"Hey, Lu, you're probably about to become famous!" Moric rushed over and threw his arms around Lu Yang.
Moric was only 1.72 meters tall and weighed just 110 pounds. Physically, he was at a serious disadvantage.
But his ball control and passing were both exceptional, making him the best midfielder in the San Remo youth team.
The two got along extremely well. They often practiced together and learned plenty from each other.
Moric had learned to think about interceptions from Lu Yang. Though he looked frail, he wasn't a defensive liability, which had improved his competitiveness to some extent.
Meanwhile, practicing ball control with Moric had made Lu Yang one of the more reliable center backs on the team when it came to keeping possession.
"You're definitely making the first team next half-season. You're so damn good!" Moric said, full of envy and jealousy.
"Aw, it's nothing," Lu Yang replied modestly.
"Don't be humble, buddy. You deserve the praise!" Moric sighed. Lu just wasn't confident enough; he was too reserved. That was the biggest flaw in Eastern people's personalities.
"I meant, what exactly am I so good at? Go into detail," Lu Yang said with a dazzling smile.
Moric was speechless.
How was he supposed to go into detail?
This...
<Serie D youth player shines in the Celebrity Match, scores and assists, then nets a stoppage-time winner!>
<Maniero gives his seal of approval: This young player is the real deal!>
<The most unlikely center back in history: Lu Yang of Serie D, a product of San Remo!>
<Student and teacher clash—Soto is stunned when his own player scores the winner!>
<Place your bets: Will Lu Yang face retaliation from Soto? After all, he got his own coach booked during the match!>
<Eastern Divine Defender or Eastern Divine Striker? The Lumberjack Shot makes him an overnight sensation!>
<If it had happened two months earlier, he could've won this year's Puskas Award!>
As it turned out, Lu Yang really had become famous.
And it wasn't just him. San Remo had become famous too.
Soto, a Destroyer known for having no understanding of midfield artistry, had actually tried to become a team's head coach.
This sparked a heated debate across Italian football. The conclusion was that not every legendary footballer was qualified to coach. Take a butcher-type midfielder like Soto, for example—he was clearly unsuited to the job.
Lu Yang was a frail, 1.78-meter center back who couldn't even make the Serie D first team, yet he'd made a name for himself as a center forward.
Honestly, this was so bizarre that just one person like him could keep the whole world at peace. A team like that would have little chance of being competitive, and things would naturally stay calm.
But tiny San Remo had two such talents at once: a Crouching Dragon and a Young Phoenix.
That naturally made people curious.
So, would San Remo be relegated this season?
After all, at the end of the first half of the season, they sat fifteenth among the twenty teams in Serie D, squarely in the relegation zone.
They'd conceded 46 goals in half a season, nearly breaking the Serie D record for goals conceded in the first half of a season.
Many teams didn't concede that many goals over an entire season.
Before long, reporters poured into San Remo, desperate to get the inside scoop.
San Remo seized the opportunity to introduce itself to the country and managed to get its name out there.
Meanwhile, Soto and Lu Yang, who had initially drawn everyone's attention, quietly disappeared from the public eye.
The former was organizing his team and working out how to turn things around and lead San Remo to a steady climb up the table.
The latter dragged Moric to the pitch every day to practice. He couldn't wait to get used to the player-level skills he'd drawn.
Moric and Lu Yang practiced one-on-one, taking turns on offense and defense, and getting thoroughly put through the wringer.
Before long, the second half of the season began.
Soto took charge of San Remo.
The first thing he did after joining the first team was promote five youth players, including Lu Yang and Moric.
"At a top club, youth players can earn starting spots if they perform well enough. Why shouldn't we do the same in Serie D? I don't believe anyone here has better individual ability than players in Serie A, and I don't believe the gap between starters, substitutes, and youth players is any bigger here than it is in Serie A!"
Soto arrived with the authority of a legendary player. His forceful manner was more than enough to command respect in San Remo's locker room.
And just like that, Lu Yang, Moric, and the others made it into the first team.
In truth, San Remo's squad wasn't bad by Serie D standards. At the very least, they had a star left winger: Vedian.
Nineteen-year-old Vedian had reportedly caught the eye of Serie C side Renate and was expected to leave after the season.
He was good at both scoring and creating goals, and he was fast. Many people said his future held more than just Renate.
But San Remo's defense was truly awful. They'd conceded 46 goals in half a season, leaving them fifteenth in the league. At that rate, they'd have to play in the relegation playoffs.
That was mainly because Rondo, the team's defensive stalwart, had suffered a serious injury and missed the entire first half of the season.
On the training ground, the players were warming up ahead of a practice match.
The match would decide who started in the first game of the second half of the season.
"I've watched Vedian play. He's excellent. In Serie D, his speed and dribbling are enough to leave opponents in the dust. The fact that we're only fifth from bottom despite conceding 46 goals has a lot to do with him," Soto said to his first assistant coach, Tom. "But he has two fatal weaknesses."
"First, he's too frail. Give him even a little physical pressure, and he'll stumble and lose the ball, throwing away his chance to attack."
"Second, he has no support from his teammates. He has no midfielder to give him good passes, no striker to make use of the chances he creates, and no teammates to draw the opposition away from him. He has none of that."
"He's like a soldier fighting alone, so desperate he's nearly lost all confidence."
Tom had worked at San Remo for over ten years, and he deeply agreed with Soto. "Our midfield has always lacked an attacking playmaker, so all we can do is play on the counter. Last season, with Rondo in the lineup, our defense was relatively solid. As long as we didn't concede, the defenders could hoof the ball upfield, and Vedian's speed could decide the match."
"We were in the promotion zone for a while last season. If Rondo hadn't been seriously injured right at the end of our push for promotion to Serie C, we'd be a Serie C team now. That's why Vedian agreed to stay for another season and help us try for promotion again."
"But who could've expected Rondo to get injured again in the second game of this season? The team, the fans, and Vedian all lost hope."
"Vedian lost his way in the first half of the season. He's lost his edge, and even his trademark ability to score and assist has suffered because of his lack of confidence. The reason he's still with us is that Renate have started doubting his potential. They're planning to wait and see."
Soto snorted disdainfully. "Hmph. By the time they're done waiting and seeing, Vedian will be too expensive for them! Nothing in this world comes without risk... By the way, are you sure that kid wants to play defense instead of forward?"
The kid in question—the one who wanted to play defense rather than forward—was obviously Lu Yang.
Tom shrugged. "He said it isn't time for him to play forward yet. Right now, he's more confident playing defense. He believes he can make San Remo's back line impregnable again."
Soto held his forehead.
That was rich.
A 1.78-meter center back, and he thought he could make their defense impregnable?
Where did he get that confidence?
Soto had originally hoped Vedian would use his speed to break through, pass to Lu Yang, and let Lu Yang score with that dazzling Lumberjack Shot of his.
Now it seemed that this forward partnership was nothing but a pipe dream.
Lu Yang couldn't reproduce that performance, could he? It had just been a flash of inspiration from an ordinary person.
Lu Yang was just an ordinary, or even subpar, center back.
Soto kept muttering to himself, as though trying to convince himself. Yet the light in his eyes never faded, as if he didn't actually believe what he was saying.
If Lu Yang really was ordinary, why had he broken through Soto's defense twice?
And why had he always been able to receive Maniero's bizarre, high-difficulty passes?
And why couldn't Soto and Maniero stop thinking about him?
Tweet!
The whistle blew, and San Remo's first-team practice match began.
The team in yellow bibs was the starting lineup; the team in red bibs was the substitutes.
Lu Yang and Moric were both in red.
Vedian, of course, wore yellow.
From the very start, Vedian showed off his blistering speed. Before the substitute lineup had fully settled in, he drove straight through the middle with the ball.
A yellow whirlwind swept across the pitch, cutting through the substitutes' midfield in an instant.
No... he hadn't completely shaken everyone off. One small player on the substitute side was still close to Vedian.
Moric!
Unlike other short, playmaking midfielders, Moric didn't seem to like pushing too far forward. He'd started in a deeper position, which now gave him a chance to block Vedian.
Moric moved quickly, but didn't charge straight at Vedian. Instead, he pressed him from the side.
Even so, Vedian nudged the ball aside, accelerated, and quickly got past Moric.
But the next moment...
Bang!
Lu Yang appeared in Vedian's path and intercepted the ball a step before Vedian could get to it.
"Beautiful!" Soto clenched his fist on the sidelines, suddenly looking extremely excited.
He'd come from a midfield background, so interceptions always got him fired up.
The coordination between that midfielder and Lu Yang had been perfect!
That's right!
It was coordination!
Moric and Lu Yang!
As a masterful midfield pest, Soto knew that defense involved teamwork too.
First, Moric's positioning showed just how good his defensive awareness was. A midfielder like him shouldn't have been playing as a defensive midfielder, but there he was.
Then, when Vedian charged forward, Moric didn't recklessly lunge in. He used his body to block Vedian's route and force him to change direction.
It might have looked as though Vedian had still gotten past him in one move, but Moric had actually pushed him toward the area Lu Yang was defending.
Lu Yang, too, had done an excellent job in that defensive play.
He and Moric had an incredible understanding, as though Lu Yang had known all along that Moric would force Vedian in that direction.
The timing of Lu Yang's final challenge was crucial, too.
If Lu Yang had rushed in earlier, Vedian, who still had the ball, could have simply nudged it in a different direction and gotten around him. Even if he had to dribble sideways a little farther, he could still have beaten Lu Yang.
If Lu Yang had been a moment slower, Vedian would have reached the ball before Lu Yang could touch it. He was fast enough to do that.
But Lu Yang had timed it perfectly—not too early and not too late. He'd chosen the one moment when Vedian couldn't adjust.
That challenge had showcased Lu Yang's defensive awareness, his instinct for stepping in, and his fairly impressive explosiveness for a center back.
After seeing just that one defensive play, Soto looked at Lu Yang and Moric in a whole new light.
He was an expert in midfield defense. He didn't understand offense, but when it came to defending, he had plenty to say.
"Who is that?" Soto asked, pointing at Moric.
"Moric. He's one of our youth players. He joined us at fifteen, and he's seventeen now. His ball control and passing are both excellent, but his slight build has kept him from getting on the pitch," Tom said. "To address his weakness, he asked Lu Yang to practice with him. They're very close."
"Isn't he a walking engine?" Soto asked, studying Moric.
"If Rondo hadn't been injured, the previous coach was planning to promote Moric to the first team this season," Tom said with a bitter smile. "But..."
Soto nodded to show he understood.
In the previous coach's eyes, playing Moric would weaken the team's midfield defense, because Moric might become a defensive black hole.
After Rondo was ruled out for the season, the team's defense had deteriorated badly. How could the coach dare to put Moric on the pitch then?
The presence or absence of a single center back had affected whether a midfielder got to play. That was what people meant by chemistry.
Unfortunately, as far as Soto was concerned, the previous coach didn't understand chemistry at all.
If he'd ever watched Moric play alongside Lu Yang, he'd have known Moric would never burden the team's defense. On the contrary... he could even strengthen it.
Moric had plenty of defensive skills that weren't "up to standard."
What did "not up to standard" mean?
It meant his physical attributes really were lacking.
But defending didn't always mean matching your opponent strength for strength.
You could block an opponent's route as he moved forward, use your small stature—which made you easy to overlook—to sneak in from behind, work with a midfielder or defender to trap an opponent, or cut off passing lanes.
These less direct defensive plays, which supported the main defenders, were still defense, and they were important too.
Moric had these good habits, especially when playing with Lu Yang. It was obvious. When the two of them were on the pitch together, Moric could even defend as well as a proper defensive midfielder.
To be honest, Soto was jealous.
Because he saw Maniero in Moric.
A small, frail, yet defensively capable... midfield maestro!
A midfield black hole?
That was just an act Maniero had put on to deceive opposing players, the referee, and the fans, all while earning their sympathy!
He was a big liar!
If Moric also had decent midfield playmaking skills, Soto wouldn't hesitate to give him a chance to prove himself in a match.
Bang!
A clearance snapped Soto out of his thoughts.
Watching Lu Yang clear the ball, he asked, "Why is he always clearing it?"
Tom looked just as stunned. "I don't know. Maybe... he keeps disrupting the starting lineup's attacks. This is the first time I've seen the starters go thirty minutes without scoring. Maybe Lu Yang... really can play center back?"
Small clubs didn't have deep squads, so there was often a huge gap between starters and substitutes.
Of course, that didn't contradict what Soto had said in the locker room.
At a top club, the starters might have a rating of ninety, while the substitutes would still be in the eighties.
At a Serie D club, the starters might rate fifty, while the substitutes could be anywhere from ten to forty.
In theory, a top club's substitutes could play as well as its starters. But Serie D substitutes could hardly ever match their starters.
Still, for a talented player, going from a rating of ten to fifty was easy, so they could readily rise above the starters at a Serie D club. But going from ten to ninety was nearly impossible, which was why so few youth players at top clubs could fight their way into the starting lineup.
So when San Remo's starters and substitutes reached halftime at zero-zero, it clearly showed that the team's established pecking order had been overturned.
Someone had strengthened the substitute side!
Considering the gap between the two lineups in the past, that player had made up for two or three goals' worth of difference.
And that player was...