Chapter 286: I'm Not a Mage

Chapter 286: Chapter 279: I’m Not a Mage

“A quick attack from Ajax down the right flank.”

“Yang Yang has the ball at the edge of the penalty area, and he’s moving very quickly.”

Gonzalo Rodriguez was the last defender back for his team. He knew perfectly well that if he failed to stop Yang Yang, the moment he broke into the box it would be a one-on-one with the keeper.

Therefore, his concentration was absolute. He kept his eyes locked on Yang Yang, not daring to relax for even a second. Even as sweat trickled from his brow and down the corner of his eye, he paid it no mind, his thoughts solely focused on calculating the movements of the approaching Yang Yang.

But just as Yang Yang was about to enter his defensive zone, the young Chinese player unexpectedly accelerated, posturing as if he were about to cut toward the top of the arc.

Almost instantly, Gonzalo Rodriguez realized something was wrong.

Before the match, Villarreal had done their homework on Yang Yang. The scout report given to him clearly stated that Yang Yang was exceptionally skilled with both his left and right foot.

It had left a deep impression on him because Villarreal had a player just like that on their own team, one who could use both feet as his primary.

Diego Forlán!

At the time, they had even joked with Diego Forlán about it.

If Yang Yang cut horizontally to the top of the arc, he could shoot directly with his left foot.

‘Damn it!’ Gonzalo Rodriguez didn’t have time to think. He knew that being just a fraction of a second too slow could allow Yang Yang to get a shot off and create a deadly opportunity.

But just as Gonzalo Rodriguez shifted his center of gravity to the right to block Yang Yang, he suddenly saw a blur in front of him. Yang Yang didn’t cut inside after all; he had slipped past him on his left.

“The Pendulum Move!!!!”

“A beautiful Pendulum Move!”

But just as Yang Yang used the skillful Pendulum Move to quickly feint past Gonzalo Rodriguez, a figure suddenly appeared before him, getting closer and closer.

‘What’s happening?’

Yang Yang didn’t have time to see who it was. His gut reaction told him the opposing Goalkeeper was charging out.

‘But this is the edge of the penalty area. Isn’t the Goalkeeper coming out too far?’

There was no time for Yang Yang to overthink it.

At that moment, he was incredibly grateful to Old Ice from the Super Training facility. For the past two years, Old Ice had relentlessly told him to always do everything in his power to keep the ball under his control.

That was why, even after using the Pendulum Move to get past Gonzalo Rodriguez, the ball had never left his immediate control. So, when the opposing Goalkeeper decisively charged out and lunged forward with open arms, Yang Yang took the opportunity to poke the ball forward.

Villarreal’s Spanish Goalkeeper, Reina, was determined to succeed with this charge. He had seen through Yang Yang’s feint toward the center, so he immediately abandoned his goal and rushed toward Gonzalo Rodriguez’s left side.

His plan was clear: to smother the ball just as Yang Yang got past Gonzalo Rodriguez.

The man could get past, but the ball had to stay.

Unexpectedly, however, this supposedly foolproof charge suddenly went awry.

As Yang Yang dummied past Gonzalo Rodriguez, his reaction was lightning-fast. The ball hadn’t left his control, allowing him to poke it past Reina’s side.

Reina quickly turned his body, trying to intercept the ball, but he was still a step too slow.

How could his reactive movement be faster than the ball?

Yang Yang, however, accelerated in pursuit and, just before the ball crossed the byline, swept it sideways.

The ball practically scraped the right post as it slammed into Villarreal’s goal.

Meanwhile, Yang Yang’s momentum carried him off the pitch and into the advertising hoardings on the other side.

“GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!”

“In the thirty-eighth minute, Ajax tenaciously equalizes the score!”

“My God, what an incredible individual performance from Ajax’s eighteen-year-old starlet, Yang Yang!”

A collective gasp went through the entire Estadio El Madrigal. The Yellow Submarine’s fans were stunned by the sudden goal.

The entire sequence leading to the goal seemed long and complex, but in reality, on the pitch, it all happened in the blink of an eye—so fast that most fans probably didn’t even see it clearly before the ball was in the net.

Only Yang Yang, who had crashed into the hoardings behind the goal, and the ball sitting inside the goal line, served as a reminder to everyone of what had just happened.

Ajax had scored!

Yang Yang scrambled up from the hoardings, raised his clenched fists, and let out a huge roar.

But he was quickly embraced by his teammates, who came rushing over.

“You’re an absolute magician! I’m so proud of you!” Sneijder leaped onto Yang Yang’s back.

“Haha, I’m not a magician; I don’t know any magic!” Yang Yang laughed heartily. “But I do know how to score goals!”

The Ajax players swarmed in, crowding around him.

“This is an absolutely astonishing goal, a full display of Yang Yang’s outstanding individual ability.”

“From the initial Cruyff Turn, to the subsequent Pendulum Move, and finally that little poke past the Goalkeeper, it all reflects Yang Yang’s exceptional skill. This can only be described as a truly spectacular goal.”

“Yang Yang, an eighteen-year-old player, has been sensational this season. Not only has he performed brilliantly in the Eredivisie, but he’s also had an unforgettable run in the UEFA Cup. This is already his fourth goal in this year’s tournament.”

As Yang Yang walked back, passing through Villarreal’s penalty area, he took note of their bald Goalkeeper.

He didn’t look very old, but the speed of his charge just now had stunned Yang Yang, leaving a deep impression on him.

Reina!

Yang Yang committed the name to memory.

……

……

The first half ended in a one-one draw.

In the thirty-eighth minute, Ajax leveled the score through a moment of individual brilliance from Yang Yang. This greatly boosted Ajax’s fighting spirit while dealing a heavy blow to Villarreal’s morale.

This was a knockout stage match in the UEFA Cup. According to the rules, Yang Yang’s away goal was priceless.

Pellegrini clearly hadn’t expected that, even under his team’s heavy defensive pressure, Yang Yang could still carve a path for himself, force his way into the box, and score.

It was indeed a spectacular goal, but at the same time, it spelled disaster for Villarreal.

During the halftime break, Ronald Koeman heaped praise on the players for their first-half performance.

Although they had conceded a goal to Riquelme, he was, after all, the magician of the pitch.

To this day, no one could quite figure out how Riquelme played football. No one could comprehend his thought process, yet he could always deliver surprises and create the unexpected.

He didn’t run much, but every movement he made created a threat.

He used his passing to direct his teammates’ runs, control the tempo of the game, and dictate the team’s direction and lines of attack.

He was an undisputed genius.

But Ajax had equalized all the same.

“Because we have Yang Yang!” Ronald Koeman shouted.

Everyone in the away team’s locker room roared in response, each of them becoming incredibly pumped up.

This was the effect of Yang Yang’s goal just before the end of the first half.

“If we can just hold our ground, if we can freeze out Riquelme, we can walk away from Estadio El Madrigal with a victory!”

“We…” Ronald Koeman roared, “…are going to shatter their home-field myth of the past six months!”

The Ajax players, as if injected with adrenaline, all cheered in response.

……

……

The two teams returned to the pitch.

In the second half, Villarreal predictably began to adopt more aggressive and proactive tactics.

They had no other choice.

If they let the match continue like this and Ajax left with a one-one draw, it would be extremely disadvantageous for the home side, Villarreal, as they would have to play the second leg away.

Therefore, they had to fight for another goal and defeat Ajax at home.

The opposing Ajax team, though young, was brimming with fighting spirit. Moreover, many of their players had been baptized by fire in last season’s Champions League victory, so despite their youth, they were not lacking in experience.

As Villarreal pushed forward, Ajax actively tightened their defense and looked to counter-attack.

In the forty-eighth minute, Hosico and Riquelme combined, and Diego Forlán was tripped by Maicon.

The referee gave Maicon a yellow card and awarded Villarreal a direct free-kick in a very promising position.

Riquelme took the free-kick himself, hoping to curl it into the corner, but Goalkeeper Stekelenburg read it correctly and saved the ball directly, neutralizing the threat.

Afterward, Villarreal launched frequent attacks, but Ajax remained solid and steady, defending in their own half.

For the first ten-odd minutes of the second half, Ajax didn’t manage a single shot. They focused solely on defense, weathering Villarreal’s offensive storm.

Yang Yang, the right winger, even actively dropped back into his own thirty-meter zone to help defend, which showed just how intense Villarreal’s attack was. It was a perilous situation in front of the Ajax goal.

But a prolonged, fruitless attack inevitably exposes weaknesses.

In the seventy-fourth minute, Yang Yang was marking Solari closely when De Jong suddenly slid in, poking the ball away from Solari’s feet.

Maicon surged forward on the right flank, caught up to the ball, and, facing Arualabarena, passed it horizontally to Yang Yang while continuing his own run down the wing.

Yang Yang understood immediately, playing a one-touch return pass into Maicon’s path.

“A swift counter-attack from Ajax down the right!”

“A one-two between Yang Yang and Maicon!”

After receiving the ball, Maicon tore down the right wing. Yang Yang was also extremely fast but deliberately stayed slightly behind Maicon while drifting more toward the center.

Arualabarena chased Maicon all the way, but the Brazilian right-back was truly incredibly fast.

The two of them, one chasing the other relentlessly, had the entire Estadio El Madrigal on the edge of their seats.

In the end, Maicon couldn’t shake Arualabarena and didn’t get a chance to cut inside, but he reached the right side of the penalty area and sent in a direct cross.

The cross was just like the ones he and Yang Yang practiced after every training session on the fields of De Toekomst.

The only difference was that the defender in front of Yang Yang wasn’t his training partner Vermaelen, but Gonzalo Rodriguez.

Maicon’s cross arrived to the right of the penalty spot, and Yang Yang had already sped past Gonzalo Rodriguez’s defense. Just like in training, without taking a touch, he hit a cushioned first-time shot, sending the ball into the left side of the goal.

The ball was in again!