The Mad Jardel

The B team drew one-all away to Gondomar, while the First Team drew two-all away to Porto.

On the same day, both teams came away unscathed from away matches, which left Sporting Lisbon's fans basically satisfied.

But the price the team paid was extremely heavy. Three players, including captain Barbosa, would all face suspensions.

For a time, the media and fans close to Sporting Lisbon were all worried, but inside the squad, the mood was restless.

Especially in the First Team, many players had smelled an opportunity.

That was reflected directly in training the next day. Everyone fought even harder.

During one counter-press after losing the ball in the frontcourt, Rony went straight in on Irish defender Phil Babb with a vicious sliding tackle, taking the thirty-one-year-old veteran clean off his feet.

Phil Babb angrily climbed up from the grass, rushed over, and patted Rony's face with his hand. "Calm down, kid. Use that strength against our opponents. Don't make trouble for me!"

Rony also realized he had not been calm enough and slowly backed away, but his mouth showed no weakness at all. "When I become the best player in the world, let's see if you still dare call me kid."

When everyone heard that, they could not help laughing.

Su Dong was right near where it happened. He pulled Rony away at once, and at the same time, he felt the tension in the squad's atmosphere.

The competition was too fierce. Everyone seemed like sharks that had scented blood, waiting only to swarm in.

And everyone's target was the matchday squad, even a starting spot.

Even a player like Su Dong, who still had no chance for the time being, could not help having a few thoughts of his own.

In midweek, in the Portuguese Cup quarterfinal knockout round, they challenged Real City away from home.

Although their opponent was merely an amateur team from a lower division, Boloni arranged for half a reserve lineup to start and won four-nil away, but Su Dong and Rony were still left out of the matchday squad.

Of course, the two of them did not complain much about it. After all, they had only just entered the First Team.

Worth mentioning was that Jardel scored twice.

And the Brazilian striker's scoring momentum already looked impossible to suppress.

At the weekend, in the nineteenth round of the Primeira Liga, Sporting Lisbon hosted Belenenses.

The team was troubled by two red-card suspensions, and its overall strength was greatly affected.

But at the crucial moment, it was Jardel who stepped up again, scoring two goals in the twenty-eighth and eighty-second minutes respectively to secure three points at home for Sporting Lisbon.

With back-to-back braces, five goals in three matches, Jardel's scoring momentum had become unstoppable.

A week later, in the twentieth round of the Primeira Liga, Sporting Lisbon challenged Alverca away from home.

Jardel opened the scoring for the team in the twenty-seventh minute, then scored twice more in the fiftieth and eightieth minutes to complete a hat trick, which was also his first hat trick of the season.

Eight goals in four rounds—anyone could see that Jardel had completely gone berserk.

Outside media reported one after another that this was Jardel trying, before the Winter Break transfer window closed, to send the strongest possible signal to every team interested in him.

That was, he was still that Brazilian striker who scored in waves!

As if to prove the outside world's speculation, on the last day of January, in the twenty-first round of the Primeira Liga, Sporting Lisbon hosted Leiria.

After the visiting team had sent away head coach Mourinho, their overall strength was greatly affected, while Sporting Lisbon used their home advantage to launch wave after wave of crushing attacks at their opponent.

Jardel scored in the twenty-first minute, and three minutes later, Quaresma scored the first Primeira Liga goal of his professional career, which was also his first goal of the season.

Near the end of the first half, it was Jardel again who, with this penalty, added another for Sporting Lisbon.

After the sides changed ends and resumed play in the second half, Leiria pulled one back, but Jardel's goal in the eighty-seventh minute sealed the victory for the team.

Another hat trick!

Back-to-back league hat tricks.

Eleven goals in five rounds. Was there any stat more insane than that?

Jardel's continuous goals made his transfer rumors boil over.

Not only were the Portuguese media reporting on it wildly, even the media from the Big Four Leagues in Europe were paying close attention.

Almost every team eager to strengthen its attack would be linked with Jardel, and media outlets even kept solemnly dropping big scoops, insisting that Jardel would join a certain giant club at a certain time.

But what stunned everyone was that until the final moment when the transfer market closed, not a single team made an offer to Sporting Lisbon, and Jardel's Winter Break transfer was declared a failure.

While Jardel was scoring like mad in the First Team, Rony, who was with the B team, finally broke his goal drought since the Winter Break.

In the three matches in mid-to-late January, Sporting Lisbon B recorded one win, one draw, and one loss.

Those four points let the team take a solid step along the road to avoiding relegation.

In three matches, Su Dong scored one goal and also had one assist.

Rony's goal had come from Su Dong's assist.

The two of them were finding their rhythm more and more, and they were gradually building on-field chemistry with the Second Team players as well. That had greatly raised Su Dong's standing in the Second Team locker room, and more and more people were recognizing his performances and his place in the starting lineup.

Everyone had also begun to believe that Su Dong and Rony, the two players training with the First Team, appearing in matches for the First Team was only a matter of time.

Su Dong himself was not all that hung up on when he would get to play for the First Team. He preferred to believe that once his strength was there, getting on the pitch would come naturally, as a matter of course.

Training with the First Team while playing matches for the Second Team was a great help to Su Dong's improvement, whether in training or in matches. Added to the relentless hard work he put in every day, all of it made his performances better and better.

Among the three main categories of attributes, his highest ones, speed and explosive power, had already reached 86 points, while his other attacking attributes had basically all surpassed 75 points.

In just one short month, Su Dong had improved by a huge margin compared to when he had first joined.

That also made him believe, unwaveringly, that as long as he kept up this momentum, he would soon be able to max out both the technical and physical categories at the [Ball Three] level.

But this time, trying to reach perfect completion probably would not work.

Because he was a forward, Su Dong's defensive attributes improved very, very slowly.

This was clearly also forcing him to make plans for his own career and appropriately give up on defensive attributes.

Just training the two categories of technique and physique was already more than enough for him to handle. If he also trained defense, how many years would it take him to level up?

Besides, he was a center forward, not a center back. As long as his defending was passable, there was no need to be too demanding.

At night, in the Sky Bar.

Su Dong sat on the sofa in the bar and tilted his head back. What he saw was a sky scattered with stars against a dark curtain, beautiful beyond words. He was almost entranced by it.

Tonight was a First Team gathering.

Jardel, who had been scoring in torrents recently, had made a rare invitation during the team's day off, asking all his teammates to come here and get together.

Head coach Boloni had given the green light, but Niculae had not come.

The Romanian center forward had been troubled by injuries ever since the Winter Break and had not played even a single minute. Instead, Nalitzis had had a few opportunities to come on as a substitute for Jardel, but he had not shown enough quality either.

It could be said that Sporting Lisbon's front line right now was truly being held up by Jardel alone.

Recently, with win after win, they had begun to gradually pull away from Boavista and Porto behind them. The atmosphere inside the team had also become much more relaxed than before. The players gathered in the bar, and the mood was extremely lively. Compared with the cold winter outside, the bar could truly be described as warm as spring.

Rony and Jordana were inseparable in the corner, their relationship developing at tremendous speed. Many of the other players had also brought their girlfriends or wives, while there were plenty of bachelors like Su Dong too. Some were playing games in the distance, others were playing table football, and bursts of genuine exclamations rang out from time to time. The atmosphere was extremely lively.

Su Dong ordered a drink, sat on the sofa, tilted his head back, and counted the stars in the sky.

He began to realize that perhaps he should learn to play games. Otherwise, he would have fewer and fewer common topics with them.

However, playing games was quite a waste of time too.

Right now, he wished he could have forty-eight hours every day, so he could keep training hard and improve his strength as soon as possible.

Who made the gap in ability between him and his First Team teammates so large?

But there was no helping it. Time was fair to everyone.

Andre Cruz, who had originally been watching the table football, finally left the crowd. He first went to the bar counter to get a drink, then found an empty table and began to savor it with obvious enjoyment.

When Su Dong saw that he was alone, he immediately picked up the glass he had placed on the coffee table and walked toward Cruz.

Ever since he had joined Sporting Lisbon, he had been training with the First Team. And since he was a center forward, he inevitably had to match up against Andre Cruz all the time. Unsurprisingly, every single time, Cruz had tormented him until he was battered from head to toe.

It could be said that in the one month so far, he had not gained even the slightest advantage over Cruz.

That made him feel deep awe toward this Brazilian center back.

Now that he had a rare opportunity, he very much wanted to clear up the doubts in his heart.

Cruz looked at Su Dong as he sat down in front of him, and a flicker of surprise flashed through his eyes as well.

"Something up?" the Brazilian center back asked curiously.

Su Dong placed his glass on the coffee table, nodded, and said, "Yes. I'd like to ask you about a few things."

Andre Cruz was a veteran who had been through countless battles. He had played for major clubs such as Standard Liège, Naples, and AC Milan, and he had seen a great deal. As soon as he saw Su Dong's expression, he immediately guessed something.

The Brazilian center back smiled and nodded. "Ask away. I'll tell you everything I know."

Su Dong sensed Cruz's sincerity. After considering his wording for a moment, he asked seriously, "Why do I always feel like you can guess in advance what I want to do? Are my movements really that easy to read?"

By the time he finished asking, Su Dong's brows had already furrowed.

Sometimes, he even felt that Cruz could predict the future.