It's All Because of Being Too Flirtatious

"Beautifully done!"

When Su Dong walked off the pitch, head coach Jean James came up to him with a beaming smile. After slapping palms with him hard, he gave him a solemn hug to show just how excited he was at that moment.

Two-nil. Sporting Lisbon B had beaten Chaves at home.

In his first appearance for the team, Su Dong had scored both goals, completing a brace.

Could there be a more satisfying debut than that?

After hugging James, Su Dong turned and high-fived Cardozo and the other coaches, then embraced Jose Semedo.

The Cape Verdean had sat on the bench for the entire match without getting even a single minute of playing time, and the expression on his face was gloomy.

But when Su Dong told him that Rony had lost three weeks of floor-mopping duty, Semedo was so excited he almost jumped up.

"That's the best news I've heard today! Thank you, Rony! Thank God!"

Rony appeared silently behind him, suddenly hooked an arm around his neck, and, fuming, made as if to punch him twice.

His shooting luck tonight had indeed been poor.

As the team's top dog, he had plenty of freedom to fire at will. He took five or six shots over the whole match, but not one of them hit the target.

It had to be said, that really was rather regrettable.

One major reason was that he was simply far too reckless.

Sometimes, even when it clearly was not a very good chance, he still forced the shot. With that kind of shooting, how could his accuracy possibly be high?

However, judging from his overall performance, Rony's ability still stood head and shoulders above everyone on both teams.

On the surface, he sounded sour, but in truth, Rony was very happy about Su Dong's brace.

Just as he had said before, if there was anyone on the whole team he would willingly lose to, it was only Su Dong.

"Seeing as I assisted you, shouldn't you help me share some of the housework?" Rony asked miserably.

Su Dong froze when he heard that, then immediately looked at Semedo. "Oh, right, Jose, did you see my shoes?"

"Shoes? What shoes?"

"Didn't I ask you to put them away for me just now?"

"Did you?"

"Didn't I?"

"They couldn't have gone missing, could they?"

"Then we'd better hurry and look for them."

"I'll help you."

The two walked off with their arms around each other's shoulders, leaving Rony hanging there, his mind a complete mess.

It was all the trouble caused by being too reckless!

After beating their opponent by two goals, the B-team players celebrated the victory wildly in the dressing room.

Everyone gave high praise to the goalscorer Su Dong, and many players even came over to celebrate with him.

There was no faster way to fit into a team than scoring goals and helping the team win.

Su Dong was in a great mood as well.

Before the match, even he had not expected that he would be able to score a brace in the game.

The target he had originally set for himself was to get one assist; the best-case scenario had only been scoring one goal.

But unexpectedly, in the end he scored two.

The main reason was that Chaves had not been as strong as he had imagined.

"Overall, Chaves are about at the level of a strong team in the Portuguese Second Division."

After the match, Pontes came to the dressing room at once and talked to Su Dong about the gains and losses from this game's performance.

"The Portuguese League has always had a problem, and that is that the strong are very strong, while the weak are on the weak side. This mainly depends on a team's financial strength. As long as you have enough financial power, it's very easy to pile together a squad in the Portuguese League with the strength of a lower-table Portuguese Super League side, or even a mid-table Portuguese League side. But a team like Chaves is basically only at the level of a strong Portuguese Second Division team."

Su Dong had played half a year in the Portuguese Second Division South Group, and he very much agreed with Pontes's analysis.

"So you must remember this: scoring a brace in your first match is certainly something to be happy about, but it isn't worth being proud of. In the end, the opponent was weaker. Next, you should work hard to adapt to the intensity of the Portuguese League, train and improve yourself, and produce better performances in clashes against strong teams."

Su Dong nodded. He understood this very well in his heart.

"If you can put in excellent performances when facing strong teams like Coimbra University, Nacional, Moreirense, Amadora, or Rio Ave, then I believe you will definitely be able to enter Boloni's field of vision when the time comes."

The teams Pontes mentioned were the ones currently near the top of the Portuguese League table.

Among them, Moreirense, Coimbra University, and Nacional were ranked first, second, and third in the Portuguese League respectively, and their lead was quite clear. It could be said that the three of them had pulled away from the pack and were the three major favorites for promotion to the Portuguese Super League.

If he could produce convincing performances in matches against these teams, then that would prove Su Dong had the ability to play in the Portuguese Super League. Without a doubt, that would make him an additional option for head coach Boloni when arranging his lineup.

Of course, getting there would be very difficult.

Aside from acknowledging Su Dong's performance and offering him a few suggestions, Pontes also pointed out and corrected some of the problems Su Dong had exposed during the match.

At the end of the day, he had only just arrived, and there were still many ways in which he and his teammates lacked chemistry.

A major reason they had been able to beat Chaves in this match was that they were playing at home, their opponents were not strong, and the team's attack had flowed smoothly from the start. Marcelino had returned to the reserves, and with Rony as well, Sporting Lisbon had a clear advantage on both wings.

With Su Dong holding the fort in the middle up front, the team's attack had looked lively from the very beginning.

But the real test would still come in clashes between strong teams.

After finishing his talk with Pontes, Su Dong was met by Mendes and Manuel.

When the two saw Su Dong, both were all smiles, clearly in excellent spirits.

This round had been a huge harvest for Mendes.

As for the first team, Viana and Quaresma had both entered the starting lineup, and Sporting Lisbon had also performed well, beating their opponents away from home. In the reserves, meanwhile, the newly arrived Su Dong had scored twice, and Rony had also put in a good performance.

All of this left Mendes in a very good mood.

"I suggest you find a way to share your goals with your teammates," Mendes proposed.

Su Dong did not quite understand. How was he supposed to share goals?

"You know, football is a sport for eleven people. You scored the goals, that's true, but think about it. Without Rony's assist, could you have scored?"

Su Dong shook his head. He understood that much.

"And before Rony? Without the defending from people like Jose Fonte, without the help from people like Hugo Pina, do you think Rony could have played that assist?"

Su Dong immediately understood what Mendes meant.

Football was a team effort, and goals were also a team contribution.

He had seized the final touch and sent the ball into the net. That was his glory, of course, but in truth, it had come from the support of the entire team behind him. Without the teammates behind him, his goals would not have been possible.

As the man who had scored the goals, he no longer needed to receive more praise. Not only that, he should take the initiative to share the credit for the goals with this group of unsung teammates behind him and use the chance to build good relationships with them.

In a team sport like this, a lone goalscorer would find it very hard to be accepted by the whole team.

This was exactly why Pontes had reminded him back then that Marcelino could not establish himself in the first team.

If he was not accepted, integrating would become even harder.

"Then what should I do?" Su Dong knew nothing about this.

This was the first time he had encountered something like this. Back at Sporting Portugal, there had been no need for any of it.

"It's actually very simple. None of you earn high salaries, so treat everyone to a meal. It doesn't have to be somewhere high-end like Romario Seafood Restaurant. Just find a decent mid-range restaurant with good food and treat your teammates. That'll be enough."

"That's it?"

"Mm." Mendes nodded. "But remember, don't do it in your own name. Make it a team gathering, and then you pay the bill."

Su Dong was not stupid. He was simply inexperienced in dealing with people and social situations.

With just a little prompting from Mendes, he immediately understood the difference between doing it in his own name and holding a team meal. He promptly smiled and nodded at his agent, saying thank you.

The more he interacted with him, the more Su Dong sensed Mendes's shrewdness.

This shrewdness was not calculating at every turn, but a kind of proper, all-round service with no blind spots.

"I'll go find Jose Semedo and have him come forward to invite the teammates to a meal."

Seeing how quickly Su Dong grasped the point, Mendes and Manuel exchanged a smile.

"He really is very smart," Manuel said with a smile, looking at Su Dong's back.

Mendes nodded with a smile. "You don't need to be very smart to become a professional player, but if you want to become an outstanding professional player, you have to learn to be smart."

The dressing room was like a miniature society. It gathered twenty or thirty young men from all over the world, with different cultural backgrounds, different levels of education, different living habits, and vastly different personalities. These people played football with different purposes and ideas.

To survive in an environment like that, in the dressing room, one had to learn to be smart. One had to learn how to make teammates willingly gather around him, pass to him, and assist him.

A melon forced from the vine was never sweet; if the heart was unwilling, the actions would be reluctant too.

The biggest problem for many teams did not lie in the players not being strong enough, nor in the head coach failing to assign reasonable tactics, but in internal conflicts within the dressing room. The players were unwilling to obey and execute, and unwilling to cooperate.

A striker was naturally the face and banner of a team, because he was responsible for scoring goals and always drew everyone's eyes.

But the more that was the case, the more a striker needed support from the entire team.

Mendes understood this very well, so he reminded Su Dong, hoping he would take note of it.

Relying only on outstanding performances on the pitch was far from enough, because there was a saying on the football field: the outcome of a match was already decided the moment the players from both sides walked onto the pitch.

Su Dong quickly found Jose Semedo and Rony and brought up the matter.

Clearly, Mendes had taught Rony this before as well, so he was very supportive.

But Jose Semedo said with a smile that the teammates did not really care about eating and drinking, because they could not just eat and drink whatever they wanted either.

"Remember? I said before that as long as you scored, I'd take you out to have some fun."

"Rather than treating everyone to food and drink, you might as well treat us to a bit of fun. I'm sure everyone would be much happier."

Fun?

Pink lights surfaced in Su Dong's mind.

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