God's Hand, Played to Ruin

Between the thirteenth and fourteenth rounds of the Premier League, FIFA scheduled a World Cup qualifier. International players from every continent had to rush back for the matches, and their clubs could not refuse.

China Team were set to play Bahrain away. It was also an important match in the Top Ten Tournament, so the overseas-based internationals were called up.

Starting in 2005, FIFA adjusted the World Cup qualifying format. Most matches followed a "call them up, play the match, then send them back" model. No time had been set aside for training camps beforehand. This affected the National Team's strength to a certain extent, but it greatly reduced the exertion and pressure on international players traveling between continents.

For overseas-based Chinese internationals like Yang Yang, this meant they could fly directly from Europe to the Middle East, join the team, play Bahrain, then fly straight back to Europe afterward to resume playing for their respective clubs. The process was somewhat like playing a Champions League away match in Israel or another Middle Eastern country. It was still exhausting, but at least the burden was much lighter than before.

Yang Yang and the other internationals were no strangers to Bahrain. They had played several matches against the team over the years. This time, however, the internationals had traveled a long way to play away, and the exertion was considerable, so the match was still quite difficult.

In the end, though, Yang Yang scored a goal to help China Team defeat Bahrain 1–0 away.

And by the time Yang Yang returned to Europe from the Middle East, he immediately faced the fourteenth round of the Premier League.

Affected by the midweek National Team matches, all the top teams performed terribly in this round.

Chelsea were held to a 0–0