Chapter 13 The Eruption

Many had already given up hope for Zhang Jun in the away league match against RKC Waalwijk, even though Adriaanse still started him. They lamented, "Another shooting star has streaked across the sky, leaving nothing behind," as they prepared to watch the match as a joke and launch a verbal assault afterward.

Luirink and Heuvel were both concerned about Zhang Jun. After all, his continued slump had put immense pressure on him. They even considered advising Zhang Jun to rest for two weeks, take a vacation back in China, and then return.

But Zhang Jun acted as if nothing was wrong. Some things, once understood, reveal an entirely new world. He had now understood and saw a world full of hope.

During the match, he had another chance to shoot, but under the close marking of the opponent's defender, he sent the ball flying high again. There was a sigh and boos from the stands, but Zhang Jun was not frustrated or impatient. Instead, he shook his head and laughed helplessly!

It seemed he was still not destined to score today. Fine, he conceded. He would honestly create opportunities for his teammates!

RKC Waalwijk was ranked in the lower middle of the league. Facing Volendam, five places below them, they would naturally go all out to grab points. Therefore, they still deployed a man-marking center-back to stick closely to Zhang Jun. Since the match against The Hague, many teams had discovered how to deal with the current Zhang Jun: find a tough man-marking center-back to stick to him, and he would be rendered useless.

Zhang Jun received the ball, and the opponent stuck to him. Unable to turn, he had no choice but to pass the ball back to Salden. He encountered this situation many times during the match, and each time he chose to pass back.

But shouldn't he change things up occasionally?

He gestured to Heuvel, who nodded to show he understood. Then Zhang Jun reached out for the ball. As soon as his hand went up, he could feel the opponent sticking to him again. Salden passed him the ball, but this time Zhang Jun didn't stop it. He leaned against the opponent and used the outside of his right foot to flick the ball to his right, sending it obediently flying to the left side of the field, while he suddenly turned and went around in the opposite direction! A through pass?

No, it was a pass combined with distracting the defense.

Heuvel was sprinting forward at high speed and received Zhang Jun's pass.

Was he going to break through along the left flank? The opponent's right-back came up to meet him, waiting in full battle array, knowing that Heuvel was a very fast player. At the same time, the man-marking center-back who should have been guarding Zhang Jun chose to defend Heuvel instead of chasing Zhang Jun because he was closest to Heuvel. But Heuvel braked suddenly and passed the ball laterally to Zhang Jun, who had shaken off his defender!

"Crap!" Now Zhang Jun was facing the goal. What would he do...? The RKC Waalwijk players didn't dare to think further and rushed out to block Zhang Jun's shot in a panic.

But Zhang Jun swung his right leg, only to make a feint. He quickly flicked the ball to the right to avoid the block, then flicked it sideways again. Salden rushed up from behind and unleashed a powerful shot!

The ball鑽ed through the crowd and headed straight for the left side of the goal, but the opponent's goalkeeper was focused and dove, using one hand to push the ball out!

Just as the RKC Waalwijk players and fans breathed a sigh of relief, Herna appeared in front of the goal. Without time to adjust, he dove and headed the ball into the empty net!

1-0! In the thirtieth minute of the first half, Volendam, playing away, took the lead!

And this goal was caused by Zhang Jun's sudden burst of energy disrupting the opponent's defense!

Zhang Jun excitedly hugged Herna tightly. It wasn't his goal, but he had just found the feeling Qiu Suhui had described, and the rhythm of the game had returned to him. This feeling was even better than scoring a goal!

Sophie, look, I'm back! While waiting for the opponent to kick off in the center circle, Zhang Jun touched the bracelet on his left wrist and said in his heart.

※※※

In the subsequent match, Zhang Jun occasionally showed good form. He rarely shot, but his passes were noticeably more frequent, which gave the defenders guarding him a real headache. If Zhang Jun didn't hold onto the ball too much, what use was their man-marking defense? Instead, they frequently lost their position in the overall defense.

This time, Zhang Jun's presence did not interfere with Volendam's attack but disrupted the opponent's defense. The RKC Waalwijk coach had no choice but to abandon this short-lived defensive tactic at halftime.

On the other side, Adriaanse praised Zhang Jun, saying his performance in the first half was significantly better than in the previous three matches.

In the second half, Zhang Jun had two shots, but unfortunately, they were too straight and were caught directly by the opponent's goalkeeper. He was then substituted, and the one who replaced him was none other than Beukering, who had fought with Zhang Jun.

"Well done!" Adriaanse patted Zhang Jun on the shoulder and told him to go back and rest.

Zhang Jun, draped in a heavy coat, sat on the bench, breathing heavily. Now he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. No matter what the outside world said after this match, he would no longer be affected by it because he knew very well in his heart that he was back.

※※※

In the end, Volendam forced a draw with RKC Waalwijk away from home, which did not help their ranking in any way, as they remained second to last. But there was a deeper impact: Zhang Jun's recovery. Unfortunately, not everyone saw this.

Wang Hua called Li Yan for help. The agency asked him to write an article about Zhang Jun—but he found that after reading some reports from other media, he had no idea what to write.

"As a reporter, you must never parrot others; you must have your own unique insights. So, in reality, I don't approve of you reading other people's articles before writing," Li Yan, who came from a professional journalism background, was much better than Wang Hua in this respect.

"Maybe you're right, but after writing about three matches, I'm running out of things to say." Wang Hua complained bitterly. Zhang Jun's performance in those three matches was worse than the last, and they were all very similar, making it too difficult to write something different. He wasn't a professional journalist, and he didn't know how many brain cells had died during that time.

Li Yan thought for a moment and asked Wang Hua, "What's the outside evaluation like?"

"There are both praises and criticisms. But the criticisms are still in the majority. Most people still think that Zhang Jun's performance is not as good as before because he hasn't scored in four consecutive matches, which was unimaginable in the past."

"Idiot!" Li Yan cursed in a low voice, "Is he useless just because he doesn't score? Does football only consist of scoring goals? Do those people even understand football? Even Pele can't score in every match. Why are they talking nonsense about him being useless just because he doesn't score? I think their brains have been wasted!" Li Yan cursed happily on the phone, but Wang Hua, who called him, suffered for nothing, becoming a scapegoat for those people.

"Uh, Li Yan, my article..." Don't just enjoy yourself; I still have serious business waiting here, Wang Hua had to remind him anxiously.

"Article? Don't write about the performances of the first three matches and this match, and don't analyze whether Zhang Jun's comeback is successful or not. Just write about Zhang Jun's smile!"

"Smile?"

"Didn't you say that he smiled after sending a shot flying high during the match? That's it. You've been interviewing Zhang Jun exclusively for more than a year, so you definitely know what that change in expression means better than I do. Don't use long paragraphs of data and historical records to pad out the word count in the article. Just focus on Zhang Jun's mentality."

Li Yan's words suddenly enlightened Wang Hua. He was truly the one who discovered Zhang Jun, and his vision was indeed unique. Now, all kinds of reports and comments were focusing on the football match itself. They looked incredibly professional, but they all ignored that football was not just a technical project. It also contained a lot of emotions, and Zhang Jun's smile was also an emotion. Imagine that around this time last season, Zhang Jun fell into a slump after his crazy goal-scoring spree at the beginning of the season. He failed to score in several consecutive matches, and at that time, some media outlets couldn't wait to announce that what the Milan Lab had predicted had happened. But then Zhang Jun silenced everyone with a beautiful free kick. Looking at Zhang Jun's smiling and calm face, someone exclaimed, "Never doubt Zhang Jun," and coincidentally, that free kick was officially named "Smile" by the media, and it was widely recognized.

As Wang Hua thought about it, he was inspired. He thanked Li Yan, hung up the phone, picked up a pen, and quickly wrote this article on the manuscript paper, one of his most satisfying articles.

The name was "Never Doubt Him," naturally supporting Zhang Jun. The article argued that everyone focused their attention on cold data statistics, which couldn't indicate that Zhang Jun had lost his future. "We should see a change in Zhang Jun's mentality, and mentality is precisely the key. I don't know how long it will take for him to score, maybe he won't score for a long time, but maybe he will score in the next match? I think excessive speculation and questioning are irresponsible and don't help Zhang Jun in any way."

Wang Hua's article didn't help Zhang Jun out of the predicament. As an ordinary journalist, his words didn't carry enough weight. People always liked to follow a certain trend. Now that everyone was criticizing Zhang Jun, how could they not join in to satisfy their malicious hearts?

Online, domestic fans were also divided into two factions, arguing incessantly. The intensity of their words was such that if they were discussing face to face, they would probably have a brawl.

Sophie occasionally went online to take a look, but she went less and less later. Because watching those arguments only made her more upset. Zhang Jun's fourth match had ended, but due to the time difference, the domestic media hadn't had time to report the details of the match, and she wasn't very clear about the results of the match or how Zhang Jun had performed in the match.

At this time, she received a call from Li Yan. Li Yan had just finished talking to Wang Hua and was calling Sophie to give her the news. He knew that Sophie was probably the most worried about Zhang Jun in the country.

"Congratulations, Sophie." Li Yan's words were simple but almost brought Sophie to tears. "I saw Zhang Jun's smile."

Hearing this, Sophie understood that Zhang Jun was back. He might have scored, or he might still not have scored, but what did that matter? She only cared that Zhang Jun's mentality had finally calmed down. That was the real Zhang Jun!

Don't let outsiders control your heart, Zhang Jun. Just keep playing like this. I really want to see your smile in person...

Sophie silently prayed for Zhang Jun in her heart.

※※※

Zhang Jun was in a much better mood now. He no longer read newspapers or browsed reports about him online. He just trained every day, continued to receive treatment at home, and then drove out in his Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports car worth 300,000 euros, although the car had now dropped to 200,000 euros and was still falling. Feng Qing joked that he had been ripped off, but Zhang Jun believed that as long as he liked it, it was fine, and it was too boring to regret spending money.

Zhang Jun called Sophie several times, and both of them felt better. No one talked about injuries or comebacks anymore. Sophie was happy to tell him about trivial things in her life, and Zhang Jun didn't get tired of listening. His life was now that of a celebrity, but it made him miss those ordinary lives even more, such as his university life.

Sophie told Zhang Jun that she wouldn't be coming to the Netherlands this winter vacation because she was going to Sichuan and Yunnan with her uncle for photography trips.

Although Zhang Jun was somewhat depressed that Sophie couldn't come, he was relieved to think that Sophie also had her own life and pursuits. Zhang Jun wouldn't want the girl he liked to be someone with no pursuits or goals, just staying at home all day and wasting her life.

Sophie told him that she had opened a photography exhibition at the modern art center at her school, many of which were taken in the Netherlands, but the photos had been carefully selected, and there were no photos of Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun understood Sophie; she didn't want to be said to be someone who was using Zhang Jun to hype herself up.

Life was trivial, and days were ordinary, but Sophie was content.

That was life, wasn't it?

※※※

Adriaanse once again sought Feng Qing's opinion, and Feng Qing told him that Zhang Jun had no problem playing the entire match, but the cautious old man decided to only let Zhang Jun play for seventy-five minutes—regardless of the outcome of the match.

Volendam's thirteenth-round opponent was NEC Nijmegen, currently ranked fourteenth.

As a team, Nijmegen shouldn't be like this. They had a very good start at the beginning of the season, with two consecutive wins, and their ranking once rose to fourth, but then they immediately had a three-game losing streak, dropping from fourth to twelfth after five rounds, like riding a roller coaster. Then their ranking rebounded slightly, once reaching ninth, but then there was another three-game losing streak and two draws, going winless for six consecutive rounds since October 17, and thus falling to where they were now.

It could be seen that the biggest problem for this team was instability. Therefore, Nijmegen was eager to regain some confidence from the struggling Volendam.

On the other hand, the media and many fans were still worried about Volendam and Zhang Jun's poor form. The song "Zhang Jun Bless Volendam" hadn't been heard for a long time. Nijmegen's fans maliciously cursed this person who "took the highest salary in Volendam but only caused trouble": "Zhang Jun Bless Volendam? I think he should pray to God to bless him first!"

The pressure had been accumulating since those fifteen minutes of the first match, and now it could be said to be getting bigger and bigger. People who really cared about Zhang Jun were worried about his fifth match. Because there were rumors before the match that Hoorns had lost patience, and if Zhang Jun performed poorly again, Adriaanse would have to let Zhang Jun sit on the bench and put Van Beukering, the rising star who was brought in from the Dutch First Division this summer, as the starter.

But Zhang Jun didn't take these off-field factors seriously at all. He just wanted to go up and enjoy the match. After all, he hadn't played for a long time. In the atmosphere of panic created by the media and himself in the previous few matches, he didn't have time to enjoy anything. Now he missed that feeling very much.

In the locker room, Beukering stared at Zhang Jun. Although Adriaanse had seriously warned him, he hadn't dispelled the thoughts in his heart. But the coach's lack of any blame for Zhang Jun made Beukering very unhappy. Why could he enjoy some kind of privilege? I not only attack hard on the field but also defend actively. Why doesn't he need to return to defense and just stays leisurely in the frontcourt? He just didn't understand what was so special about this Chinese man. He looked a bit silly, only knew how to smile foolishly, had no sense of direction in the match, and more importantly—he wasn't as handsome as him!

"Zhang, how long will you play in this match?" Heuvel asked, leaning on the locker door, while Zhang Jun was burying his head in tying his shoelaces.

Zhang Jun looked up at Heuvel, then shook his head: "I don't know, maybe ninety minutes, maybe only half a match, depending on the coach's arrangements."

Heuvel glanced sideways and saw Beukering looking over here. This guy was still up to no good... He sat down next to Zhang Jun, then leaned close to him and whispered: "I heard a rumor outside..."

But Zhang Jun interrupted him: "Are you talking about Johnny (Johnny Beukering)?"

Heuvel was a little surprised: "How did you know? Yes, it's that brat. The fat man actually said that if you don't perform well, he will replace you!"

"Do you think my ears are deaf?" Zhang Jun continued to tie his shoelaces—he just finished the left foot, and this time he switched to the right foot—he said without looking up: "Actually, it's nothing. I performed so poorly in the previous few matches, it's normal to have this kind of saying." His tone was light, as if it had nothing to do with him.

Heuvel exclaimed: "Aren't you worried? Whether this is true or not, that bastard cares a lot about your starting position!"

Zhang Jun finally finished tying his shoelaces. He stood up, stomped his feet lightly to see how tight they were. "If the challenge comes, I won't run away. If he wants to start, he should use his own strength to fight with me." Zhang Jun said to Heuvel with a smile, extremely confident.

※※※

When the main players ran out of the player tunnel one after another, Beukering was already sitting on the bench. Zhang Jun's appearance caused a cheer from Veronica, although he had been out of form before, he still had very high popularity.

The fans' cheers made Beukering a little unhappy. That Chinese man performed so poorly, why would anyone cheer for him? Everyone said he was very powerful, but what was he good at? I really don't know what's so good about a striker who only scores in training!

Oh, God, please forgive this ignorant person!

Zhang Jun didn't pay attention to the person on the sidelines who was glaring fiercely. In fact, he didn't take that person to heart at all. All his attention was on the upcoming match as soon as he stepped onto the field.

NEC Nijmegen, the visiting team, kicked off. The referee blew his whistle, and the opponent passed the ball back to the rear.

Sophie, watch me play football!

Zhang Jun rushed out like a lion who had seen its prey.

※※※

November 21, 2004, the weather forecast said there might be snow in the next two days, but it seemed to be sunny and cloudless with little wind.

This day was also the match day of the Dutch Super League, with eight matches taking place today.

The Veronica stadium in the sun was the largest building in the town of Volendam, and there was also a match here today. The home team, Volendam, ranked eighteenth in the league, was playing against NEC Nijmegen, ranked thirteenth.

"GOOOAL!" The Veronica big screen showed a huge "GOAL", indicating a goal had been scored, but it was not scored by the home team but by the visiting team.

"Nijmegen's Brazilian midfielder, Tininho! He calmly shot after shaking off Luirink and took the lead for Nijmegen! Volendam's defense was a mess just now. We haven't had a decent defensive midfielder since Kozeer left!" The home commentator said gloomily. The nominal midfield defense left the defensive line repeatedly facing excessive attacking pressure from the opponent, and Volendam was not a team that was good at defending, so it was predictable that they would concede many goals. So far, they had conceded twenty-nine goals in thirteen league matches.

Conceding a goal just thirteen minutes into the game gave the home fans a big blow. They pessimistically believed that the team would experience thirteen winless matches. This was truly a dark and lightless new season!

But Nijmegen's excitement lasted only a minute.

"Give me the ball!" Zhang Jun, who had passed more than shot in the first thirteen minutes, took the initiative to ask for the ball.

Are you kidding me? This is our home field!

As soon as Zhang Jun got the ball, an opponent's defender immediately stuck to him, not letting him turn around.

Again?

Zhang Jun was angry but helpless—to deal with a striker, the defender only needed to stick to him and not let him turn around—he was unwilling to be trapped like this and needed to think of a way.

Looking at the approaching opponent's players, Zhang Jun knew he had to act quickly. He passed the ball back to Salden again. Nijmegen's fans collectively booed, using this method to ridicule the timid Zhang Jun.

Salden thought Zhang Jun passed back to him because he had attracted the opponent's defense and wanted him to distribute the ball to other open spots, but Zhang Jun was enraged by the boos. He immediately shouted to Salden again: "Pass it to me again, a half-high ball!"

Salden was frightened by the momentum that Zhang Jun suddenly exploded with. He didn't think about anything and passed him a half-high ball as Zhang Jun said.

"Passed it back again?" The opponent was surprised and disdainful, wasn't this just wasting an opportunity? Of course, if you insist on wasting the opportunity, I have no objection...

Just as this person was daydreaming, Zhang Jun took the initiative to lean back against him, then put his hands up to push him away, completely blocking him behind him.

After doing all this, the ball came. Zhang Jun used his right foot as a supporting foot, stretched his left leg forward, and then flicked the tip of his left foot. The ball flew over his head and the defender's head, falling straight behind!

At the same time, Zhang Jun suddenly withdrew his strength and turned around, rushing past with his waist bent!

By the time that idiot reacted, Zhang Jun had broken through him beautifully! And behind him was the edge of the penalty area. Zhang Jun had just attracted three of the opponent's defenders alone, and now the penalty area was relatively empty. He twisted his body and wanted to pull Zhang Jun down, but he waved his hand and grabbed an empty space, falling to the ground. When he looked up, he saw that the number 11 was just facing the goalkeeper and swung his left leg!

The goalkeeper didn't expect his defense to be broken through so easily by Zhang Jun and rushed out in a panic without being prepared at all. Facing such a goalkeeper, Zhang Jun didn't think much about it. He didn't even look up to confirm the position of the goal and the goalkeeper before lifting his foot to shoot!

The ball rolled into the goal along the ground from between the rushing goalkeeper's legs, a nutmeg!

Nijmegen's players lay weakly on the ground, not wanting to see that scene again.

The cheers at Veronica had never stopped since Zhang Jun made a back pass and broke into the penalty area. When they saw him finally putting the ball into the goal, the cheers suddenly increased a hundredfold, turning into an inspiring storm, sweeping through the entire Veronica and the entire town of Volendam.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!! Zhang—Jun—!!!"

Zhang Jun was extremely excited after scoring. He broke free from Heuvel who wanted to come up and hug him, and waved his hand to open Salden, rushing towards the stands. He repeatedly shouted a sentence to the cheering fans in the stands: "I'm back! I'm back!! I'm back!!!"

I'm back! Did you see it? I'm back. Sophie, can you feel it? Almost eight months, but I still fucking came back!!

The teammates behind him hugged him tightly. They could understand Zhang Jun's mood at this moment, like a volcano that had been silent for a long time erupting. They followed Zhang Jun and shouted to the stands: "He's back! He's back!! He's back!!!"

On November 21, 2004, Zhang Jun came back in the fourteenth minute of the match between Volendam and Nijmegen.