In Titan Sports Weekly's temporarily set-up broadcast studio.
Huang Jianxiang sat at the commentary desk, looking over the match information and the squads for both sides that the director had just handed him.
As China's most famous football commentator.
Huang Jianxiang had been very busy lately. He had just launched a program called Jianxiang Talks Premier League with Xinlang.
During this period, he had been fully focused on studying every Premier League team.
Originally, he simply had no time to commentate on an Argentine league match that did not draw much attention in China.
But the boss at Titan Sports Weekly happened to be one of his closest friends.
He had no choice. Since his buddy had asked, he could only rush over.
"Teacher Huang! Are you ready?"
Seeing that the live feed had already come in, the director hurriedly asked Huang Jianxiang.
"Mm, I'm ready!"
"Alright, attention, all departments!"
"5!"
"4!"
"3!"
"Good evening, football fans in Titan Sports Weekly's livestream!"
"I'm delighted to join everyone in the early hours of this weekend morning to follow the hottest derby clash in the Argentine Primera División!"
"Boca Juniors away against River Plate!"
"As everyone knows, the feud between Boca and River Plate dates back more than a century!"
"However, we don't need to dwell on all that history today, because Boca have recently produced a young player of Chinese descent!"
"Su Bai!"
"Actually, there are quite a lot of Chinese people in Argentina these days. Most are descendants of laborers who were deceived into going to South America during the recruitment drives in the early twentieth century. Of course, many also went there later to do business!"
As the number one commentator in China.
Even though he did not know much about the Argentine league, Huang effortlessly brought the livestream's atmosphere to life without a script.
Meanwhile, on the other side!
Xie Luotuo was patiently explaining the team's tactics in the locker room!
"Remember!"
"You absolutely have to keep an eye on their Romero!"
"His crosses are River Plate's most important scoring weapon!"
"Barrios, remember not to focus only on the middle. When defending, you need to provide cover on the flanks at the right time!"
After rambling on about this and that.
Xie Luotuo finally stopped talking.
By then, it was almost time for the match.
Urged on by the staff.
The players from both teams prepared to head out.
"Titan Sports Weekly!"
"Titan Sports Weekly!"
"This is the live broadcast of the seventeenth round of the Argentine Primera División, with River Plate hosting Boca Juniors!"
"We've just received the starting lineups for both teams!"
"There's good news: the young Chinese-descended player Su Bai has made the starting lineup!"
"This is the Superclásico! Starting in a match like this is enough to show Su Bai's current standing at Boca Juniors!"
In the livestream studio, Huang Jianxiang was stunned as he looked at the starting lineup he had just received!
Although he did not know much about the Argentine Primera División, he certainly knew about the Superclásico.
It was a collision between two of Argentina's elite giants. Its influence alone was enormous.
And the strength of these two teams was nothing Chinese Super League clubs could compare to. More importantly, there was Su Bai's age!
Sixteen!
Starting in the Superclásico at sixteen—what an unbelievable thing that was.
"The players from both teams have taken their positions in their respective halves!"
"Beep!"
"With the referee's whistle!"
"The match has begun!"
"First, the starting lineups for both sides!"
"River Plate, playing at home in their traditional white-and-red kit, start Barovero in goal!"
"Left back: Uribarri!"
"At center back: Maidana partners Pezzella!"
"Right back: Mercado!"
"The double pivot: Rodriguez and Ponzio!!"
"Attacking midfielder: Chiarini!"
"Left midfielder: Romero!"
"Right midfielder: Vangioni!"
"Lone striker: Boye!"
"On the other side, Boca Juniors, wearing their black away kit, start Roberto Abbondanzieri in goal!"
"Right back: Fabian Monzon!"
"At center back: Adrian Gunino partners Julio Cesar Caceres!"
"Left back: Belchini!"
"Lone defensive midfielder: Barrios!"
"The two attacking midfielders: Pablo Perez and Ezequiel Benavidez!"
"Left winger: Martinez!"
"Right winger: Su Bai!"
"Lone striker: Avila!"
"River Plate have possession!"
The moment the referee's whistle sounded.
There was no intention of feeling each other out.
River Plate immediately launched into a frenzied attack!
River Plate striker Boye passed the ball back to attacking midfielder Chiarini behind him, then turned and burst forward.
At the same time, River Plate's wide men, Vangioni and Romero, charged forward down the right and left respectively.
For Boca, Avila sprinted toward Chiarini the instant the whistle blew.
Faced with Avila's press.
Chiarini lightly nudged the ball with his right foot. Just as he sent Avila lunging hard to the right, he put force into his right foot and dragged the ball back. With that feint and pull, Avila was completely bamboozled!!
"Argentine players really are a pleasure to watch!"
"Every technical movement they make just looks different from ours!"
"That little touch looks simple, but without ten or twenty years of fundamentals, you couldn't pull it off!"
"River Plate's number nine, Chiarini, is already twenty-eight this year. At that age, if he still hasn't gone to Europe, that means his level is only so-so even in Argentina!"
"But even so, bring him to our domestic league and he could easily beat five men in a row!"
"You can't find a single one of our players who can pull off that kind of footwork to beat a man!"
"That's called talent!"
It was Huang Jianxiang, after all.
His words were as sharp as ever, showing Chinese football absolutely no mercy.
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[Hahaha, Teacher Huang is awesome. I love watching Teacher Huang's streams. I don't follow the Argentine league, but I saw on the site that Teacher Huang was commentating, so I came over! Listening to some stand-up comedy when you've got nothing to do isn't bad either!]
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[+1! I came because I saw Teacher Huang on the site too!]
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[Have you guys heard? The Football Association recently launched an overseas naturalization plan. They're supposedly aiming straight for the 2018 World Cup, and it sounds like they found a genius at Boca!]
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[I heard about it, but where would Boca get so many Chinese-descended prodigies? Look at Titan Sports Weekly's introduction—it says this Su Bai playing today is also a Chinese-descended prodigy!]
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[Who the fuck knows? It's something the Football Association cooked up. What interesting thing could that bunch ever come up with? Let's see how Su Bai performs. I watched the highlights online—he really played insanely well last match!]
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[Sigh, there are too many flash-in-the-pan players! When all's said and done, it's just that we Chinese aren't physically suited to playing football!]
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[Dammit, even the Japanese can produce players. Why can't we Chinese? What the hell do you mean by that?]
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[My friends in Argentina said it themselves. Su Bai's father has money—he gives Boca Juniors 500,000 pesos a year. That's how he bought his way onto the field!]
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[Haha, I knew it! That's the level of our people. Why the hell are we playing football? He went all the way to Argentina just to embarrass himself and give them money!]
Sure enough!
Wherever there was football, there were people cursing the football association—and plenty who couldn't stand tall.
"Chiarini passes the ball!"
"After shaking off Avila, Chiarini turns sideways and feeds it to the left midfielder, Romero!"
"Romero has arguably been River Plate's brightest star this year!"
"Through the first sixteen league rounds, he's contributed six assists and scored three goals!"
"Romero!"
"He accelerates with the ball!"
"Huh!"
"Su Bai is closing in on him!"
"Su Bai doesn't look slow either!"
On the pitch at that moment!
Playing at right wing, Su Bai saw Chiarini pass the ball to Romero, his direct opponent, and immediately sprinted toward River Plate's gifted youngster!
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