I AM the Football Star

”Delarre plays it back, Lam receives the ball.”

”Kaint drops deeper to pull out a triangular passing lane. Lam passes, Morici on the flank plays it on.”

”Oh! Morici doesn’t even take a touch, he fires a quick pass straight to Lu Yang ahead of him.”

”Lu Yang takes off! What pace!”

”Luckily, Inter’s left back is fully focused and doesn’t get completely beaten by Lu Yang.”

”Lu Yang on the ball...”

Lu Yang drives quickly down the right, mixing up his tempo.

The moment he slows down, he nudges the ball with his foot, and the ball flies straight through the moving legs of Inter’s left back.

A nutmeg on the run!

This is a move a lot of top wide players love to use.

Representative examples: Robben, Messi, Salah!

The cost of this pass is very low, but the payoff is huge.

If it goes through, it’s a piece of skill that fans can’t make sense of.

The defender clearly had them contained, so how is it that with just a feint the ball seems to ”phase” through his body like a magic trick?

Only when he turns to track back do you see the ball actually went through his legs as he was running.

There’s basically no way to guard against it.

Because the defender is still sprinting, once he’s beaten like this he has no time to hit the brakes and turn, which leaves a huge pocket of space for the attacker to cut inside and operate.

Pretty much unstoppable.

Even if the ball hits the defender’s leg and doesn’t get through, there’s a very high chance it’ll deflect out of play. For teams that know how to use it, a throw‑in in the attacking third is no worse than a set piece.

Of course, for some teams that don’t know how to run multi‑player combination attacks in the final third, whether it’s a set piece, a throw‑in, or even a corner, any of these ”opportunities” could end up killing them.

Those teams, when they get this kind of ”chance”, should just honestly give it up. Don’t push the whole team up, or the opponents will hit you with any random counter and rip you wide open!

”Lu Yang’s through! Right edge outside the box, Lu Yang lifts his left foot!”

”Bang! A cannon shot!”

”GOAL!”

One–nil!

Five minutes into the game, Lu Yang scores after a nutmeg, a proper Batigoal!

Unstoppable!

”Since Lu Yang’s permanent position this season moved to right winger, his dribbling has become ridiculously sharp. It’s not like he never produced such dazzling plays before, but... this season he’s making this kind of brilliance feel normal to everyone!”

”His speed leaves a deep impression.”

”Everyone knows Lu Yang is fast when he plays as an attacking midfielder, he often leaves everyone in the dust on the counter. But it seems like only out wide does his speed advantage get completely exposed.”

”You have to say it, playing as a No.10 was tying down Lu Yang’s speed. He can totally be like the wind!”

His teammates rush over to celebrate.

Morici asks, ”So, how are they?”

Lu Yang shakes his head: ”Average.”

The two of them are evaluating Inter.

On paper, Inter’s lineup doesn’t look bad.

But you only really know what a team is like when you go up against them for real.

And sometimes, even if it’s the same team, playing them at different times gives you a different feeling.

Today’s Inter, in Lu Yang’s eyes, has gaps between players as wide as the ocean.

Lu Yang feels like however he chooses to break, there will always be a way through.

That feeling is very mysterious.

Same positions for the two defenders, yet sometimes they can give an attacker the sense that he’s facing a Copper Wall and Iron Wall, that whatever dribble he tries will get shut down.

You could call that metaphysics.

But others believe it’s science.

There’s a group of scientists who think that in a person’s lifetime, only ten percent, or even just one percent, of the brain’s regions are developed.

Whatever the exact numbers, they all show that the brain’s capabilities go far beyond that portion controlled by conscious awareness.

For example, breathing and motor nerves are controlled by the cerebellum to a certain extent and aren’t under the direct control of your primary consciousness.

Otherwise you’d suffocate to death in your sleep.

So the brain can pick up on many things that are different from usual before your conscious mind even reacts.

These differences are extremely subtle, too fine for your conscious mind to detect, but your brain can, because your brain is far stronger than your conscious awareness.

That’s when you get things like, ”I’m feeling it today, every shot is going in,” ”I think that guy is kind of weird, doesn’t seem like a good person,” ”You seem off today, did something bad happen?”

Most of the time, this kind of ”intuition” is correct.

But it isn’t metaphysics; the clues have long been decoded by your brain. It’s just that your own CPU can’t process all that encrypted information.

The sense Lu Yang and Morici are exchanging comes from this.

This Inter looks like the same Inter, but it’s already different.

Their energy, their spirit, the atmosphere inside the club, all of it has changed.

Finger is on Six million euros in salary, but at the club he hasn’t shown any contribution above and beyond the rest.

With the national team he’s basically just making up the numbers.

Lu Yang, the absolute core of the national side, only gets Three million euros at his club. Where does Finger get off making Six million?

Once people’s hearts are scattered, the team becomes hard to lead.

A lot of clubs run into this kind of problem. If they don’t solve it in time, in the end they can only kick some players out and then change coaches to reignite morale.

Most of the Head Coaches changed in this period aren’t replaced because of tactics, and the new Head Coach isn’t necessarily better, but... they’re just going for a bounce.

Nine minutes in, Inter spend three minutes probing around the San Remo area.

It looks fierce.

But in reality, it doesn’t create any real threat.