In the second half, before play began, Soto made a substitution.
Moric was moved into the starting lineup, while the older midfielder from the starting side switched to the substitutes.
The latter was getting on in years and couldn't play a full match. He needed a reliable substitute—or to become one himself.
That was one of the purposes of this training match.
As things stood, Moric had won the coach's favor with his performance in the first half.
The substitutes were fired up.
Soto had meant what he said: as long as they were good enough, they could become starters in no time.
The starters also took the match seriously.
Soto had already shown through his actions that there was no such thing as an untouchable starter on his team.
Nobody wanted to be the one who lost out, did they?
Sure enough, Moric's departure brought a major change to the substitutes.
On one hand, the defensive strength of their midfield dropped. Lu Yang was a center-back, so he couldn't charge out to press every time.
On the other hand, Moric's passing helped dictate the play, greatly increasing the starters' time on the ball.
In the sixty-ninth minute, Moric gave Soto a surprise.
After shaking off the substitutes' midfielders with exquisite ball control, he launched a long pass from the spot, sending the ball from the back all the way to the left side of the front line.
Vedian sprang to life.
By the time Vedian, accelerating all the way, received the ball, he was practically through on goal.
What followed was simple enough. Vedian beat the goalkeeper one-on-one and slotted the ball into the net.
The starters led the substitutes one-nil.
Lu Yang could only accept it.
He was the left center-back, while Vedian had just broken through the gap between the team's right center-back and right-back.
There was nothing he could do from that far away.
After all, football was a team sport.
On the sidelines, Soto nodded.
Moric really was a fine engine.
He was astonishingly raw, but... why was the way he played so annoying?
In Soto's eyes, Moric was starting to look more and more like Maniero.
After a brief celebration, play resumed.
Moric's presence had completely brought Vedian to life. Vedian launched one attack after another, repeatedly attacking the substitutes' right flank.
He scored again.
If Lu Yang hadn't switched over to mark him, he might even have scored a hat trick.
But that was where things changed.
Once Lu Yang switched over to defend against him, Vedian, who had seemed like the king of San Remo, was frozen again.
Yes, frozen!
Vedian was poor in physical duels. He was no match for Lu Yang, who played center-back. Once he got caught in a stalemate, he had no chance at all.
With Moric's help, Vedian could find room to accelerate, but Lu Yang's retreat was simply too well timed.
After switching over, Lu Yang managed to stop Vedian one-on-one three times.
Once, he retreated successfully, buying time for his defensive partner to arrive and forcing Vedian to pass the ball back.
Once, he stuck out a leg while retreating and blocked a shot, turning the opponent's near one-on-one into a harmless corner.
And once, he stepped in to press while retreating and won the ball cleanly.
This badly undermined Vedian's confidence in attack.
After losing the ball, Vedian even chased Lu Yang all the way across the field.
Lu Yang was no pushover either. He showed no intention of passing and used a V-Pull to wrong-foot Vedian.
Vedian threw himself into the challenge, lost his balance, and slid straight to the ground.
Moric's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Another player sent tumbling!
What on earth had happened to Lu Yang? Why had his moves on the ball become so... flashy?
That was it: flashy!
After winning the ball in the back, Lu Yang sent Vedian tumbling, then chose not to pass. Instead, he dribbled straight up the middle.
He wasn't as fast as Vedian, but he wasn't slow by the team's standards.
At the very least, Moric, caught off guard, was beaten in a single step.
That was partly because Lu Yang knew Moric's defensive habits well.
Then Lu Yang surged forward and reached the edge of the penalty area.
Remembering how it had felt when the Messi Moment Card possessed him, he raised his left foot and swung at the ball.
"Watch out for his feint!" Moric shouted.
The center-back, who had just been preparing to stick out a leg, froze and stopped.
The Lumberjack Shot!
It was the hottest phrase in Italian football right now.
Like a lumberjack, it felled every defender in its path.
It was the ultimate mockery of defenders.
And the creator of that feint was none other than Lu Yang, right in front of him.
Thump!
Bang!
There was no feint!
The ball flew away like a black-and-white bolt of lightning, struck the post, and ricocheted into the net.
The next moment, the net billowed and white waves surged.
"GOAL!" Soto roared excitedly from the sidelines. "That's how you play! Never give up until the very last second! Vedian, why didn't you keep tracking back? Did you think scoring two goals gave you the privilege of skipping your defensive duties? Let me tell you, it doesn't..."
"Moric, how could you let a center-back get past you so easily? Where was your head? Was his clumsy dribbling really that hard to stop?"
"And you, Lu Yang! Who do you think you are? Who gave you permission to showboat in the back? Is a V-Pull something you should be doing? You should've passed quickly and trusted your teammates!"
"And do you realize how much space you left behind when you recklessly carried the ball forward just now? If anyone had won it off you, you would've handed the other team another goal!"
Soto cursed them out, but his face was lit up with a smile he couldn't suppress.
He was clearly delighted. Cursing them out was simply how he showed it.
If you listened carefully, you could tell he wasn't just yelling for the sake of it.
Almost everything he said was right.
At the very least, he hadn't blamed Moric for distracting their own center-back.
If the center-back had stuck out a leg at the time, he might have been able to block Lu Yang's shot.
But... on the pitch, workhorse players were usually supposed to follow the instructions—or advice—of the team's core. A team couldn't have two voices. Unless that center-back had an exceptionally strong instinct of his own, trusting Moric was the right thing to do.
Without even realizing it, Moric had become the team's core.
And without even realizing it, Soto had affirmed his position as the core.
That was certainly food for thought.
Likewise, Soto's shouting at Lu Yang wasn't entirely unjustified.
If Lu Yang had been playing for the starters, Moric would have been ahead of him, with Vedian farther up the field.
Moric could send a through ball, and Vedian could launch a counterattack. Wouldn't that be a hundred times safer and more dangerous than Lu Yang carrying the ball forward?
Soto was judging Lu Yang by the starters' standards.
"I know, coach, but... didn't I score?" Lu Yang smiled faintly and pointed to his ear. "Nothing in this world comes without risk, right?"
Soto was briefly at a loss for words. The kid had overheard his earlier conversation with Tom. Those had been his words mocking Renate.
Yes, in football, scoring goals was what mattered most. There was no disputing that.
Otherwise, counterattacking football would be pointless, because it really did look ugly.
And Soto's Milan team had four butchers. Going by the name, did they sound like the sort of team that played beautiful football?
So Soto wasn't at all annoyed that Lu Yang had dared to joke with him.
The kid had nerves of steel.
If he were a striker, he'd score goals by the truckload one day!
Even as a defender, he would eventually become a backline powerhouse with a strong sense of leadership!
The score in the training match didn't change again. The starters beat the substitutes two-one.
Lu Yang earned another random pack.
He chose to open it right away.
"Ding! Completed your first training match. Received Random Pack ×1." "Ding! Obtained a player-level skill: Dipping Shot. Better at keeping shots down, and can even make them dip sharply or bounce off the ground."
As it turned out, the gap between starters and substitutes in a Serie D team really was huge.
After the practice match, only Lu Yang and Moric made the squad for the team's upcoming match against Avellino.
The two youth players were so happy when they heard the news that they nearly flew into the air.
The day before the match, the two of them were practicing at the training ground, taking turns trying to get past each other.
One player had the ball and tried to dribble past the other.
The other focused on winning it back.
As soon as possession changed, they immediately switched roles.
In other words, the moment I won the ball was also when I started trying not to let you take it back.
This kind of training greatly improved a player's reflexes and helped them adapt to chaotic situations.
Moric had been doing this since he was little, so he was good in a scramble. After all, those situations also helped him make the most of his physical limitations.
"Tell me, was that shot of yours in the training match a fluke? Even if you had ten more tries, you wouldn't pull off a goal like that again!" Moric tried to distract Lu Yang with his taunts as he waited for a chance to break through.
"Exactly," Lu Yang replied honestly.
His shooting really wasn't very reliable, at least not compared with Vedian and Moric.
Of course, after getting the Dipping Shot skill, Lu Yang felt that his shooting had improved noticeably.
His shooting stat had gone from around 50 to 55.
Still, judging from the system's message, the words "first training match" were important.
That meant there might not be a reward for the second one.
So Lu Yang wasn't especially optimistic about the future.
Wasn't the system supposed to help restore the glory of Earth's legendary footballers?
Couldn't it at least be a little more generous?
For starters, couldn't it hand out a whole bunch of Moment Cards?
As the two were training, a Black kid walked over.
That was right—Vedian.
In football or basketball, how many players with explosive athleticism weren't Black?
"Can I join you?" Vedian asked.
"Of course," Moric said, nodding enthusiastically.
But Vedian didn't look happy.
That wasn't what he meant.
"You mean, work together in matches?" Lu Yang asked.
Vedian nodded.
As it turned out, most geniuses weren't stupid. People like Balotelli were the exception.
Vedian considered himself a genius. After facing Moric and Lu Yang, how could he not recognize their abilities?
The midfielder's passes were incredibly accurate. The training match a few days ago had been the most comfortable Vedian had felt playing in months—well... if not for Lu Yang marking him one-on-one.
Likewise, Lu Yang's ability to shut Vedian down completely was nothing to sneeze at.
Most importantly, the way Lu Yang and Moric worked together in the back had been dazzling.
Vedian had even gotten the feeling that Lu Yang wasn't a center-back at all, but a defensive midfielder.
His defensive range was far too large, well beyond what a normal center-back could cover.
But he didn't have to worry about leaving gaps, because his forays forward were almost always a sure thing. Moric helped him cover those areas.
This approach carried some risk, but it greatly strengthened the team's defense and control of the midfield and back line.
Vedian wanted in. He wasn't asking to help them defend. He hoped that whenever they won possession, they would pass the ball to him right away, creating a complete chain: defend, win the ball, move it forward, launch an attack, break through the defense, score.
Together, they would form a complete spine running through the center of the back line, midfield, and attack!
With their help, Vedian thought he could return to his peak.
And then...
"You want to leave?" Lu Yang saw through Vedian's intentions.
He needed good stats before anyone would be willing to pay to sign him. That was just how things worked.
"Who doesn't want to leave? Apart from the fans, nobody can stay with San Remo forever. We're professional players," Vedian said. "Actually... Benevento in Serie B contacted my agent!"
Vedian had just dropped a bombshell.
Benevento was a Serie B team!
And they were firmly established in the league, regularly finishing in the top half. There were rumors that Benevento had been building up its strength for the past few years to challenge for a place in Serie A!
Vedian had actually attracted the attention of a big club like that.
No wonder he was so desperate for help.
If he hadn't stood out in Serie D, how could he possibly have gone to Benevento?
"We really do need someone who can break through defenses and score goals right now." Lu Yang looked at Moric and nodded.
A glint flashed in Moric's eyes, and he immediately accepted Vedian's offer.
But after Vedian left, Moric asked, "What did you mean by 'right now'? Do you know the team's transfer plans for next season?"
Lu Yang smiled. "Our head coach is a Milan legend. It shouldn't be hard for him to get a few decent players on loan."
Moric shook his head. "Are you sure players from top clubs would be willing to come to Serie D? Even youth players wouldn't agree to that."
"What if it were a Serie C team?" Lu Yang asked.
"But we're only a Serie D team. We might even get relegated to an even lower regional league. We... Wait!" Moric looked at Lu Yang, took a deep breath, then asked in alarm, "Are you saying we're going to fight our way out of Serie D and get promoted to Serie C this year? Are you crazy? We, we..."
Lu Yang put a hand on Moric's shoulder and looked up at the sky. "Trust me, Moric. I feel like I'm strong! If we can't work a miracle even in Serie D, what makes us think we have a bright future?"
"After all, going from a Serie D player to a Serie A player is a miracle in itself. And neither of us wants to become an ordinary player who achieves nothing in the Top Five Leagues, right?"
"If our goal has always been to work miracles, then why not let one get underway right now?"
The starlight in Lu Yang's eyes left Moric utterly shaken.
Was this Lu Yang, who had left a whole host of Serie A stars flat on their backs and scored the winning goal in front of the legendary footballers Soto and Maniero?
How could he be... so dazzling!