Chapter 74: Chapter 74 Is This Really a Chinese Descent? (Please follow)
"Fried meatball! Beautiful!" Trigella couldn’t help but want to clap.
"Did he just pass? What’s Chen Tao doing? Shoot, just take two more steps and you can shoot, it’s a good position!" Wahaha Team’s assistant coach spoke up again.
Bang!
It was as if he had to challenge him.
After Deng Kai got past Chen Tao, he abruptly chose to pass the ball.
A straight pass to the right.
And Marcelino, who had just been with Zhao Peng, in the blink of an eye, darted behind the entire defensive line.
One-on-one!
Marcelino, having cut in without the ball, got clear for a one-on-one chance outside the penalty area!
Deng Kai’s through ball would have been offside if it had been any slower.
But Deng Kai was never slow.
Bang!
Marcelino feinted twice, threw off Zeng Cheng’s balance, and then shot powerfully into the net.
Two to zero!
"As I said before, Kai never misses an opportunity to pass," Trigella said, clapping his hands. "Running with the ball just now could have created a chance to shoot, but both the opponent’s center back and the goalkeeper had enough time to respond."
"The necessary condition for scoring a goal seems to be taking a shot, but in reality, it’s whether the ball can get past the goalkeeper. In Deng Kai’s eyes, opportunities are not about whether he can create a shooting chance; every threatening pass he makes is intended to score!"
Maxa looked at Trigella’s eloquent speech with great envy.
When would he be able to speak so forcefully without getting beaten up!
Seventeenth minute.
Ronaldo received Veloso’s pass and kept dribbling past opponents on the wing.
But despite having a clear chance to cross, he chose not to pass and instead dribbled the ball into the penalty area from the side.
The Wahaha Team’s coaches shook their heads and sighed, saying Ronaldo was too incredible to stop, a true teenage superstar!
Yet none of them dared criticize Ronaldo for missing the best passing opportunity.
Bang!
Ronaldo had almost dribbled the football to perfection, and finally seeing his chance, he gave a pass.
"Deng Kai is coming up! Ronaldo with a cutback pass!"
"Feng Xiaoting has a good sense of defense. It seemed he had anticipated the possibility of a cutback pass while Ronaldo was dribbling!"
"Feng Xiaoting pressed immediately, Deng Kai had just received the ball, with no time to adjust, he..."
"Fried meatball! Deng Kai just dribbled past Feng Xiaoting at the top of the penalty area arc! It’s unbelievable! He stopped and dribbled in one fluid motion!"
"Head-to-head with the goalkeeper! Zeng Cheng moved, why did he move first?"
"Low shot to the open goal! Deng Kai’s goal came too easily!"
Three to zero!
The players of Sporting Lisbon themselves thought it was a bit outrageous.
They still acknowledged the strength of the Wahaha Team’s players.
They felt they should win, but they hadn’t expected to be three to zero after just over ten minutes.
It seems Kai was quite excited when playing against his own.
Since it was a friendly match, there were not so many rules.
Wahaha Team’s assistant coach went straight to Zeng Cheng while Sporting Lisbon was celebrating and criticized his save.
"What exactly are you doing? You moved before he even took the shot!"
"Don’t make blind judgments! You’re not allowed to move early!"
"Make a proper save!"
Zeng Cheng looked dejected.
Trigella silently shook his head.
What separates top goalkeepers from each other?
Is it dribbling and ball control?
No.
Is it the ability to make saves?
That’s not it either; that’s just a basic skill.
It’s the mysterious sixth sense!
It’s a goalkeeper’s instinct to save!
To pull off a miraculous save that rescues the team, what’s most needed is this intangible thing.
Every goalkeeper initially possesses this kind of intuition.
But the coach of the Wahaha team forbade Zeng Cheng from making normal predictions. Wasn’t this stifling someone’s growth?
Although he had not yet delved deeply into the part of Chinese football associated with "fake" football, even just from the youth training and team tactics, Trigella could already sense the barrenness of that football wasteland.
And he was secretly pleased about this.
Because he had already recommended Ronaldo and Deng Kai to his good friend.
The other party was the coach of Portugal’s national youth team, who, after receiving the video tapes from Trigella, said he would observe the two players.
If nothing unexpected happened, after the end of this season, Ronaldo and Deng Kai were likely to be called up for Portugal U16 in this summer’s UEFA European Under-17 Championship!
Trigella knew about Chinese people’s attachment to their country of origin.
But Trigella believed that once Deng Kai joined the Portuguese youth team, it would be very difficult for him to give up Portuguese nationality when it came to making the final decision.
Because no football prodigy, after tasting the glory of playing for the national team, could ever give all that up...
...
The halftime whistle blew.
The players from the Wahaha team entered the players’ tunnel in silence.
Four to zero.
They were losing without the slightest bit of fight.
This Sporting Lisbon team was stronger than any other youth team they had encountered on their European tour.
But more despairing than the score was Deng Kai’s personal statistics on the Lisbon team.
One tackle, two interceptions, two assists, one goal, two fouls drawn.
Deng Kai had touched the ball a total of forty-seven times in the first half.
Thirty-one passes, with twenty-six successful, a success rate of eighty-three percent was not really high.
But this included seven threatening passes!
Additionally, his non-direct goal-threatening long transfers numbered six, all successful.
He completely dominated the match.
His dominance was even greater than Ronaldo, who had scored two goals.
The players from Wahaha team could hardly believe it—was this a player of Chinese descent?
You can be talented.
But as someone of Chinese descent, how can your football be so formidable!
During the halftime break, Deng Kai approached Trigella and Lin Tao directly in front of the cameras of Sports Weekly reporters with a suggestion.
"I want to switch teams and play a bit."
???
Lin Tao thought his ears were faulty.
Switch teams and play?
Is that even a thing?
Trigella’s pupils shrank, grasping Deng Kai’s meaning, and nodded, "That sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it?"
The coaches then informed their respective players of this news.
Maxa was utterly baffled by Deng Kai’s behavior.
Trigella whispered to Maxa, "As far as I know, several players’ parents on your team have had... chance encounters with scouts from other teams recently."
"Your team’s achievements have given many people some unrealistic dreams. Whether it’s outsiders or your players and their parents, they need to face a reality."
Maxa’s face twitched as he said with difficulty, "The truth is... our success... is because of Kai?"
Trigella nodded, "Of course! It’s because of Kai! It’s because of Ronaldo! What else could it be?"
"Others, before they jump around, should weigh their own worth! Sergio has a decent talent; he could indeed develop better if he went out."
"But the others in the team... going out will only make things worse for them. Being kept here is for their own good."
"This was something I should have done, but Kai did it for me. This kid is really smart, Maxa, you..."
Maxa’s heart was racing.
"If you follow Deng Kai and lead this team well, you will reap a lot more than you can imagine, more than you’re capable of." Trigella patted Maxa on the shoulder and then headed towards the stands.
Meanwhile, Maxa wiped the beads of sweat forming on his head.
The youth academy director of Braga, a Primeira Liga team, had approached Maxa during the winter break, wanting him to join and lead Braga’s U17. He was very tempted.
But now...
"Boys, for the second half this is how we play..." Maxa entered the changing room and for the first time laid out a strategy that was entirely his own.
This decided whether he would go to Braga to reign or continue at Sporting Lisbon assisting the young Kai!
