Chapter Ninety: The Importance of Thinking, Part Two

He took a step forward to lure his marker into following, then suddenly retreated, using the timing gap to shake the defender off. Riding the momentum of that retreat, he sprang upward, and just as he reached his highest point, the ball arrived. With a twist of his waist and core, he snapped his head through it!

The ball, struck with sudden force, immediately changed direction and arced toward the upper left corner of the goal.

The opposing goalkeeper had originally been guarding the near post, but the moment he saw the cross arrive from out wide, he hurried back toward the center of the goal. He had judged that there was no way he could intercept the ball early, and by standing central he could narrow the angle to the maximum.

But Long Bisheng had sent the header precisely to the place the keeper had just left.

Hubei's goalkeeper had excellent reflexes and had already produced several brilliant saves earlier in the match to keep his goal intact. But this time, no matter how quickly he reacted, he could not possibly dive all the way back to the left side of the goal after just moving toward the center.

The ball struck the inside of the post and bounced into the net.

A cheer instantly rose from the Yunjia Tianyu substitutes along the sideline, while Hubei's bench fell into gloom.

Long Bisheng stared as the ball he had headed smacked the inside of the post and rebounded into the goal. It was the first goal he had ever scored in an official match. By rights, he should have been thrilled, but instead he stood there in a daze after landing, blankly staring at the ball inside the net.

"I scored? My first goal in an official match, and it just happened like this?" His thoughts were a jumble. "Right, Li Jie seemed to say that after scoring you're supposed to do some kind of celebration. What should I do?"

Just as he was still frozen in place, Zhou Wei had already sprinted over from outside the penalty area and jumped onto Long Bisheng's back, laughing loudly. "Ah-Long! What are you standing there daydreaming for? You scored! This guy's so happy he's gone stupid!"

"Haha!" Hearing Zhou Wei's shout, Long Bisheng finally came to his senses. He felt he ought to do something to show how happy he was; otherwise, standing there dumbly after scoring would make everyone think he was an idiot.

So he exaggeratedly threw both hands into the air and burst out laughing. He had only laughed twice when he heard a thud behind him, followed immediately by Zhou Wei's groan.

"What are you raising your hands for... ow..." The unfortunate Zhou Wei had not expected Long Bisheng to suddenly lift his arms. He lost his grip and tumbled off Long Bisheng's back. With such a small frame, that fall nearly shook him apart.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you'd jumped onto my back." Long Bisheng hurriedly bent down to help him up. At that moment the others had also arrived and gathered around him, offering their congratulations. Cai Guoqing stood at the edge of the circle, his face full of unwilling resentment.

"Song God, don't get discouraged," the goalkeeper said with a wry smile as he tossed the ball out from the goal and spoke to Cai Guoqing. "That defensive play would have fooled just about anyone... who would've thought a guy like that could move his feet so quickly?"

Cai Guoqing shot him a glare, then said unwillingly, "It was my mistake... I only noticed that he wasn't especially fast, but I didn't realize his footwork was actually quite sharp... In the rest of the match, I'll pay attention to that, Qin Xiaolei. I won't let him get a shot off so easily again."

Goalkeeper Qin Xiaolei laughed. "That would be great!"

Although Cai Guoqing began paying close attention to Long Bisheng's movement and marked him far more tightly, what he had not expected was that doing so would be so difficult.

Long Bisheng had none of the stamina problems usually associated with tall players. He ran tirelessly all over the pitch, making Cai Guoqing's job of shadowing him much harder. After another ten minutes, Cai Guoqing was already starting to breathe heavily, yet Long Bisheng still looked completely unfazed.

The rapid drain on his stamina gradually put Cai Guoqing at a disadvantage in their duels. Several times, although he had managed to keep pace with Long Bisheng, he was barged aside in aerial challenges and lost control of the ball. After losing the goal, Qin Xiaolei's form also seemed to fluctuate. If not for poor fortune, another header from Long Bisheng before the end of the first half might well have finished Hubei off...

When the whistle finally blew to end the first half, Cai Guoqing let out a long breath. With fifteen minutes of rest, even if I have to run myself to the point of collapse in the second half, I'll stay right on you!

************************************

"Long Bisheng, how does it feel to score?"

Back on the sideline, Long Bisheng had just sat down and taken a bottle of water from a teammate when Ding Yu asked him that. Long Bisheng smiled shyly and nodded. "It feels great!"

"At any time, the first time is always unforgettable." Ding Yu had barely finished speaking when Zhou Wei nearby let out a couple of strange snickering noises. Only then did Ding Yu realize his words sounded a little ambiguous. He shot a hard glare at this precocious little disciple, then continued, "But keep the feeling of scoring for later. Don't let it distract you in the second half."

Long Bisheng nodded. "I won't."

"In the first half, we played very well, and I'm pleased," Ding Yu said to all the players. "Not because of the one-goal lead, but because of the clear thinking you showed on the pitch. Our opponents are strong, especially in midfield. Their four midfield players, attacking midfielder Li Mu, right winger Hua Ming, left winger Tian Xiaofei, and defensive midfielder Huang Zhenghong, are all very capable." Ding Yu had already asked Pan Kai for the names of the opposing players. "At the start, they were completely able to go toe-to-toe with us in midfield. What pleased me was that you keenly observed their weaknesses and habits during the match. The goal we scored was the result of careful thought."

Ding Yu pointed at Hu Gantang. "During the match, you noticed that their attacking midfielder had decent technique and vision, but was physically slight and not good in body-to-body combat, so you used tight marking to win the ball."

Then he pointed at Dai Guangming. "And you realized their defensive midfielder was a bit slow, so you used your speed to break past him... You used to be teammates with him, didn't you?"

Dai Guangming shook his head. "No. By the time I left Hubei Ejinlong Football School, that kid still hadn't arrived... And his accent doesn't sound like he's from Hubei either. It was easy to spot the speed issue. On a few counterattacks, I noticed his recovery pace wasn't very fast."

"Good," Ding Yu said with a nod. "This is the importance of a calm, thinking mind on the pitch: how to recognize an opponent's strengths and weaknesses in a contest, avoid what they're good at, and exploit what they're not. That helps you defeat stronger opponents, or more easily beat those at your own level."

The players all nodded. Dai Guangming and Hu Gantang had already proved the point. During the early stages of the first half, Yunjia Tianyu's midfield was not dominant, but as the match went on, its advantage there gradually became apparent. That was inseparable from Dai Guangming and Hu Gantang gaining the upper hand in their battles with the opposing attacking midfielder and defensive midfielder.

"What surprised me even more is that, Long Bisheng, you've begun to think as well," Ding Yu said with a smile, drawing laughter from the players. Long Bisheng smiled awkwardly too.

"What are you laughing at? This deserves praise! That defender's ability to deal with high balls is even better than Li Jie's! You all saw how he played at the beginning, didn't you? In training, Long Bisheng succeeds in about thirty percent of his aerial duels against Li Jie, yet in the first twenty minutes he couldn't win a single proper header over that opponent's head! In that situation, he was still able to calmly judge that the defender was slow on his feet and overcommitted in his lunges, and then use that weakness to his advantage, winning with the one aerial duel he did succeed in and turning it into a goal. That alone proves he can play center forward well! Think about it: how many of you could still do that in the heat of an official match?" Ding Yu's tone turned serious.

The players stopped laughing, and Long Bisheng only grew more embarrassed. It was the first time a coach had praised him like this, and the first time he had become the focus of all his teammates during a match.

"Of course, that successful aerial challenge brought more than just that one goal," Ding Yu said, fixing his gaze on Long Bisheng. "Once the opponent realized that his footwork couldn't match yours, and that you had begun to exploit that, he had no choice but to spend far more energy staying glued to you, which in turn meant that by the time he was contesting headers, he had already worn himself down and no longer had the strength to do much about it. In the later aerial battles, although he never quite managed to shake Long Bisheng off, he was already slipping into a disadvantage. Sometimes to beat an opponent, you don't have to collide with him head-on; you can look for your chance in other ways... Long Bisheng, I think in the second half they won't mark you so tightly. In truth, they don't need to waste that much energy. They can wait and watch you more closely only when Zhou Yi and the others on the wings are about to cross. Someone will certainly tell them that... Tell me, how should you deal with him?"

As he finished speaking, Ding Yu glanced toward the Hubei bench. Sure enough, Cai Sheng, wearing sunglasses, was standing beside Cai Guoqing and talking to him in a stern, sharp voice.

Long Bisheng wiped the sweat from his face and thought for a moment before saying, "He's really strong in the air, but his footwork is rough and his movement is slow. If I can get a few ground passes and turn to break through near the edge of the box, he'll have a hard time stopping me. He may have a good body, but on the ground he definitely can't match me."