Chapter 1 Valdivia Scores a Worldie, China Falls Behind Early!

"Valdivia unleashed a world-class strike! The shot was fast and tricky! Goalkeeper Sun Pan did his best to save it, but it was no use... China is already down by one goal after just eleven minutes!"

Chilean players celebrated the goal amidst cheers from their fans.

The Chinese fans were silent.

They knew that after a last-minute change of coach and the injury of their star player Zhou Yi, China's prospects at this World Cup weren't great. But they still held onto a sliver of hope that China could perform well even without Zhou Yi, or at least not be completely humiliated.

But now, just eleven minutes into the game, China had already conceded a goal.

"...China's defense was disrupted by Sanchez's dribbling. Everyone's attention was on Sanchez, completely ignoring Valdivia, who was just outside the penalty box..." Zhang Lu analyzed why China conceded the goal. "Of course, Valdivia's world-class strike was also key to the goal. If his shot hadn't been so perfect, Sun Pan might have been able to save it... Sun Pan moved forward to block the angle, but Valdivia's shot was too tricky... China's goal conceded can be seen as an unlucky accident, or as the inevitable result of a series of mistakes..."

The TV broadcast cut to China's bench, replaying Zhou Yi's reaction when the goal was conceded.

After seeing Sanchez turn past Yang Muge, he stood up from his seat, watching the field with concern and tension.

When Valdivia scored, he sat back down, his lips tightly pressed together.

His teammates on the bench reacted more strongly than he did, some holding their heads in their hands, others muttering regrets...

But Zhou Yi just sat in his seat, lips pursed.

He couldn't play, and he couldn't say anything, complaining about the performance of his teammates on the field?

Of course, he couldn't. He couldn't even show a frustrated expression.

Zhou Yi knew that there must be cameras on him at this time, and even the slightest change in his facial expression could be blown up by the media after the game and become a "big news" story.

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The conceded goal was like a heavy hammer blow to the heads of the Chinese players, stunning them.

Some were already lacking confidence because of the series of unexpected events before the World Cup and their performance in the warm-up matches.

Now, the conceded goal only worsened their lack of confidence.

When the game restarted, China did not use their kickoff to launch a counterattack.

In fact, the Chinese players were still in a state of confusion, lacking a unified mindset.

Chile, on the other hand, played with greater ease. The entire team's morale was boosted after the goal.

China quickly lost possession, and Chile took the opportunity to launch a new wave of attacks.

Facing Chile's aggressive attacks, China could only defend passively, and they defended very awkwardly.

As a result, just two minutes after Chile's goal, in the thirteenth minute, Chile made a long diagonal pass from the left wing to the right wing.

Aranguiz received the ball on the right wing and passed it to Sanchez, who was waiting for him in the penalty area.

As soon as Sanchez got the ball, the Chinese defenders tensed up. Three of them immediately surrounded him, focusing on stealing the ball from Sanchez's feet, but they ignored Aranguiz.

Surrounded by three people, Sanchez poked the ball away, and it rolled towards the goal line.

Sun Pan rushed out of the goal.

Aranguiz went around the other side and got to the ball first.

Sun Pan didn't immediately retreat to the goal, but continued to follow Aranguiz.

Aranguiz turned with the ball, and Sun Pan pressed forward, getting further and further away from the goal.

After turning around, Aranguiz quickly crossed the ball in front of the goal. At this time, the Chinese goal was wide open!

Zhang Linpeng tried to clear the ball with a header, but he didn't notice the Chilean forward Vargas rushing up from behind him. He collided with Zhang Linpeng, and the ball was headed to the side, where Sanchez happened to be. He stopped the ball with his body, then swung his leg and shot!

Sun Pan had already rushed back, and he reacted quickly enough to Sanchez's close-range shot, making a save attempt and touching the ball, but Sanchez's powerful shot still penetrated his hand and flew into the goal behind him...

"Sanchez—!! Chile scored two goals in just three minutes, now leading China 2-0!"

"Sanchez...dangerous! Ah! Sigh!" Duan Xin sighed heavily. "Another goal conceded... China's defense was a complete mess on this play..."

"Still affected by the previous goal," Zhang Lu said. "The players haven't recovered. Sun Pan was a bit too anxious. He didn't need to rush out for that ball. He just needed to block the near post. Not to mention, he followed Aranguiz all the way to the six-yard box..."

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Losing two goals in three minutes, China's start to this World Cup couldn't be worse.

Chile was celebrating wildly. Their bald coach Sampaoli was running excitedly in front of his bench, waving his fists.

His goal had been achieved. Less than fifteen minutes into the game, his team was already leading by two goals... As long as they played steadily, Sampaoli believed that it would be difficult for China to come back—unless Zhou Yi was on the field.

But then again, if Zhou Yi was on the field, it was hard to say whether Chile would be able to score two goals against China in such a short period of time...

The TV broadcast cut back to Zhou Yi again.

Zhou Yi still had the same expressionless look on his face, his lips pursed. No one could tell what he was thinking.

Sitting on the bench, Zhou Yi suddenly thought of the time when he had just been called up to Borussia Dortmund's first team. Dortmund was playing against Bayern Munich at home, and Zhou Yi and Mark watched the game from the South Stand. At that time, although he was a first-team player, he was not included in the matchday squad, so he could only watch from the sidelines. Then he watched helplessly as his team was thrashed 0-5 by Bayern Munich at home.

At that time, he kept reminding himself that "waiting is part of professional football, and so is failure."

He had to do this, otherwise he didn't know if he could maintain a normal state of mind during the long wait, the end of which was unknown.

Nevertheless, he was very unwilling at the time.

That feeling of watching his team lose the game, while he didn't even have the chance to go down and help the team, was very unpleasant, very suffocating.

This time, it was the same, exactly the same.

So behind his tightly pursed lips was the clenching of his teeth.

If you looked closely at his cheeks, you would notice an unusual bulge, which was the muscles working hard.

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"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!" Sun Pan, who had conceded the goal, sat on the ground, cursing constantly. He was cursing himself. His rush out was really stupid. If he hadn't rushed out, how could the other team have sent the ball in front of the goal so easily? If he hadn't rushed out, he wouldn't have had to deal with Sanchez's shot so hastily...

The conceded goal was his responsibility.

After Zhou Yi was injured, he had patted his chest in the group chat and assured Zhou Yi that he would enjoy the wonderful experience of winning while lying down on the bench, without having to rush to contribute, recover from his injury, and return in the knockout stage.

Now was his time to shine.

As a result, he conceded two goals in less than fifteen minutes...

He wasn't just losing goals, he was losing face!

Yang Muge panted heavily, looking at the Chileans celebrating their goal.

The game had only started for fifteen minutes, but he was already feeling tired... This had never happened to him before, who was very fit. Even when participating in the Revierderby, there was no such situation.

Pressure.

Fatigue came from the enormous pressure.

Thirteen minutes into the game, trailing by two goals, many people were probably feeling great fear and pressure in their hearts at this time.

He looked around and saw that many people felt the same way as he did.

Guo Nu's face was flushed. He had just run to steal the ball from Sanchez's feet, but he and his two teammates had failed to cleanly steal the ball from Sanchez's feet. Instead, Sanchez poked the ball away...

Yan Min was tugging at his hair, looking pained. Thirteen minutes into the game, he hadn't made any contributions in attack, and he hadn't helped in defense either. He felt like he was just a waste.

He Ying stood in the center circle with his head down and his back to everyone, waiting for the kickoff. No one could see his expression, and no one knew what he was thinking.

At the end of the season, they discussed the upcoming World Cup in the group chat, and they were all full of ambition, wanting to write their names in the history of Chinese football, and also on the stage of the World Cup.

They felt that with their years of experience in Europe and their excellent form, they could form a team that, while not unstoppable at the World Cup, should have no difficulty in securing a place in the group stage.

They had many wonderful dreams about the World Cup.

But starting with the two winless warm-up matches and Gao Hongbo's physical collapse under pressure, many realities shattered all their wonderful dreams.

Having never participated in the World Cup before, they now realized that the World Cup was very different from their dreams...