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Chapter 70 You are of course strong

"Thank God, Sofia United didn't win in the last round of the league, otherwise we would have been left behind by them now... We had thirteen points before we lost to Clayton Athletic, and now we only have fourteen points..."

"Ah? There are still fourteen points? It's really despairing. I remember that the gap between us and them was still sixteen points five games ago... Even though we lost one game now, we have won four games in a row, and the gap has only been reduced by two points..."

"Well, it's good that we can reduce the gap by two points. At least we are not further behind by two points, right? And although fourteen points may seem like a lot, it's actually just a matter of five games..."

"That's easy for you to say. We have to keep winning, and we have to hope that all the teams ahead of us, including Sofia United, lose consecutive games... It's not that easy!"

As Sonny Dean walked through the restaurant, he heard his teammates whispering about the situation in the standings.

What they are concerned about is not Xiusro, which is ranked seventh in the league, but Sofo United, which is ranked fourth in the league!

So they are discussing the possibility of the team winning a place in the Champions League next season...

If the old Dean heard such a ridiculous discussion, he would probably respond with disdainful sneer in his heart.

But now he just passed by calmly.

I didn't participate as excitedly as Vitini, but I didn't laugh at them in my heart either.

He walked straight to Wang Lie's table and said to him:
"At 8pm, table tennis, let's see who's the winner!"

Wang Lie looked up at him without saying anything.

Dean snorted, "What? Are you scared? You want to run away after winning once? I can tell you the way..."

Wang Lie interrupted him: "Okay, don't cry if you lose."

Dean smiled: "I should be the one saying this."

Seeing that Wang Lie agreed, he turned around and walked back, as if he didn't want to stay here any longer.

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At 9:03 in the evening, the Northumberland Soccer City Entertainment Centre was still very lively, one could even describe it as "bustling with people".

All the players selected for tomorrow's game gathered around the ping-pong table to watch the second "China-UK Table Tennis Challenge" - this is the name given by Hugo Guendouzi.

He felt that the game would be more interesting if it had a formal name.

So he took it upon himself to call the second table tennis match between Dean and Wang Lie this.

Why is it the second session, not the first session?

The first one was of course the one that was later exposed as an internal conflict...

No one expected that after Dean lost to Wang Lie last time, he actually wanted to win back.

After all, Dean hadn't mentioned a word about this in the previous weeks, and everyone thought he was just venting his anger at the time, and soon they would forget about the unpleasant argument between him and Wang Lie over table tennis.

Not to mention that this incident was hyped by the media as evidence of internal strife within the team.

Perhaps Dean should keep a low profile and avoid making irrelevant comments.

Unexpectedly, after dinner, Dean made an appointment with Wang Lie to play table tennis again!

Everyone was in high spirits, and after dinner, at the appointed time, they all came to watch the two people's game.

"King! Come on!"

"Dean hold on!"

Referee Katic stood behind the scoreboard, his head swaying left and right as the ping-pong ball flew back and forth, his eyes always fixed on the white ball.

This was the fourth game between the two sides. In the previous three games, Wang Lie temporarily led Dean with a big score of 2:1.

Now it is Wang Lie's match point. As long as he can get one more point, he can win the second duel between him and Dean.

Wang Lie had made several consecutive shots, but they were all blocked by Dean.

So Wang Lie changed his strategy and took the initiative to lift the ball to create opportunities for Dean to attack, while he defended to consume Dean's energy.

Seeing that he had the opportunity to attack, Dean became more excited.

He smashed the ball several times in a row, trying to kill this round.

But they were all firmly defended by Wang Lie.

Dean, who had been attacking for a long time and had been unable to score, was obviously a little impatient, so he smashed the ball harder.

For several balls he jumped up and swung his racket to smash the ball with all his strength.

However, Wang Lie noticed that Dean's feet were unstable during defense and knew that his time had come.

So when Dean spiked the ball again, he suddenly swung the racket sideways, changing from receiving to cutting!

This is what he learned from the high-level table tennis coach hired by Clement!
The ping-pong ball he sliced ​​out spun violently, drawing a very obvious arc in the air and flying back to Dean's half of the table.

Dean's response was also quick.

He was originally waiting at the far end to continue smashing, but when he saw the different movements of Wang Lie's hands, he immediately realized what this old rogue was going to do.

So he quickly rushed back to the table to save the ball.

However, the direction in which a ping-pong ball with a strong spin bounces off the table is completely unpredictable.

He almost lay on half of the table, barely reaching the ball. The ball hit his racket but went straight to the referee Katic!
Katic quickly retracted his neck and squatted down, so that the ping-pong ball did not hit his face...

By the time he stood up from behind the table, the ping-pong table was surrounded by cheers.

"Hurray! The king wins!!"

"Great job, King!"

"OLE! OLE! OLEOLEOLE!!"

"BRAVO, King! BRAVO!" (Note 1)

Vitini was the first to rush up and hug Wang Lie to celebrate.

Everyone else was also excited by Wang Lie's wonderful last shot.

“It felt like I was watching an Olympic game!”

"Beautiful! What a wonderful goal!"

Everyone ran over to cheer for Wang Lie, and some even lifted up their chairs excitedly: "Oh oh oh!"

Elliot Goetz was a little worried about Dean's feelings, so he went over to comfort him: "You did a great job, Sonny..."

Dean looked at Wang Lie with a serious expression: "Why is he more powerful than last time?"

Goetz thought his worries might be unnecessary...

Then Dean pointed at Wang Lie who was surrounded by the crowd and said loudly: "Don't be too happy too soon, Wang! I will continue to challenge you!"

Wang Liehe smiled and said, "You are welcome anytime."

At the same time, I made up my mind that I had to renew the one-on-one table tennis lesson...

The night before Tyne's home game against Wolverhampton went by in such a relaxed manner.

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Wolverhampton manager Paul Coady stood on the sidelines, watching the action.

The game has been played for 51 minutes and the two sides are currently in a stalemate.

He was very satisfied with his team's performance.

Although the score was 0:0, they did not take the lead.

But this is Tyne's home ground, and considering that Tyne's recent winning rate at home is 100%, the current score seems very cute.

Before this game, Paul Cody carefully studied the video of the match between Clayton Athletic and Tyne.

And gained experience and inspiration from it.

Clayton Athletic's French head coach Rayan Cochea did not focus only on Wang Lie like others did, but instead grasped the real contradiction.

He believes that the biggest problem of Tyne is the overall lack of strength of the team.

Therefore, the method of restricting the entire Tyne team to restrict Wang Lie was very effective.

Although judging from the score, 3:2 was only a narrow victory, the final goal was entirely because the Clayton Athletic players were a little lax after leading by two goals in the final moments of the game. It was human nature and not a tactical problem.

Besides, Wang Lie's goal was also a result of luck. Tommy Biggins' pass hit the leg of a Clayton Athletic player and was bent, but it was still able to roll in front of Wang Lie...

Putting aside these small details that involve a certain amount of luck, Rayan Coetzee's tactical thinking in this game is indeed worth learning from.

He is truly worthy of being the famous coach who led the French national team to win the World Cup at the age of 47!

He was able to lead a team like Clayton Athletic, which has neither top superstars like Arthur Elorne nor Ronil Nascimento, to dominate the Premier League.

As a 50-year-old head coach, Paul Cody felt that he was still far behind Cochea and could not compare at all. He regarded Cochea as an object of study and emulation. It was a coincidence that he had been studying Cochea, and Cochea's team had just won against Tyne, and then it was his team's turn to play against Tyne. This experience was like freshly baked bread, still emitting a steaming aroma.

Although Wolverhampton is now ranked below Tyne, in 13th place.

But Paul Coady never thought that was the real gap between his team and Tyne.

He believes that the reason why Tyne ranks higher than him is just because of bad luck and picked up a big bargain in the winter transfer window...

Yes, he felt that Tyne's current ranking was all due to Wang Lie.

If there was no Wang Lie, with Tyne's strength, they would at most be barely above the relegation zone in the standings.

Therefore, as long as he could restrict the operation of the entire Tyne team, Wang Lie would naturally have no room to play.

Following his arrangement, the team successfully defended Tyne's attack in the first half and prevented Wang Lie from scoring a goal.

This gave Paul Cody great confidence.

During the half-time break, he encouraged his players to continue playing like this in the second half, and then take advantage of Tyne's impatience to counterattack.

Only six minutes into the second half, Tyne has indeed stepped up its attack.

As long as their team can withstand their offensive, Tyne, who plays at home, will become more and more anxious as time goes by.

They will press further, which will create more space behind them.

Then, it’s time for you to exert your strength!
At this moment, Tyne's attack was disrupted by Wolverhampton in the frontcourt, and the football was kicked out of the sideline.

Paul Cody took a step forward, with one foot almost on the field, and then he clapped his hands vigorously and loudly encouraged his players: "Come on! Well done, boys! Just play like this!"

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Commentator Connor Cowley also saw what Paul Cody was planning:

"Cody obviously got inspiration from Clayton Athletic's victory over Tyne. He didn't assign many people to defend Wang... but put all his efforts into limiting the entire Tyne team...

"Clayton Athletic have proven that this approach works against Tyne. If Wolverhampton can beat Tyne in this way, then perhaps all of Tyne's opponents will follow suit!"

Chinese commentator Luo Jin also has some concerns:

"After winning four games in a row, Tyne's rapid progress seems to have encountered a setback... Losing to Clayton Athletic can be said to be a result of the gap in strength. However, facing Wolverhampton, which is not very strong, if we can't win at home, the situation will become very bad..."

In fact, Luo Jin himself couldn't explain clearly how bad the situation would become.

Logically speaking, Tyne's goal this season is to avoid relegation, but now they have 33 points and are ranked 10th.

It is eleven points more than Portal FC, which is ranked 18th. These eleven points are the difference between Tyne and the relegation zone.

Is it possible that with Wang Lie around, Tyne will eventually be relegated?
This possibility is too low.

But Luo Jin just felt that Tyne's loss was unacceptable.

Perhaps it was because this team of Tyne had Wang Lie, and Wang Lie was a person who hated failure, so Luo Jin also could not accept Tyne's failure.

Losing the game would make those who hate Wang Lie arrogant again...

This makes every supporter of Wang Lie feel very unhappy.

After losing to Clayton Athletic in the last game, there were various discordant voices on the Internet, especially on the external network.

The fans of Clayton Athletic naturally ridiculed Wang Lie. Even the fans of Clayton Athletic's rival, the Scouts, did not let Wang Lie go, as if Clayton Athletic had helped them get revenge...

As a supporter of Wang Lie, one can also argue that because Clayton Athletic's overall strength is stronger than Tyne, even Wang Lie would find it difficult to make up for the strength gap between the two teams.

But if I can't win this game... I'll just have to endure the enemy's taunt damage.

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When Vitini received the ball on the sideline, he was sandwiched between two defensive players.

This is the treatment he often "enjoys" in these two games.

Apart from Wang Lie, he is the most threatening player in Tyne's offense.

It has been proven that defending against Wang Lie is not feasible, so what about defending against him?

Clayton Athletic in the last round of the league has proved to everyone that restricting Vitini is simpler and more effective than restricting Wang Lie.

In this game Paul Coady's Wolverhampton followed suit and also targeted Vitini in defense.

When Vitini received the ball, two Wolverhampton players came up to defend, one close to him and one assisting on the side.

Vitini glanced at the center field and saw Wang Lie running over to meet him.

But he was also accompanied by a Wolverhampton player.

Vitini didn't look at him just because he wanted to pass the ball to Wang Lie.

In fact, after losing to Clayton Athletic, Vitini was also angry, but his fear that Wang Lie would be disappointed in him was greater than his anger, so he did not show it.

However, in the match against Clayton Athletic and today's match, he was always targeted by the opponent and played very poorly. Everyone would be angry, let alone the impulsive and irritable Vitini.

But after taking a look at Wang Lie, Vitini's emotions did not explode, but he remembered what his idol had said to him.

When you can't control your anger, just look at him and use him as your switch.

So his glance was not intended to pass the ball to Wang Lie as he had observed before.

However, the Wolverhampton player who was assisting him in defending him obviously misunderstood.

Seeing Vitini turn around to look for Wang Lie, he also moved a step towards Wang Lie - if Vitini passed the ball to him, he could also follow suit to double-team Wang Lie.

Not defending against Wang Lie does not mean watching Wang Lie get the ball in front of him and doing nothing.

Vitini keenly caught the flaw revealed by the double-team. He swung his right foot and pretended to pass the ball sideways to Wang Lie, but he did not actually pass the ball. Instead, he turned his ankle, hooked the ball with the inside of his foot, and turned around at the same time!
When you are halfway through the turn, open your ankles and push the wrapped football forward!
The football passed between the legs of the Wolverhampton player who was defending him closely behind him!
At the same time, Vitini completed his turn and accelerated past the opponent!

"Vitini! Nice spoon pass!"

Vitini accelerated to get rid of the defense and caught up with the football, then dribbled the ball diagonally towards the penalty area!

Seeing this, Wang Lie, who had originally come to the flank to support him, immediately turned around and rushed into the penalty area.

Vitini dribbled the ball to the corner of the penalty area. Facing the Wolverhampton center back who came up to defend him, he swung his left foot as if to cross the ball, but instead dribbled the ball to the right.

At the same time, he stopped suddenly and turned around, adjusting the direction of his body and cutting sideways!

He saw Wang Lie running back and raising his arm to ask him for the ball.

But this time, fans are not going to satisfy their idol's demands...

If we have to rely on Wang to score goals and solve problems every time, what do we need to do? Just to meet the rule that eleven players must play? !
In order to prove that we are not a drag on the king, we are not a burden to the king... I want to break the deadlock in my own way!

Vitini swung his right foot and forced a shot regardless of the Wolverhampton players who rushed up to defend him!

The football went straight to the back corner of the goal!

The Wolverhampton goalkeeper jumped into the air and stretched out his hands, but he couldn't touch the football at all.

He could only turn his head and watch the football fly into the goal!
"Wow!! Vitini!! Good shot! Good shot!"

"Vitini——!! Beautiful! 1:0! Tyne is leading by one goal!"

"Tain finally broke the deadlock! Vitini's wonderful individual performance! He showed his talent to the fullest!"

Wang Lie, who was waiting for Vitini to pass the ball to him at the back point, saw the football flying towards him, but it flew into the goal. He was not disappointed or annoyed, and he did not blame Vitini for not passing the ball to him.

Instead, he waved his arms and cheered for Vitini's goal.

This is his customary action to express celebration.

Of course, the haters would only say that Wang Lie was raising his hand to signal his teammates to be offside...

After scoring the goal, Vitini was so excited that he rushed straight towards Wang Lie.

"Ahhhhh! Wang——!" Vitini shouted excitedly, then jumped directly towards Wang Lie.

Wang Lie was also well prepared. He got ready and caught Vitini in mid-air!
“Hahahaha!” Vitini threw himself on Wang Lie and laughed, “I did it! I did it! Wang! I am not a burden to you!”

Wang Lie, who was smiling, suddenly changed his expression and slapped him on the head: "Who the hell said you are a burden to me?!"

Vitini was a little hurt by the slap, but he didn't care. Instead, he grinned and said, "I'm strong, right?"

"Of course you are strong! Stupid..."

Before Wang Lie could finish his words, he was overwhelmed by the swarm of teammates.

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Note 1: Bravo: means great, usually used for applause.

(End of this chapter)