in the future are twice that of the other players—not because he plays well, but because he can play both defensive midfield and center-back!"
"Center-forward Lorenzo and right winger Edgar Marcelino, to be honest, none of them have anything that impresses me."
"They are older than Chris but much slower, and even their close ball control isn’t stronger than Chris’s, and you should know that’s even a weakness of Chris!"
The flaws of a genius are already the limits of an ordinary person.
The word "talent" is just that cruel.
To the scouts, the entire Sporting Lisbon U15 looked as ordinary as someone going to the market to buy potatoes and cabbages, utterly uninspiring.
Only players like Chris and Deng Kai, who might just turn out to be rough diamonds worth gambling on, were the real targets of these scouts.
And even in the eyes of the connoisseurs, the odds of these two rough stones turning into fine gems were very small, mostly likely to be a letdown.
Chris had prominent strengths but also many issues.
Deng Kai had many strengths, but his problems were very significant!
With a whistle blow, the match officially began.
To support the youth team, Benfica even invited first-team stars Joao Pinto and Nuno Gomes to watch the game.
Both were representatives of Portugal’s golden generation.
Nuno Gomes, the younger, didn’t fully belong to that golden generation, but his prime overlapped with it.
He’s currently the hotshot of the Premier League; after helping Boavista snatch a league championship from Porto and Benfica two years ago, Benfica poached him, and he’s on his way to becoming Benfica’s ace player.
In the upcoming European Championship qualifiers in which the Portuguese national team will participate, both are sure to be selected and might even become starters.
Perhaps the presence of these stars allowed the young players to envision their future selves, and the youngsters from Benfica started off extremely aggressively.
They were dominant and penetrating, pushing Sporting back into their own half and pressing them there.
Their midfield interception was too strong; even if Sporting managed to get the ball, they couldn’t get past Benfica’s midfield barrier.
Ronaldo up front gestured several times, but the ball never came his way.
On Sporting’s side, Paolo Sergio was positioned on the left, and Deng Kai on the right.
Because Deng Kai is right-footed.
Early positions on the pitch were all not inverted.
Whichever foot you used, that’s the side you played on.
Even wingers did the same, because back then, wingers were more about crossing from the byline.
Or rather, the 442 formation was popular back then, with more wing midfielders, and their main job was to cross from the byline.
Ronaldo’s positioning, in the beginning, was completely because Sporting Lisbon wanted to mask his insufficient passing ability and lack of strategic vision; so, right-footed on the left.
Unexpectedly, his inverted winger role led to him dominating in the youth team.
Behind Ronaldo, Paolo Sergio indeed used to be the midfield core, but his strength lay in pushing forward after distributing the ball, not in organization.
Portugal has always had plenty of such midfielders, including the future Bruno Fernandes, etc.
And this prevented Sergio from finding any opportunity to pass the ball to Ronaldo today.
The only one capable of consistently delivering the ball to the front on Sporting’s side was Deng Kai.
But Deng Kai’s problem was that the only player who could reliably receive his passes was currently only Ronaldo.
Today, Benfica took tight defensive measures against Cristiano Ronaldo.
Right back Pereira’s marking is not even worth mentioning, it was as if he grew onto Cristiano Ronaldo.
Right midfielder Amorim and defensive midfielder Alexandre did just as Deng Kai had anticipated, each taking turns to rough up Cristiano Ronaldo in their respective zones.
Benfica had completely predicted Sporting Lisbon’s game plan.
Unless a player performs exceptionally, there is simply no way to play.
So there is good reason for Benfica U15’s current undefeated record in the league.
Not only are their players of a high standard, but their coaching staff is too.
This tactic is fully deserving of the title "city derby."
In contrast, Maxa’s side seemed... unlikely even to comprehend Benfica’s arrangement today.
...
In the eleventh minute, Amorim used his physical advantage to knock down Deng Kai and seized control of the ball, launching an attack immediately.
Deng Kai chased after Amorim, who passed the ball.
It was only then that Deng Kai had the opportunity to complain to the main referee about the opponent’s foul during the tackle.
But the main referee shook his head, his enforcement today was on the lenient side.
After all, it was a derby match.
Twenty seconds later, Amorim broke through with a long shot from the rear, scoring a goal.
Benfica took a one-nil lead.
The forty thousand fans in the stadium began to cheer.
Benfica’s fans even started singing their team anthem, as if they were leading not Sporting Lisbon U15, but Porto’s first team!
The cameras even singled out Deng Kai.
Because the initiation of that goal stemmed from his turnover.
It seemed that the director at Luz Stadium wanted to convey to everyone that even Lisbon’s Caesar is fallible.
While Benfica celebrated, Maxa pulled Deng Kai aside, preparing to give him a pep talk.
After all, Maxa also didn’t understand tactics; all he could do was to offer some inspirational words.
But Deng Kai suddenly said to Maxa, "Coach, if we continue playing this way, we’ll be at a disadvantage. Our key points are being tightly marked."
"Given the disparity in skill, we can only win through tactics, like in the tale of ’Tian Ji’s horse racing’."
Maxa understood that much, "You mean to say, we use our average players to cancel out their key players?"
Deng Kai shook his head, "Their whole team is full of key players, we can’t negate them all."
"But we can utilize our average players to free up our key players, at least that way, their tactical targeting becomes ineffective."
"Coach, let Cristiano Ronaldo take the center forward position!"
Maxa, looking into Deng Kai’s determined eyes, really didn’t have the heart to refuse.
"All right! Play without worries, I’ve got your back!" Maxa patted Deng Kai’s shoulder.
After Deng Kai left, Maxa mumbled to himself.
The assistant coach thought Maxa was praying to God, because that was the only way Maxa could counter the opponent.
But he underestimated Maxa’s shamelessness.
"It’s a pity we didn’t get a good result in the match, but I won’t blame my players, even though Deng Kai took it upon himself to switch Chris to center forward..."
"On the contrary, I think this shows the necessary adaptiveness and thought capability that he should have as a central midfielder on the field..."
"Rui Costa’s free-spirited passes, Figo’s sublime assists, they all started just like this."
"As the head coach of the youth team, not providing the players with the best tactical options is my lack of preparation. But over that, I value the growth of young players more. I will not let a single match erode their potential or stifle their imagination. That would be a crime. I’d rather lose than see the kids lose their future..."
The assistant coach didn’t quite understand, but was deeply impressed.
The club has so many janitors, why else would you, Maxa, have climbed to the position of U15 coach?
It’s all thanks to you, huh!
Awesome!
Now, with eighty minutes to go until the end of the match, you’re not analyzing the opponent’s tactical weaknesses but are actually preparing your post-game press statement for when you lose?
This type of coach, without conscience and adept at passing the blame while also praising himself... it wouldn’t be surprising if one day he made it to the top of the world!
