Chapter 186 179: The Strongest Weapon

HUFF... HUFF...

The only sound in the locker room was the players' heavy panting.

Although only forty minutes of the first half had been played, every player looked as if they'd just been fished out of a bucket of water.

The pressure Sweden put on the Chinese Team's players was immense. Not only did they have a physical advantage, but even their passing and receiving were superior to China's, and their defensive organization was incredibly tight.

At least, that's how it looked in the eyes of the young National Youth Team players.

The Chinese Team, in contrast, made far too many passing errors, giving their opponents chance after chance. Their defense, usually their most reliable asset, was also poorly organized. They repeatedly gave away set pieces in their own half. As a result, whenever Sweden's players, several of whom were over 1.9 meters tall, stood in the penalty area, the overwhelming pressure was too much for the Chinese players to handle.

Even Feng Xiaoting, who was nicknamed the "Aerial Overlord" on the team, was a full head shorter than the Swedish players. How was he supposed to defend against that?

The fans on the sidelines and the viewers watching on TV might have misjudged the difference in strength between the two sides, but the players on the field knew the score. And they all wore their thoughts on their faces.

Yang Yang sat in his spot, his head buried between his knees. He watched his sweat drip onto the floor, drop by drop, slowly pooling into a small puddle as he gradually calmed himself down.

When he first got back to the locker room, he had desperately wanted to curse out his teammates. 'We went over everything before the match! The coaching staff's strategy was to prioritize stability first and then slowly look for attacking opportunities, so why did everyone become so impatient on the field? The Sweden Team was obviously trying to bait us into attacking, but how could we have fallen for it so easily? If we'd executed the right strategy but still got scored on, that would be a matter of skill, and it would be excusable. But this? This was like voluntarily sticking our faces out to be slapped. How can that be the same?'

But his reason prevailed, and he calmed down. He sat back in his spot, slowly composing himself.

He knew that the most important thing right now wasn't to assign blame or hold anyone accountable.

It was like being on a boat when someone accidentally punches a hole in the hull. Water is gushing in. The first thing to do is to plug the hole, or the ship will sink.

As for figuring out who made the hole, that's something to do after the boat—and everyone's lives—have been saved.

"Does anyone have anything to say?" Coach Tie Sheng asked, his face grim.

With the match going like this, he really didn't have any better ideas himself.

The moment Tie Sheng finished speaking, the Goalkeeper, Guan Zhen, stood up. He hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry. My mistake dragged the team down. I... I kind of blanked out. I..."

Guan Zhen trailed off, unable to continue.

Anyone could see from his face that he was so full of regret he could have killed himself, but it was pointless now.

"I'm also responsible. I didn't mark their number eleven in time," Feng Xiaoting also stood up, admitting his mistake.

A silence fell over the locker room as everyone quietly looked at Guan Zhen and Feng Xiaoting, who were still standing.

Yang Yang kept his head down, but he reached out and clutched the national flag on the chest of his jersey. He had sworn to defend its honor with everything he had. He didn't want to lose in such a pathetic way.

Even though he knew that their current progress was already enough to be considered a success back home.

"Coach Tie, can I say a few words?" Yang Yang stood up.

Tie Sheng was a bit surprised. This was the first time Yang Yang had ever voluntarily spoken up in the locker room. He hesitated, worried that the young Yang Yang might say something inappropriate. But after seeing the look in Yang Yang's eyes, he nodded.

"Of course. Everyone here has the right to speak."

All eyes in the locker room fell on Yang Yang. Everyone wanted to know what he was going to say. Many of them were anxious, afraid that Yang Yang would point fingers and blame them for their mistakes.

"Guan Zhen and Feng Xiaoting do bear some responsibility for that goal we conceded."

Yang Yang's first sentence made the atmosphere in the locker room even more tense.

"But, if it weren't for Guan Zhen, our team wouldn't have made it this far. Whether against Colombia, France, or Turkey, he performed exceptionally, saving us time and time again."

"And Feng Xiaoting—he has a thigh injury and hasn't been acclimated since we arrived in France, so he's not been at his best. But to defend against that Swedish striker who's a full head taller than him, he still chose to play. Besides this one time he couldn't keep up, when has he ever performed poorly?"

Yang Yang's rhetorical question plunged the locker room into dead silence.

"Everyone makes mistakes. They're a Goalkeeper and a center-back. They can play perfectly for seventy-nine minutes, but if they fail for just one minute, everyone will ignore all the credit they earned in those seventy-nine minutes."

"Before, they were the ones behind all of us, quietly cleaning up our messes. Now that they've made a mistake, do we have no courage? No sense of responsibility?"

"When an avalanche happens, not a single snowflake is innocent. If the team loses, it's everyone's responsibility."

The locker room was still silent, but Guan Zhen and Feng Xiaoting, who were still standing, and even many others, were moved by Yang Yang's words.

Yang Yang walked over to Guan Zhen and Feng Xiaoting and had them sit back down.

He was the team's star player; he had that kind of influence in the locker room. Some things just had to be said by him.

'Otherwise, what's the point of having me as the star, the core player?'

"I still clearly remember when AC Milan beat Deportivo La Coruña four to one at home in the Champions League knockout stage, only to lose zero to four away to Super Laco. The General Manager of the Red-Black Army, Galliani, said something in a media interview at the time. He said, 'This loss is something we'll have to chew on for three years.'"

Many people present may or may not have seen that report, but all of them, including Tie Sheng, showed thoughtful expressions.

"Winning is great, of course, but there are also gains to be made from losing. The key is whether we can learn any lessons from the goals we conceded. And right now, we still have the second half. If we just focus on blaming people and don't carefully analyze the good and bad from the first half, we'll lose the second half too."

What Yang Yang said was common sense in European Football, but it made the players think and reflect.

'The zero-to-one score in the first half—was it really just because of Guan Zhen and Feng Xiaoting's mistakes? Yang Yang was tightly marked for the entire first half. Did anyone take the initiative to draw some of that defensive pressure away from him? Do they really expect Yang Yang to take on two or three defenders by himself and still perform well?'

"Finally, I sincerely hope everyone thinks hard about this: How did we get this far?"

After speaking, Yang Yang returned to his seat.

The locker room was once again dead silent, but you could see the gears turning in everyone's eyes.

How did the National Youth Team get this far?

Was it through fancy moves? Dazzling offense? Or outstanding individual skill?

No. There was a clear technical gap between the National Youth Team's players and their opponents. Offense was hardly their greatest weapon. Besides Yang Yang, how many players had the individual skill to compete with the players from France and Sweden?

It was defense!

Tenacious defense!

But in the first half, the team had thrown away its most powerful weapon.

Tie Sheng finally made up his mind. He walked into the middle of the players. "Yang Yang is right. We have to be clear about how we got here. We're not as strong physically, we're not as skilled technically, and we're not as good tactically. So what is it that we rely on?"

"We rely on the team as a whole! On every one of us working together and fighting tenaciously!"

The head coach's resolute words opened a door for everyone.

"A zero-to-one score isn't the end of the World. The Sweden Team's two tall center-backs are strong in one-on-one defending and cover a lot of ground. Plus, their midfield is also strong defensively. So, we have to try to create chances from the wings and the half-spaces."

"Yang Yang, you'll play on the right wing in the second half. Are you confident?" Tie Sheng asked with concern.

Yang Yang looked up, first at the coach, then at his teammates around him, and nodded heavily. "I have no problem with that."

...

...

In stark contrast to the tense atmosphere in the Chinese Team's locker room, the mood in the Sweden Team's was much more relaxed.

And why wouldn't it be? They were leading the Chinese Team by a goal.

Based on Sweden's performance in the last few matches, once they took the lead, it was very difficult for opponents to get anything from them.

Portugal, the favorites to win the tournament, was the best example.

"I didn't expect the Chinese Team to be this weak. Only that Yang Yang is a bit tricky to handle."

"So what if he's tricky? In the end, didn't he do absolutely nothing the entire first half?"

"Those idiots on the Chinese Team are completely stunned by us. As long as we keep Yang Yang contained, their team is no threat at all."

...

The chatter in the locker room went back and forth, all of it about the first half, and especially about Yang Yang.

This wasn't surprising at all.

A man's reputation precedes him, like the shadow of a tree.

After scoring the winning goal in the Champions League final, Yang Yang's fame had exploded. But he was only seventeen, which naturally stirred up the competitive spirit of his peers, and even of these young players who were two or three years older than him.

Everyone knew that if they managed to shut down Yang Yang tonight, all the papers would be reporting it tomorrow.

Lindegren was the one who knew Yang Yang best. He had helped the team strategize before the match, offering a lot of advice and insights on how to defend against Yang Yang. After all, even though they had been teammates on the Ajax Second Team, he was playing for his National Team now.

"We still can't get careless. Yang Yang is a very tenacious and resilient person. He won't give up so easily. Plus, his stamina is excellent. He'll definitely try to make something happen in the second half. We can't relax our defense on him for a second."

The Swedish players weren't idiots. Many of them were already playing in their domestic leagues, so they knew that Yang Yang's success wasn't a fluke. Reminded by Lindegren, they didn't dare to get complacent.

"Yang Yang's first touch is terrible. He's right-footed, but his left foot is also very good, so you have to watch out for that. In the second half, keep pressing him tightly. We absolutely cannot let him run at us head-on with the ball. If you have to foul him, foul him."

Following the head coach's instructions, all the Swedish players in the locker room were fired up with fighting spirit.

As long as they continued to shut down Yang Yang and held the score until the end of the match, Sweden would advance to the final.