Chapter 76: Hornet’s Nest

“It’s in—it’s a goal by Fan Cunjie; 20 minutes into the second half! What an exhilarating strike! Blowing down castle walls and striking down generals! Fan Cunjie’s individual strength tips the scales!”

“Shu Guang has fallen back once again! Fan Cunjie’s hope of winning can’t be ignored! This ball is a declaration of his adherence to three years of conviction: Winning is a must! Shu Guang’s defenders can’t stop him now!”

Wang Ning looked up at the chattering loud speakers and spat, “Damn it! What’s that stinking dog saying! We’ll show that old guy how we’ll defend against him!”

Zhang Jun thought of comforting An Ke who lost the ball, but his eyes scared him. An Ke wiped his sweat off and gritted his teeth. “Heh! Interesting, I’ll let you see who’s the winner today!”

Fan Cunjie’s goal did not crush Shu Guang. Instead, it rekindled their morale. Dingding probably did not expect it.

Anyway, Kaka’s pass was stolen by Cao Po. Dingding took the ball and made a big attack.

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Fan Cunjie was taking lead of the ball once again. Li Hao wanted to follow up, but he was stopped by Wang Ning. “He’s mine!”

Wang Ning was no longer keeping a distance of three meters from Fan Cunjie. He wanted to prevent him from passing or breaking through. As soon as he got up, he rushed to stick himself close to Fan Cunjie. Because of this, Fan Cunjie’s hands and legs were tied up.

Fan Cunjie could feel the immense vindictiveness coming off from Wang Ning’s body. His little handsy tricks had obviously increased; he was desperate.

In such close quarters, Fan Cunjie’s prided skill could only be released at 20 %. Meanwhile, Wang Ning’s brutal snatching also forced him to look out for himself from time to time. After all, there was still another game the following week.

Fan Cunjie took the ball to the left as an attempt to escape Wang Ning’s fierce and brusque snatch. He was not expecting Wang Ning to get a hold of him, preventing him from wiping his way through the game. At the same time, he quickly stole and kicked the ball way. As a result, Fan Cunjie was also shoved aside.

Then, Chen Bo grabbed the ball in front of Dong Yiluo and made an opening.

Su Fei watched every movement on the field anxiously. Now that their score was behind, Yang Pan and Zhang Jun were in control. Dingding had scored another goal and garnered enough momentum, making the situation very critical!

The audience also contributed to Dingding’s huge power. Their cheerleading team even set the crowd off the stands and cheered for the remaining time.

“Dingding has to win! Dingding has to win!”

“Get to the National Championships!”

“Champions! Champions!”

Their screams were like dark clouds looming across the area. It made Shu Guang’s supporters gloomy.

Zhang Yang turned to look at the lively scene around the stands and listened to their deafening cries. He then said to Li Yongle, “Not bad at all. Dingding’s in the lead again!”

Li Yongle snorted. “Shu Guang will quickly equalize the score.”

Zhang Yang whispered in his heart, You’re just boasting! Have you gone insane from thoughts of competing against Zhang Jun?

Zhang Lintao silently watched Shu Guang’s No.7 running around the field.

Yang Pan was taking the lead once again and he seemed to be on the hook with Lu Hui.

As he was in the midst of running, Yang Pan pretended to stop and launch the ball. However, he continued to break through the field instead. Lu Hui was not fooled. He leaned his body towards him and when their bodies were tangled together, Yang Pan had to slow down.

In the meantime, Dong Yiluo followed up too with the both of them now circulating around Yang Pan.

Zhang Jun wanted to help Yang Pan, but he was cut by Yao Wang. Kaka was also being taken care of by Cao Po and he was unable to effectively support Yang Pan.

Chen Bo ran from the back of the field towards the front and rushed to meet Yang Pan. However, Yang Pan’s ball was already snatched before he could reach him.

“Mark them!”

After Yang Pan’s play on the upper side, it made Dingding’s offside tactics lose their effect. Therefore, Liu Wei waved his hands and switched to the marksmen tactic. They were going to use Lu Hui’s speed to contain Yang Pan, and Yao Wang’s body as well as experience to take care of Zhang Jun. Whereas, they planned to counter Kaka with Cao Po’s physical strength and explosive power. Shu Guang’s attack combo in the front field would then be frozen.

“Man-to-man?” Zhang Jun wiped away his sweat and looked at Yao Wang next to him. There was a big height difference when the two stood together.

“Hehe! Our coach said that you guys need to be specially taken care of.” Yao Wang grinned. “We’ve never used this even against Zhongyuan.”

“Oh? What should I say? Should I be flattered and honored?”

Fan Cunjie took control of the ball and Dingding’s cheerleaders hurriedly cheered. “Another one!” The cries came one after another as many were particularly interested in such goals, especially the long-range type.

But Fan Cunjie was not planning on pleasing the audience, instead he chose to pass. He knew that Wang Ning, who was pushing his way over was not a weakling. His two prior confrontations told him that his opponent was not a leisurely player. He took the initiative to move up as he would have probably suffered again otherwise.

Fan Cunjie was smart. He knew what was important. At present, the team’s interests were above everything else and his personal sights were left thrown in the islands of Java.

After Shi Lei received the ball, he did not turn around. Alternatively, he gave the ball to Dong Yiluo who charged up.

Before Chen Bo caught up to him, Dong Yiluo immediately made a big pass to the goal.

Bin Fei jumped into the crowd and reached the top of the line but he did not make a shot. He gave it to Shi Yan, who had entered into the penalty zone!

Shi Yan snatched the ball in front of Xie Wei, then made a big shot right before the goal line.

“Shi Yan is making a big shot! Looks like Dingding is about score another goal again!”

“Sh*t!” An Ke shouted as he rushed out of the goalpost. The ball hit him on his outstretched left arm and bounced away. An Ke’s second reaction was quicker. He jumped forward and caught the ball, which was up in the air and he pressed it under his body.

At that, Bin Fei slowly retreated his foot away from An Ke.

On the stands, Shu Guang’s supporters breathed a sigh of relief.

An Ke got up from the ground, but he did not kick the ball to attack. Instead, he stood in the middle of the penalty area and called out in his big, unique voice, “Everyone, listen closely to me! From now until the end of the game, I, An Ke will not let Dingding score another point! Absolutely not!”

The stands were silent at first, but shortly after there was a turbulent uproar.

“Damn! Is this kid mad?”

“You think you can defend your goal just by shouting?”

“You already lost three goals! Yet, you still have the face to boast!”

“Go home and eat sh*t!”

“Piece of sh*t!”

“Arrogant!”

“Moron!”

Zhang Yang laughed. He squatted on the chair and constantly hit the chair’s surface. “Haha! I can’t take it anymore! What a big moron! Goodness! I can’t… My tummy…”

Even Li Yongle laughed. “Seriously, he only had to defend the goal. Did he have to say those things?”

“No, I think he’s very strong,” Zhang Lintao replied.

“Even if he has the strength, he still has to be aware of the audience’s mood! There are more people supporting Dingding compared to the ones supporting Shu Guang!”

Zhang Yang held on to his stomach; he could not say anything more.

Zhang Lintao smiled. “If you judge him by the standards of ordinary people, then An Ke wouldn’t be An Ke. Mad, confident, brave and passionate; he really fits being a goalkeeper…”

“Not letting us score another… Your goalkeeper’s really arrogant…” Yao Wang pointed at Zhang Jun who was beside An Ke.

“Correct, but it’s not ‘arrogance’, it’s ‘confidence’.”

“But he lost three goals and Xia Bo Cai only lost two…”

“Your goalkeeper will quickly lose two more goals as well.”

“Lose another two? Why?”

“Because, the result of the game will be 4: 3 and Shu Guang will win!” Zhang Jun laughed at Yao Wang and ran off to the midfield.

After An Ke broadcasted his declaration, he ignored the uproar and clamor as he kicked the ball to the front.

Cao Po and Kaka were intertwined around the ball’s whereabouts but unfortunately, Cao Po’s efforts to get a hold of the ball were useless. Kaka jumped and returned it to Wang Ning.

But when Wang Ning wanted to pass the ball again, he could not find anyone to pass it to. Kaka, Yang Pan and Zhang Jun were marked by their opponents. If he passed, the ball would return to his opponents. In desperation, he chose to backtrack.

Lin Xiaofang received the ball, however he was unable to do anything either. All he could do was cross it by Li Jieguang.

“Stop leaving the back vulnerable!” An Ke shouted. “Go forward and give the ball a big kick! Pass it to Yang Pan!”

Li Jieguang then discovered that the one defending against Yang Pan was Dingding’s No.7. He was shorter than Yang Pan. If it was a header, Yang Pan would probably have an advantage. So, without any more hesitation, he took a big step and ran straight towards Yang Pan.

Su Rui saw Shu Guang’s attempt and quickly ran to standby in the front as Lu Hui withdrew to the back. This was to prevent Yang Pan from surpassing Su Rui’s breakthrough.

Yang Pan’s body was now blocked by Su Rui from the front. He arched his body slightly and opened up his hands to prevent Su Rui from positioning himself exactly in front of him.

After Su Rui leaned towards Yang Pan’s body, he found that he had lost his center of force. He did not have enough strength, and thus could not make a jump. He knew it was bad, but the ball was already there by then and there was not enough room for him to adjust.

Yang Pan’s waist froze as his eyes marked the incoming ball. When it passed over his head, he forcefully jerked away and turned!

Su Rui staggered and Yang Pan got rid of him!

Once Lu Hui saw Yang Pan rushing to the front, he did not dare to approach him, because he was bound to be overwhelmed by his speed. He carefully withdrew and kept a certain distance from the others to ensure that the “speed king” would not “rush”.

However, as soon as Yang Pan passed by Su Rui, he made a sudden shot from a 25 m distance to the goal.

“It’s coming! Yang Pan’s long-range shot!” Even the commentator sounded full of expectation.

The angle was somewhat right and the ball flew upwards. Xia Bo was not about to ignore it. He jumped up and used both of his palms to catch the ball.

After a quick contact between the soccer ball and Xia Bo’s hands, it produced a loud noise and flew out, away from the crossbar. Xia Bo on the other hand, flew into the goal.

“It’s out! But, what an amazing shot! Even Xia Bo was shot into the goal! Yang Pan truly deserves to be called ‘the king of long-range shots’!”

There were gasps and sighs from the stands, while some were just shocked from the shot. Although the media had already made Yang Pan’s shots seem like a myth, it definitely surprised many who saw it for the first time.

“Sima Hongxin and Xia Bo; both goalkeepers were pushed into the goal by him. It looks like his strength has improved!” Whenever Zhang Lintao talked about Yang Pan, he could not maintain his calm composure. He had his fists up in the air.

“This is damaging our brain! Yang Pan’s long-range shots, Zhang Jun’s dragon-like fury and Ren Yu De’s skill… Our opponents are too powerful!” Zhang Yang held on to his head as he sighed and stretched out in his chair.

Li Yongle went up to his side and kicked him in the back. “Are you scared?”

“Hmph! It was a joke! Since I started fighting, I never knew how to write the word ‘scared’!” Zhang Yang sighed and the hair on his forehead rose.

“Dingding just stabbed a hornet’s nest!” Chen Huafeng said to himself as he looked at Xia Bo, who was still lying inside the goal.