Chapter 88: Double Dragon
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“The game resumes again and Zhongyuan is now in the lead by 2: 0. This goal by Li Yongle can almost be said to have sealed their victory!”
“True, the two goals are now in the hands of the defensive Zhongyuan. The game’s initiative naturally falls into their hands. Shu GUang won’t have an easy time trying to score two goals in the remaining 30 minutes. Moreover, Sun Laihong’s tactical arrangement against Shu Guang has been very successful. Zhang Jun has no chance under Luo Bin’s defense and Kaka has been supressed by Li Yongle to the point where he can’t pass the ball out properly. Ren Yu De seems to lack confidence when facing Liu Chao, while Yang Pan has only been forced to shoot from a distance. On top of that, Zhang Lintao’s bravery today has gotten his long shots killed. Shu Guang may have no other way to score a goal.”
Despite that, the game was not over yet, so it was still too early to say anything.
Soon after, Zhang Jun suddenly became very active. He continued to run in the forward line; from left to right and front to back. He ran through a very large area, which made Luo Bin a little loss as he defended against him. There werea few times where he actually lost his positioning.
Yang Pan then took the ball again. He was the captain and everyone often chose to pass the ball to him. Even though his misjudgment before the end of the first half led to a goal for the opposition, his teammates still trusted him as always.
Perhaps it was the two goals in their grasp that made Lu Qing pretty lax. This time, it was real and not a trick to fool anyone into believing that Zhongyuan was in a relaxed mode.
His slacking demeanor allowed Yang Pan to break through easily. As Yang Pan ran past him like the wind, he could not even stretch out his feet in time.
“What the hell is he doing?” Sun Laihong could not help but raise an eyebrow. Since the team scored two goals, he had been feeling more psychological pressure. It was even more so during this period of time when Shu Guang fought back wildly. The stones in his heart were becoming increasingly heavy as time passed.
Lu Qing was broken through and Deng Rui went ahead to block. However, his movements were too slow for Yang Pan, who could travel 100m in 10 seconds.
“Yang Pan takes another shot in front of the penalty area!”
Zhang Lintao leaped and attacked the ball with both of fists!
“It didn’t go in!”
But the crisis in Zhongyuan’s penalty area had not been lifted. Zhang Jun rushed to the ball as Luo Bin lost his positioning due to Zhang Jun’s constant running. Then, he kicked!
Now it was Zhang Yang’s turn! Zhang Yang used his body to block the ball out!
And Deng Rui quickly kicked the ball off the side.
When the ball was out, Zhang Lintao suddenly roared, “Grr—”
“Even Zhang Lintao is roaring. He’s always been relatively calm on the pitch. That was a fierce one indeed. Shu Guang’s frantic counter-attacks are making Zhonyuan a little bit more active, with Zhang Lintao displaying extraordinary strength to make sure that they don’t lose any goals. His blocking of Yang Pan’s big shot was for him and Zhongyuan; you can practically sense his ominous aura!”
Actually, Yang Pan’s shot earlier had a huge amount of strength in it and the distance was not far either. Although Zhang Lintao bravely tackled it out but the ball in his hands did not ease his pain. To lessen his pain, he let out a loud roar to relieve it. Before he roared, was his hands still in a tight fist?
However, no matter what, because of Zhang Lintao’s loud roar, it made the stands aroused and roared along, the game gradually became more intense with this enthusiasm.
Li Yongle managed to see it, Luo Bin has become more and more strenuous and this kind of strenuous was difficult on one’s physical strength. With Zhang Jun constant running, he became the arrow for Shu Guang and combined with Shu Guang’s indefinitely front field play, there wasn’t anything wrong with him running like this. However, Luo Bin was the core of the defense line in Zhongyuan. If he ran around like that, the entire line of defense would be out oforder. Therefore, Luo Bin was very hesitant for most of the time. If he followed, the back defense line would become chaotic; If he did not, the others would not be able to deal with Zhang Jun. Whether or not he was following this multiple choice, it would still be difficult.
At this time, Li Yongle began to consciously withdraw a bit to help Luo Bin’s concerns.
But Sun Laihong saw it and waved at him to get to his original position and mark Kaka. Being helpless, he could only follow his coach’s instructions.
As a result, Luo Bin continued to be hesitant with his decision to follow or not to follow.
Zhang Lintao was in a good state today that he managed to pounce on Yang Pan’s big shot forthree times in a row. His own dragons might have unexpected advantages but they must have already seen it during the semi-finals and they would definitely think of ways to deal with the Dragon. And now he couldn’t turn without being seen, let alone bringing the ball to the penalty zone, how would he bring out his dragons then, perhaps this might be their ways. Besides the Dragon, Zhang Jun could not think of other good ways to break through the goalkeeper’s fingers.
Once, just one chance would be enough for him. Zhang Jun thought of it that way.
“Shu Guang hasn’t been offensive for quite a while and Zhongyuan seized the opportunity to get back! Li Yongle passed the ball to Zhao Defeng and Zhao Defeng dribbled the ball forward!Wang Ning and Li Hao are doing their best to stop him from advancing! Beautiful! After breaking through, Zhao Defeng quickly assigned the ball to Zhang Yulin from the side and Zhang Yulin slanted into the penalty zone by 45 °! But An Ke got the ball out. An Ke was in a l arge range of activities and he can be seen in the entire restricted area!”
Zhongyuan went into offense and Shu Guang naturally had to defend. Between the entering and retreats, Zhongyuan’s tight defense line had an insignificant space behind them.
After An Ke received the ball, he immediately attacked with a big kick and the ball flew to Kaka, it seemed like they were bullying Li Yongle who was bad at heading.
Sure enough, in the face of this kind of ball, Li Yongle was at loss and the ball was obtained by Kaka.
In the space behind the defense line of Zhongyuan, Kaka had already looked ahead before catching the ball. He believed that as a striker, Zhang Jun would certainly saw it clearly too and waited to pass the ball to him.
Kaka used his chest to stop the ball by his side, he suddenly turned and followed by a right leg,the ball was picked up. Although Li Yongle quickly stuck up, there was still no way of stopping Kaka from making a pass.
In the hurry of the pass, the pass became a graceful arc behind Deng Rui and immediately fell into the space behind the defense line of Zhongyuan! There’s no doubt that Kaka immersed himself in samba soccer.
Zhang Jun instantly started moving when Kaka was passing the ball, he got passed all the back defenders and ran to the placement of the ball.
When other teammates were raising their hands to the referee to indicate that Zhang Jun was offside, Li Yongle left Kaka and ran to the goal.
The side referee did not raise the flag and the main referee also ignored it.
Zhang Lintao and An Ke were two different types of goalkeepers, An Ke was good at attacking and has a wide range of control. Zhang Lintao was exactly the opposite, he was calm and stick to the goal and the restricted area. He rarely attacked the ball. This ball was no exception. When Kaka passed the ball past Deng Rui, he wanted to go out and get the ball but he saw it having an arc and was going outside. He took two steps and then withdrew again.
Now, Zhang Jun and him were one-on-one in the penalty zone and still had no intentions of attacking. It was only when Zhang Jun stopped the ball and sealed the angle. Even the shot from the first striker Zhang Jun, he still had confidence to throw it out. Unless…
A name suddenly flashed in his mind and he could not help but shudder.
“Zhang Jun took the ball into the penalty zone and didn’t get offside! He is now one-on-one with Zhang Lintao! This is the best opportunity for Shu Guang to score a point! But Zhang Jun didn’t immediately shoot but instead took it forward and dribbled it towards Zhang Lintao! Looking at this stance, can it be…”
Dragon!
The name flashed in Zhang Lintao’s mine and he saw Zhang Jun raising his left foot to shoot!
Zhang Lintao’s body slammed to the right but he immediately remembered the name, quickly stopped and he didn’t see the ball, sure enough… He immediately flew to the opposite direction with his own super-motor nerves, ready to take on the last of Zhang Jun’s dragon tail!
But when he pounced, he did not see the ball flying across.
“Ah! Beautiful! A heel pass!” The commentator loudly shouted.
Heel pass? When Zhang Lintao completely pounced to the side, he finally saw the soccer ball leaving the goal and it appeared in a direction where a figure came by.
“Yang Pan!”
Yang Pan’s speed reached the limit without having to dribble the ball, he arrived earlier than anyone else! Then he took a step forward and raised his right leg, he swayed back and forth. His entire body fell to the left and Luo Bin who had follow him, saw his stance and gave up defending because it was too late.
“Yang Pan’s vigorously took the shot!”
The soccer ball flew to the far corner of the goal with a breathtaking strength! No seemed to be able to stop it.
But as Li Yongle ran in front of the goal, there was still some distance, he was now the only hope of Zhongyuan. He threw himself forward and stretched out his long leg, thinking of blocking the ball out.
The soccer ball hit the knee of his left leg and then it bounced up, slamming into the goal post and bounced into the goal!
*Beep* The referee sounded the whistle.
“It’s a goal- Shu Guang got back a point!”
Yang Pan, who scored a goal, jumped up from the ground and rushed outside. As he ran, he tore off his coat and strode in front of twenty three thousand people. It’s no wonder he was excited, that fatal mistake in the first half and the three shots that were all caught in the secondhalf, all these grievances were on his foot and all these embarrassment were vented during the run.
“Fabulous performance! Zhang Jun’s Dragon actually evolved into such a shot! He changed his foot in the back of the Dragon, he could have used his left foot to pretend he had made the last shot, never thought that he would change to his right foot and sweep the picked up ball inthe opposite direction of the goal! Then Yang Pan rushed forward to meet the ball with a big kick! This kind of goal would be unstoppable! Although Li Yongle hit the ball, the ball still entered! The strength of the soccer ball was too huge that it became a rebound that the goal had some slight trembling! What a scary shot!”
Watching the goal, Liang Ke jumped and rushed to the sidelines to cheer. At this time, he didn’t have the shadow of a steady coach. The pressure on the final was too great, he needed to vent a bit.
The substitutes were cheering too.
Su Fei did not excitedly cheer like them but instead, she wrote down the score in a single stroke.
In the seventeenth minute of the second half, Zhang Jun assisted and Yang Pan scored a goal, Shu Guang took back a point with 1: 2.
The big screen replayed the goals that became history in this day. Whenever Yang Pan was seen scoring a goal, Shu Guang’s supporters would always burst into cheers.
Even the two commentators could not help but cheer.
“I have no words to express about this goal! Zhang Jun’s personal skills and Yang Pan’s great shot have been combined with tacit understanding of the two of them to produce such a powerful strength! Zhongyuan’s most proud defense line has been hit with a blow!”
“Kaka who launched the attack also played an important role. Under the strict defense of Li Yongle, it is very commendable to have such high quality of passing, that’s priceless!”
“Actually thinking it was the Dragon, who would have thought of the sudden changes, a single person’s performance became a tacit understanding of two. I thought of the word: Double Dragon beads!”
“Very appropriate!”
Soccer was such a wonderful thing. The effect of a goal must not be calculated as 1+1=2.
Yang Pan’s powerful shot not only provided a point for the team, it boosted the team’s morale but on the opponent’s team, it brought them a wounded teammate.
Li Yongle’s knee was hit by the shot and he could not stand for a while. In Shu Guang’s jubilant moment, he was taken off by a medical staff on a stretcher. This scene was ignored by the frenzied scene of jubilation and frustration, excitement and helplessness. In the end of the celebration, when Zhongyuan set the ball in the middle to prepare for the kickoff and when they stood in their formation, Zhongyuan only then realized they were missing someone.
“Li Yongle is injured, it could be because of blocking Yang Pan’s shot earlier.”
“That shot hit him on the left knee. Judging from Yang Pan’s leg strength, it wouldn’t have been light. So whether Li Yongle can continue playing in the game becomes a problem.”
“After getting back a point plus the absolute main force, Li Yongle is likely to be replaced due to injury. Zhongyuan’s lost isn’t only a difference in goals! It seems like Shu Guang will most likely seize this opportunity to continue their full-scale attack. As Zhongyuan has lost Li Yongle’s long pass counter-attack ability, they can only defend to the death. Let’s see if Shu Guang can even out the scores or if Zhongyuan will hold this difference in score! The battle between the sharpest spear and the strongest shield will soon be decided!”