Chapter 82: 45 Goals, 38 Offensive Involvements (20k Update, Seeking Monthly Votes!)

Utrecht defeated Saint-Truiden 5-0 and successfully advanced to the Dutch Cup final.

Tang Ye completed the second assist hat-trick of his career in this match, but Tang Ye is now under great pressure.

On the return bus, Tang Ye sat in his seat, holding his phone with both hands.

【Which is faster: the reaction speed of a 16-year-old or that of an 18-year-old?】

Tang Ye is now very worried.

Because his reaction speed has been force-ripened by the system!

Frowning, he carefully browsed the content popping up on the screen.

Tang Ye did not directly search for whether a 16-year-old's or an 18-year-old's reaction speed is faster, but amidst the myriad pieces of information, he captured one rather crucial point.

【Generally speaking, a person's reaction speed is fastest around the age of 20.】

Hiss—

If reaction speed is fastest at 20, then by simple deduction, an 18-year-old's reaction speed should be stronger than a 16-year-old's!

"Damn, you scared me."

Tang Ye sighed, put his phone back into his pocket, and prepared to lean back in his chair to sleep for a while.

"Tang, isn't your birthday coming up soon?"

Amrabat, sitting beside Tang Ye, nudged him with his elbow.

Just as Amrabat finished asking the question, Allé, sitting in front, suddenly turned his head: "Right, I remember your registration form says March."

"It's March 4th."

Tang Ye replied: "What date is it today?"

"It's already the 2nd, so it really is coming up fast!"

Tang Ye rubbed his hands together.

He was about to turn 17!

"Then will I no longer count as a youth team player?"

Tang Ye blinked; every time Ten Hag submitted the match roster to the football association, Tang Ye saw the "U17" label after his name.

Tang Ye really disliked this, because he felt he was being treated differently.

"No, as long as you haven't turned 18 yet, you are still a youth team player, because you signed a youth training contract; anyway, that's how it is in the Netherlands."

Amrabat gave the answer: "However, what will appear after your name in the future won't be U17 anymore."

"Then what will it be?"

"U19!"

Uh...

Alright!

Tang Ye scratched his head; thinking about it carefully, that was indeed the case.

Although he was a regular starter for the first team, Tang Ye had signed a youth training contract, and he was registered with the reserve team and the U17 squad!

Utrecht Evening News headline—After Tang's 17th birthday, Utrecht paid the total fines of 44,000 euros from the previous two matches; Utrecht saved approximately 29,000 euros by delaying payment.

Utrecht RTV reporter: Ten Hag has been reported to the Dutch Child Protection Organization.

"Allowing a minor to work after 10 PM is an undeniable illegal act; Utrecht Club treating him as a professional player is absolutely wrong; minors should not be professional players."

Check Dongqiu Di Extra: Analyzing the Dutch Minor Protection Law—Could the harsh laws put Ten Hag at risk of detention?

After concluding the match against Saint-Truiden, Ten Hag gave the players a half-day holiday, instructing them to gather directly at the gym in the afternoon.

"The results from the other side are already out; our opponent in the final is Feyenoord."

Sitting on the bench press stool, Ten Hag slowly spoke to the players in the room.

"You should have felt it in previous matches; playing against Feyenoord is actually quite strenuous for us, possibly even more difficult than dealing with PSV Eindhoven and Ajax, so I hope your emotions do not become so impulsive..."

Today was the first day after the match ended, so even the afternoon training intensity would not be too high.

Ten Hag spent a great deal of time chatting with the players, which was essentially equivalent to holding a small meeting with them in the gym.

Tang Ye sat on the floor, reading a novel on the Qidian app with his phone; sitting in front of him was Allé, who stood 1.9 meters tall, perfectly blocking Tang Ye's phone.

It was very comfortable to watch; Tang Ye used his account to tip an author 100,000 Qidian coins, and the next second, Ten Hag called his name.

"Hey, Tang, calling you!"

Amrabat kicked Tang Ye's foot; the latter quickly hid his phone inside his sleeve, looked up at Ten Hag, and said: "Mr. Sitting Like, I am listening."

Ten Hag spread his hands: "Tang, I don't think I called your name, did I?"

Huh?

Damn!

Tang Ye turned his head to look at Amrabat; the detestable Moroccan was snickering on the side.

Actually, Ten Hag had never called Tang Ye's name at all; it was Amrabat who had secretly set him up!

Tang Ye waved his hand, originally thinking the matter was settled, but as a result, Ten Hag directly told him to stand up.

"Come, stand here."

Ten Hag called Tang Ye to his side, while the players sitting on the yoga mats struggled desperately to hold back their laughter.

"Mr. Sitting Like, Mr. Sitting Like, what's wrong?"

"This is exactly the situation I am worried about."

With a serious expression, Ten Hag pointed at Tang Ye beside him: "Our current points place us first in the Eredivisie, and we have also entered the Dutch Cup final; what I worry about is that after achieving good results, you will start to slack off."

Ten Hag made a "9" gesture with his hand: "There are still 9 rounds left in the league; do you remember our goal for this season?"

"Avoid relegation!"

Tang Ye blurted out.

"I'm talking about the goals that come after; we've revised our targets twice."

"Oh, it's top four."

Tang Ye answered again.

"That's right; we must secure a top-four finish, and ideally qualify for the Europa League, or even the Champions League! That is our goal."

Ten Hag turned his upper body toward Tang Ye: "But, Tang, you're getting a bit carried away right now! You don't give me the impression of an ordinary youth-team player; rather, you seem like the leader of the Eredivisie scoring chart or the assists chart. Even the leader of the assists chart probably isn't as arrogant as you!"

Uh...

Tang Ye felt somewhat embarrassed after being scolded by Ten Hag.

However.

"Um..."

Tang Ye took a step forward: "But Mr. Erik, I am already first on the assists chart."

"What?"

Ten Hag's upper body suddenly leaned back; he turned his head to find Fan Fan Dejiahe sitting beside him: "Is what he said true?"

Fan Fan Dejiahe nodded.

"..."

Ten Hag had never lost an argument when speaking, yet he hadn't expected to miscalculate today over such a trivial matter.

"No, when did you take first place on the assists chart? After yesterday's match ended? No, wait—yesterday was a KNVB Cup match; that one doesn't count."

Ten Hag thought for a moment.

"Did you become first on the assists chart after playing Feyenoord?"

"Let me check."

Tang Ye took out his phone, opened the homepage of the Royal Dutch Football Association, and then located the assist statistics for this Eredivisie season.

"I can't remember exactly, but I think I've been first for quite some time."

Tang Ye handed his phone to Ten Hag.

Back in December of last year, he had checked the assists chart once; according to Tang Ye's memory, he had already been first back then.

However, since it was only assists, Tang Ye hadn't bragged about it to his teammates.

"Let me see."

Ten Hag took the phone and examined it carefully.

1. Tang Ye (Utrecht), 24 times

2. Locadia (PSV Eindhoven), 14 times

3. Duplan (ADO Den Haag), 13 times

4. Ziyech (Twente), 12 times

5. Carlsdorp (Feyenoord), 12 times

"2... 24 times?" Ten Hag's eyes widened: "When did you rack up so many assists?"

That can't be right!

Ten Hag felt his memory must be mistaken.

He remembered Tang Ye only managing to luck into one or two particularly strange long passes per match.

How did they add up to so many?

What baffled Ten Hag most was that Tang Ye's first-place total exceeded the second-place player on the assists chart by ten!

Ridiculous; could it be that every single goal Utrecht scored was assisted by Tang Ye?

"Wait a moment."

Ten Hag signaled the players not to rush; he took Tang Ye's phone, turned off the Chinese translation, and then located the league table.

The league table allows one to view a team's total number of goals.

Utrecht's total number of goals so far this season was 45.

"Phew..."

!

Ten Hag exhaled in relief and returned the phone to Tang Ye: "You gave me a scare; I thought you were somehow even stronger. Still, assisting on half the goals is actually quite impressive."

Tang Ye's assist count was 24, while Utrecht's total goals this season were 45; this ratio already exceeded 50%.

Although Ten Hag usually liked to gaslight Tang Ye, Tang Ye's statistics were indeed quite respectable.

However!

This was no reason for Tang Ye to zone out during the meeting!

"Erik!"

Fan De whispered, leaning his mouth close to Ten Hag's ear: "He also seems to have 14 goals."

"..."

14 goals?

24 assists, 14 goals...

24 plus 14 equals 38.

38.

45.

Hmm...

"Cough!"

Ten Hag kept a straight face and simply waved his hand: "We just won the match yesterday, so I won't make things difficult for you specifically. Tang, you can go back first."

Oh!

Tang Ye put his phone back in his pocket and hurriedly ran back to his spot.

He hadn't expected that the detestable Mr. Sitting Like would actually let him off!

Tang Ye breathed a sigh of relief; after sitting back down, he flipped Amrabat the middle finger.

Training was about to begin, and Tang Ye started his operations.

His Counterattack Points balance had now reached 183 points, but Tang Ye was in no rush to spend them to unlock purchasing permissions for new items.

The existing items were sufficient for him to use for quite some time.

【You have purchased Cristiano Ronaldo's Chicken Breast】

Tang Ye wanted to test whether buying two pieces of chicken breast could achieve a fourfold training effect.

However, after trying it, Tang Ye discovered that if one purchased the same item while its effect was still active, it would only refresh the item's duration and could not provide additional multiplicative bonus effects.

What a pity, though on second thought it was understandable; if this thing's effects could stack, Tang Ye could just eat ten pieces of chicken breast today, and by tomorrow morning his shoulders would probably be half a circle wider!

Nearly two hours later, the first-team players finished their training in the gym; after massages, it was already 5:30 PM, which was mealtime for the Utrecht first team.

"Damn, Bart, I feel the blood vessels in my thighs pulsing right now; do you feel that?"

Walking out of the physiotherapy room, Tang Ye limped slightly.

Of course, he wasn't injured; he was simply feeling his muscles.

"Hey, Bart?"

Tang Ye called out, and Ramselaar suddenly nodded repeatedly: "Ah, um..."

"Bart, you're distracted; that's not good. Sitting Like doesn't like players who lack focus."

Tang Ye teased.

They were the last two to leave the physiotherapy room; Tang Ye had noticed some time ago that this fellow Ramselaar seemed somewhat absent-minded.

As Tang Ye walked toward Wangshitang, he looked Ramselaar up and down: "Bart, you're not thinking about video games, are you? I've seen you logging into FIFA quite often recently."

"How could that be!"

Ramselaar flatly denied Tang Ye's words: "You're overthinking it; I'm not like you. How could that be possible? Only lazy pigs who hide in their dorm rooms playing games think about gaming, and I'm no lazy pig."

"Really?"

Tang Ye was somewhat suspicious, but he didn't say much more and continued on his way.

"Bart, I think we should hurry up."

Tang Ye suddenly said.

Just now in the physiotherapy room, Ramselaar had suggested playing a few rounds of FIFA with him, but by the time they finally emerged, the other teammates had already been at Daoshitang for nearly half an hour.

Tang Ye was now a bit worried; if all the teammates had finished eating, Daoshitang would become extremely quiet, and he didn't like sitting alone at a table to eat.

Ramselaar leaned his head over to glance at the time displayed on Tang Ye's phone: "OK, we really should hurry up."

The two of them started running.

Upon arriving at Daoshitang, they discovered that the glass windows were closed.

Moreover, the curtains were drawn.

That's not right, is it?

Tang Ye quickly ran over; according to his memory, Daoshitang shouldn't be closed at this time.

He pushed the door.

Fortunately, the door was open, so there should be food available...

"Happy Birthday!"

Huh?

Bang!

Just as Tang Ye pushed the door open, a ten-inch cake flew straight at his face.

Although he possessed the reaction speed of an eighteen-year-old, Tang Ye ultimately failed to dodge it.

"Damn it!"

Tang Ye vigorously shook his head, flinging the cream and chocolate off his face.

After wiping his eyes with his clothes, he was just about to curse when he suddenly realized that the first-team cafeteria had transformed.

Inside, there were many lights of various colors, and on the table in the very center sat a cake with two candles shaped like "1" and "7" inserted into it.

What surprised Tang Ye most was that behind the "17" was also a Chinese character: "Sui" (years old).

Put together, it read "17 years old."

"Tang, did you see that? Haha!"

"Wuhu!"

The teammates were making a racket; Tang Ye looked around and only then realized that Ramselaar had somehow appeared beside him again.

"Bart, so you deliberately made me play FIFA."

"Haha, do you like it!"

"I do like it, but..."

Tang Ye rubbed his head: "My birthday is March 4th; it should be tomorrow, right..."

"No, it's today!"

Ten Hag pushed aside Haller and De Jong, stepping out from between the two: "Last week when your parents visited, I asked your mother; you were born in the early hours of March 4th, China time."

"Uh, does that matter?"

"You truly aren't smart enough."

Ten Hag patted Tang Ye on the shoulder: "We have a time difference; right now it's the early morning of March 4th, China time!"

"Happy birthday, Tom!"

More than twenty players from the first team, along with Ten Hag and Fan Fan Dejiahe, all watched Tang Ye as, under their witness, he approached his super cake.

"You need a wish, for example..."

Ramselaar had intended to offer Tang Ye some suggestions, but after Tang Ye closed his eyes, he immediately blew out the candles.

Tang Ye raised an eyebrow at Ramselaar: "Bart, I know what kind of wish I'm going to make; I've always known."

(End of Chapter)