Because the scene of "Caesar" was shown on the big screen by the director.
He waved to the fans with the demeanor of a true superstar, just like the indifferent expression Hathaway had seen on his face in the woods before.
His eyes were determined, scanning the players of the Dutch team like a cheetah ready to hunt at any moment.
This was a fierceness Hathaway had never seen in the humorous, funny, polite, and encouraging Kai.
Strange… yet familiar.
Caesar and Kai.
At this moment, the two overlapped infinitely.
It's him!
It's really him!
Hathaway felt warmth spread through her entire body.
They had met.
But not in the stands.
One was in the stands, the other on the pitch.
Beep!
A whistle blew.
The game officially began!
"Oh! It's intense! The midfield battle between the Netherlands and Portugal is especially fierce today!"
"As the saying goes, whoever wins the midfield wins the world."
"This is a battle between Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, Hugo Viana, and Kai!"
"Kai is brought down by Sneijder!"
"Kai intercepts Van der Vaart's pass!"
"Continuous passing mistakes are making the players on both sides more and more aggressive. The referee has warned Kai and Sneijder."
Watching Kai being knocked down repeatedly on the pitch, Hathaway's face turned pale.
She hadn't expected a football match to be this intense.
Every time Kai fell to the ground, her heart hurt.
Right now, she hated those Dutch players in orange jerseys.
When the personable and humorous little brother fell awkwardly on the grass, she felt distressed.
But when he decisively knocked someone down the next time…
Hathaway felt nothing but pride.
Netherlands: What the hell is this double standard?
Seventh minute.
Kai evaded Van der Vaart's challenge with a slick rainbow flick, then sent a long pass to Ricardo Quaresma on the right wing.
Quaresma cut inside successfully and fired a long shot that deflected off the Dutch center-back, earning a corner kick.
Viana held up three fingers beside the ball before taking the corner.
Cristiano Ronaldo leaped early in the penalty area, blocking the space for John Heitinga and the other Dutch defenders to jump.
Hugo Almeida barely rose on his toes…
and his head brushed the ball.
Whoosh!
Header!
Goal!
1–0!
Portugal takes the lead!
"Oh! Heitinga is complaining about a foul in Portugal's corner attack. He believes Ronaldo pushed him down."
"But the referee signals that the goal stands."
"Almeida is in excellent form today. Portugal is using his height advantage very effectively."
"Even if Helder Postiga returns from injury now, he might have to sit on the bench for a while."
Thirteenth minute.
After Ronaldo failed to break through on the left, he passed the ball back to Viana.
Viana switched the play with a long transfer.
Quaresma controlled the ball on the wing.
Kai suddenly made a sharp run through the inside channel.
Quaresma delivered a decisive pass.
The defender stretched his leg to block it, but Quaresma's pass was a half-high ball that slipped right under the opponent's foot.
Kai, charging forward, dove and flicked the ball with his head.
The football changed direction and its arc rose higher.
Almeida jumped in the penalty area…
but didn't reach it.
Instead, Almeida fell to the ground.
The referee immediately blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.
Penalty!
At the same time, the referee showed Heitinga a yellow card.
He had pushed Almeida down.
The young Dutch players surrounded the referee, trying to overturn the decision.
But it was useless.
In fact, it wouldn't have been unreasonable if the referee had shown Heitinga a red card.
Soon after, Quaresma calmly converted the penalty.
2–0.
Portugal had taken a huge two-goal lead within the first fifteen minutes.
"The Dutch team is struggling right now. They lack a tall central defender and cannot effectively restrain Almeida."
"A striker with Almeida's size is exactly what Portugal has been missing. His future looks very bright."
"Quaresma's performance today is worthy of being called superstar level."
"But in this attack, Kai's role cannot be ignored. His diving header was textbook. He not only has great positional awareness but also strong ball-handling ability."
"Throwing your body at the ball like that requires not just technique and judgment—but enormous courage."
The camera replayed the moment Kai dove for the ball, got up, and spat grass out of his mouth.
In the stands, Hathaway couldn't help but wonder—
Did Kai's mouth… smell like grass?
Then she suddenly realized what she was thinking.
Her face instantly turned red.
She became shy.
The person next to her, Alessandro Matarazzo, praised:
"He's really brave. Nowadays it's harder to make young actors fall down in a scene than to kill them."
"They won't even touch the ground without a twenty-centimeter-thick sponge mat."
"In comparison, this Caesar is a real man."
"Eh? Hathaway, did you drink the beer I hid inside the Coke can? Why is your face so red?"
Hathaway shook her head.
Stop thinking about words like drink, eat, lick, mouth, tongue…
Damn it.
That grass-scented scene was back in her head again.
…
But fate decided to joke with the Portuguese team.
While Almeida had been dominating the Dutch defense…
disaster struck.
Twenty-eighth minute.
Almeida sprained his ankle during a duel with Heitinga.
The visible deformation made everyone's scalp go numb.
Even the Dutch goalkeeper, who witnessed the scene, immediately raised his hand and frantically signaled for the team doctor.
The Portuguese medical staff rushed onto the pitch.
They had barely arrived when they immediately called for a stretcher.
This was a serious ankle injury—visible to the naked eye.
Almeida could not continue the game.
He had to leave the pitch due to injury.
Lourenço came on as a substitute.
Lourenço was the striker of Sporting Lisbon's U15 team, but he wasn't as tall as Ronaldo and definitely wasn't a target man. He was more of a forward who relied on speed and positioning.
As a result, Portugal lost their aerial advantage up front.
Thirty-third minute.
Quaresma, who had now adapted to the Dutch defense, began to perform brilliantly.
He beat the Dutch full-back with a beautiful trivela-style oxtail flick, then sent in a cross.
But how could Lourenço win a header against those defenders?
The ball was easily cleared by the Dutch center-back.
Thirty-ninth minute.
After Ronaldo received the ball, he tried a simple one-two with Lourenço, who had pulled out wide.
But the combination was too predictable.
The ball bounced off the defender and was intercepted.
The ball fell to Sneijder.
Kai immediately rushed toward him.
Boom!
Sneijder launched a long pass first—decisive and clean—never giving Kai a chance to close him down.
Arjen Robben advanced with the ball on the right wing.
During the run, he combined with Van der Vaart.
Both of them were masters of dribbling. If they actually passed the ball to each other, no one could truly stop them.
When Van der Vaart was perfectly capable of shooting from distance, he instead took an extra touch, forcing Portuguese center-back José Fonte out of position.
Then he slid a diagonal pass.
Robin van Persie was almost completely unmarked inside the penalty area.
Without stopping the ball, he struck it cleanly.
Goal.
1–2!
The Dutch team pulled one back.
Forty-third minute.
The Dutch team controlled possession during this period.
Van der Vaart advanced through the middle.
Neither Kai nor Raúl Meireles could steal the ball from his feet.
Van Persie dropped back to receive the pass, and Van der Vaart gave him the ball before continuing his run forward.
Van Persie received it and immediately sent a diagonal pass to Robben on the right.
Then he turned and sprinted toward the penalty area.
A deadly one-two was forming!
A cold wind swept through Portugal's penalty box.
But Robben suddenly faked a cross while running.
Then with a delicate toe poke, the ball slipped right between the legs of Portuguese left-back Jorge Ribeiro.
Robben exploded forward, bursting past him into the penalty area.
Fonte had no choice but to step in and block him.
Robben went down.
The referee immediately blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.
Fonte grabbed his head and argued with the referee, claiming it was a normal physical challenge.
But the referee stood firm.
Fonte hadn't touched the ball at all—he had simply crashed into Robben.
That wasn't a challenge for the ball.
That was a challenge for the man.
Fonte also received a yellow card.
Soon after, Van der Vaart personally took the penalty created by Robben.
Van der Vaart did not disappoint.
He scored with a powerful shot.
Before halftime, the Dutch team scored two consecutive goals and equalized the match.
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