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Chapter 224 A Person with a Desire

After taking a three-goal lead, Tyne's players finally relaxed.

This time, after Isala scored, Wang Lie did not take the opportunity of everyone celebrating to give them a warning, as he did after scoring his second goal earlier.

Although everyone knows that they should not relax and should remain focused until the referee blows the final whistle.

But knowing it is one thing, not everyone can actually do it.

If it were the old Wang Lie, he might have continued to dampen everyone's spirits during the goal celebration, making them tighten their belts even more.

At the time, it's unlikely anyone would have objected, since Wang Lie was right; as mentioned earlier, everyone understands this principle.

However, if this continues indefinitely, it's inevitable that some people will secretly criticize Wang Lie.

Dissatisfaction accumulates little by little like this.

Then at some point, when the emotions are right, they explode.

At that time, Wang Lie would only put on a stern face and say coldly, "Reason is reason. If what I say makes sense, then you must do as I say. If you can't, then reflect on what went wrong with yourself."

This will certainly not solve the problem; it will only exacerbate the conflict.

Wang Lie's thoughts used to be very simple:
Let things escalate if they want. I've done nothing wrong, I'm in the right, why should I be afraid of you?!
Nowadays, Wang Lie will at most encourage everyone to keep going during celebrations, but he won't make any strict demands.

With more than twenty minutes left in the game and a three-goal lead, there was really no need to make everyone too tense, as that would only hinder their performance.

As for the Skos's counterattack...

Wang Lie turned his gaze to Chi Zhen on the opposite half of the court.

Taking advantage of Tyne's celebration, the Scouts quickly made a substitution.

Chi Zhen was left on the court.

So Wang Lie turned around and called out the name of center-back Claire Oni, then pointed at Chi Zhen and shouted at him: "Watch out for Chi, Claire!"

Claire O'Neill nodded and gave Wang Lie a thumbs-up to indicate that she had heard him.

※※※

Chi Zhen had been observing Brother Wang the whole time, but he didn't pay much attention when Brother Wang turned around and called out to him.

But when he saw Brother Wang raise his hand and point at him, he immediately realized that Brother Wang must be explaining something related to him to his teammates.

Immediately afterwards, he heard Brother Wang shouting:
"Be careful of the pool next, Claire!"

Upon hearing that Brother Wang had instructed the defender Tyne to be on high alert against him, Chi Zhen did not feel disappointed or afraid; instead, his eyes lit up!
Why did Wang Ge only call out his own name when there were ten players on the field, specifically to remind his teammates to pay attention to him?

This shows that, in Wang Ge's opinion, he is the most threatening player for the Scottish team!

Although he has not scored a goal so far in this match.

But it's clear that he has already gained Wang Ge's initial approval and is considered the Scorsese player most likely to cause trouble for Tyne!

Since that's the case, I absolutely cannot let Brother Wang down!

Although we are currently down by three goals, as long as I can score a goal as soon as possible, and if we still have about twenty minutes left, a two-goal gap is not an insurmountable obstacle!
Tyne's two goals happened within five minutes, didn't they?

※※※

Simon Lofin, who was substituted on along with João Vega, was in midfield with the ball, but he was entangled by Vitini and couldn't shake him off for a while.

Just then, he heard Chi Zhen's voice: "Simon, over here!"

Simon Lofen looked up and saw Chi Zhen beckoning to him from the front.

He was somewhat dazed because he received the ball in midfield with his back to the direction of attack, but Chi Zhen appeared directly in front of him, which meant that Chi Zhen had already appeared in the backfield!

But Chi Zhen is a striker!

However, Lofen's professional instincts allowed him to quickly pass the ball over.

Actually, Wang Lie noticed this when Chi Zhen went to ask Luo Fen for the ball, but he was a bit far from Chi Zhen at the time and needed to rush over.

Before he could even arrive, the ball had already been passed to Chi Zhen.

He accelerated forward, preparing to suddenly intercept the ball from Chi Zhen's blind spot.

But Chi Zhen seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, flicking the ball to the other side and turning around at the same time, just brushing past Wang Lie who was rushing up!

The Tyne fans in the stands gasped in surprise.

Just as Chi Zhen was about to accelerate and completely shake off Brother Wang, he realized that he was still in the same spot after kicking out, and at the same time, a huge pulling force came from his side and back...

He turned around and saw that Brother Wang had reached out and was tightly gripping the hem of his jersey!
That's why he couldn't move an inch even when he pushed off the ground!

Chi Zhen quickly waved his hand to slap Wang Ge's arm, preparing to break free from the restraint—he knew what Wang Ge wanted to do, nothing more than to use a tactical foul in the frontcourt to end the Scottish attack.

He had no intention of granting Brother Wang's wish!

But just as he broke free from Brother Wang's grasp, the referee's piercing whistle rang out.

"Ah!" Chi Zhen shouted urgently.

Brother Wang finally succeeded...

A tactical foul that doesn't even get a yellow card, but in return, the Scotts lose an offensive opportunity. It's a fucking steal!
Sure enough, Wang, who had clearly broken the rules, smiled at him and said, "Relax, Chi Zhen. Haste makes waste."

Even if Chi Zhen were naive, he wouldn't believe that Brother Wang was genuinely trying to be kind and remind him.

Brother Wang is clearly messing with his own mentality...

If I were just an ordinary player, my mentality might really have been broken by Brother Wang.

But I am not.

At least not now.

Chi Zhen knew very well that Brother Wang was doing this to mess with his mentality, but this only proved that Brother Wang truly regarded him as an opponent he had to take seriously.

If I were just a nobody, Brother Wang wouldn't have bothered with me. After all, Brother Wang doesn't kill nameless ghosts.

Therefore, Chi Zhen's mindset was not affected; on the contrary, it was encouraged.

So Chi Zhen, who had just been feeling annoyed, turned around, covered his mouth, and said to Wang Lie:
"Brother Wang, if you hadn't said that, I might have really lost my composure. But now... thank you for your encouragement, Brother Wang!"

He saw that Brother Wang paused for a moment after hearing this, and he knew that his counterattack had worked.

So he laughed, turned around, and ran away, leaving only Wang Ge with his back turned.

Looking at Chi Zhen's retreating figure, Wang Lie thought of Chi Zhen's words and smiled.

At the same time, he turned and walked back to his position.

As for his foul, there was not only no yellow card warning, but not even a verbal warning. The referee simply waved his hand to indicate that the Scots player would take a free kick in the backfield.

The Scottish players did not argue with the referee or provoke Wang Lie.

It was just a tactical foul; it wasn't worth wasting time on it.

※※※

“Chi Zhen has expanded his range of movement and is no longer confined to the striker position. He is more like a free-roaming attacker…” Luo Jin said, stating his observation.

Zhao Chuanfeng said, "The Scorsese team does need him to be more active right now. Gil chose to keep him on the field because he values ​​his all-around abilities and top-notch ball control." After Wang Lie scored twice and Tyne slowed down the pace of the game due to a three-goal lead, the two Chinese commentators shifted their focus to Chi Zhen.

This time, Chi Zhen returned to his most familiar position, receiving the ball on the left side near the center line.

As he received the ball, Tyne's right-back Barnabas rushed up, trying to dispossess him.

This is a clear sign of relaxation – in the past, Barnabas would not have been so overconfident as to directly press the ball, but would have chosen to hold his position, maintain a suitable distance, and wait for Chi Zhen to receive the ball first.

Having the ball doesn't necessarily give you the upper hand; it can also put you under pressure and make it harder to make moves.

Before receiving the ball, Chi Zhen noticed the arrogant Barnabas rushing forward. He immediately changed his mind and raised his foot as if to stop the ball. He was originally going to stop the ball, but now, after the ball rolled over, he gently lobbed the ball outward with the inside of his right foot.

The football drew a barely perceptible arc, just narrowly avoiding Barnabas's attempt to intercept.

At the same time, he pushed off the ground and sped past the other side of Barnabas!
"Beautiful! A one-two pass between the player and the ball!"

After getting past the reckless Barnabas, Chi Zhen dribbled straight towards Tyne's penalty area!
The Scots fans in the stands shouted loudly to cheer on their hero.

However, their cheers were quickly drowned out by the noise generated by the Tyne fans.

In fact, Chi Zhen didn't really care whether anyone in the stands was cheering for him.

At this moment, he had entered a state of flow. He could not hear the noise and commotion outside, did not care about the contest between the two sides of the fans in the stands, his vision was exceptionally sharp, his brain was thinking at high speed, and his adrenaline was soaring, making him feel that all the movements of his opponents in front of him seemed to have slowed down.

He even had enough time to calmly consider what he should do next.

Tyne's right center-back Claire Onee is heading towards the edge of the penalty area; he should be holding that position, not rushing in to intercept the ball.

The player who intercepted the ball was none other than Tyne's defensive midfielder, Lenny Isara.

Chi Zhen caught a glimpse of the dark figure approaching him out of the corner of his eye.

So he stretched out his left foot toward the ball with all his might, and just as he was about to collide with the dark figure, he flicked the ball to his right.

The football rolled just past Isara's feet.

At the same time, Chi Zhen suddenly stopped and changed direction!

Because the change of direction was so extreme, his left foot even plowed into the soil, overturning and pushing up a piece of turf.

He had to use the strength of his hands to support his body and provide extra momentum to complete this high-speed drifting turn.

Isara was left behind!
He dribbled past Isala, cut across the field, and then swung his right foot in a curling shot.

Claire Oni, who came up to block him, immediately stretched out her foot to block, while putting her hands behind her back to avoid her arms from touching the shot ball.

But after Chi Zhen's right foot landed, he still managed to flick the ball to the other side!
Then he used the outside of his left foot to push the ball forward, and it went into the penalty area!
"Chi Zhen! Beautiful! Two consecutive changes of direction!"

"Look at this ball!"

"Pool! The Skos people's chance!"

Amid the commentators' gasps, Chi Zhen burst into the penalty area, caught up with the ball, and unleashed a left-footed shot.

In a state of flow, Chi Zhen caught a glimpse of Goetz shifting his weight toward the far corner out of the corner, so he used the instep of his left foot to strike the ball toward the near corner of the goal!
Despite Katic's desperate sliding tackle from the other side, he was unable to stop the ball.

As the ball was shot by Chi Zhen, Goetz indeed fell towards the far post – he thought Chi Zhen would shoot towards the far corner, but the ball instead flew towards the near post.

His center of gravity had already shifted ahead of time, and he couldn't get back in time. He could only drag his right foot behind him, trying to block the ball with his foot.

But he failed.

The football slipped through the gap between his right foot and the near post and went into the goal!

"Chi Zhen! Great shot! Great shot! 1-3! He's pulled one back for Skos!"

Luo Jin could finally cheer for Chi Zhen without any reservations.

Because Chi Zhen scored the goal, the person who scored is entitled to all the privileges!
Zhao Chuanfeng laughed from the side, "That was a really beautiful shot! It perfectly showcased Chi Zhen's technical characteristics! He's small but agile, with fast footwork and quick weight transfer. This exaggerated change of direction is Chi Zhen's killer move!"

With Chi Zhenyi's goal, the weight on their hearts was finally lifted.

Winning or losing doesn't really matter; both are my flesh and blood.

Wang Lie scored twice, and Chi Zhen scored his first goal of the season, and it was such a beautiful one.

For those of them who aren't part of the fandom, this match was already worth the price of admission.

"That was a beautiful shot! Chi Zhen is still amazing!"

In front of the television, Shi Gaojun clapped his hands loudly, cheering for Chi Zhen's goal.

He then noticed that his son, Shi Bo, did not react at all, as if he had not seen anything.

So he reminded his son, "Even though you're a fan of Wang Lie now, there's no need to treat Chi Zhen like an enemy. You can't learn that fan culture stuff..."

He thought his son's lack of reaction was a sign of "loyalty" to Wang Lie. After all, he had once been so ardent in love with Chi Zhen, and now that he had changed his mind, he was being overly cautious.

Unexpectedly, his son suddenly asked, "Dad, I saw some people online saying that Zhen is not satisfied with losing the core player of the national team and wants to take him back... Can't Zhen just obediently serve as Lie Ye's assistant? It's not shameful to be inferior to Lie Ye, is it?"

Shi Gaojun never expected his son to be thinking about this. The fact that the extreme fans of Chi Zhen and Wang Lie were fighting to the death gave people the impression that the two had a terrible relationship.

Perhaps in his son's mind, the relationship between the two had deteriorated to the point where they were just short of coming to blows during the match...

After all, her previous son had been deeply influenced by the fan culture.

That's how fan culture works; it's a zero-sum game where only their idols can win, and they absolutely cannot accept anyone being better than their idols.

This culture has been extremely xenophobic and distorted since its inception. Any mentally sound person who is exposed to this culture for a long time will eventually become a monster with a distorted mind and a distorted worldview.

The fact that my son was able to break free from this fan culture was actually just good luck; he met Wang Lie's son, who was his classmate.

But Shi Gaojun was worried that his son would go from one extreme to the other—from being an extreme fan of Chi Zhen to becoming an extreme fan of Wang Lie.

Therefore, the father decided to explain the reasons to his son:

"It's not shameful to be inferior to Wang Lie, but why must Chi Zhen obediently serve as Wang Lie's assistant? Why can't Chi Zhen compete with Wang Lie? Didn't you say before that once Wang Lie retires from the national team, Chi Zhen will definitely become the leader of the national team, right?"

Shi Bo nodded.

He did say that at the time he was a die-hard fan of Chi Zhen, and he hoped every day that his idol could replace Wang Lie in the national team.

"Does someone who wants to succeed Wang Lie have to be worse than Wang Lie? What's the point of inheriting then? Wouldn't it just mean each generation is worse than the last? You're my son. Even if you don't do as well as me in the future, your father can still support you. But if Chi Zhen, as the successor, doesn't perform well, do you expect Wang Lie, who's in his forties or fifties, to come back to the national team and mentor the younger players?"

Shi Bo frowned: "But...but everyone says that Master Lie is a genius that only comes along once in a hundred years in Chinese football. What level is Brother Zhen? How could he possibly do better than Master Lie? Isn't that just a case of each generation being worse than the last?"

Shi Gaojun took a deep breath, calmed himself, and continued to patiently explain to his son:

"Chi Zhen's talent certainly can't compare to Wang Lie's, but if he doesn't even dare to think about competing with Wang Lie, then no matter how talented he is, his achievements will never match Wang Lie's. Besides, the fact that he dares to compete shows that he has high standards for himself and is willing to work hard to improve. It's like studying. If you can't get first place in the class, does that mean you shouldn't study hard? Even if you still can't get first place, as long as you get better than your last test score, isn't that progress? Would you rather have a Chi Zhen who can only pass with a score of 60 succeed Wang Lie, or a Chi Zhen who can get 80 succeed Wang Lie?"

Shi Bo thought for a moment and asked in return, "Can't I get a perfect score?"

"Shi Bo!"

Shi Bo quickly said, "I choose Brother Zhen, who gets 80 points!"

Then he muttered under his breath, "Couldn't it be 90?"

Shi Gaojun was amused by his son. He wanted to tease his son about his high expectations for Chi Zhen, but when he thought about his analogy that linked Chi Zhen's efforts with his son's studies, he decided against it.

He could only say meaningfully, "That depends on how hard your 'Brother Zhen' works. It's not impossible... Nothing is difficult if you put your mind to it. Chi Zhen is that 'person with a willing heart'."

(End of this chapter)