Chapter 92: Chapter 92 He’s Really Good at Shooting (Be sure to subscribe at noon on the 18th)
Bang!
Deng Kai took the shot!
Target, the far corner of the goal!
In the same moment, the Bayern goalkeeper’s legs spread apart.
One leg skimming the ground.
The other leg slightly raised, with about the height of a football between them.
This was the natural extension of his body.
He dived toward the near corner, hence his feet naturally stretched toward the far corner.
It was the best way to increase the defensive area.
And he had deliberately adjusted the height of his legs.
The lower leg prevented the Ground Cutter.
The upper leg prevented a shot at medium height.
The next moment, a red shadow also slid toward the goal on Deng Kai’s left, rushing from another direction, protecting the far corner of Bayern’s goal.
Lahm!
After returning, Lahm had been roaming the middle.
Although Lahm had no chance to stop Deng Kai after he dribbled past two players, he could still block Deng Kai’s shot at the far corner.
The sliding tackle by Lahm, perfectly compensated for the distance between the goalkeeper’s legs.
Four legs, orderly spread out, almost completely blocked off the far corner of the goal below one meter.
Any Ground Cutters or half-height shots, would all be denied entry!
This was defense at its finest!
However, the corner of Deng Kai’s mouth lifted...
Because the football he kicked... went very high!
Very few people would make such a shot selection.
The safest way to shoot is always a curler.
The advantage of a curler is stability!
It has a large enough touch area, high margin for error, and it’s hard to mishit the ball.
Easy to control direction, hit it where you aim!
And the force isn’t small either, not easy to block.
Plus, it’s harder for goalkeepers to save ground shots, as they need to change their movement from mid-air to the ground.
So, a ground curler is the first choice for most shooting experts at close range one-on-ones.
Future stars like Robben and Mbappé are masters of this.
But...
The goal Robben missed in the 2010 World Cup final that could have killed the game was a curler along the ground.
Casillas guessed the wrong direction but his right foot stopped the not-so-high ball.
If Robben had gone for a half-high shot or even a high shot...
But here it must be mentioned, the technique used in a curler determines that it’s not good for high shots.
High curlers are indeed very likely to be blasted over the goal, and are extremely hard to control.
The zero-transfer fee striker who played for Paris and Bayern, Choupo-Moting, is an expert at "curler airplanes" – when going for a curler onto an incoming ball, shorter players who extend their legs twenty centimeters to push the ball will have the right angle to produce a curler. But as he is too tall, the angle isn’t enough, causing the ball to fly upwards.
Many forwards from the Chinese national team also frequently launch the ball sky-high, and this is simply due to a lack of shooting skills.
A curler along the ground is already the optimal solution, yet Robben, clearly having no problem with his shooting technique, missed the most important one-on-one of his career.
In the years Mbappé honed his skills in Paris, his physique, speed, dribbling, game intelligence, passing, and shooting all reached greatness, but recently, his one-on-ones with the goalkeeper were increasingly being saved.
What’s the issue?
It’s not that their shooting skills aren’t up to par, rather the curler isn’t enough!
This shooting method was brought to its limits by Robben and Mbappé.
But the inherent weakness of this method still gives top goalkeepers and defenders a way to defend against it.
Goalkeepers dive early to the ground.
Or stretch out their feet as much as they can while diving.
Or let a defender slide in to block the goal; these are all strategies.
However... the difference between superstars and ordinary stars lies in the fact that superstars can make unconventional choices at critical moments.
It looked risky, but in fact, it was the only way to win, because your opponent was also a superstar.
Totti’s chip shot.
Batistuta’s goal.
Zidane’s "panenka".
Ibrahimovic’s long range spear.
Cristiano’s overhead kick.
Messi’s Maradona.
Mbappé needed to break through his own conservatism to transform into a true superstar.
That one-on-one chance Robben missed, either chip it early, aim for the top corner, or continue to dribble and beat Casillas directly, just don’t choose the conventional route, because even if you do the conventional things well, you’ll still fall into the same old patterns.
Whoosh!
Top corner!
Deng Kai’s left-footed close-range blast!
The football almost flipped the goal’s crown!
Bayern did everything they could, their defense this time could even block a superstar’s shot on goal.
But Deng Kai... was the man who was to become a superstar!
"GOAL! A decisive kill! This is a true game-winner!"
"In the 120th minute, Deng Kai took the ball past two defenders into Bayern’s box. Faced with the goalkeeper, he chose to blast it, leaving Lahm, who flew to block the ball, without success!"
"Big heart! He’s definitely a big heart player!"
"Such a shot is very easy to overshoot! Too risky!"
"In the last minute of extra time, one-on-one, a shot that decides the life and death of the team, any player’s first reaction should be a placed shot!"
"Even if not a placed shot, it should not be a blast!"
"But it had to be Deng Kai! It had to be a blast!"
"This player knows how to shoot! He’s so domineering!"
"Now, I finally understand why the Portuguese call him Caesar! Because he truly conquers every opponent!"
"Even the Munich Olympic Stadium had no jeers left, the Bayern fans were clearly still savoring Deng Kai’s dribbles and shots."
"The last time it was so quiet in the Bayern stands was last season when they lost the Bundesliga championship plate to the newly promoted Kaiserslautern a round early!"
"The Sporting Lisbon players are wildly celebrating, their stamina seemingly restored."
"Bayern’s U15 players, on the other hand, sunk into sadness. Lahm lay inside the goal, covering his face, weeping."
"Schweinsteiger also cried, he played well in this game and they should have won."
"It’s simply too cruel, I must once again oppose such harsh elimination mechanisms in youth competition. This is the biggest blow the Bayern U15 squad has ever faced since they started playing football!"
It was uncertain how long it took before Bayern’s young players regained their fighting spirit.
The surrounding fans gave them a round of applause; the game was very exciting overall.
It’s just that Bayern didn’t win.
Finally, less than a minute after the match resumed, the referee blew the whistle signaling the end of the game.
Four to three!
Sporting Lisbon U15 defeated Bayern Munich U15 to advance to the Youth Champions League semi-finals!
After the match, all the major news media began to publish reports on the event.
From then on, the traffic of the Youth Champions League had started to rise.
If before the news was only known to local fans, the related news after this point would be covered by all major conventional sports media, so even if you were just a casual fan, you might see it.
The difference between the quarter-finals and the semi-finals was only one game, but the gap in fame could sometimes be world’s apart.
"Portuguese Youth Training Reinvigorated, Sporting Lisbon’s Twin Stars Decisively Beat Bayern!"
"Two Passes, One Shot, Displaying the True Nature of a Striker, His Name is Cristiano!"
"The First Hat Trick of the European Campaign is His, Football Caesar Dazzles with Continuous Dribble and Spilt!"
"The Winning Goal’s Technical Points are Numerous, Deng Kai’s Choice Deserves a Closer Look, Technically Stunning!"
"They Laughed at Him for Running Out of Stamina in Extra Time, In the Last Minute of the Match, His Goal Silenced Bayern!"
"Whoa! Sporting Lisbon’s Youth Training Blocks All Foes, First-Team Star Simon’s Value Doubles Causing Barca’s Bitter-Sweet Agony!"
Many news articles popped up like mushrooms after the rain for the public to see.
Apart from the first media outlet, which didn’t prepare well as they published too early, the following media outlets even had rhyming headlines!
