San Remo Municipal Stadium.
San Remo hosted Catania, a strong team sitting fifth in the league.
The thirty-eighth minute of the first half.
The stadium fell silent.
Meanwhile, Catania's fans were cheering.
Catania had taken the lead, 1–0.
"We can see that this wasn't a case of one team simply overpowering the other. Vedian was dispossessed, and Catania launched a counterattack. San Remo's midfield still isn't quite on the same page—they made a mistake, and Catania's midfield played a dangerous through ball!"
"Lu Yang was up against two players, and he did everything he could. He actually managed to break up the attack and make a perfect defensive play. But... San Remo's other center-back failed to win the first ball. Instead, he brought it down right in front of the opposing striker, who was pressing him. One-on-one, and in it goes!"
"It was a goal with a great deal of luck involved. Lu Yang's defending had been excellent, but it seems that today, God is on Catania's side."
The commentator sounded helpless.
That goal really had come down to bad luck and bad timing.
To be fair, Lu Yang and Moric had already brought a qualitative change to San Remo's defense.
In the first twenty rounds of the league, San Remo had conceded forty-six goals, averaging 2.3 per game.
Their defense had been absolutely terrible.
But in the last two matches, San Remo had conceded only three goals—and one of those came when Lu Yang and Moric weren't even on the pitch.
The post-match stats for Lu Yang and Moric's interceptions had also been impressive.
Especially Lu Yang!
At his current rate, if he stayed healthy and played the rest of the season, he could actually contend for the Serie D Tackle King and Interception King titles!
Could you believe that?
The fans couldn't bring themselves to criticize such an outstanding player.
But... what San Remo's fans wanted was a win.
"Come on, San Remo!"
"Come on, San Remo!"
Just as the whole stadium had fallen silent, the fans in the south stand began cheering San Remo on.
It was Brownie!
He waved a homemade San Remo flag.
Behind him, dozens of die-hard fans joined in the chanting.
Their refusal to abandon the team in the face of adversity quickly spread through the stadium.
"Come on, San Remo!"
"Lu Yang, save the match!"
"Moric, we're waiting for your assist!"
"Vedian, take them on! Take them on!"
The fans' voices reached the pitch.
San Remo's players found the motivation to fight again.
They hadn't lost yet. There was still plenty of time!
Sure enough!
Before halftime, Lu Yang did it again. He and Moric nearly recreated their Ping-Pong Dribble from the previous match, exchanging passes to open up a chance.
From more than thirty meters outside the penalty area, Lu Yang unleashed a thunderous shot. The ball soared, then plummeted at incredible speed.
A perfect thunderbolt, with the ball dipping just right.
This was Lu Yang's Dipping Shot.
But Catania's veteran goalkeeper had plenty of experience. Before the match, he'd studied Lu Yang's shooting and concluded that he was a player with a reliable long-range shot—not just someone who'd been lucky, as people were saying.
So he'd prepared for every possibility.
When making his save, he deliberately resisted the urge to leap into the air and instead dropped to one knee to block the shot.
Before the ball dipped, it looked almost as though he'd given up on saving it.
If the ball had followed a normal trajectory, there was no way he could have stopped it.
But the ball plummeted at speed.
It came straight down onto the crouching goalkeeper.
The fans groaned.
What a chance!
What a shame!
Soto, watching nearby, took out his notebook to jot something down.
He was paying close attention to Lu Yang. In fact, he already had his own ideas about where Lu Yang should play. But before putting them into practice, he wanted to assess Lu Yang's abilities in every area.
As far as long-range shooting went, Lu Yang's Dipping Shot was remarkably reliable. Because the ball almost never sailed over the bar, all he needed was decent aim to keep it within the frame and make the goalkeeper work.
That made him far better than players who shot as if they were trying to send the ball into orbit.
But this kind of shot wasn't without its weaknesses.
Its dipping trajectory was relatively easy to anticipate.
That wasn't an inherent flaw in the Dipping Shot. It came from Lu Yang's own limitations.
His leg strength wasn't enough. His technique was good, but the shot lacked power, giving the goalkeeper time to read it.
If Lu Yang's leg strength were sufficient and he could shoot the ball faster, the goalkeeper wouldn't have time to react. He'd have to trust his first instinct instead of thinking it through.
But right now, the opposing goalkeeper clearly had time to think.
For a moment, Soto's theory about Lu Yang's mysterious talent came back to him.
Could leg strength be improved through training?
It was a question.
"GOAL!"
Tom suddenly jumped up beside him.
Soto looked toward the pitch. The ball was already lying inside Catania's goal.
Vedian was sprinting toward Lu Yang, celebrating wildly.
The score was level!
"Oh! Vedian again! He's come through as expected and scored on the rebound!"
"Lu Yang's shot was very difficult to handle. The goalkeeper couldn't possibly hold on to it, so he had to parry it away. But Vedian had charged into the penalty area the moment Lu Yang shot, and his determination paid off."
"Under Serie D rules, Lu Yang gets another assist!"
"And Vedian has now drawn level with Arnold's goal tally. They're tied at the top of the Serie D scoring charts!"
"Of course, we can't overlook Moric's huge contribution to this goal, either. His link-up play with Lu Yang tore Catania's defense apart!"
Both teams tightened up their defending in the second half.
Regulation time ended with the score still 1–1.
Even without a win, San Remo's fans had little reason to be disappointed.
After all, Catania were fifth in the standings, and they'd scored first.
Coming back to level the score hadn't been easy.
There were two minutes of added time.
San Remo won a corner.
But the crowd noticed that Lu Yang, who normally stayed back during corners, had run up from the defensive half and entered the opposition's penalty area.
Lu Yang wasn't tall—just 1.78 meters.
So when San Remo took corners, his center-back partner, who stood 1.90 meters tall, usually went up to challenge for the ball.
Lu Yang was fast and good at defending, so he stayed back to intercept any counterattack.
It was a good arrangement.
But this time, Lu Yang had gone forward.
That wasn't part of his assigned role.
Still, with the match likely to end after this corner, no one thought he was doing anything wrong.
During the final corner of an important match, even the goalkeeper sometimes came up to challenge for the ball and join the attack.
And, believe it or not, some goalkeepers had actually scored in situations like that. Sevilla's Palop and Inter Milan's Toldo had both pulled off similar miracles.
The most recent example was Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, whose headed goal had kept his team's slim theoretical chance of playing in next season's Champions League alive.
Lu Yang entered the box and headed straight for the near post, grappling with the opposing center-back. He also gave Moric a look.
Moric froze.
Was Lu Yang telling him to send the ball to the near post?
But could he... get to it?
The opposing center-back beside Lu Yang stood 1.85 meters tall. He had the height advantage and looked much more solidly built than Lu Yang.
It was hard to say whether Lu Yang could even jump under that kind of pressure. And even if they both jumped, the other man was still taller.
For some reason, Moric suddenly remembered Lu Yang's leap while defending a corner in the final moments of the previous match.
Had his jumping and physical strength gotten better?
Moric thought it over, then made up his mind.
Thwack!
The corner came in, a high ball to the near post!
"Oh, Moric has sent the corner to the near post! Catania weren't expecting that. They've got more than two players marking San Remo's tall center-back in the middle, leaving just one defender at the near post."
"Lu Yang is battling the opposing center-back. He shouldn't be able to jump—he's being held down."
"What? Lu Yang's jumped!"
"They're still battling in the air!"
"What's happening? How is Lu Yang higher than his opponent? He's won the aerial duel?"
"Unfortunately, both Lu Yang and his opponent jumped too early. They'll be back on the ground before the ball gets here."
"Just as expected, the opposing center-back is already coming down, and Lu Yang is also... What! He's still up there!"
"He's hanging in the air! Lu Yang's got incredible hang time! It's as if he's escaped gravity! His physical ability is far beyond what anyone imagined!"
Thwack!
"A beautiful Lion's Header! It's in!"
"A last-gasp header! Lu Yang's done it!"
"GOAL! Victory! Lu Yang has given his team another win!"
"Oh my God! That's three matches in a row in which Lu Yang has scored the winning goal! He's practically the King of Clutch Goals!"
"No one's ever put on a run like this! Who would have thought a 1.78-meter center-back could be good in the air?"
Lu Yang, Moric, and Vedian celebrated together like mad.
Cheers from the south stand roared through the stadium, sounding like a thousand fans—even though there were only two hundred people there.
On the bench, Soto pulled out his notebook again and began jotting things down.
Lu Yang had good physical strength and jumping ability.
Had he always been this strong, or was he... still growing?
Considering Lu Yang was only sixteen, Soto thought it was the latter.
And if so, Lu Yang's potential was frightening.
The one slight disappointment was Lu Yang's height.
At 1.78 meters, he wasn't short by ordinary standards.
He wasn't even short by football standards.
But... football's future was trending toward taller players, at least in defense.
You could see it in the historical height data for players in the defensive half.
In the past, there was nothing wrong with a 1.82- or 1.83-meter center-back. At 1.88 meters, you were considered tall.
Now, the minimum height for a center-back was creeping close to 1.90 meters.
Defensive midfielders were expected to be at least 1.80 meters, ideally 1.85.
And the most frustrating thing was that plenty of players taller than 1.85 meters now had excellent ball control. The old idea that tall players lacked agility was becoming less and less true.
If two players had the same ability, one tall and one short, you'd choose the taller one, whether he played in attack or defense.
Height was an advantage on the pitch, too.
"I really hope Lu gets a little taller," Soto said sincerely.
"He will. He's only sixteen, even if he has already had one growth spurt," Tom said. "There's a saying in the East: men keep growing slowly until they're twenty. He'll make it to at least 1.80 meters!"
Soto shook his head. 1.80 meters still wasn't enough.
What could an extra two centimeters do?
News of San Remo's three straight wins spread throughout Serie D.
Everyone knew San Remo had changed.
And it was all because of that short, Eastern center-back.
Three matches, four goals, two assists.
Two goal contributions per match!
Was this a center-back?
Those were numbers that would be hard for any striker or midfielder to match, let alone a center-back like Lu Yang.
He was undoubtedly the most attacking center-back in Serie D. There was no one else like him.
His achievement of scoring the winning goal in three consecutive matches had also made its way into the authoritative football reports in Italy.
A lot of people were stunned when they read the news.
In the past, the news had always been about Serie A, with little about Serie B. How had news about Serie D suddenly made it into the headlines?
But when people took a closer look, they agreed that the story deserved the attention.
After all, Vedian had scored stoppage-time winners in three consecutive matches.
And the opponents had been ranked 14th, 1st, and 5th in the standings!
What's more, all three wins had been spectacular, especially the second match, with that astonishing bicycle kick from thirty-three meters out. It had earned a degree of fame across European football.
The Serie B and Serie C clubs that had first been drawn in by Lu Yang and Arnold's rivalry were now even more eager to sign Vedian.
He'd scored again!
Even on a relegation-bound team with a shambolic defense, he'd scored fourteen goals to top the scoring charts. Those goals were worth far more than Arnold's fourteen.
Bisceglie could score an average of two goals per game, but Arnold, their designated finisher, accounted for less than a third of the team's goals. That was a terrible statistic.
By contrast, Vedian had previously been responsible for seventy percent of San Remo's goals.
Weak teams produced goalkeepers; strong teams produced stat-padders.
Vedian hadn't padded his stats on a strong team. He'd fought for every single goal.
Vedian was growing more and more popular on Transfermarkt.
After the match against Catania, Lu Yang received only one random pack. It wasn't a football pack or a victory pack, either, but a three-consecutive-stoppage-time-winners pack.
That was enough to show that the system didn't reward every match or every victory.
It was very picky.
Ding! You received a special reward: your height increased by three centimeters.
Lu Yang was a little stunned as he looked at the reward.
There were height rewards, too?
Height had always been Lu Yang's weak spot.
He was only sixteen, so it seemed like he still had room to grow.
But in fact, he'd already had his growth spurt.
People reached their full height at different ages. Some grew early, others late, but most didn't grow much after their first growth spurt. Going from 1.6 meters to 1.78 meters had been astonishing, and it had saved Lu Yang's career.
Even if he did grow more, it would happen slowly—just two or three centimeters over the next three to five years.
Unless he had a second growth spurt.
And very few people had a second one.
But now, the system's reward had taken Lu Yang straight to 1.81 meters.
He was still short for a center-back, but it was better than being 1.78 meters.
Besides... he'd have plenty of chances to open packs in the future. It wasn't impossible that he'd get another height reward.
For a moment, Lu Yang was positively giddy.