Wandering is Also a Habit

In the afternoon, Alcochete, António Almeida Correia Stadium.

Su Dong wore a green jersey and stood to the left of the white spot at the center of the pitch. He looked down at the ball by his feet, then raised his head and looked at Cristiano Ronaldo beside him.

The boy from Madeira Island seemed to sense it and looked over as well, grinning at Su Dong.

"I've already talked it over with them. Once the match starts, we'll go straight into a fast break. You'll be in charge of linking up with me."

"Will that work?" Su Dong was a little doubtful.

"Relax. I feel like I'm in great form today. Marcelino's on the left, so there won't be any problem," Rony said, brimming with confidence.

"You're sure?"

"Of course. You take the final pass. I don't trust anyone else," Rony said with a smile.

Although this was the first match he and Su Dong had played side by side, the two had trained together for more than half a year and had long since developed a chemistry no one else could compare with. That made them extremely familiar with and understanding of each other.

To put it plainly, if Rony so much as gave him a look, Su Dong knew what he wanted to do.

Besides, Su Dong had advanced with full marks in the basics. His passing was rock solid too.

"All right, then I'll give it a try. You'd better seize the chance. Don't fire blanks."

Rony gave a cold snort. "Do I look like that kind of person?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the referee checked the time and was ready to blow the whistle at any moment.

Sporting Lisbon B was, in effect, the U23 side.

Aside from players coming down from the first team to recover from injuries and regain form, everyone else was under twenty-three.

However, in recent years, Sporting Lisbon's youth academy had entered a period of explosive talent production. That had given them a high success rate in developing players, especially over the past two or three years, when a batch of outstanding football prospects had emerged one after another.

As a result, Sporting Lisbon B had stood out in the battles of the Portuguese Second Division and smoothly earned promotion to the Portuguese League.

But in the end, they were still a youth team. Even if they had decent strength, they were ultimately young players. Their best result in the Portuguese League had only been mid-table, and they even had to fight desperately to avoid relegation every season.

This season was the same.

Their opponent in this match was Chaves, a side that was not especially strong and was also fighting desperately to avoid relegation.

And teams fighting relegation were often tougher to deal with than other teams.

As soon as the match began, Su Dong kicked the ball straight to Rony and quickly rushed forward himself.

After receiving the ball, Rony passed it straight back, then ran toward the right flank.

Apart from the goalkeepers, the twenty players from both teams quickly spread out near the halfway line, their formations intertwining.

The ball was passed twice in Sporting Lisbon's backfield before Hugo Pina quickly switched it to the right side of the halfway line and gave it to Rony.

Rony controlled and carried it in one motion, shaking off the defender at once, then dribbled forward alone into the opponent's half.

The fans watching from the sidelines were sparse, but after seeing Rony's beautiful play, they quickly applauded and screamed excitedly.

Just as Rony dribbled past the halfway line, an opposing player immediately came up to block him.

Su Dong ran over at the first opportunity and raised his hand to call for the ball.

Rony passed the ball to Su Dong's feet, and instead of slowing down, he sprinted forward even faster.

Su Dong understood instantly. Without stopping the ball, he pushed it on with the flow, sending it directly into the space in front of Rony.

The beautiful wall pass once again drew cheers from the spectators on the sidelines.

But Su Dong, on the pitch, did not stop. He kept running forward and, outside the top of the penalty arc, received another pass from Rony.

After catching up to the ball, he was quickly blocked by a defender again.

This time, Su Dong received the ball head-on. As soon as he stopped it, he shaped as if he were about to draw back his leg and unleash a fierce shot, fooling the defender into turning sideways to block. But in reality, he suddenly sent out a low pass, threading the ball straight into the penalty area.

Rony quickly darted diagonally into the box and, without stopping the ball, drew back his leg and blasted a fierce shot, roaring as he did. It was like Kojiro Hyuga's Tiger Shot from the anime Soccer Youth.

Thanks to Su Dong and Rony's outstanding chemistry, the attack had been very quick and very beautiful.

Su Dong's final low pass had also been delivered perfectly, Rony's diagonal run into the box was very fast, and the first-time blast was extremely spectacular as well. Not only did the fans find it thrilling, Rony himself was surging with excitement.

The only problem was that his aim was a little off.

After the ball was struck by the Tiger Shot, it did not threaten the goal at all and flew straight out of the stadium.

That left Rony, who had already fully struck a pose and was preparing to celebrate the goal on the pitch, staring in a bit of a daze.

"That doesn't make sense. I felt like everything was right. How did it go that far wide?" the boy from Madeira Island could not understand it.

Su Dong walked over and slapped him hard on the shoulder. "Yeah, no matter how I look at it, you really don't seem like a man who fires blanks!"

How could Rony not know that Su Dong was "mocking" the big words he had said before the match?

"It must be because your pass was too poor. You made me hit the wrong part of the ball," Rony said, as if he had found the reason.

"Please. How was I supposed to know you were going to hit it first time? Would it have killed you to stop it before shooting?" Su Dong said, feeling very innocent.

"It looks cooler that way," Rony answered, perfectly justified.

Su Dong slapped his own forehead hard. His brain was starting to ache. Out of options, he could only raise one unyielding middle finger to declare his aggrieved stance.

"Pass it to me one more time. I promise I won't showboat this time."

Soon, Sporting Lisbon's attack came roaring back once again.

This time, Marcelino broke through down the left with the ball.

Although in the first team Marcelino had been abused by his teammates like a helpless grandson, the moment he returned to the youth team, he was instantly reborn. He looked every bit like a true pillar again, tearing it up on the left flank and venting all the anger he had taken in the first team onto his opponents.

After breaking through on the left, Marcelino squared the ball to Su Dong.

With his back to the direction of attack, Su Dong used his body to hold off the opposing center back. After stopping the ball with his left foot, he swept it sideways with his right.

He did not even need to look to know Rony had definitely arrived.

Sure enough, the ball was played across to the area around the top of the arc. Rony quickly darted in on a diagonal, stopped the ball, then blasted a shot directly with his left foot.

This time, he really did not fire into empty air. The problem was, there was no power behind it either.

The feeble shot was caught directly by the opposing goalkeeper.

"Hey, man, when it came to the final touch, why'd you go soft?" Su Dong spread his hands.

It was not just him. Marcelino was both annoyed and amused too.

"Sorry. It didn't sit right for my right foot, and it was just perfect for my left," Rony said, very embarrassed.

"Your left foot is half-crippled," Su Dong said with a wry smile.

Although Rony had been training hard with his left foot, it was still his weaker foot. Getting it up to standard was not something that could be done overnight.

Su Dong knew that deeply from experience. He was training his weaker foot hard too.

"Give me another chance. One more. This time I definitely won't showboat."

Su Dong looked at Marcelino and Hugo Pina. Both of them shrugged helplessly.

There was nothing they could do. Who made him the top guy at Sports Tower?

Oh, no, wrong. Sports Tower had already become the equestrian center now.

Now he should be the top guy at Correia.

Although Rony had taken two wasteful shots in a row, squandering excellent scoring chances, in the eyes of head coach Jean James on the touchline, it was not a major problem.

He seemed to be in a very good mood, the smile written plainly on his face. Clearly, he was very satisfied with the team's performance.

"After the opening whistle, the attack has flowed very smoothly," Jean James said with a smile.

In this match, he did not copy the first team's two-striker tactic. Instead, he adopted Sporting Lisbon's traditional 4-3-3 formation.

Sporting Lisbon produced wingers precisely because they had used a 4-3-3 winger system for years.

As it happened, Marcelino had been sent back to the B team, so James naturally fielded a front three of Marcelino, Su Dong, and Rony. As a result, the three of them really had performed quite well in the match.

"Su Dong is the key point. His awareness in linking play, holding the ball with his back to goal, and laying it off are all very good. His instincts in several runs have been real highlights too," Cardozo said, also satisfied with the attack over the opening ten minutes or so.

Sporting Lisbon had basically pinned Chaves down. If they kept playing like this, a goal was only a matter of time.

"When our scouts watched him before, they said his off-the-ball movement was extremely sharp. He can always run into the places that hurt the opponent most and make life very uncomfortable for them. Looking at it now, they weren't wrong at all," Oswaldo Silva said with a smile.

Although this was only his first match, and he had played only a dozen minutes or so, Su Dong's performance had already left the B team's coaching staff very satisfied.

He had the advantage in height, he had skill at his feet, he could hold the ball and lay it off. The tactical value of a center forward like that was simply too obvious.

"I remember his nickname at Sporting Portugal was Little God of War, but he still hasn't used Batty Goal yet," James said, somewhat looking forward to Su Dong's famous special move.

Cardozo and Silva glanced at each other, then laughed in unison. "Isn't that just because Rony is too wasteful?"

While the coaching staff was talking, Su Dong once again stopped the ball with his back to goal at the edge of the penalty area.

He was tall, and after leaning his back into the opposing center back, his long legs stopped the ball in front of him. No matter how hard the defender behind him tried, he simply could not get the ball.

Who told them to be short?

If you were short, your legs were short. Who could you blame?

As Su Dong controlled the ball, he glanced to the side. The opponent had clearly strengthened their marking on Rony, so this time he did not play it sideways again. Instead, he passed it back to the onrushing Hugo Pina.

After stopping the ball, Hugo Pina followed the momentum and threaded a through ball, perfectly into the space behind.

Rony, who had originally run across to offer support, had already changed direction and surged forward the moment Su Dong passed back. At this moment, he caught up to the ball just to the right front of the six-yard box and shot directly with his right foot. The opposing goalkeeper threw himself sideways and blocked it, the ball scraping past the right post and going behind.

Rony crouched in the penalty area, both hands clutching his hair, letting out waves of unwilling groans.

"I really didn't showboat that time, but it..."

Su Dong patted his old friend on the shoulder and let out a long sigh. Showboating was a habit too.

"How about next time, I give it a try?"

"You're even wilder than me," Rony said, very unconvinced.

In a wastrel's eyes, everyone was a wastrel.

"Fine, I'll set you up. If you fire blanks and don't score, your punishment is mopping the floor for a week."

A house of over two hundred square meters made mopping the floor a deadly chore too.

"Then what if I score?"

"I'll mop for three weeks," Rony said through gritted teeth.

In other words, if Su Dong really scored, he would punish himself for those three wild shots just now.

Su Dong had no reason to stop a prodigal son from turning back, did he?

Wuwuwu, I swear on the breakfast I just ate late, I'm definitely not reckless. Handsome guys and beautiful ladies, rewards, favorites, recommendation votes—go ahead and smash them into my face!