Chapter Seventy-Four: Youth Knows No Defeat

On the field, Long Bisheng received a pass from his teammate near the center circle. Fan Xuyang pressed tightly behind him, refusing to let him turn, but he was notably shorter than Long Bisheng. With ease, Long Bisheng half-turned his body, handed off the ball to a nearby teammate, and sprinted forward.

Meixian’s defense was remarkably solid; Yun Jia Tianyu’s fast break couldn’t materialize. The ball was returned to Hu Gandang, who was thirty meters away from the goal. Hu Gandang surveyed the situation inside the penalty area, dodged Chen Jian’s interception, and suddenly launched a powerful kick, sending the ball soaring directly into Meixian’s penalty box.

Having already reached the penalty area, Long Bisheng braced his back against Fan Xuyang, then leapt high with his back to the goal.

“Don’t think you can head the ball this way!” Fan Xuyang muttered defiantly, pressing close as he jumped alongside Long Bisheng. This time, instead of using his elbow, he pressed the palm of his left hand against Long Bisheng’s back. Since they jumped almost simultaneously and their bodies were tightly pressed, the referee couldn’t see his maneuver.

Fan Xuyang applied a subtle force, not enough to foul—just enough to throw Long Bisheng off balance.

As Long Bisheng soared in the air, Fan Xuyang’s push caused him to tilt forward. Fan Xuyang felt a surge of satisfaction, but suddenly sensed Long Bisheng’s arm pressing against his own; Long Bisheng braced himself, lifted his head, and skillfully flicked the ball down with a header.

Fan Xuyang tried to unbalance Long Bisheng, but Long Bisheng used Fan Xuyang’s arm as leverage to complete the header!

The ball headed down by Long Bisheng flew into the gap between Meixian’s defenders and goalkeeper. Zhong Tao was the first to emerge from the crowd, striking the ball before it hit the ground!

Facing such a close-range shot, Meixian’s goalkeeper was powerless; he didn’t even have time to react before the ball crashed into the net!

Two to two—just five minutes after Meixian took the lead, Yun Jia Tianyu equalized!

“That was a beautiful pass!” Zhong Tao didn’t celebrate alone. He ran straight to Long Bisheng, leaping onto him. “Man, you really headed that perfectly… Damn, that shot felt amazing!”

“Heh…” Long Bisheng grinned widely. After using his opponent as leverage, he’d jumped two heads higher, giving him a clear view of the surroundings. Hu Gandang’s pass was also perfectly timed.

“Fantastic!” Ding Yu jumped up, clapping for the players celebrating on the field. He sat down and smiled at Coach Zhao. “See? I told you—even without surprises, there would be results… Did you notice? Our attack didn’t start from the wings this time, but from the midfield, posing a direct threat! Tactical center forward—this is exactly the role a tactical center forward can play!”

“Indeed, it makes our attack much simpler… but it seems a bit one-dimensional,” Coach Zhao nodded, then shook his head.

“This match was just a test. At least it’s proven Long Bisheng has the potential to become a professional player,” Ding Yu replied. “As long as he’s worth cultivating, that’s enough. Let’s just see out the rest of the match—drawing is fine.”

He stood up, shouting to Long Bisheng, who was walking back to his half with his teammates: “Nicely done! Keep it up—head for goal if you can, if not, set up your teammates. Understand? Learn to use your body!”

Long Bisheng nodded vigorously and waved his fist.

“It’s not your fault,” Chen Jian patted Fan Xuyang, who was staring resentfully at Long Bisheng. “He’s just too tall… And we underestimated him; his experience is solid and he knows how to deal with your tricks. Next time, get a defender to help you—two people using tricks, I don’t believe he can handle that!”

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Once the score became two all, the advantage shifted back to Yun Jia Tianyu. Their players kept breaking through individually before passing, while Long Bisheng’s height and strength caused endless headaches for Meixian’s relatively short defenders. Though Meixian controlled the midfield, they struggled to threaten Yun Jia Tianyu’s defense, and their own defense had no answer for the towering Long Bisheng. The match gradually became one-sided.

After successfully assisting Zhong Tao’s goal and earning his first official match statistic, Long Bisheng played with growing spirit. His teammates launched long passes straight to his head, some he missed, but whenever he contested, he always posed a huge threat to Meixian’s defense. Two men couldn’t stop him from jumping, but leaving him unmarked risked him heading the ball into the net. Overcommitting defenders to him left gaps for other Yun Jia players—a dilemma rooted in the fact that Meixian lacked anyone who could match Long Bisheng’s height and heading ability.

Under this pressure, Meixian’s defense finally collapsed. While they focused on marking Long Bisheng, Yun Jia Tianyu’s other players seized the opportunity to score twice in the dying minutes, securing a beautiful victory in their third group stage match.

“We admit defeat, fair and square,” Meixian’s coach said helplessly as he shook hands with Ding Yu after the match. Yun Jia Tianyu clearly hadn’t shown their full strength—at least their number ten sat the entire ninety minutes and their attack was disorganized until fifteen minutes into the second half, yet they still won four to two. How could he not concede?

“You’re too kind. This win… feels somewhat undeserved,” Ding Yu replied honestly. Yun Jia Tianyu simply overwhelmed Meixian physically, especially in the second half, playing straightforward long passes and relying on Long Bisheng’s rampages up front. If not for wanting to test Long Bisheng’s match ability, Ding Yu would have fielded his most technical players to compete with Meixian, the cradle of southern football.

“But you have some outstanding players, and they taught ours a lesson… I look forward to meeting you again on the pitch,” Ding Yu said sincerely. Meixian’s coach, however, felt like crying—after months of plotting to beat Yun Jia, they were still outplayed. If they met again, would they even stand a chance?

After shaking hands, Ding Yu suddenly remembered something and asked, “By the way, your football school isn’t affiliated with any club, is it? It seems Meixian Football School is the purest participant this time.”

Upon confirming, Ding Yu nodded thoughtfully, then smiled at Meixian’s coach. “You should go comfort your students. They may have lost, but they didn’t lose their performance. They’ve proven their courage, passion, and fearlessness—children who show this deserve to be rewarded. When you’re young, there’s no such thing as failure.”

With that, Ding Yu released his hand and walked toward his students. “Well done! Boys, you’ve made me proud today! Long Bisheng, how does it feel to play as the core?”

“Fantastic, coach!” Long Bisheng stood tall, answering loudly.

Ding Yu punched his chest. “You know, after watching your first half, I wanted to beat your ass! Luckily, in the second half you delivered what I wanted, or else I would’ve worked you to exhaustion when we got back!”

Watching Ding Yu laughing among Yun Jia’s students, Meixian’s coach smiled, walked onto the field, and helped his exhausted students up one by one.

“Well done.”

He said this to each student as he helped them up, then gathered everyone around him and smiled. “Don’t be discouraged—we haven’t been eliminated. So we lost a match; even if Tianjin wins and pushes us to third place, we have four points, so we’ll definitely advance. There’ll be plenty of chances to show our strength! Who knows, maybe we’ll get to face Yun Jia Tianyu again in the finals!”

Seeing hope rekindled in his students’ eyes, the coach waved his hand. “Let’s go home! Tonight, dinner’s on me!”

“Great!” Lin Jianwei was the first to shout, but Zhou Wenlong eyed his coach skeptically. “Coach, you’re not planning to fill us up with roadside stir-fried dough, are you? I heard that stuff’s hard to digest at night!”

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Regrettably, Meixian Football School’s 1989 age group didn’t get to meet Yun Jia Tianyu again in this tournament. They lost to Dalian Orient Football School’s 1989 team in the quarterfinals and headed home early. Unexpectedly, a month later, Yun Jia Tianyu’s manager Jiang Hao acquired Meixian Football School and promised to invest two million yuan within two years to improve training facilities and teaching environment, aiming to match the standards of Yun Jia’s local schools. Meixian Football School thus became the first among twenty schools in the “Spark Program” to achieve results.

PS: Hmm, strong recommendation next week; two chapters today, only one tomorrow, but at least two updates daily next week. Brothers, please help out and throw in more recommendations then.