Chapter 2: The Outside-of-the-Foot Curve!

What is this!

Tang Ye frowned.

37 years old?

Retired in humiliation?

Nonsense, he's clearly only 16 years old, okay!

If nothing unexpected happened, this must be someone's cheat system bought for the wrong account, but Tang Ye simply chose to ignore it.

Without a system, he'd slack off; with a system, he could get stronger, but he'd still slack off.

Working hard is impossible, impossible in this lifetime.

"Beep!"

The match reached the 72nd minute; a Go Ahead Eagles winger committed an offensive foul, stepping right on Milner's ankle.

"Fuck!"

Melent shouted loudly: "What the hell was that? That's a red card, a red card!"

The referee showed a yellow card to the offending Go Ahead Eagles player, while the team doctor hurried onto the field to treat Milner.

Melent received bad news: Milner could no longer continue the match.

In the 74th minute of the match, the team's starting midfielder lost the ability to continue; Melent covered his face with both hands and looked toward the team's substitute bench.

"Ferranas, you..."

Just as Melent was about to send Ferranas from the substitute bench onto the field, the assistant coach walked over, leaned his mouth close to Melent's ear, and whispered: "This is a friendly match; we can let that Chinese kid go on. It will help our viewership!"

"You mean Tang? No, no, no, that's impossible. Our opponent is Go Ahead Eagles; how can we let him play?"

Melent deeply despised players who didn't work hard; he would absolutely never let Tang Ye onto the field.

"This is the management's intention."

The assistant coach whispered: "We need to sell jerseys..."

Letting a Chinese player appear in the match, even though it was a friendly, would be of tremendous help to Utrecht's jersey sales.

Moreover, because of Tang Ye's presence, the Utrecht second team would gain quite a few Chinese fans!

"Damn it!"

Melent cursed loudly, then turned to look at Tang Ye on the substitute bench: "Tang, you're on!"

"Ah, me, me?"

Tang Ye opened his eyes; with only about ten-plus minutes left in the match, taking another shower just to play ten-plus minutes wasn't worth it, so Tang Ye wasn't very eager to go on: "Mr., I haven't warmed up yet..."

"Don't talk nonsense to me; warm up while you play!"

Melent didn't expect Tang Ye to actually accomplish anything once on the field; he just needed this guy to honestly finish the remaining ten-plus minutes.

"Alright, alright."

Tang Ye tightened his shoelaces and slowly walked toward the sideline.

【At 37, your heart filled with great ambitions, you stand once again on the competition field】

【An old steed in the stable still aspires to gallop a thousand li; drawing your reward now...】

【You have obtained: Modrić's Soul-Stirring Outside-of-the-Foot (Right Foot)】

!!!

Modrić's outside-of-the-foot?

Tang Ye's eyes lit up.

He had thought he would receive some skill from an ancient star, yet unexpectedly, a template for Modrić's outside-of-the-foot technique appeared.

Wait!

Tang Ye suddenly thought of something.

According to the system's settings, the current time was 2036, so strictly speaking, Modrić was indeed an athlete who had already retired.

Awesome, only the system could pull this off!

In the camera shot, Tang Ye, wearing the number 99 jersey, stood at the edge of the pitch.

【Holy crap, who said Tang Ye had no chance to play? Isn't the chance here now? Damn, awesome!】

【Good, good, these 70-plus minutes of waiting weren't in vain】

【Those who bet on a draw or a Utrecht solo win are going to lose; in every match Tang Ye has played, Utrecht hasn't won a single one】

【You can't say that; counting friendlies, Tang Ye has only played three matches for Utrecht in total; this is the fourth】

【A 100% loss rate over three matches, wouldn't you say it's doomed?】

【Damn it, I'm directly betting on a draw; I just want to support Tang Ye!】

After Tang Ye entered the field, the online viewer count in the Huandle Dou livestream room suddenly began to rise; this was because an app called Dongqiu Di pinned a news item to the top after Tang Ye came on.

"16-Year-Old Slacker Makes Fourth Substitute Appearance, Come Watch Quickly!"

At this moment, Tang Ye had just finished high-fiving Milner and stepped onto the pitch; he still didn't know that so many people were watching him.

The match resumed; Bednarek, the goalkeeper for the Utrecht second team, took a set piece from the backfield, and players from both teams began contesting possession in Go Ahead Eagles' half.

Leveraging their height advantage, Go Ahead Eagles won the first touch; seeing this, Melent immediately signaled the players on the field to press forward.

"Go up, get right up there!"

Now all of Utrecht's players were in the opponent's half, and the player in possession was from Go Ahead Eagles; this situation was extremely dangerous, for if Utrecht failed to regain possession, Go Ahead Eagles would have an opportunity to launch a counterattack.

Because Utrecht's defensive line was currently empty!

Hearing the coach's urging, Tang Ye swayed leisurely as he ran in the direction of the player holding the ball.

This slow, languid pressing would have no practical effect; the player in possession easily passed the ball out.

"!!!"

Amrabat reacted quickly, rushing forward to immediately block the position with his shoulder before kicking the ball away.

"Holy shit, Jesus!"

Melent exhaled deeply; just now, when he saw the opponent pass the ball out, his heart had stopped beating.

Fortunately, Amrabat came through!

"Xuuu——!!!"

"Xuuuu!!"

"Beep beep beep!"

The match continued; over 2,000 fans in the home stands were extremely dissatisfied with Tang Ye's performance, and boos erupted throughout the venue.

From the 75th minute when he entered the field until now in the 85th minute, a full ten minutes had passed, during which Tang Ye touched the ball only twice, and both touches came solely from dropping back to receive support.

A question lingered in the hearts of the home fans: why had Utrecht spent 50,000 euros to bring this slacker to the Netherlands last summer?

"Karen, I told you, he can't do anything!"

Melent spread his hands toward the assistant coach: "I won't say anything about this friendly, but when the official matches come later, I absolutely will not let this guy play!"

After Melent finished ranting, he realized Karen wasn't looking at him but was instead pointing at the pitch.

Hmm?

Melent turned to look and saw Tang Ye receive a pass from the defender Truppe, then turn and dribble forward.

Although he acted very nonchalant while playing, this guy's ball-shielding ability was actually quite good.

With a small move, he shook off the defending player charging at him, then lifted his head.

"What?"

"Don't rush, just keep possession of the ball first!"

Melent shouted loudly, but Tang Ye ignored everything, swinging his right leg back and flicking the ball with the outside of his foot.

Pa!

A crisp sound of striking the ball rang out; the soccer ball soared upward, flying past the ear of the defending player in front of him, then began curving to the right.

Pa!

The ball flew over the opposing team's two center-backs, hit the ground, and continued rolling steadily to the right.

At this moment, a player wearing a red-and-white striped jersey ran out.

Zaka!

"A one-on-one! Tang Ye sent a through ball with the outside of his foot for a one-on-one opportunity!"

"Passed to the forward Zaka!"

"The ball is stable; Zaka stretches his foot forward, controls the ball perfectly!"

"A one-on-one, this is a perfect one-on-one chance!"

"The goalkeeper is coming out!"

"Zaka, shoot!"

"Goal! Goal!"

"Zaka's goal, courtesy of Tang Ye's outside-of-the-foot through pass!"

Even though Zaka was the one who finished the goal, the director cut the camera to Tang Ye in the defensive half.

An outside-of-the-foot curved pass creating a one-on-one.

Is this fucking an Eerste Divisie friendly match?

……

(End of chapter)