Super Wingstorm

”He got past him!!”

”The Pendulum Move!!!”

”My God, was that Ronaldo’s Pendulum Move?”

”Yang Yang completes a beautiful dribble and chips it to the far post...”

”It’s in!!!!!”

”GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!”

”In the ninetieth minute, Ajax scores a magnificent goal!”

”Van der Vaart! Rafael van der Vaart uses his left foot to score the equalizer for Ajax!”

”A crucial goal from the Ajax captain, Van der Vaart!”

...

After tapping Yang Yang’s cross into the Bruges goal with his left foot, Van der Vaart threw his arms wide and let out a roar. He turned and sprinted toward the corner flag, screaming all the way to release his exhilaration.

He had been waiting for this goal for a very long time!

Ever since the Champions League qualifiers began, he, the new captain, had been under immense pressure. When the team was in trouble, it was Sneijder and Ibrahimovic who stepped up at critical moments to save them. He, the captain, was left on the sidelines.

The first five group stage matches were the same. First it was Sunk, then Galasek and Ibrahimovic. Only he, the captain, not only performed poorly but was also in a major slump. In seven matches, he had scored only one goal, and it was a meaningless one in the three-to-two away loss against Celta Vigo.

Tonight’s match was no different.

Ever since he injured his knee last year and had surgery to remove his meniscus, his speed had plummeted. He could no longer play as a winger and could only play in the central midfield, but he could never seem to connect with Ibrahimovic.

In the second half, Koman moved him to the wing, but he failed to show the sharpness he had before his injury. He was forced back to the center, which made him feel enormous pressure, especially as the team’s situation grew more and more dire.

But now, this single goal had completely redeemed him!

Van der Vaart slid on his knees by the sideline, so emotional he was on the verge of tears.

...

”Ajax just scored an absolutely beautiful goal.”

”Looking at the slow-motion replay, the impact of the young substitute, Yang Yang, is crystal clear. He’s incredibly fast and his positioning is very intelligent. Van der Heyden was clearly running on empty and couldn’t keep up with him, allowing Yang Yang to seize the opportunity.”

”And that chipped pass from Ibrahimovic was incredibly clever as well.”

”You could say that the telepathic and imaginative link-up between these two Ajax players saved the team, resulting in this crucial goal.”

”Let’s remember this young man’s name: the seventeen-year-old from China, Yang Yang!”

...

...

When Yang Yang saw Van der Vaart score, he jumped for joy as well.

But he quickly rushed toward the Bruges goal. Ignoring the Goalkeeper’s attempts to stop him, he snatched the ball and sprinted back toward the center circle.

”Hey, the game isn’t over! We can’t celebrate yet!” Yang Yang shouted as he ran.

At that moment, he couldn’t care about anything else, not even the team’s internal hierarchy. The only thought in his mind was to win the game, to help Van Gaal overcome this crisis.

Nothing else mattered.

”Young Yang Yang looks full of fighting spirit. He had a small clash with the opposing Goalkeeper to grab the ball, and now he’s urging his teammates to get back into position instead of celebrating.”

”You can see his desire to win is incredibly strong.”

”There’s still a little time left in the match. Three minutes of stoppage time remaining. Ajax still has a chance.”

On the sideline, Ronald Koman saw several players rush over to Van der Vaart. Then he saw Yang Yang charge in, grab the ball from the Goalkeeper, and carry it back to the center circle. Koman frantically shouted from the sideline as well, telling everyone to get back and prepare for the restart.

The score was now two-two, but Ajax was still behind Celta Vigo.

To advance from the group stage, they had to score one more goal.

...

...

”Wow!”

The moment Van der Vaart scored, everyone in Shen’s Chinese Restaurant erupted in cheers.

”That was amazing!”

”They finally tied it up!”

”Oh my God, that link-up play between Yang Yang and Ibrahimovic was brilliant.”

”The two of them have such great chemistry and imagination. Only a talent like Ibrahimovic could make a pass like that.”

”Good Lord, Yang Yang is just fantastic!”

”There’s still a chance, there’s still a chance!”

John Reep and Dick Van Puer were so excited they hugged each other and cheered. When they turned back around, they saw Yang Yang’s uncle, Shen Ming, had already rushed to the phone and was making a call.

”Yongqiang, Lifang, are you watching the live broadcast?”

”He’s on, and he got an assist!”

”Don’t cry, you should be happy.”

But as he said this, Shen Ming himself couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

Watching his own relative fight so hard on the pitch was a very special feeling, especially with it being Yang Yang.

Although John Reep couldn’t understand what Shen Ming was saying in Chinese, he could understand the emotion. Yang Yang was once considered useless and had been repeatedly advised to quit by Reep himself. How incredibly difficult must it have been for him to make it this far?

Only someone with incredible inner strength could have done it.

”Maybe... maybe he really can bring about a miracle,” John Reep said, his voice filled with emotion.

...

...

”Louis! Louis!! Louis!!!”

”Where are you?”

Chairman Michael van Praag burst out of his office in excitement, shouting loudly.

”I’m in here,” Van Gaal called back from the technical director’s office.

”We scored! We scored!” Michael van Praag yelled, rushing to the doorway.

”What?”

”We scored!” Van Praag said, grabbing Van Gaal’s hand without another word and pulling him along.

”Stop packing your things! Hurry, there’s still a chance! We just tied the game.”

’What’s going on?’

Van Gaal seriously suspected he had misheard.

But when he was pulled into the adjacent chairman’s office and saw the image on the television screen, he froze.

The two teams were in the center circle, preparing for the restart. It was the home team, Bruges’, kickoff.

Two-two. Ajax had actually equalized!

The goalscorer was Van der Vaart.

’How did this happen?’

”Yang Yang! That substitute who just came on, Yang Yang, he’s incredible! He had a beautiful link-up with Ibrahimovic, then beat a defender one-on-one outside their box, and finally assisted Van der Vaart for the goal!”

Michael van Praag was extremely animated, still completely lost in the excitement of the moment.

”Louis, it’s a draw now. As long as we can qualify for the UEFA Cup, it’s not over, right?”

Van Gaal was also stunned. He felt like his mind was a complete blank.

’An assist from Yang Yang?’

’How is that possible?’

’When Ronald Koman subbed him in, it was obvious he’d given up on the match. But how...?’

”If there’s only one man left standing at the end of the match, it will be Yang Yang.”

”If there’s still one person willing to fight for me until the very last second, I believe it would also be Yang Yang.”

”If the final result is truly set in stone, then I hope the one to see me off is Yang Yang.”

The match restarted.

As soon as Bruges kicked off, Yang Yang instantly charged toward their defensive line at top speed.

He showed an incredibly intense desire to win, first pressing the center-back, then the left-back, then dropping back to press the midfield, before quickly charging the defensive line again.

He had just come on as a substitute and had plenty of stamina, but this kind of relentless running and pressing was still incredibly infectious.

Van Gaal suddenly broke into a smile, a smile filled with relief, because he knew he hadn’t been wrong about Yang Yang.

This friend always brought surprises.

But a surprise wasn’t a miracle.

The match clock ticked away, second by second, but Yang Yang was still pressing relentlessly.

Bruges understood Ajax’s intentions. They began to abandon their attacking ambitions, instead opting to pass the ball around in the back to waste time. They wanted to end the match with a two-two scoreline.

Even if it meant they wouldn’t qualify for the UEFA Cup, they had to stop Ajax.

It wasn’t about personal gain, but about their dignity as a professional team.

Two minutes, one hundred and twenty seconds, seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

During that time, Ajax managed to win the ball, but in their haste to attack, they quickly lost it again.

The match finally entered its last minute.

The referee was checking his watch more and more frequently.

It seemed all hope was lost.

But Van Gaal’s eyes remained glued to the screen, fixed on the friend who still refused to give up.

...

...

Van der Heyden passed the ball back to the Goalkeeper once again.

Yang Yang’s press was once again fruitless.

The rest of the Ajax players were exhausted. Yang Yang was the only one left who could press up front.

’But how could one person possibly win the ball back?’

Soetters was also pressing on the left flank. Ibrahimovic saw the opposing Goalkeeper trying to waste time and immediately moved to pressure him, forcing him to get rid of the ball.

Forced into a corner, the Bruges Goalkeeper had no choice but to quickly boot the ball downfield.

The tall striker Sertenes won the initial header, but Heitinga quickly controlled the second ball and passed it to Sneijder.

Sneijder looked up and scanned the field ahead.

Ibrahimovic was still in an offside position. Van der Vaart was to the left. Yang Yang was running into space on the right, but Van der Heyden was marking him closely.

’Where should I pass?’

The Bruges midfield didn’t give Sneijder time to think, immediately closing in and blocking his passing lanes forward and to the left. The Ajax midfielder had no choice but to pass to Yang Yang.

The ball carved a swift arc through the air toward Yang Yang.

Using [God’s Vision], Yang Yang knew without even looking back that Van der Heyden was closing in from behind. He realized that if he tried to control the ball, the defender would either dispossess him or commit a foul, and either way, the match would be over.

’What should I do?’

A sudden flash of inspiration struck Yang Yang. He abruptly accelerated, taking two steps forward, and just as he expected, Van der Heyden followed him tightly.

As the ball arrived, Yang Yang chested it down. Then, with a volleyed flick of his right foot, he lofted the ball over both himself and Van der Heyden. Spinning around instantly, he swatted away Van der Heyden’s grasping hand as the defender tried to foul him. Gritting his teeth, Yang Yang sprinted after the ball with everything he had.