Deschamps and Matthäus, both older and no longer great in the air, stayed outside the penalty area and near the center circle, either fighting for second balls or preventing counterattacks.
Kai raised three fingers before taking the set piece.
Boom!
Right on the edge of the penalty area, players charged into the box one after another, leaping like carps over the river in a frantic aerial battle.
Among them, one majestic figure rose high into the air.
Boom!
"It's in! Sporting Lisbon score in the 36th minute!"
"The goal comes from the team's new signing, Andrea Barzagli!"
"Unbelievable! This player from the lower Italian leagues has scored Sporting Lisbon's first goal of the new season!"
"He's only nineteen years old and was bought for just two hundred thousand euros. He's practically the cheapest player in Sporting Lisbon's squad!"
"Just over a year ago, he was still playing as a striker. He clearly has a striker's instinct for goal that ordinary center-backs don't possess!"
"Of course, scoring from set pieces is also largely due to the coach's training. This is the heritage of a giant club, and everyone should thank Maxa for it."
"As for the true level of this group of players and Triguera's actual coaching ability, that will depend on goals scored during open play!"
Good lord.
Maxa was just sitting calmly on the bench, and credit practically fell from the sky into his lap.
The fans interpreted his relaxed posture as supreme confidence in today's match.
But in reality, the reason Maxa looked so relaxed was because he no longer had to rack his brain inventing tactical terminology to fool coaches like Materazzi.
Now he could just lie flat and relax. If the sky collapsed, the tall guy above him would hold it up.
Right, Brother Kai?
Throw one punch now to avoid a hundred punches later.
In the 42nd minute, Viana found space to advance thanks to Ronaldo's movement.
He drew the attention of the defensive midfielder and center-back before threading a through ball forward. Drogba beat the offside trap and smashed the ball into the net with brute force.
The goal was beautiful, but unfortunately... Drogba had already drifted offside before Viana made the pass.
He'd started his run just a little too early.
There were still plenty of issues with the team's chemistry.
Drogba looked disappointed. He had already prepared to slide to his knees in celebration.
Forty-five minutes.
Kai slipped a clever pass to Quaresma.
Quaresma exploded down the right wing alone, drawing the attention of three defenders.
Kai took advantage of the situation and surged forward.
Quaresma spotted Kai and somehow managed to slip the ball across despite being surrounded.
Kai delivered a first-time cross without even stopping the ball.
The technique was gorgeous.
Drogba leapt high—
But completely missed it!
The ball flew way too fast!
Where the hell had Drogba ever seen a cross with that much pace?
That wasn't a friendly delivery at all.
As long as the curve wasn't wrong, the door was already open.
Boom!
Behind Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo, who had made a blindside run into the box, was partially blocked by Drogba's body.
But the understanding between him and Kai needed no explanation.
When Ronaldo stretched his neck forward, he barely even had to apply force. The ball simply smashed into his forehead and bounced into the net.
A textbook power header.
"Two-nil! Before halftime, Sporting Lisbon score again!"
"This is the classic Kai-to-Ronaldo connection!"
"The old CD combo is back!"
Now the pressure shifted directly onto the Sporting Lisbon fans inside the stadium.
Just earlier, they had been booing Kai.
But now... Kai had already produced two assists!
Ronaldo had scored as well.
This actually... didn't seem any worse than when Jardel was here!
Sparse applause slowly appeared around the stadium.
It was obvious many fans were still stubbornly competing against Kai emotionally.
At halftime, Triguera didn't say much tactically.
The team was playing very well and gradually finding its rhythm. No additional adjustments were necessary.
Even if the opponent changed something, it wouldn't matter much.
He believed Kai would still find a way to display the team's tactical advantages. That was the important part.
Since Triguera had chosen Kai as the tactical core, even if the team's results during the first half of the season weren't ideal, he would still firmly continue delegating authority to Kai.
A core player and a leading scorer had to be nurtured. They didn't just pop out of rocks.
Second half.
Kai really started showing off effortlessly.
The opponent had already noticed his tendency to push forward, so they specifically assigned players to track his forward runs.
As a result, Kai began dropping deeper, shifting from a right attacking midfielder into a deeper midfield role.
Deschamps, originally the defensive midfielder, drifted toward the right side and essentially became a right wing-back, though he was only responsible for distributing the ball rather than overlapping forward.
If Kai moved toward the left, Deschamps would return centrally and form a double pivot with Kai. Then Matthäus, who had originally occupied the left midfield position, would drift wide and act as a left wing-back.
In this way, Kai's deeper movement stabilized the team's giant circulation system, forming a moving point within the U-shaped structure. He could create triangles with anyone, preventing the opponent from strangling the team's passing routes.
If Kai hadn't constantly moved left and right like this, then once the opponent committed forward to press aggressively, they would've had a real chance to destroy Sporting Lisbon's entire circulation structure.
In the 61st minute, Kai suddenly launched a long pass from deep on the right side.
Quaresma, who had originally been trapped in his own half, instantly shifted from carrying the ball to making an off-ball run. He beat the offside line, sprinted onto the pass, and swept the ball across goal.
Drogba wrestled fiercely with the opposing center-back, losing his position in the process. In the end, he slid desperately toward the ball but failed to make contact.
But behind Drogba, the team's left midfielder Viana arrived at the perfect moment, almost forming a double-attacking wave alongside Drogba!
Boom!
Viana launched himself forward and stretched out his leg, reaching the ball first.
The ball flew into the opponent's net together with him.
It looked somewhat similar to the goal he'd scored before getting injured in the European Youth Championship.
But this time, he obviously wasn't going to smash into the goalpost again.
"Three-nil! Oh my god! Sporting Lisbon are going crazy! Viana scores!"
"This attack started with a direct long pass from Kai deep in his own half! Sporting Lisbon suddenly accelerated from slow circulation play into a lightning-fast attack!"
"Quaresma's speed, control, and crossing are all top-class! Compared to Cristiano Ronaldo, who is more explosive on the left but still rough around the edges, Quaresma looks far more complete!"
Viana was officially playing as the left attacking midfielder, but during the first half he had mostly operated deeper, almost like a central midfielder.
It wasn't until Kai dropped deeper during the second half that Viana finally pushed higher up the pitch.
So it was easy for opponents to lose track of him.
Otherwise, a midfielder suddenly bursting into the penalty area wouldn't have been such a surprise.
With Kai controlling the game and the team built around such excellent personnel, Sporting Lisbon could score again the moment the opponent dared to push out.
The Beira-Mar players were visibly frightened by Kai's sudden acceleration of the team's tempo.
They immediately began retreating, no longer daring to press recklessly.
Otherwise, Kai would simply tear them apart again with another long pass.
This was what people called a metronome. A gearbox.
As the opponent retreated deeper, Sporting Lisbon's defensive line began stepping higher and higher after halftime.
As a result, Sporting Lisbon's attacking firepower grew even stronger.
But with space compressed, the threat from long passing naturally dropped significantly.
At that point, the focus shifted toward tight-area combinations and the players' individual dribbling ability.
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