Chapter 623: Chapter 622: Knowledge Changes Destiny
The football had already drilled into the goal.
Himan stood like a post, unable to make any attempt to save from start to finish.
The scene was dead silent.
"This is...GOAL!"
"A last-minute goal!"
"Deng Kai’s free-kick seals a last-minute victory against Arsenal!"
"This is a damn winner!"
"My God! What on earth just happened!"
"The football had clearly soared into the sky, but it was as if an invisible hand forced it down!"
"It plummeted two meters almost instantly!"
"This is simply a miracle!"
"I’m going crazy! I have never seen such a bizarre goal!"
"A hat-trick! Deng Kai has completed a hat-trick!"
"Five to four! Nine-player Manchester City wins in the last minute against ten-player Arsenal!"
"The referee signals the goal is good."
Beep beep beep!
Arsenal hadn’t even realized what had happened, with many players still waiting for Manchester City to finish celebrating and restart the game.
However, the referee blew the whistle to end the match.
Time was almost two minutes over the added time.
"Champions! Manchester City are the champions!"
"Congratulations to Manchester City, they have become the winners of both the FA Cup and the League Cup!"
"They were double defeated by Arsenal in the league, with eleven goals conceded!"
"But in the FA Cup, they scored one more goal than Arsenal to take the Championship Trophy!"
"Deng Kai contributed a god-like performance! His hat-trick overpowered Henry and Wenger!"
"That last free-kick was so absurd, it’s as if we made it up! I believe if it wasn’t seen with one’s own eyes, nobody would believe such a goal!"
"But looking at Deng Kai’s confident demeanor, it seems he knew the outcome of that kick all along."
"This is his secret weapon! He had been ready for it! He was always waiting for the real opportunity! Waiting for a chance to beat Arsenal!"
At the scene, Manchester City fans roared like a tsunami.
They had become the ultimate winners.
Meanwhile, Arsenal fans were still stuck in the aftermath of that miraculous free-kick.
On the pitch, having finally come to his senses, Wenger dashed onto the field, running towards the referee.
The professor yelled desperately, "No! It can’t count! That goal can’t count! There’s something wrong with the football! There’s a problem!"
"The football is deflated! Otherwise, such a strange trajectory wouldn’t happen!"
Henry, Vieira, and others snapped out of it and immediately followed suit.
Subsequently, the Arsenal players launched a full-scale protest around the referee.
Wenger, red-faced with rage, insisted, "Misjudgment! This is a misjudgment! Deng Kai didn’t score!"
"Just like Henry’s offside goal, Deng Kai’s goal should also have been disallowed!"
Noticing that something was amiss, the Manchester City players also gathered around.
A volatile atmosphere instantly enveloped the stadium.
The referee himself was also a bit unsure about the real situation.
Because he really had never seen such a goal.
The assistant referee quickly brought over the football.
After inspecting it, the referee shook his head at Wenger: "There’s nothing wrong with the football."
Wenger snatched the football in a flash, then turned pale in an instant.
Henry and others took the football afterward, and with a light press, as professional athletes, knew immediately it was indeed fine.
It was a perfectly good football.But why was there such a strange trajectory?
There was no wind or rain today; this football’s trajectory was unreasonable!
On the big screen, Deng Kai’s free-kick was being replayed over and over.
But no one knew what was going on.
Wenger turned to Himan.
Himan, at a loss for words, said, "I don’t know either; it was like the ball was under a spell—by the time I realized it, it was already in the net."
"It’s as if it could... teleport, yes, just like teleportation..."
"I’ve been playing football for many years and have encountered balls that wobble irregularly, but I’ve never seen anything like this."
"It was as if it hypnotized me—one moment I could see it clearly, ready to dive for it, but the next it had vanished!"
Himan swore that he was telling the truth.
As England’s national goalkeeper at forty years old, he really had no reason to lie about this.
At this time, Deng Kai had just extricated himself from the crowd of reporters.
He didn’t head straight to the main referee but, instead, rescued Zhao by Wei, finding a directional microphone on the side of the field.
"Hello, hello, everyone," Deng Kai said, holding the directional microphone and looking at the players from both teams near the main referee.
All the fans and players at the venue fell silent.
Pointing to the replay of the goal that was playing on the screen, Deng Kai asked, "Are you wondering about that?"
"That’s called the Elevator Ball!"
The whole world fell into confusion.
Commentators from each station furrowed their brows.
What is an Elevator Ball?
"Because its trajectory is like riding an elevator, it can suddenly drop a distance in a short time," Deng Kai explained. "Actually, everyone is familiar with balls that drop."
"Dipping shots, leaf balls, they all utilize the downward force produced by the football spinning forward."
"And bending shots essentially cause the football to spin on its sides—their common trait is the spin."
"But what if it doesn’t spin? What happens then?"
Maxa and Feng Te came over to lift the directional microphone so that Deng Kai could express himself freely.
Deng Kai began to simulate the football’s trajectory with hand gestures: "When an object isn’t spinning and is subjected to even forces, if the initial speed is less than the final speed, it will exhibit parabolic motion."
"But when the initial speed is much greater than the final speed, it will plummet sharply."
"This is a physical phenomenon; I wrote a related thesis on it while studying at the University of Lisbon. You need to kick the football with an initial speed of about 110, preferably 120 kilometers per hour, to achieve this effect."
"There can’t be any rotation."
"The valve area of the ball should be slightly harder, so the football deforms less, wastes less force, and is easier to kick at super high speed."
"But obviously, this technique requires an exceedingly high level of strength from the kicker, which I didn’t have during my time with Lisbon Athletic."
"Only this year, with growing taller, gaining weight, beginning strength training, and so on, have I barely acquired this ability."
"But it is still unstable, so this goal really does count as me being rather lucky."
The venue fell silent again.
Was this really just good luck?
If at first everyone was silent because of the match,
this time they were silent because of Deng Kai’s knowledge.
Knowledge changes destiny!
For a long time, people thought sports had nothing to do with knowledge.
Some so-called knowledge is actually experience.
But Deng Kai seemed to have overturned that notion.
He had genuinely integrated science into football.
"In fact, I recently submitted my latest master’s thesis on breakthroughs from the flank called ’The Vertical Flash’," Deng Kai added. "If I manage to successfully earn my master’s degree, I think everyone will be able to see that thesis."
"I wouldn’t particularly recommend that all players read that paper because if too many experts in breaking from the flank emerge, it would be highly detrimental to our defense."
Deng Kai even made a joke.
