Chapter 181: Neymar Snipes at Tom, A Second Casemiro Defensive Template!

Lamine Yamal?

Another name he had never heard of before.

Tang Ye initially thought this Yamal was just an obscure student at La Masia, but he quickly realized something was off.

Yamal's curling shot template directly granted his 【De Bruyne Far-Corner Curling Shot】 template 350 proficiency points, breaking through from Lv4: Realistic to Lv5: Replication.

Three hundred and fifty proficiency points might not seem like much, but you must remember this is a shooting template!

Tang Ye currently had four growth templates undergoing upgrades, and among them, the Far-Corner Curling Shot template was the hardest to gain proficiency in.

One could say that the difficulty for Tang Ye to earn 350 proficiency points in 【Far-Corner Curling Shot】 was roughly equivalent to earning 1,000 points in 【Curved Through Ball】!

Looking at it this way, Lamine Yamal must possess some level of skill.

Judging by the proficiency points gained, even if Yamal hadn't quite reached the standard of a Star Player template (70 million euros), he couldn't be far off.

In that case, hadn't Tang Ye actually made quite a profit?

The moment this thought crossed his mind, more than half of his despondency after the loss instantly vanished.

Tang Ye felt much better, but Escrivá was still trapped in crisis and had not yet extricated himself.

Inside the press conference room, Escrivá wore a dark expression; the question just thrown at him by the reporter made him extremely uncomfortable.

"I know, I know we lost. We lost 2:3 to Barcelona, but I believe this scoreline is still acceptable."

"Any fan who watched the entire match should be able to feel that the gap between us and Barça is not large."

Facing the cameras, Escrivá's voice gradually grew louder.

"Actually, we lacked a bit of luck in this match; if luck had been on our side, we could have drawn, or even taken the lead—all of that was possible..."

Hmm...

Halfway through his sentence, Escrivá suddenly realized something was wrong and hastily clamped his mouth shut.

This was a problem he had encountered repeatedly over the past few months; after the previous match against Real Sociedad, he had been influenced into saying something like "1 > 3."

But today, Escrivá remained extremely calm.

He could not allow himself to be embroiled in public opinion again!

"Our loss is regrettable, but I believe our current results are acceptable; although we lost this match, we are still in the top three of La Liga, with only Real Madrid and Barça performing better than us."

Click-clack! Click-clack!

What Escrivá said was indeed the truth.

Last season, the Yellow Submarine was merely a fifth-place team in the league, heavily suppressed by Sevilla, Atlético, and the duo of Real Madrid and Barça.

Yet this season, for the Yellow Submarine to still rank third after the conclusion of the 17th round of the league, one must acknowledge Escrivá's capability!

"Can we discuss the '1' and the '3'?"

A reporter suddenly asked.

"The '1' and the '3'?"

Escrivá paused for a moment; excessive pressure had temporarily muddled his thinking.

"That is, '1 > 3'."

The reporter chuckled and reminded him, "In a previous interview, you said Tom..."

"I know, I know."

Escrivá felt somewhat speechless: "I am aware of that incident, but I believe my emotions were not in a good state at the time, so I made an erroneous statement."

"But what you said itself was not wrong; Tom's assist count was indeed higher than that of MSN."

"..."

The reporter wanted to continue pushing Escrivá further into the fire pit.

"But today they scored two goals, so now MSN's assist count has surpassed Tom's, right? Therefore, that statement no longer holds true, and we should stop discussing this."

"It's not entirely untrue either."

The reporter glanced at the data recorded in his phone's memo app.

"Because of Messi's assist, the total assist count for MSN is now 15, which is consistent with Tom's current assist count..."

?

Escrivá widened his eyes.

Tom's assist count hadn't been overtaken by MSN yet?

Damn it.

"1 > 3" no longer held true.

But "3" still had not exceeded "1."

Now it was "1 = 3"!

"Ferran, so when do you think '1' will exceed '3' again?"

When would "1" exceed "3" again?

Escrivá was left speechless.

After leaving the press conference room, Escrivá immediately returned to the team's locker room.

Luck was on their side; this match between the Yellow Submarine and Barça was the final game of the 17th round of La Liga.

By convention, the La Liga officials would announce the winners of last month's Best Player and Best Coach awards within 30 minutes after the match.

By the time Escrivá returned to the locker room, all the players were lifting their heads, watching the television hanging by the doorway.

Escrivá immediately searched for Tang Ye.

That fellow was squatting on his own stool, his eyes blinking as he stared at the television.

Escrivá nodded and walked over to sit beside Bruno.

After the match, the list of winners for last month's Best Player and Best Coach will be announced; this is actually good, as it can divert the players' attention.

After losing 2:3 to Barcelona, the Yellow Submarine players urgently need to adjust their mindset.

"It's coming!"

Musacchio shouted, and the screen displayed the winner of the December Best Player award.

La Liga December Best Player: Suárez (Barcelona)

"..."

The eyes of the players in the locker room unanimously turned toward Tang Ye.

Tang Ye, who had originally been squatting on the bench, had somehow sat down at some point, his ears drooping.

Selected as a monthly best candidate twice.

Yet he missed out both times!

Good heavens, now Tang Ye had become the one needing comfort.

"It's okay, Tom!"

Rodri patted Tang Ye's shoulder, took a new piece of chewing gum from Tang Ye's backpack, and placed it in Tang Ye's hand.

He knew doing this could make Tom feel a little better.

Actually, thinking about it carefully, Tang Ye missing out on the monthly best award was not unreasonable.

La Liga is different from the Eredivisie; the difficulty of putting up stats in La Liga is not on the same level at all as in the Eredivisie.

Then there are the players; when in the Eredivisie, Tang Ye was competing for the monthly best against players like Haller and Ziyech.

But after coming to the La Liga, Tang Ye's competitors are damn CR7, Messi, and Neymar!

How is he supposed to play against that?

Naturally, after the Monthly Best Player announcement comes the Monthly Best Coach.

La Liga December Best Coach: Fran Escribá (Villarreal)

"Hmm!"

Escribá's brows relaxed, and Bruno placed a hand on his shoulder: "Fran!"

In December, the Yellow Submarine played three league matches in total, including opponents as strong as Atlético Madrid.

In these three league matches, the Yellow Submarine achieved victory in all of them; Escribá being named Coach of the Month was truly well-deserved!

Soon, a staff member from the football association entered to remind Escribá to go outside to receive his award, but Escribá's attention right now was not on receiving the award.

The Yellow Submarine players were still in the locker room, their spirits low; as the coach, Escribá should step up at this moment.

Clap, clap, clap!

Clapping as he walked to the very center of the locker room, Escribá captured the attention of all the players: "Losing a match is a very unpleasant thing, especially losing to a team like Barcelona; of course, I know how regrettable this is."

"But we need to pull ourselves together. Look at your phones; what time is it now? We haven't even reached the 10th yet; the January part of the season has just begun. We still have one Copa del Rey match and three league matches to play."

He scanned the players in the locker room.

Escribá needed to constantly monitor the changes in the players' emotions, as this would directly determine what he needed to say next.

The players were all holding their heads up, which indicated their current state was not bad.

"Losing to Barcelona is nothing to be ashamed of; what we need to do is perform well in the remaining matches in January; that is the key."

"Everyone stand up!"

Time to cheer together again!

Tang Ye quickly stood up from his chair, shook his legs, and then moved to Escribá's side.

His teammates, of course, were also in position.

"In three days, we have a Copa del Rey match to play; our task is to reach the quarter-finals, not to linger here regretting today's match. Sebastian, I know you are feeling terrible right now, but I believe you can make up for today's mistake; what you need to do is score in the Copa del Rey match."

Escribá specifically pulled Haller out to speak about him.

Haller happened to be standing right next to Tang Ye, so Tang Ye patted Haller's arm: "Sebastian, I will pass the ball to you!"

Escribá placed his hand on top of the pile.

"Villarreal!"

"Forward!"

Front-page headline of the "Villarreal News"—After 17 rounds, the Yellow Submarine and Real Madrid are tied with 41 points each; ranking third in the league due to a four-goal deficit in goal difference.

La Liga Standings (Round 17)

1. Barcelona, 45 points.

2. Real Madrid, 41 points.

3. Villarreal, 41 points.

4. Atlético Madrid, 37 points.

5. Sevilla, 36 points.

6. Real Sociedad, 34 points.

After returning home in the evening, Tang Ye received a text message from Neymar.

【CS, gogogo!】

After the match, Neymar took the initiative to add Tang Ye on WeChat; the reason was that Neymar had heard from teammates that Tang Ye loved playing games very much.

Among La Liga players, very few people play CS: GO; every time Neymar wanted to find someone to play games with, he had to look for his friends in Brazil.

Many Brazilian players love playing CS, but there is a time difference between Brazil and Spain, which brought difficulties for Neymar, who was playing far away in Barcelona.

【Wait a moment, send me the room number】

Tang Ye hadn't even had time to put down his backpack before rushing to turn on his computer. Oh, right!

Remembering his good friend from their days playing soccer in Germany, Tang Ye sent a message to Neymar.

【Can I invite one more person?】

【Is there anyone else? Then hurry up!】

Very quickly, Tang Ye, Dembélé, and Neymar all appeared in the same room.

Ne... Neymar?

Seeing the message Tang Ye sent, Dembélé's eyes widened.

【Tom, didn't you just lose to Barça???】

【Matches are matches, games are games; how can they be the same?】

Thinking it over, Dembélé realized Tang Ye was right and put on his headset.

!

While Tang Ye and Neymar were chatting, Dembélé, who only knew a few simple sentences of Spanish, could only stand aside and listen for now.

"I just bought this account; let me switch skins first."

As Tang Ye quickly operated his mouse, Neymar started talking to him about the match.

"Tom, during that counterattack in the second half, were you trying to slide tackle me?"

"..."

Tang Ye, who was changing his gun skin, suddenly stopped his hand movements, his face turning red.

"Júnior, actually you don't need to worry; my tackles don't hurt, believe me."

"Hahaha, okay, okay, but I feel your tackling motion is too obvious."

Neymar suddenly said, and Tang Ye, having finished changing his gun skin, started matchmaking.

"Too obvious? What do you mean?"

"When you run over, you give people the feeling that you want to slide tackle; if you do that, the opponent will be on guard."

"But that makes me look fiercer."

"..."

Tang Ye's words left Neymar pondering: "Haha, but before you slide tackle, you should hide your motion. Tom, do you understand what I mean? Don't give the opponent the feeling of a tackle; only suddenly slide tackle when you get close. That way, the success rate will be much higher, because if the motion is too sudden, the striker will get startled, and if the striker gets startled, you won't have a chance."

Neymar could be said to be extremely experienced in this aspect, and he was very willing to share his experience with Tang Ye.

Although Tang Ye was not Brazilian, he possessed a style unique to Brazilians when he played soccer.

Spinning!

This spinning gave Neymar a strong sense of affinity toward Tang Ye.

This was a kind of... power from his homeland!

Tang Ye stood with his mouth open, carefully pondering what Neymar had just said.

Thinking it over carefully, it seemed true indeed.

When defending, Tang Ye always pretended to look very fierce, wanting to make the opposing strikers fear him.

This resulted in his very high success rate in defense, even much higher than some professional full-backs within the Yellow Submarine team.

Because upon seeing Tang Ye like this, the opposing strikers would immediately pass the ball away.

But upon careful consideration, one would discover that the core point actually lies in the final slide tackle; applying pressure on the opposing striker beforehand often fails to achieve the intended effect.

As his thinking deepened, actual scenes from matches floated up in Tang Ye's mind.

Tang Ye often forgot some things in daily life, but his visual memory was excellent; he could even completely remember exactly which wonderful moments had appeared in a match from half a month ago.

Based on Neymar's advice, Tang Ye simply modified some of his decisions from previous matches.

If he wasn't so anxious when slide tackling...

Hmm, would his defense indeed improve quite a bit?

However, Tang Ye soon had no time to think.

Because the game had started!

"Neymar, you go to A; yes, you and Ousmane together. I'll handle B alone."

"..."

"Neymar, give me the sniper rifle. Oh, this skin of yours is nice, damn! My account in China also has this skin."

"One down, one down; Ousmane, just rush in; it's fine if you die."

"Drop a sniper, drop a sniper; yes, Neymar, as long as you save up enough money, just buy me a sniper directly."

"Everyone's down, damn it; it's fine, it's fine, I'll take on five, I'll take on five; don't talk for now."

Phew...

Exhaling a long breath, Dembélé looked at his computer screen.

【2/14/5】

【Victory】

"Hehe."

Tom is still the carry as always.

But to be honest, Neymar also has some skill; his 4/8/3 performance made Dembélé feel ashamed by comparison.

Neymar and Dembélé wanted to continue playing, but Tang Ye had already logged off early because he had training at 3 PM the next afternoon and needed to go to sleep early.

Tang Ye had tried using 【Kanté's Hot Chocolate Milk】 to recover his condition after staying up late, but the result was that he went through training the next day like a sleepwalker.

Obviously, the hot chocolate milk priced at 15 Counterattack Points could only recover Tang Ye's muscle fatigue, not help him reduce his sleep time.

In other words, staying up late to play games would cause him to sleepwalk during training, an unavoidable consequence.

And every time he sleepwalked during training, Escrivá would stare at Tang Ye for a long time, causing Tang Ye to be unable to secretly spin during training.

This was a very unpleasant thing!

【ssneymar has sent you a friend request】

Oh?

Neymar wanted to add him on WhatsApp, and Dembélé agreed immediately.

【Dembélé: Still playing?】

【Neymar: Does Tom always log off at this time? I haven't had enough yet.】

【Dembélé: About that. On rest days, we might stay up late to play. So, what do you say, continuing?】

【Neymar: No, I've played enough for today. I'm logging off first.】

……

The next day, training resumed, but the players' condition was generally not very good.

Escrivá had actually considered letting everyone rest for a full day, but with the Copa del Rey match approaching, he couldn't allow the players to rest for too long.

Jogging slowly on the field to warm up, Tang Ye chewed gum as he ran toward Bruno, but noticing Bruno's mood wasn't great, he abandoned the idea of striking up a conversation.

Losing a match was just like that; Tang Ye couldn't even find anyone to chat with, so he could only play with his system while running.

Tang Ye (38 years old)

【Ball Control: 80; Passing: 88】

【Shooting: 77; Heading: 48; Set Pieces: 74】

【Speed: 70; Stamina: 72; Physicality: 72】

【Defense: 69; Vision: 94】

Overall Rating: 80

It looked like an overall rating of 80, but in reality, it was 85+ for offense combined with around 70 for defense.

The good news was that under Escrivá's special tactics, Tang Ye's flaws on the defensive end would rarely be exposed.

Simply put, Tang Ye could perform in matches at a level greater than, or possibly far greater than, his 80 attribute points suggested; all of this depended on the specific circumstances of the match.

Then there was his current savings...

Account Balance: Counterattack Points * 3549

Eating hamburgers had cost a lot of money, but Tang Ye's ability to earn money was also rising rapidly.

Following behind the team and jogging slowly, Tang Ye's brain raced with thoughts.

【Spend 640 Counterattack Points to unlock purchasing permissions for new items?】

【You have obtained Casemiro's Adidas gloves】

?

Casemiro's gloves?

Tang Ye's eyes lit up.

Based on his experience, if the unlocked item wasn't food-type (Red Bull, hamburgers), it was a permanent passive item.

This was very comfortable, because passive items didn't require Tang Ye to spend extra money to buy them.

【Casemiro's Adidas Gloves】

Effect: Obtain 【Casemiro's Foul-Style Interception Template (Superstar)】.

【Defense: 69 → 70】

【Physicality: 72 → 73】

!!!

Damn?

Having finished the warm-up run, Tang Ye stopped in his tracks and stood stunned on the spot.

He had used 640 Counterattack Points to open a Superstar-level template!

"What's wrong, Tom?"

Rodri patted Tang Ye's shoulder: "Did you sleep very late last night?"

Rodri felt Tang Ye wasn't in form today, because just now when fitness coach Kyle told everyone to squat down and stretch, Tang Ye was still standing.

"It's nothing, it's nothing."

Tang Ye quickly squatted down: "I went to sleep very early last night."

After chatting briefly with Rodri, Tang Ye returned his attention to his system.

Foul-style interception sounded terrifying, but in reality, it was just a skill where one directly reached out and dragged the opposing forward down when making a defensive mistake.

To be honest, this move didn't even need practice to execute, because dragging down a forward had nothing to do with proficiency; it was merely a matter of defensive experience.

Looking at it this way, foul-style interception should be considered one of the weaker types among all Superstar-level templates.

However, Tang Ye had only spent 640 Counterattack Points, and he had also increased two attribute points.

The system might profit, but Tang Ye was absolutely impossible to lose!

……

(End of Chapter)