Chapter 641: Chapter 640: Wearing the Hat As Well
"What Beckham can do, Ronaldo can do! What Beckham can’t do, Ronaldo can do as well!"
"This is the new king of Manchester United! This is the leading player designated by Ferguson, Cristiano..."
All the Manchester United fans shouted together, "Ronaldo!"
From that moment on, the name Ronaldo began to have a double meaning.
Most of the time, it referred to the original Ronaldo.
But in the Premier League, it started to refer to Cristiano.
Eventually, the game went into overtime.
Both sides entered the final struggle.
Manchester United’s advantage lay in the fact that they had used their last two substitutions, giving them a physical edge.
But the players they brought on were not more capable than Fabregas and Villa.
Fabregas: ???
Villa: ...
101st minute of overtime.
Howard kicked off with a big goal kick.
The Manchester City backfield was thrown into chaos.
Fabregas, who was actively involved in defense, managed to get to the first touch on the right back side.
He headed the ball back to Kompany.
But under pressure from Giggs behind, he misdirected it.
The ball went over Kompany, rolling towards his own penalty area.
Kompany immediately turned and chased back.
But his turn seemed to take an eternity.
Whoosh!
Ronaldo flew past Kompany and then made a sideways pass.
Bang!
Van Nistelrooy was there to finish it.
Four to three!
Manchester United took the lead!
The momentum at the venue shifted.
For the first time in the match, Manchester United were in the lead.
But this time, the lead might well earn them a championship!
105th minute.
Ribery started off without the ball from the right, moving into the middle.
After combining with Villa, Lahm made a diagonal pass to Ribery.
Ribery passed back to Deng Kai, then turned and made a run forward.
Deng Kai played a ground pass from outside the large penalty area, and took a long shot...
The shot was spoiled by Keane, who had chased from behind.
Deng Kai stumbled.
Because there was a suspicion of a foul, Keane smartly chose not to continue defending Deng Kai, but instead retreated to the penalty area line, chasing Ribery and Adriano.
However, other Manchester United players seemed to have the same idea as Keane.
They all retreated to the penalty area line.
They all chose to use their bodies to block potential passes, which resulted in Deng Kai having no one within five meters around him.
The Manchester United players were brave.
But...
In this world, besides courage, you need wisdom.
And they had clearly overlooked this.
Bang!
Deng Kai, having whiffed the first time, lifted his leg again.
He swung his leg nearly from a standing position.
And the football shot out instantly.
A full instep drive!
Powerful and heavy!
The ball traced out a curve, hanging towards the top left corner of the goal!
Whoosh!
The ball hit the net.
The stadium instantly erupted.
"Four to four! Deng Kai equalizes the score in the last minute of the first half of overtime!"
"Ronaldo scored the equalizer, then provided the assist for the winning goal! Deng Kai delivers an equalizing wonder goal!"
"This Community Shield Cup game is incredibly exciting!"
"Following Deng Kai, Ronaldo also completes a hat-trick! This is their second time achieving hat-tricks in the same match since joining Manchester United and Manchester City!"
"Last time, the ultimate winner was Deng Kai!"
"This time, could it be Ronaldo?"
Ronaldo quietly glared at Deng Kai.
He had secretly mastered the Elevator Ball.
Who would have thought Deng Kai did more than just film commercials this summer.
This guy had beefed up his leg strength!
That stationary shot was outrageously good!
Could such a goal have come from someone only one meter forty-one?
Deng Kai: ???
Deng Kai: I didn’t even say you, Madeira with your buck teeth, stole techniques!
In the end, neither side was able to score again.
The match ended in a four-to-four draw after extra time.
Next up, the final stage... the penalty shoot-out!
...
"Maxa must be regretting it now!"
"Penalty shoot-outs are the ultimate test for a goalkeeper, and Cech is clearly not as good as Lehmann! Manchester City will regret letting Lehmann go for the entire season,"
"On the contrary, Manchester United’s new signing Howard is in great form."
"Manchester United scored twice with his participation, making him the team’s hero today, second only to Ronaldo!"
"Moreover, Howard is quite a bit older than Cech, which makes him much more stable mentally and he also has more experience. From any perspective, victory will belong to Manchester United."
"I suggest the FA might as well start engraving Manchester United’s name on the trophy. They’ll kick off the 2003-2004 season with a championship!"
The penalty shoot-out was on a knife-edge.
Manchester City won the coin toss, earning the right to choose first.
Deng Kai: "We’ll kick first!"
Keane followed up with: "Then we choose the south stand."
The south stand is where the Manchester United fans gather.
Their cheering and booing were believed to have a direct effect on the penalty kicks... at least that’s what everyone thought at the time.
But on the bench, Guardiola suddenly clenched his fist and showed an excited expression.
"Coach, what’s up? You look pretty happy," Neuer said, puzzled.
As a goalkeeper, he hated standing on the side with the opposing fans.
He could always hear their foul language; it was freaking annoying.
Schmeichel explained: "Before the season started, Kai provided us with a lot of data from previous years. We found many patterns in it and used these to guide our training."
"Many of the drills you haven’t seen at Schalke 04 are based on this data."
"One of the pieces of data was about penalty shoot-outs."
"Although it seems like a fifty-fifty chance, the statistics show that the team kicking first has a winning probability of seventy percent!"
"What?" Neuer couldn’t believe it.
Even if there was a difference, it couldn’t be that much, could it?
Is that even real?
Doesn’t that defy common sense?
Why?
Guardiola: "Penalties are all about mentality. And the side kicking later is usually under greater psychological pressure."
"Of course, this assumes that the first kicker of the side that kicks first scores. According to statistics, if the first team to kick misses their first shot, their winning probability drops to thirty percent."
"So this penalty is the most important for us."
In the crowd, Deng Kai stepped forward.
He took the first penalty.
Bang!
Clean and crisp.
This time, Howard completely guessed the wrong direction.
Penalty one to zero!
Manchester City takes the lead!
As Deng Kai walked back to his team, Ronaldo stepped out from Manchester United’s side.
The two passed each other.
Guardiola spoke again: "Correspondingly, the first penalty for the second kicking side is also the most important. According to statistics, teams that miss this shot have a winning rate of less than twenty percent!"
Neuer’s eyes gleamed.
He had never realized data could be so terrifying.
In popular belief, it was the fifth kicker who was deemed the most crucial.
Of course, the first kicker was important as well.
But not to the extreme of covering eighty percent of the winning possibility!
Only with the support of data did they realize how impressive Deng Kai’s penalty was.
And how difficult now Ronaldo’s was.
Bang!
After speeding up and suddenly slowing down, Ronaldo fooled Cech with a change of rhythm, netting the penalty.
But Cech was extremely skillful, and this time he managed to ignore the feint and guessed right.
And even though he was half a step late because of overthinking, he still managed to touch the football, nearly saving it.
Penalty one to one.
Manchester United equalizes the score!
