Chapter 14 The Most Important Thing Is Momentum

The first fifteen minutes of the second half had Japanese fans watching with hearts surging, both excited and disappointed. Excited because the Japanese team had the upper hand in attack during these fifteen minutes, but disappointed because, despite the advantage in attack, they failed to turn it into a winning position. All those impressive attacks failed to produce a goal.

The score was still 1-1. No matter how dominant they were on the field, it was meaningless if the score remained unchanged.

But amidst their disappointment, everyone was still looking forward to what was to come. If they continued to play with this momentum, perhaps the Chinese team's goal would be breached sooner or later!

On the Chinese side, everyone was inevitably worried.

After He Ping's explanation, everyone knew how difficult it was to play against the sunlight. Sun Pan had practically become the main character during this period, which was definitely not normal. What about their attack?

What about Zhou Yi?

What about He Ying?

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As soon as Zhou Yi received the ball, Yamaguchi Hotaru closed in, bumping into Zhou Yi's body. It wasn't enough to knock him down, but it forced him to adjust his footing, which was a difficult balance to maintain. Yamaguchi Hotaru didn't succeed every time. Sometimes he used too much force and it was a direct foul. Other times, he used too little force and had no impact on Zhou Yi.

This time, he succeeded.

Zhou Yi had already stopped the ball, but the bump threw him off balance. To maintain control of the ball, he stretched out his foot and hooked it, adding an extra step of adjustment.

If he had originally intended to pass the ball immediately after stopping it, the best passing opportunity had now been lost.

However, Zhou Yi didn't pass the ball after adjusting. Instead, he chose to dribble, hooking the ball in front of him and using that movement to push the ball forward!

Seeing that Zhou Yi didn't pass, but dribbled himself, Yamaguchi Hotaru immediately closed in again, intending to stick close to Zhou Yi and further disrupt him.

Facing the closing Yamaguchi Hotaru, Zhou Yi flicked the ball behind him with his right foot, simultaneously stopping abruptly. Yamaguchi Hotaru dashed in front of him, blocking Zhou Yi head-on.

This was the scenario that many defensive players hoped to create, but in this match, it wasn't the case for Yamaguchi Hotaru.

Because it meant he'd been shaken off by Zhou Yi!

A gap appeared between him and Zhou Yi. Regardless of its width, at least the once inseparable pair now had a crack, no longer a single entity!

How could Zhou Yi let this fleeting opportunity pass?

He immediately kicked the ball towards the right wing, where Wu Lei was waiting to receive it.

Since the sunlight was blinding, they shouldn't play aerial balls; they should stick to the ground.

After receiving the ball, Wu Lei buried his head and charged forward. He happened to have an opening, so what was he waiting for? That unstoppable momentum attracted the attention of the Japanese defense.

Zhou Yi also ran forward, but Yamaguchi Hotaru stuck to him again.

Ultimately, Wu Lei's dribbling breakthrough ended at the edge of the Japanese penalty area. He shot directly while running, but the ball went high above the crossbar, posing no threat to the Japanese goal.

After shooting, Wu Lei looked regretful, holding his head in his hands as he stared at the Japanese goal.

Then he heard Zhou Yi shout, "Wu Lei! Wu Lei!"

He turned around and saw Zhou Yi giving him a thumbs-up. "Good shot! Just like that, take any opportunity to break through! Don't hold back! Momentum! The most important thing is momentum!"

This surprised Wu Lei. He thought Zhou Yi would be unhappy that he'd wasted the pass.

When he saw the ball fly over the baseline, he regretted it—maybe he should have stopped and passed the ball instead.

Was Zhou Yi being sarcastic?

But soon Zhou Yi proved with his actions that he genuinely praised Wu Lei's performance in the attack just now—when the Chinese team launched a counterattack, he once again passed the ball to Wu Lei, who had run into an open space, while fending off Yamaguchi Hotaru.

This time, Wu Lei hesitated after receiving the ball. He was afraid of making the same mistake, so after dribbling for a few steps, he noticed that the Japanese defenders had already organized their defense. He passed the ball to He Ying.

In the end, He Ying completed the shot, which posed no threat to the Japanese goal at all.

This time, Zhou Yi didn't give Wu Lei a thumbs-up, but instead ran over quickly and asked, "Why didn't you continue to break through just now?"

"Their defense was solid..." Wu Lei pointed to the Japanese defenders.

Zhou Yi waved his hand. "Don't worry about that. As long as you think there's a chance, break through, dribble through. Your speed is your advantage, you have to make full use of it. Besides, the Japanese defense hadn't really organized itself just now. If you had accelerated and broken through, you might have been able to disrupt their defense. Then you could have passed the ball to He Ying, and the effect would have been better than it is now. Didn't I just say? The most important thing is momentum!"

Wu Lei asked, "What if they intercept the ball while I'm dribbling?"

"Immediately counter-press! Force them, even if it means fouling. As long as the foul isn't malicious, just tugging at the jersey in this area won't warrant a card," Zhou Yi said.

After explaining, Zhou Yi patted Wu Lei on the shoulder, then ran back, preparing to face the Japanese attack.

Wu Lei stayed in place for a moment, then ran back to his position as well.

However, he had firmly remembered every word Zhou Yi had said to him.

※※※

When possession returned to the Chinese team's feet, or rather, to Zhou Yi's feet, the Chinese team was in a counter-attacking position.

Zhou Yi faced He Ying, as if he was going to pass the ball to He Ying. He Ying also raised his hand and started charging forward, responding to Zhou Yi in time.

But then Zhou Yi used a turn, not only temporarily shaking off Yamaguchi Hotaru's close marking, but also completing a change of direction. Immediately afterwards, he passed the ball to the other side, to the front of Wu Lei!

Wu Lei strode forward, accelerating towards the ball. This was another counterattack for the Chinese team!

"Wu Lei! He has an opening! Zhou Yi's pass is good, he saw the opening on Wu Lei's side!" He Ping highly praised Zhou Yi's pass.

Wu Lei indeed had an opening in front of him, although not very big, it was still more obvious than on He Ying's side.

The key was to see what Wu Lei would do after getting the ball.

After passing the ball, Zhou Yi didn't stay in place, but accelerated forward, following the attack towards the Japanese penalty area.

This was the third consecutive time he had passed the ball to Wu Lei in these seven minutes, and these three times were also the Chinese team's entire offense during this period.

In a single match, this didn't prove anything; it might just be a coincidence.

But this was Zhou Yi's intention; he wanted to pass the ball to Wu Lei, because he believed that Wu Lei was definitely the key figure in quickly defeating the Japanese team.

In fact, compared to He Ying, who equalized the score for China, Wu Lei's performance in this match was very average. It wasn't just this match; in this Olympic Games, compared to his forward partner, Wu Lei seemed inexperienced and immature in all aspects, lacking experience, psychologically immature, and his form was unstable.

These were his shortcomings.

In domestic football, Wu Lei was already a talented youngster, but compared to He Ying, who was valued by La Masia and finished second in the scoring charts in the Spanish Second Division, he was still a level below.

On the Olympic stage, He Ying had a reputation and was heavily defended by his opponents, but he still managed to top the scoring charts with six goals, which showed his ability.

But that wasn't to say that Wu Lei was useless. He also had his advantages. His speed was his greatest strength. He Ying wasn't slow either, but his greatest strength was his all-around ability. Wu Lei, on the other hand, was able to maximize his speed.

And there was another very important factor that made Zhou Yi choose Wu Lei as the spearhead of China's counterattacks.

That was that Wu Lei posed much less of a threat to the Japanese team than He Ying. The Japanese team didn't pay too much attention to him.

After He Ying equalized the score, the Japanese team obviously strengthened their defense against He Ying, which meant that Wu Lei's defensive pressure was very small. That's why Wu Lei was always able to find openings.

The Japanese team probably thought they had a chance to score, so they were attacking fiercely, which created opportunities for China to launch counterattacks. As long as they could choose the right direction and adopt a reasonable approach, they could threaten their goal!

※※※

Wu Lei received Zhou Yi's pass, his mind filled with Zhou Yi's words—momentum! The most important thing is momentum!

His first touch pushed the ball forward, and he had no intention of stopping at all. Then he headed straight for the Japanese defense.

Actually, it wasn't correct to call it the Japanese defense, because the Japanese team hadn't had time to organize a complete defense at this point—they had previously been drawn to the left by He Ying.

So he was heading straight for the Japanese goal!

"China's counterattack! The opportunity is here! Wu Lei! He's dribbling at high speed!"

In He Ping's urgent cries, Wu Lei really felt like he was merging with the wind. He was like a speeding car, plunging headfirst into the shadows in front of the Japanese penalty area.

Coincidentally, this shadow was roughly the boundary of the Japanese team's thirty-meter area.

Zhou Yi gave up after sprinting for a while. He found that Wu Lei was too fast, he couldn't catch up.

He stopped, and Yamaguchi Hotaru stopped with him, but his eyes were on Wu Lei, looking anxiously towards his own goal.

"Go back and defend if you want; I can't keep up with that speed." He heard Zhou Yi say in broken Japanese beside him.

He turned to look at Zhou Yi and saw him smiling.

Before he could react, the noise on the scene suddenly increased by 10%. He turned his head sharply to look again, and saw Wu Lei accelerate and dribble past Daisuke Suzuki. Daisuke Suzuki stretched out his foot to tackle, but only kicked air! The ball had been dribbled into the penalty area by Wu Lei!

※※※

"Danger!!" The Japanese commentator exclaimed.

"Wu Lei is in the penalty area!" He Ping clenched his fists.

※※※

Japanese goalkeeper Shūichi Gonda decisively abandoned his goal and attacked—he had rushed out when Daisuke Suzuki was broken through, because Daisuke Suzuki was the last line of defense in front of him. He really didn't expect that he would be broken through so easily by a Chinese player...

Zhou Yi couldn't keep up, but He Ying could still keep up with Wu Lei's speed. He accelerated towards the goal, preparing to respond—if Wu Lei shot directly, that would be fine, but if Wu Lei wanted to pass, he had to appear in the right position.

Wu Lei, who was dribbling with his head down, glanced at the goal and slowed down slightly. Shūichi Gonda seized this opportunity and threw himself out, grabbing for the ball with both hands.

But Wu Lei adjusted his feet, using the outside of his right foot to gently push the ball to the side, while jumping up at the same time, just like that, leaping over Shūichi Gonda's arm!

However, although he had passed the goalkeeper Shūichi Gonda, he had also made his shooting angle smaller. Can he pass the ball now?

No!

At this time, Wu Lei only had one thought in his mind—shoot!

He caught up with the ball and used an unconventional action to kick the ball, turning halfway and shooting the ball towards the goal!

He fell to the ground after completing this set of actions.

And the ball?

Also spinning rapidly on the grass.

Japanese captain Maya Yoshida abandoned He Ying and ran towards the goal, almost flying, intending to stop the ball.

He tackled the ball, but missed it.

The ball spun over the goal line, and then slid into the goal with Yoshida Maya on the ground, stopping only when it hit the net...