Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

"If Simão were here, Simão could do it. Quaresma could do it too if he hadn't skipped a grade."

"But no one in the current Sporting Lisbon U15 team can fill this role."

"Chris is still too inexperienced. He is obsessed with dribbling and breaking through, and his dribbling is mainly based on speed, lacking skill and beauty. His passing has been criticized by the public for a long time."

"Perhaps it was Deng Kai who gave Maxa the courage, but Maxa was wrong, terribly wrong!"

"Deng Kai's stats have been very impressive in the past few games, with a lot of goals and assists, most of which came on the counter-attack. But he is fundamentally different from a counter-attack commander."

"His role in the counter-attacks was even more extreme and advantageous than Chris's. Long shots, long shots, and more long shots!"

"He simply doesn't have the ability to pass the ball quickly on the counter-attack; his goals even depend on Chris, who can't pass either."

"On occasional counter-attacks, he might get a chance to shoot and score a few goals thanks to Chris's marking. But if the main tactic is counter-attacks, he's completely useless if he's marked and his shooting is restricted."

"Sporting Lisbon U15 doesn't have a truly qualified midfielder. Their U14 player, João Moutinho, has the potential, but he's younger than Duncan and can't adapt to the U15 level of competition."

"This is a tactical change that is destined to fail and will only bring Sporting Lisbon's current good momentum to an abrupt end."

"And the culprit behind all this is Maxa's wishful thinking, and even more so, Deng Kai's mediocrity and lack of self-awareness!"

……

November 16th.

Amidst discussions about tactical changes at Sporting Lisbon U15, a new round of league matches has begun.

Sporting Lisbon will play away against Shakhtar Donetsk.

The last time he played against this team, Deng Kai was forced off the field after playing for 30 minutes and began a two-month special training program.

Therefore, during this match, some people in the stands held up banners that read "Kaisersbane" and "Kick him off the field again."

This also gave Shachavinis' players strength.

But as soon as the match started, Shachavinis' players felt that the banners were a bit unfair.

Sporting Lisbon's young players were "clearly enraged by the banner," and they pressed hard from the start, making things very difficult for Shachavinis' team, who almost made a mistake.

In the eighth minute, Sporting Lisbon made a midfield interception and then advanced the ball into the opponent's half.

In the ninth minute, Deng Kai, who had the ball, made a rare long pass from the right side, sending the ball into the left side of the penalty area, instantly revealing his killing intent.

Unfortunately, Ronaldo's start was a bit slow, and he ultimately failed to catch up with the ball, which flew out of the opponent's goal line.

"Wow! That was a fantastic pass. It seems Deng Kai really didn't suffer any lasting injuries."

"I'm starting to wonder if he's been missing the last two weeks due to injury or if he's been going for special training."

"He's never made a pass like that before, he's definitely improved!"

Cristiano Ronaldo nodded; his opinion was the same as the commentator's.

His positioning habits are all based on Deng Kai's passing habits.

Many times he had to wait for Deng Kai.

But with that pass just now, Ronaldo had that feeling for the first time: "This pass is too fast, I can't catch it."

No wonder Deng Kai told himself to run faster before the race started.

From the training sessions of the past two days until now, Ronaldo has not yet fully adapted to Deng Kaixin's new passing style.

Because Deng Kai himself couldn't control his strength, his passes were sometimes fast and sometimes very fast!

While the passing positions are tricky, the accuracy varies considerably.

In the 13th minute, Deng Kai crossed the ball horizontally, delivering a dangerous cross.

While stunning, it was also too abrupt. Even though Ronaldo jumped and stretched his head out while running, he still missed the ball by a hair's breadth and failed to head it.

In the 15th minute, Deng Kai delivered a diagonal pass from the flank, creating the best chance of the entire match.

Cristiano Ronaldo takes a shot.

There seemed to be no problem, but the football flew over the low stands and almost knocked down the pigeons in the sky.

The fans of Shachavinis burst into laughter.

"Is this the supernova Chris they're talking about?"

"That's too mediocre, especially the archery; it's simply substandard!"

"His shots can even make me happy!"

"That's terrible! How many times has he missed an opportunity?"

"In comparison, this Deng Kai seems to have some real talent; his passing is very sharp."

Cristiano Ronaldo's face turned bright red.

He actually became a happy boy?

Do you guys even know anything about football?

The real joy comes from Deng Kai's passing, doesn't it?

Was that diagonal pass just now a pass?

Is that a ground-hugging slash?

Cristiano Ronaldo's shot went wide because the ball's speed exceeded his reaction time, so no matter how he adjusted, he couldn't catch up with the ball and thus missed the best shooting point.

Generally speaking, the foot is faster than the football, and there is too little contact between the foot and the football, so the football tends to fly downwards with an arc, resulting in a miskick.

If your feet are slower than the football and make too much contact with it, the football is more likely to fly upwards and you'll miss it.

In the 18th minute, Deng Kai received a pass from his teammate after intercepting the ball in the attacking third and crossed it in without stopping it.

He delivered the best pass of the game so far.

However, the team's center forward was at least two meters away from the ball and failed to head it.

Ronaldo rushed to the far post and barely made it to the right position, but there was no time left to adjust his shooting motion.

Even the shooting motion was barely completed with the help of his body coordination when the ball came.

Forget about power and control; it was more of a ball control than a shot.

Without a doubt, this ball was a far cry from a goal.

With the goal almost open, Ronaldo's shot hit a staff member on the left side of the goal.

Cristiano Ronaldo swears that when he first started playing football, shooting wasn't as difficult as it is now!

It seems that overnight, football went from being his good friend to a stranger.

"Oh! No, this shot shouldn't have been like that!"

"That's practically an open goal!"

"It looks like Chris is in some trouble; he needs to resolve this as soon as possible."

"It's like he forgot to wear his shooting boots today!"

"It wasn't just Chris; the entire Sporting Lisbon team wasted too many attacking opportunities today."

"They let Deng Kai down. He just returned from injury today, and he's been the best player on the court so far, plus he's the youngest!"

Seeing the withdrawn Ronaldo, Deng Kai did not put pressure on him, but instead gave him a thumbs up.

To the audience, this behavior is a concrete manifestation of leadership ability.

Even Maxa was puzzled.

Normally, if Ronaldo misses a single pass from Deng Kai, Deng Kai will throw a tantrum and threaten suicide.

Why is he so magnanimous today?

Deng Kai is well aware of this.

Perhaps the whole world thinks that Ronaldo and the other forwards didn't perform well today.

But only Deng Kai himself knew that Ding Ding's seemingly random passing was truly too much of a "stream of consciousness."

Even Deng Kai didn't know how difficult it would be to receive his next pass!

To experienced media outlets, Sporting Lisbon's performance can be interpreted as the growing pains of a new tactic.

The aggressive pressing in the attacking third affected the stamina of Sporting Lisbon's forwards, so their runs were often unable to keep up with the passes.

The force and control of tackles and interceptions affected the forwards' dribbling and shooting touch, so they had poor ball control and shooting today!

Sporting Lisbon's chances in this match are probably slim!