"Two to zero! Cristiano Ronaldo scored! He broke the record for the youngest goal scorer in the Portuguese Liga!"
"Incredible! A fifteen-year-old boy scored a goal in a professional game!"
"This one-on-one finish is so stable!"
"Of course, Kai's pass was too fast! This is a textbook counterattack!"
"It seems that Triguera has brought a lot of changes to Moreirense! Moreirense is likely to perform well in the second half!"
Kai, who was lying on the ground, didn't think the situation was so optimistic.
Before the goal just now, Moreirense was only half a second away from conceding.
If Fonte hadn't stopped it, the situation would have been very different.
The key is that this situation should never have happened.
"Hey, kid, get up, stop pretending." Penafiel's No. 8 player passed by Kai.
Kai suddenly became angry.
Pretending?
Maybe many people don't understand the behavior of players lying on the grass after being knocked down on the football field. They think that if they are not injured, why don't they get up immediately? Do they want to use this kind of misfortune to get the referee to show cards to the opponent?
But actually, this is easy to understand.
Football is played with the feet.
Whether you want to stop the opponent or steal the ball, once the two sides come into contact, it is basically around the ankle.
There is almost no flesh in that position, just skin and bone.
It really hurts when it gets hit.
Moreover, this kind of pain cannot be relieved by rubbing or moving. It has to fade with time.
Therefore, the ferocious expressions on the faces of players who are knocked down are mostly real, and the pain really lasts for a while.
A big reason for lying on the ground is to wait for the pain to pass.
Otherwise, if you stand up and exert force immediately, the area that was just kicked will hurt even more—the kind of pain from bursting capillaries.
So Kai wasn't pretending.
The opponent may not have used much force, but Kai's own momentum after passing the ball made the collision quite painful.
And no matter what, the opponent kicked Kai's ankle—how could he act like nothing happened?
"Who the hell are you calling a faker?" Kai suddenly turned over and shouted at the opponent. "You kicked me! You should get a yellow card, understand?"
"Fuck off! You dove! You little bastard!" The opponent's No. 8 puffed out his chest and bumped into Kai.
Kai immediately rushed over and pushed the opponent.
The other party did not expect such a young boy to have such a bad temper, and he stumbled and was pushed to the ground by Kai.
Many people on the Penafiel team were stunned.
Cristiano Ronaldo looked taller, but he held back after being knocked over by their right back.
Why is this Kai so much harder to deal with?
Beep!
The referee blew the whistle and came running.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who was about to celebrate after scoring, also noticed the conflict behind him and rushed over immediately.
At this time, many people were already talking around Kai and the No. 8 player.
Both sides were trying to control the situation.
"You can't even handle this level of intensity and still dare to play this shitty professional football? Go back to your youth team as soon as possible! This isn't a place for kids to play house!" Penafiel's No. 8 sneered.
"Oh? Really? Then your 'play house' skills are pretty trash! You're already 2–0 down, you know that? If it weren't for all your dirty fouls, could you even stop Ronaldo? You can't even touch the edge of his shirt! You should've been booked a long time ago!" Kai shot back without hesitation.
Only then did Cristiano Ronaldo realize that Kai had his reasons for clashing with the opponent.
Otherwise, such a composed midfielder wouldn't explode like that.
Kai had long felt that the opponent's defense was going too far.
The referee hadn't noticed it earlier.
Seeing the referee coming, Kai immediately turned and said: "I know the intensity of professional games is higher. Intensity isn't the problem—we can accept physical confrontation. But a foul is a foul. Their No. 2 tackled Ronaldo earlier—his studs were already showing when I saw it."
"And this No. 8 just knocked me down from behind. This has nothing to do with intensity. That's a foul that should be punished!"
The referee was irritated: "Are you teaching me how to do my job?"
Kai immediately spread his hands: "Of course not. I'm just saying that even though we're young, it doesn't mean we don't understand football."
Meaning: you'd better be fair—I can see your mistakes.
That put some pressure on the referee.
The referee nodded, then showed Kai a yellow card: "You initiated the push!"
At the same time, the referee also showed the opponent's No. 8 a yellow card for kicking Kai's ankle from behind—a dangerous move.
The next few minutes were filled with tension on both sides.
If it weren't for halftime arriving soon, someone probably would've been sent off.
…
Halftime break, in the locker room.
Triguera was furious.
Kai had already exchanged a few words with him on the way back, and Triguera himself had seen how negative the team became after scoring.
"Who do you think you are? Is 1–0 safe?"
"Last year in the Champions League, Bayern led 1–0. What happened? Manchester United scored twice in one minute and Bayern became the biggest joke!"
"Look at the standings! We're at the bottom! Do you even understand relegation? I know some of you think your careers are already over, so you don't care if the team goes down!"
"But have you thought about your salary? Do you know your wages will be cut if we get relegated? Kirop, if you keep playing like this, your value will only drop further!"
"I told you before—in the center-back pairing of you and Fonte, you're responsible for stepping out and sweeping! Where were you just now when the ball was there?"
Kirop replied: "In the penalty area… I was worried about their crosses."
Triguera: "Then don't let them cross! If you step up, they might not even get the chance to switch to the wings!"
"Alex, Serafim, why are both of you full-backs dropping into the box at the same time? Where are the wide players you're supposed to be marking? When they move, aren't you supposed to step up?"
"Defense—I've said it a thousand times—you have to defend!"
The locker room fell silent.
"No… that's not defense." Kai broke the silence.
Many people looked at him.
Has this guy lost his mind?
He even dares to contradict the head coach?
Kai raised his voice: "Maybe you don't fully understand what Coach Triguera means by defense. Let me tell you—it means… offense!"
"Defend in an attacking way! Don't just retreat when you see their attackers—step up at the right time! Press them! Hit them! We don't expect to win the ball every time, but we absolutely cannot let them stroll up to our penalty area like they're having a cup of coffee without any pressure!"
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