Chapter 29 The Twenty-Ninth Goal!

"The twenty-ninth goal!"

The commentator shouted as Chen Hero blasted the football into the goal with a long shot.

"Now he has scored twenty-nine goals. If this trend continues, I have no doubt that he can score his thirtieth goal..."

Fifty-eight years ago, Hansen, playing for Juventus, won the Serie A Golden Boot with thirty goals. In the fifty-eight years since, only one person has ever done it—Luca Toni, playing for Fiorentina in the 2005-06 season, was named the Serie A Golden Boot winner with thirty-one goals, breaking the fifty-four-year-old record.

Since then, no one has been able to score more than thirty goals in a single season.

This illustrates how strong the defense is in Serie A.

In La Liga and the Premier League, scoring more than thirty goals in a single season is not news. In Serie A, it is enough to cause a sensation.

Now, Chen Hero has scored his twenty-ninth goal of the season, just one goal away from his thirtieth. Judging from Chen Hero's form today, one goal in this game probably won't satisfy him...

While celebrating the goal, Napoli's teammates were all shouting to Chen Hero, "Thirty goals, Hero! Score one more!"

※※※

During halftime, Di Natale learned that Chen Hero had scored his twenty-ninth goal, which meant he was still one goal behind.

He was very tenacious, but his opponent was equally tenacious. He hadn't lost his composure under such aggressive pressure from himself, truly a worthy opponent.

"Don't be discouraged, Captain. We still have forty-five minutes!"

His teammates cheered him on.

Di Natale simply smiled and thanked his teammates for their good intentions. In reality, he didn't need their encouragement because he didn't feel frustrated or disappointed at all.

The competition for the top scorer this season was so intense, and as a result, he had scored the most goals in a single season in his professional career.

He felt that he was in great shape, so what was there to be discouraged about?

Hero, let's continue the battle in the second half!

※※※

The score at halftime was 1-0, with the visiting team Napoli leading. The goal was scored by Chen Hero.

During halftime, Chen Hero saw assistant coach Viviani winking at him: "You're still number one, Hero!"

"Di Natale didn't score?" Chen Hero asked.

"No, he scored one goal, before you. But you scored this goal afterwards, so the gap between the two sides is still one goal," Viviani explained to Chen Hero.

"He's really tenacious..." Chen Hero didn't expect Di Natale to score as well. This was already the last round of the league, and he still hadn't been able to widen the gap.

His opponent was indeed remarkable.

"Okay, I'll score another one in the second half!" Chen Hero punched his palm.

※※※

This final round of the league had many highlights, and the battle for the top scorer was just one of them. There was also the competition for the league title.

This season, on the domestic front, it was basically a contest between Inter Milan and Roma.

In the Italian Cup final on May 5th, Mourinho led Inter Milan to a 1-0 victory over Roma, lifting the Italian Cup. If they could also win the league title, they would become double champions. Since they also reached the Champions League final, they could potentially become triple champions.

This would be the first triple crown for an Italian club!

Therefore, two games were highly anticipated in this round. One was Roma's away game against Chievo, and the other was Inter Milan's away game against Siena.

Before this game, the two teams were only two points apart. If Inter Milan lost and Roma won, Roma could overtake Inter Milan and become the league champion.

The situation was somewhat similar to the battle for the league's top scorer. The leader was not relaxed, but under tremendous pressure, while the follower only needed to catch up, and might even create a miracle.

※※※

When Di Natale walked out of the players' tunnel, he saw the banner "Go, Old Gun!" again. He waved to the fans holding the banner to thank them for their support.

On the other side, Chen Hero walked out of the tunnel with a solemn expression, looking very serious, even a bit...too serious.

"The leader is under tremendous pressure, which can be seen from Hero's expression. If he loses the league's Golden Boot in the final round, it will definitely be a heavy blow for him!" The television broadcast gave Chen Hero a close-up, and the commentator said while looking at Chen Hero's face. "And he may become a laughingstock as a result... I think this is the reason why he is under so much pressure, right?"

※※※

Chen Hero was indeed afraid of losing the league's top scorer award, but that didn't mean he would lose his form or become mentally unbalanced under tremendous pressure.

He was different from other players. He had a very good way to vent his emotions and relieve stress. That was...shooting!

"Hero—a powerful long-range shot!! Since scoring with a long shot in the first half, he has consciously increased his long-range shots... It's a pity, this shot is off target!"

"Hero is here again, he's here again! This time it's a strong point in the penalty area... a stab shot! Unfortunately, he didn't get enough power on it, and the goalkeeper easily collected the ball..."

"Napoli's midfielders are constantly feeding the ball to Chen Hero... Arshavin! Beautiful dribbling... a through ball! Hero cuts in from behind, successfully beating the offside trap. What a wonderful passing combination! Shot! Goal... Ah! It hit the side netting! From my perspective, it looked like the ball went into the goal..."

With one shot after another, the pressure was kicked by Chen Hero to the edge of the sky long ago.

Moreover, with each shot, he was getting closer and closer to scoring.

Chen Hero believed in "quantitative change leading to qualitative change." If you only take two shots in a game, how can you expect to complete a hat-trick? Maybe you won't even get a single goal. He wasn't a superstar like Ronaldo. At this stage, he could only make up for the gap in quality with quantity. He knew that his shooting skills were not exquisite, and he couldn't make every shot particularly tricky or reliable. In fact, he couldn't even make most of his shots reliable at the moment. So, if he didn't take more shots, he could forget about scoring.

In the sixty-seventh minute, Napoli launched another attack. This time, Sanchez originally intended to pass the ball over the top to Chen Hero, allowing him to use his heading advantage.

But the ball didn't go up as expected, and hit the defender who came up to defend him, creating a deflection.

It flew backwards.

However, this ball did not force Chen Hero, who was running into position, to make a difficult bicycle kick in the air.

Although it would be beautiful if he scored like that, the scoring rate was too low. Chen Hero now wanted to score, not a beautiful goal. As long as he could score, that was enough.

So, Chen Hero didn't run forward to grab the point at first, because he found that Sampdoria had deployed a heavy defense in front of the goal. If he rushed up, he would have to fight head-on with the opponent. Chen Hero was certainly not afraid of a head-on confrontation, but the chance of scoring would also plummet.

Therefore, he didn't go there at first, even though Sanchez initially passed in that direction. Chen Hero couldn't control how his teammates passed the ball, and he had no obligation to receive every pass from his teammates.

He was only acting according to what he observed. He believed that going forward was not feasible. So, he made a feint of rushing forward, causing Sampdoria's defense line to collectively retreat, and then he suddenly stopped and moved to the right.

This was the off-ball movement that he had been practicing hard with Inzaghi in the training matches for most of the season, and now it finally made some sense. Although many of his goals still had a strong personal style, it didn't matter. Off-ball movement was slowly influencing him.

At this moment, the deflected ball folded back.

It just flew into Chen Hero's control range.

And Chen Hero? He had already used this off-ball movement to get rid of the defense and was currently unmarked. He didn't even exert much force, lightly leaped up, and headed the ball in the face of the incoming ball!

The football swished into the net.

So simple, so easy, the football went in!

Chen Hero was stunned for a moment after landing. He thought the opponent's goalkeeper was going to save the ball, but he didn't expect the goalkeeper, like everyone else, didn't react, but just turned his head to watch the football go into the goal, with some annoyance on his face.

Off-ball movement!

Chen Hero was a little excited at the time, but he didn't show it.

Inzaghi scored a lot of goals in his career, but you rarely see his name and his goals on "Top Ten Goals of the Week" lists. Many of his goals are neither good-looking nor exciting, not to mention unremarkable, and even a bit ugly.

But he can score goals!

In a match, what could be more important than this? Everyone is competing to see who scores more goals. Judging whether a striker is excellent absolutely does not depend on whether his goals are world-class, but on how many goals he scores. This is a very simple and crude standard, without any aesthetic appeal, but it is very effective. Otherwise, why would so many strikers care so much about a "top scorer" title?

With excellent off-ball movement ability, many goals that should have been very difficult to score became so easy all of a sudden. The number of goals will naturally increase. Because for those difficult goals, you need not only skill, but also super luck. Otherwise, let Roberto Carlos try that free kick against France in the 1997 Tournoi de France again. Let him kick it a hundred times, and he may not be able to perfectly recreate it once. That's luck.

But in the previous goal, the factor of luck was reduced to the minimum. You just need to be in the most correct position and then make a routine movement.

Chen Hero's header just now was as easy as he did in his usual training. This is the benefit that off-ball movement brought him.

Chen Hero was secretly delighted, tasted the sweetness, and his belief in practicing off-ball movement became even firmer.

Inzaghi was indeed right. Off-ball movement is a talent, but this talent is not impossible to acquire through acquired training!

※※※

ps, the second update is here, where are the monthly tickets?