Chapter 87: The Game Starts Now

He Wen felt some uncertainty in her heart, especially when she saw He Jialin hoisting the ball into the goal where her brother was guarding. She didn’t know if she was going to cheer like those around her or sit down and feel sad for her brother.

When she first chose to be the manager of Zhongyuan, how could she not think of the day where she would have difficult emotions? She said it was to collect information for her brother but she didn’t collect much of it but on the contrary, she had feelings for this team. Regardless of the outcome of this game, she knew that she would be in the most pain.

He Wen blocked her face with a notebook. She didn’t want others to see her gloomy expressions. When everyone’s emotions were aroused highly, they were seen and questioned. She was unwilling to answer any of them.

It was only one shot in the first half and Zhang Jun was actually devastated. Luo Bin marked him to death, not to mention Li Yongle. He couldn’t even cope with Luo Bin so how would he be able to compete with the number one midfielder in the whole country?

His own performance wasn’t good, Li Yongle added two long passes as assists and almost scored a goal, Kaka was also defended from him. Hey! So who’s the protagonist in this?

He looked at Yang Pan behind him and it seemed like he regretted for his past mistakes. In the past, he could never feel guilty of such a mistake, is it because it’s the final?

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Finals… Win… Champion… National competition… Zhang Jun suddenly thought of what Su Fei said to to him, “If you lose, I’m breaking up with you!” He shivered. Su Fei didn’t even return to the lounge during the intermission, it couldn’t be… He wanted to turn to look at Su Fei but he heard a clear whistle.

“The referee sounded the whistle, the second half is starting!”

“Both sides didn’t make any personnel adjustments because the twenty two players on this team are the strongest. The remaining forty minutes is still a competition of strength! Shu Guang who is one score away is about to attack with full force and the leading Zhongyuan definitely won’t be satisfied with just one goal. We can expect that the second half will be very exciting and intense!”

“The kickoff from Zhongyuan is the same as the first half, it’s a fierce attack! Zhao Defeng dribbled the ball towards the field of Shu Guang!”

“But Shu Guang’s Wang Ning is very active, he forced Zhao Defeng to give up the ball with amazing strength! And shoveled the ball beautifully!”

After Wang Ning shoveled the ball and was still on the ground, he kicked it to the side of Li Hao.

Li Hao transferred it to Yang Pan for the first time. Yang Pan then transferred it to Ren Yu De on the left.

Ren Yu De beautifully stopped the ball. This time, Liu Chao didn’t rush up so he started to dribble the ball to the front. Only because Liu Chao thought that he wouldn’t chase in time, he let him think that he would have a chance then only he would go upfront to break him and let him know who the real owner of this place was.

“Liu Chao rushed up and Ren Yu De didn’t plan to pass the ball. He seemed to have a firm decision!”

“Good! That’s the way to do it!” Liu Chao said deep in his heart, he went full force to snatch the ball. But as he extended his foot… It was only temptation and he didn’t expect the ball would fall under his feet!

Ren Yu De tripped and fell forward to the ground.

The stands booed.

Even Liu Chao was surprised himself. He didn’t expect that he could break Ren Yu De’s ball so easily. He turned to see if it was really that expert in dribbling Ren Yu De, but he heard Zhao Defeng screaming, “What are you doing? Pass the ball over!”

Liu Chao frantically passed to Zhao Defeng, Zhao Defeng dribbled the ball and Zhongyuan counter-attacked!

There was a series of smooth passes until it was forwarded to He Jialin to make the shot. However, his shot was compressed firmly under An Ke’s body, he didn’t give him a chance to score. In fact, An Ke’s state in the game was very good, but the first goal was the team’s mistake, that kind of goal, he couldn’t throw it out despite being a professional goalkeeper.

“Yang Pan took the ball! Lu Qing didn’t hesitate to rush towards him!”

Kaka ran over to support and Yang Pan passed the ball to him. Under the strict defense of Li Yongle, Kaka couldn’t turn around but he immediately rushed the ball behind him and Yang Pan sped up towards the direction of the ball, two over one.

Yang Pan was one step ahead from Lu Qing to receive the ball then he turned it to his right foot and shot in a straight line! Lu Qing was shocked but he couldn’t care less and shoveled his leg to it!

“It’s coming! Yang Pan’s long shot!”

Twenty-five meters away from the goal and soccer ball went whistling by. Zhang Lintao did not have much time to think and raised both of his hands to attack.

After a muffled sound, the soccer ball was out of the bottom line and Zhang Lintao fell to the ground.

“What an amazing shot! However, Zhang Lintao’s performance is even amazing, he strove to save Yang Pan’s great shot! Li Bao’s goal isn’t loss!”

Luo Bin pulled Zhang Lintao up from the ground, “That’s good! Their confidence can now be attacked!”

Yang Pan looked at Zhang Lintao and remembered the “special training of Zhang Lintao” that heard before the qualifier. His shot from twenty five meters was actually blocked by him and he looked unscathed. Although he didn’t do his best because of Lu Qing’s interference, it wouldn’t be so bad! Is this the result of his special training?

Kaka kicked the corner ball out and it drew an arc then flew towards the goal.

Zhang Jun and Yang Pan kept running towards the restricted area to confuse Zhongyuan. Zhang Jun jumped up, don’t underestimate him for being 179 cm as his jump was excellent, heading was one of his best strength.

Luo Bin naturally didn’t dare to be careless but it was impossible the head the ball now so he could only jump in to interfere.

However, Zhang Jun didn’t head for the ball and instead, he only made a shot at the front point!

“It’s Lin Xiaofang!”

Every time Lin Xiaofang is about to attack with a corner kick, he would always run in front of the opponent’s goal and would be ready to snatch some points with his height of 187cm and his good header. However, he always had bad luck so he didn’t have a chance to build his skills. This time, the opportunity has come!

“Lin Xiaofang is pressuring Deng Rui and jumped! He used a header to attack!”

The speed of the ball was very fast and the distance was near that Zhang Lintao had no respond at all. He had his eyes wide open as he watched the ball entering the door from the right side!

“Goal!”

Lin Xiaofang landed and was just about to celebrate. He heard the whistle of the referee, he looked at the referee and his gesture told him, “Invalid goal!”

The large screen replayed.

Kaka passed the ball to the front of the goal. Zhang Jun’s falsification at the front disturbed the defense of Zhongyuan, that’s how Lin Xiaofang had the chance.

However, when Lin Xiaofang jumped, he used his hands to push Deng Rui in front of him. Deng Rui tripped then Lin Xiaofang jumped and used a header to attack. Zhang Lintao had no actions as he watch the invalid ball flying inside the goal.

“Aha! Lin Xiaofang pushed Deng Rui who was defending when he jumped! The referee clearly noticed and there was no problem with the penalty. After watching the replay footage, the members of Shu Guang didn’t have any objections to the penalty.”

Zhang Lintao took a deep breath, he blocked Yang Pan’s strong shot earlier. Although he had undergone special training, there was still a certain amount of numbness in it. Now he certainly missed Lin Xiaofang’s shot again. Fortunately, Lin Xiaofang eagerly scored and actually pushed Deng Rui that was defending behind him. Thus it was a foul and the goal was invalid. He could rest his hands.

However, he didn’t expect that Yang Pan’s power have improved a lot. The ball that was shot was interrupted by Lu Qing but it was still powerful nonetheless. For the remaining thirty-five minutes, they wouldn’t dare to be careless for even one second.

He looked at Yang Pan with his hands on his hops, thinking that the tiger will finally bare it’s fangs.

Yang Pan’s cannon-like shot earlier finally made the stands settle down after a while. Almost veryone was happily discussing about Yang Pan and Zhang Lintao’s defeat in the end.

From the surface, it seemed like Zhang Lintao won, he managed to threw Yang Pan’s strong shot out while he fell to the ground but he better than those who were hit into the goal, he’s already better than them by a lot.

However, the game hasn’t end, it’s still too early to say anything now. Until the last whistle blows, we’ll see who it’s the last one laughing.

Zhang Jun saw a signal from Yang Pan’s foot and Yang Pan was gradually walking out of the shadow of his past mistakes, he began to be a front offensive planner and have the responsibility to score.

There was no way to score as Luo Bin was keeping an eye on him. He should try to create opportunities for himself instead.

Soon, Shu Guang made a comeback. In order to avoid being interfered by Lu Qing at any moment, Yang Pan shot it from an appearance of 30 meters!

Lu Qing rushed forward and the soccer ball was like a streak of white light flying across his side, he was shocked but he didn’t hesitate to follow it.

Zhang Lintao was well prepared. He was no longer passive in defense and waited for the ball to arrive. Instead, he rushed forward like a ferocious tiger and slammed the ball with both of his hands!

After a loud ring, the soccer ball was back to the midfield. Zhang Lintao used the momentum to roll forward and stand up again.

“Zhang Lintao wonderfully saved one again! Yang Pan’s shot was blocked by him! The soccer ball was slammed to the midfield. Zhao Defeng passed the ball back to Li Yongle who already caught up, Zhongyuan is about to counterattack!”

“Back to defense! Back to defense! An Ke shouted loudly, Shu Guang quickly dispersed as they knew how brilliant Li Yongle’s long pass was.

“Li Yongle now takes the ball, will he use his accurate long pass again? Oh, he’s taking the lead by himself at the front! Zhongyuan strongly counter attacked against Shu Guang in the restricted zone!”

In this situation, the dark blue uniform of Zhongyuan looked like dark stormy clouds striking down.

Yang Pan froze for a while then he gave chase to Li Yongle. The distance between him and Li Yongle was constantly shortened and the distance between Li Yongle and Shu Guang’s restricted area was also being shortened.

“Already entering the twenty five meter zone, Li Yongle still has no intention of passing the ball. He seemed to be planning to play alone!”

Yang Pan eventually was on the same level as Li Yongle, his speed was indeed fast. He took only five seconds to run for nearly forty five meters. But in this situation, it wasn’t easy for him to think or cut off the ball again, there was no chance of entering either!

Li Yongle slid the ball gently forward with his left foot and the soccer ball left from his control for a while.

“Right on time!” Yang Pan made up his mind and he didn’t hesitate until he stepped forward and stretched his leg to shovel it!

However, he didn’t expect Li Yongle’s leg to be very long, he should have been out of control for the ball but he suddenly stretched his right foot out and changed his direction.

At this time, Yang Pan was unable to brake and he firmly lunged until he kicked Li Yongle’s right heel.

Li Yongle tumbled a few times until he stopped, it was frightening but it was natural for him to protect himself- Of course, except fake slammers.

The referee sounded the whistle.

Yang Pan was silent then he quickly pulled Li Yongle up. “Are you okay?” He said with a concern.

Li Yongle certainly understood what Yang Pan meant, he froze a while then he looked at the referee who was rushing over to their side and he quickly replied, “I’m okay, it’s nothing!” He even patted Yang Pan’s head in a very sweet action to prove that their relationship between them was good to the referee and there was no foul intention.

Liang Ke stood up nervously and watched the referee took out something from his pocket.

“Yellow card! The referee showed a yellow card to Yang Pan. Maybe he thought that Yang Pan’s foul wasn’t intentional, he raised his hands and let him go. Yang Pan escaped and Shu Guang escaped from a disaster too.”

“Indeed, they’re behind by one goal, if Yang Pan is sent off, it wouldn’t be simple with a short of one person. In fact, the referee is an exalted player but it also guarantees that the excitement and intensity of the game will not be compromised.”

Li Yongle looked at the yellow card and shook his head. At this time, if he had to ignore Yang Pan, Yang Pan would have assumingly left the field. Their team was one goal ahead of the game, if the opposing team is short by one captain, they would have victory at clear glance. The coach said it was the final and the team’s interests were above anything else. Wasn’t it a good time to completely fight them off? Why did he want to respond to Yang Pan so enthusiastically?

One thing Li Yongle can be certain that he didn’t regret his decision. He just didn’t know why he did that. At that time, he naturally embraced Yang Pan and even patted his head, his closeness to him wasn’t like an opponent but more like a teammate.

Zhongyuan earned a free-kick from twenty three meters away from the goal. The crisis has not been lifted, this ball was indeed far away but to Zhao Defeng, it was completely in the range to shoot. So it made Shu Guang really nervous.

“In the match between the two teams last year, Shu Guang advanced a goal and was then hit by three goals from Zhongyuan. The first goal was a very exciting free kick scored by Zhao Defeng. Will we see his wonderful performance today?”

An Ke loudly commanded the wall of defenders to lean towards the right and lean more closely to close the corner, then he stood at the far corner to deal with this.

The members of Zhongyuan were not idle, they surrounded Shu Guang’s members in the restricted area and interfered with Shu Guang’s defense.

Zhao Defeng stood in front of the ball and Luo Bin stood beside him to estimate the amount of people. Li Yongle didn’t enter the restricted area but stood outside, he wasn’t far from Zhao Defeng and Luo Bin.

Zhang Jun looked at Li Yongle standing in front of his village, there wasn’t any place for anyone to notice him. His heart was racing but he didn’t know where would be wrong. At this moment, the referee sounded the whistle, indicating Zhongyuan could launch their free kick.

Luo Bin was only seen meeting the ball but from the top of the ball, it was falsity! Shu Guang’s defensive wall didn’t move, they were all waiting at the back of the restricted area. An Ke had all his focus set on the back of Luo Bin, which was Zhao Defeng.

Zhao Defeng moved at the moment Luo Bing crossed the ball, he only took one step forward to the ball and limped his left foot but he didn’t directly shoot, but turned instead!

The defensive wall reflexively leaped, only to realize that they were fooled. Everyone looked at the forgotten Li Yongle that was rolling the ball in front of his feet then he made a big shot with his right foot!

“Li Yongle is the real one!”

As the soccer ball flew lowly into the penalty zone, An Ke saw it coming but he was helpless as he went to catch at the wrong direction. Both Zhao Defeng and Li Yongle shot in different directions. The ball flew to the place he was standing at then it bounced back in front of Lin Xiaofang’s legs and jumped into the goal!

Curved ball!

Shu Guang was fooled!

“Goal! Goal- Zhongyuan takes the lead by 2: 0! Wonderful! A beautiful free kick! It seems like Zhongyuan can’t be overtaken!”

Looking at Li Yongle who was squashed by his teammates, Zhang Jun finally realized that there was nothing that went wrong- It was that dangerous figure that no one kept an eye on! The penalty was really fast, they’re behind by 0: 2 and there’s still thirty three minutes remaining for the game.

How did Zhang Jun suddenly felt like weather in winter got hotter, as if the sun was roasting on the earth like summer and the things from far and near became imaginary. He wiped his sweat then he turned to look at the coach’s seat. Even Liang Ke, who has always been sitting straight up had a slight hunch at this moment, is it because it’s the final? This pressure, that the coach who has always been calm can’t contain it?

“Get the national championship, alright?”

“Okay.”

“If you lose, I’m breaking up with you!”

Just when his teammates were still dejected and overwhelmed and the players of Zhongyuan were still frantically celebrating their goal, Zhang Jun ran towards the goal and picked up the ball. Then he ran towards the middle.

He solemnly placed the soccer ball on the kick-off point and stood there waiting for the kick-off, just like a fighting in waiting, waiting for the whistle to signal the kick-off.

The game, from now on has begun…