Chapter 18 (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The Tong Xing cheerleading team were giving their all; their team appeared to have an advantage over Zhongyuan at the moment. With his experience, Lin Ling was wearing down the younger Li Yongle. He passed the ball right in front of the center back before Luo Bin cut the pass off by sternly holding off one of Tong Xing’s strikers.

“Hey! Hey! Don’t allow their attacks to keep us encircled!” He shouted and dashed forward forcefully with the ball into the midfield.

Lin Ling did not utter a word as he chased Luo Bin down. He wanted to get the ball away from him because he knew what it meant when the full back was moving forward purposefully.

Li Yongle followed too and slipped between the pair, splitting them apart. Aware of what he was trying to do, Lin sped up and shook him off. Two of Lin’s teammates however, tried to get closer to stop the Zhongyuan advance―meaning that Zhao Defeng was left unmarked. Luo Bin passed the ball decisively, Zhao Defeng got the ball, turned, and sped up. Zhang Yuchao and Zhang Yulin immediately sprinted up the flanks, taking their markers with them. Thus, the Tong Xing box was clear.

“Li Qiang!” Zhao Defeng lobbed a pass; Li Qiang jumped powerfully for the header and diverted the ball to He Jialin, who swept out a shot when he got to it! The ball deflected off the keeper and went into the net.

2: 0! A rapid counter! It was just 10 seconds from Luo Bin’s intercept to He Jialin’s goal, although fast breaks had always been Zhongyuan’s specialty. For the last two years, every opponent who met Zhongyuan had always opted for sheer defense due to Zhongyuan’s fearsome reputation―forcing them to perform encircling attacks for entire games. But in this game, with Tong Xing taking a resolute offensive approach with the confidence of having Lin Ling in the team, Zhongyuan had an opportunity to unleash its true power. Once Zhongyuan cut off the ball with its defense, the five-to-six players who were in their own half would dash to the other within moments and score with a single stroke; Like a viper’s tongue, nimble and lethal.

The routinely impassive Lin Ling could not help but frown at the scored goal. “Damn it!” If not for Li Yongle’s bodily block slowing him down, he would have been able to prevent the counter. The viper had lashed out its tongue and bit them viciously―and it would very well prove to be lethal. He still remembered their semi-final encounter from last year vividly. Tong Xin led through a goal in the first-half thanks to his meticulous passing; when the game resumed after the interval, Zhongyuan had maintained their conservative pattern and they foolishly pressed on, thinking that they could enlarge the gulf between the scores. But after Luo Bin led the back line and weathered through their assault for 20 minutes, Zhao Defeng utilized two effective counter-attacks and assisted Li Qiang as the forward scored a brace. Thus, Zhongyuan won by a score of 2: 1.

Would today be a rerun of last year’s bout?

This time, it was Li Yongle who clearly accelerated and ran towards Lin Ling just as another Tong Xing player made a pass to his captain; when the ball reached Lin Ling, the defender was so close to him that Lin Ling was not even able to turn. He was forced to send the ball back. This scenarios where he was not able to move freely when he got to the ball had been going on for quite some time. For a midfielder who played up front but could not even turn, what play was there to make?

It was a sensation he did not feel last year even when he was surrounded by three Zhongyuan defenders. Indeed, this was the first time he felt such pressure―and on top of that, from a single freshman.

After a flustered pass, the referee rang his whistle to signal the end of the first period.

…

Zhang Jun finally got the chance to raise his feet for a shot. However, there was a clear lack of power behind the effort from his right leg―it was more appropriate to call it a back pass than a shot. The keeper easily gathered the ball into his arms and the referee rang his whistle to signal the end of the first half. The score was 1: 0, Bai Ma High School was still in the lead.

Sun Laihong received the news from Bai Ma; Shu Guang was behind an average Bai Ma team. He was shocked―he regarded Shu Guang as a future opponent since the first round of the nationals. The depth of their quartet of first-years was no joke. Their ability could be a real threat to Zhongyuan in the next two years.

…

“Do you know?” Zhang Yang quietly said to Li Yongle, “Shu Guang is losing.”

“How do you know?” Li Yongle replied, startled.

“When I walked by the coach just now, I heard him mumble, ‘Why is Shu Guang losing?'”

Li Yongle was quiet.

“Don’t worry! I don’t think anything will happen,” Zhang Yang added, calming his friend. “They are the lead actors! If the lead actors die off, what is there to write about?!”

Yongle considered this and nodded. “You’re right.”

“Totally. Why don’t you think about how you’re going to handle that No. 10 instead of worrying about others. I can see that you were pretty haggard in the first half.”

“You don’t have to worry for me.” Li Yongle smiled. “He won’t be able to do anything in the second half.”

“That confident? I heard he’s among the top three attacking midfielders in Luoyang!”

“And my target is to become the best defensive midfielder of the nation.”

In the long friendship that he and Li Yongle shared, Zhang Yang had only seen that expression on Yongle’s face twice. The first was when he declared his intention to beat Zhang Jun on the soccer field after that fight; this was the second time. Did he just raise his ambition from beating Zhang Jun to becoming the best defensive midfielder of the nation? Zhang Yang smiled as he remembered the scene that day―this teenage troublemaker used to get into fights and played truant every other day in middle school. Now, he was sweating profusely as he ran incessantly across greened grounds with the mindset of becoming the best defensive midfielder of the nation.

…

After that, the second half began. Li Yongle’s movements were even more vicious and there were times that his challenges bordered on plain fouls. Lin Ling suffered in silence under his hands―it was just 15 minutes worth of rest, but his aura had changed so much, he now resembled a lion; there was simply so much fight in him that he looked ready to blow.

Lin Ling was dispossessed once more by Li Yongle with a sliding tackle. The ball fell to Liu Chao who carried it up next to the sidelines. When two opponents approached, he quickly passed it back to Li Yongle who ran up alongside him. With a one-two pass with Zhang Yulin, Li Yongle dashed forward with the ball. Even Zhao Defeng was struggling to understand; it was his first time seeing Li Yongle joining in on the attack under his own initiative.

Li Yongle reached the edge of the area and passed the ball to his captain. Despite that, he kept running ahead. Not bothering to linger on why his teammate was brimming with fighting spirit, he sent the ball back to Yongle―a second one-two!

Inside the box and despite a forest of legs in front of him, Yongle still managed to find an opening to the bottom left corner of the goal. He raised his leg to shoot!