Chapter 73 - Onside (2/2)

Fan Cunjie received the ball, but played cautiously. It was clear to him now that any recklessness would result in him becoming fodder for Shu Guang.

He swiftly moved past the midfield, and Dingding swapped their defensive play for an attack.

Kaka ran back as fast he could, but Fan Cunjie side-footed it to Shi Yan just as he almost caught up.

Enraged after being fooled by Ren Yu De, Shi Yan was prepared to unleash his anger on the Shu Guang defense. Xie Yu was clearly unable to keep up, and he was swung around in circles.

Shi Yan crossed and Bin Fei leaped!

However, An Ke was one step ahead and plucked the ball out of the air. As soon as he touched the ground, he drop-kicked it far to the front.

Kaka ascertained where Ren Yu De was and headed the ball to his teammate; the striker was still the better option to beat the offside trap despite being on his last legs. That was apparent after he thoroughly dismantled the Dingding defense in two runs.

Ren Yu De chested the ball to the ground, turned and prepared to charge. A clear whistle sounded.

“Offside!”

The linesman waved his flag.

Re Yu De checked his surroundings and he was indeed off the line. For him to also get trapped, Dingding clearly wanted to nullify any chance of Shu Guang going on the attack.

Kaka cursed. Both their strikers were now neutralized.

Zhang Jun ran up to him and told him in a low voice, “Don’t worry, Kaka. Pass the ball in front of me next time. I’ll have them bite their own tail.”

The Brazilian stared at him, mildly surprised. “You’ve found a way to break their offside trap?”

The interim captain nodded. “Yeah, I have something in mind. Remember, your pass has to be firm, and reach my front behind their backs!”

Yao Wang struck his free kick powerfully from the depths of Dingding’s own half. Fan Cunjie got to it and moved past Li Hao comfortably. But, his pass was bizarrely intercepted. Yang Yong had surprisingly appeared on the halfway line.

The center-half quickly gave it to Kaka, who chested it down. Yao Wang raised his hand, signaling to the defenders that the ball was coming at them. The last few times he did that resulted in them moving forward together—much to the annoyance of Shu Guang.

This time, things were different.

Zhang Jun did not drift away from the empty space between Su Rui and Yao Wang. He looked for the latter and stuck close to him, running back and forth in front of him.

Yao Wang had no idea what Zhang Jun was up to. Running here and there, perhaps it was some sort of warm-up?

Zhang Jun ran a few paces towards Dingding’s goal and turned back as though he was running laps. As he ran towards Yao Wang again, Kaka passed.

It was a long ball, stabbed from the left to an empty spot behind Dingding’s defense line.

“That’s a meaningless ball, there’s no one to get it… Wait! Zhang Jun! It’s Zhang Jun! My goodness! He’s so fast!”

Zhang Jun accelerated past the still confused Yao Wang, dashing like the wind towards Kaka’s pass! It was a low curving ball, and it blew past the defense towards the box.

Yao Wang was not Dingding’s last man and there was no way Zhang Jun was offside.

Xia Bo hesitated, nevertheless he still dashed out.

Even Liang Ke had never seen such speed from Zhang Jun; he was probably as fast as Yang Pan at this very moment. He was moving at an astonishing velocity, like a cheetah chasing its prey!

Cao Po also sprinted back, not towards Zhang Jun, but to his own goalpost. He tried to cover the empty space Xia Bo had left behind. Ya Dong was in pursuit of the striker even though he had actually been closer to the ball. He was just two steps away when he alarmingly found that Zhang Jun was already in front of him.

Xia Bo got to Zhang Jun as the ball rolled over the box.

The keeper dived to catch it. He also saw Zhang Jun’s swaying feet, which seemed prepared to move the ball away at any moment. Out of ideas, Xia Bo simply slid in at the ball out of habit.

Zhang Jun whirled his left foot around the ball, indicating that he was about to hook it towards the left. Xia Bo responded and held his hands out in that direction. However, the ball was gone!

An entire stadium cried out in amazement as the ball rolled to the right between Zhang Jun and Xia Bo—both of them did not have the ball!

However, Xia Bo had slipped out of the box at that point. Meanwhile, Zhang Jun jumped over him to the left, before rounding himself to the right to stay on the ball!

Cao Po finally reached the box and he was moving backwards towards the goalpost.

Under a tight angle, Zhang Jun retrieved the ball, turned, and thumped it!

Having ran slightly too far, Cao Po desperately attempted a block with his left foot but he failed to get to it! The ball flew over his leg to the far post!

It bounced off the bar and nested itself in the net!

After a second of astonishment, the speakers roared, “It’s in! The ball went in!”