Chapter 352 More Than Great

When Chen Hero scored his third goal of the game, Alan Pardew swayed on the sidelines.

The worst possible outcome had occurred!

Despite his best efforts, his team had allowed Chen Hero to achieve his goal in front of him, tying Dixie Dean's record!

He and Newcastle United would forever be associated with Chen Hero! They would be mentioned countless times in the future...

Damn it!

Pardew was extremely frustrated and concerned about the goal. He didn't notice the strange expressions on his players' faces. If he had, he probably wouldn't have been thinking that way.

Because… this was definitely not the worst possible outcome!

※※※

Chen Hero stared at the Newcastle United players before the kickoff. He could see their inner thoughts on their faces. Many of them seemed distracted.

Which was quite normal. Their goal had been to prevent him from tying Dixie Dean's record and from scoring sixty goals. All their tactics and pre-match preparations had been focused on this goal. It could be said that this goal was their only motivation to abandon attacking and focus solely on defense. To stop him, to become people who would be remembered in history, instead of becoming his supporting cast, his backdrop.

But now that goal had been shattered. They had still become Chen Hero's supporting cast.

With no goal left, what motivation was there to continue trying?

So, although Newcastle United's tactics were still defensively oriented, many of their minds were no longer on the game.

The upcoming game would be much easier for Chen Hero than before.

He didn't plan to let this opportunity pass.

He wanted to continue attacking, continue scoring.

For others, tying the record was already a remarkable achievement, but he himself was not satisfied. He had said it before, he wanted to surpass Dixie Dean, he wanted to be more than great!

The game restarted after Newcastle United kicked off.

The impact of Chen Hero's third goal on Newcastle United was fully reflected in their attack.

They had no intention of attacking at all. They didn't even manage a shot before handing the ball directly to Liverpool's players.

Then they quickly fell back to defend.

On the surface, it was no different from before.

But only Liverpool's players on the field knew that this was just Newcastle United's inertia. They were just defending according to instinct, the instinct of the body, not the mind.

Their minds were no longer on the game at all, and naturally not on defense either.

Liverpool's attack was now more threatening to Krul's goal than before.

Of course, not all Newcastle United players were performing badly. Although goalkeeper Krul had conceded three goals to Chen Hero, conceding goals to Chen Hero was a very common occurrence, so Krul had long been used to it. Furthermore, he was Dutch, not English, so he had no interest in preserving Dixie Dean's great record.

He was only trying so hard because he didn't want to lose too badly…

Therefore, even though Chen Hero had tied the record, it made no difference to him.

He continued to make saves, hoping that his goal would not be ravaged too badly by Chen Hero.

※※※

Chen Hero's sixtieth league goal of the season continued to have an impact. In the commentary box, in the media box, in the stands, in front of televisions, in front of computers… everyone's attention was still focused on his sixty goals. No one was paying attention to the rest of the match.

They were enthusiastically discussing this great achievement, feeling that this was the most important thing in the game, and that the rest of the match had become insignificant, no one cared anymore.

Many people felt that Chen Hero had been able to score three goals, complete a hat-trick, and tie Dixie Dean's record, which was already a remarkable achievement. He himself should be very satisfied with this achievement, so the rest of the game had entered garbage time.

Since it was garbage time, what was there to pay attention to?

Therefore, the commentators began to expound on just how difficult it was for Chen Hero to achieve this record while the game was still in progress.

"You have to know that when Dixie Dean set the sixty-goal record, the rules of football were different from today. The change in the offside rule made it easier to score goals. But today's football rules have been developed very well, and various tactics have been studied to the extreme, especially defense. That's why players' physical qualities have generally improved, but the number of goals scored has decreased. In the past, football defense was not as organized as it is today, perhaps more barbaric, but barbarism could not stop goals… Dixie Dean could score sixty goals in a season, while today's strikers can only score half of that, thirty goals is already very good. Under such circumstances, Chen Hero has been able to tie Dixie Dean's record, he has completely surpassed the various limitations of this era!"

Of course, not all commentators were singing praises to Chen Hero. After all, there were quite a few people who disliked him. But Chen Hero had already tied the record, so what could they do?

They would start by talking about how difficult it was for Dixie Dean to complete this record, to prove that even if the two had the same score, Chen Hero was not as good as Dean!

"...Eighty-seven years ago, Everton striker Dixie Dean set this terrifying record. You have to know that a year before that, Dean had been in a traffic accident, resulting in fractures of his skull and cheekbones, but he miraculously recovered a year later and scored sixty goals. Just from this point, it can be seen that Dean is better than Chen Hero! In addition, you have to know that Dean was only twenty years old at that time, while Chen Hero was almost twenty-seven years old when he did this! What was Chen Hero doing at the age of twenty? He had just transferred from Zenit Saint Petersburg to Napoli, struggling painfully because he was not adapting to Italian football!"

"Compared to Chen Hero, Dixie Dean was many times more noble in terms of personality! As a forward, he was repeatedly treated rudely and provoked by his opponents in the game. He even lost a testicle due to an interception in the game! But he has never been shown a yellow card or a red card in his career! And look at Chen Hero! He… uh…" The commentator was too excited, and when he said this, he suddenly realized—the English league started using red and yellow cards in 1976, and Dixie Dean retired in 1939... At that time, the English league didn't have any red or yellow cards! Not to mention implementing them, they didn't even have the idea! So what do you mean he didn't get a single red or yellow card? Because there weren't any at all, how could he get one?

The commentator was very embarrassed. He was known for his professionalism, but he had made such a mistake, he was really driven crazy by Chen Hero…

So for the next few minutes, the television audience did not hear the commentator's voice.

But this did not prevent the stubborn English from thinking that Dixie Dean was still greater than Chen Hero, because his personality was noble—when your sports performance is not as good as theirs, they use sports performance to suppress you and show off their achievements. And when you can surpass them in terms of achievements, they begin to proclaim that "achievements are useless, the spirit is eternal", indicating that the theory of victory is evil, and that the most important thing in sports is not achievements and victory or defeat, but sportsmanship, personality.

This is really a bullshit theory. It's the same as the Olympic Games. When the Western world comprehensively suppressed China in the Olympic Games, gold medals were everything. You have to know that when Coubertin founded the Olympic Games, the standard he proposed for the Olympic Games was "elite sports", which meant that the Olympic Games gathered the best athletes in the world, using their best performances to show mankind's courage to break through themselves, challenge the limits, and constantly surpass the atmosphere, so achievements are definitely the highest standard. Otherwise, why set up gold, silver and bronze medals, instead of giving everyone who participates a commemorative award?

But when China showed their strong strength, they began to publicize the Olympic spirit of "participation is the most important thing", claiming that the theory of gold medals and the national system were unique to autocratic China. But in fact, they themselves use all means to get gold medals—using rules, cheating, taking banned drugs, and demanding re-jumps by acting shamelessly. These are the most common things done by Westerners. They also promote the national system, but they never publicize it—at the London Olympic Games, the host Britain finally ranked third in the gold medal list. Their own sports minister said that this was the result of Britain's promotion of the national system, and that they would continue to promote it in order to achieve better results at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games…

This is the Western double standard.

In places where they can beat you, they will show their advantages to the fullest. When they find that they can no longer beat you, they will announce that the things they used to promote are worthless and start judging victory or defeat by a different standard.

Chen Hero has finally successfully forced the British to engage in double standards in football.

But Chen Hero's coercion of the British is not limited to this.

He is destined to drive those who hate him, dislike him, and loathe him completely crazy today, leaving an indelible and unforgettable mark on their lives.

Even if it makes them hate him for the rest of their lives, Chen Hero doesn't care. Being able to make enemies hate him so crazily is also his Chen Hero's ability. Some people can't even make others hate them…

He set his sights on Newcastle United's goal.

He knew that not only England, but the whole of Europe was paying attention to this game, watching him.

So he is going to give the whole of England and Europe a "surprise" today.