Chapter 46: All-out Fight
After joining Sporting Lisbon, Su Dong lived a monotonous but fulfilling and busy life.
Every day I basically go between the apartment and the training base.
In addition to participating in the training of the first team, they also have to deal with Jardel's one-hour special training every day, as well as two hours of physical training a week, which takes place in the gym in Alcocheti.
Su Dong did not hide it from Pontes and admitted that he still insisted on physical training every day.
Pontes was more relieved about this, but at the same time he also warned Su Dong that if he felt unwell, he must immediately reduce the amount of training.
Seventeen years old is the critical time when the body is growing and the technical ability is rapidly increasing. Injuries at this time will have a huge impact on professional players and must be prevented.
In the Road to King of Football system, Su Dong can see his strength improving little by little every day. Although the speed is very slow, it gives him unprecedented confidence and hope, because he believes that as long as he practices, his strength will continue to improve.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of joining Sporting Lisbon and training with the first team, Su Dong increased his football king value by increasing the potential of all attributes in the two major categories of technology and physical to the full value of 99 points.
This made his football king value bleed heavily again.
The good thing, however , is that he will continue to make steady progress for the foreseeable future.
As long as his potential is not capped, he can keep moving forward.
…
In the blink of an eye, another week has passed.
This time Sporting Lisbon II will travel to challenge Gondomar.
The opponent is ranked in the middle in terms of strength and Sporting Lisbon is playing away.
Jean James still arranged a 4-3-3 formation, and Sudong still formed a trident with Marcelino and Ronnie.
It is obvious that the victory in the last round has brought sweetness to James.
But Gondomar reacted quickly and did a good job of targeted defense.
This is also the biggest difference between professional teams and amateur teams. They have special channels for gathering intelligence.
As soon as Sudong scored twice in Alcochete, Gondomar received the news immediately. Their reaction mechanism was very sensitive and they quickly came up with a targeted solution.
Gondomar is a strong team and they are playing at home. More importantly, this team is located in the southeast of Porto city and has a close relationship with Porto. Everyone can see that this season Porto is competing with Sporting Lisbon for the Portuguese Super League championship.
The Portuguese Super League is currently in the 18th round, and Sporting Lisbon will challenge Porto away in this round.
In the afternoon, the second team will play away against Porto's younger brother Gondomar, and in the evening the first team will challenge Porto away.
This game of the second team has become a precursor to the first team.
Gondomar also attached great importance to this game. They are strong to begin with and they were playing at home. They did not give Sporting Lisbon a good chance throughout the whole game. The trident that shined in the last round was closely guarded by the opponent in this round.
The offense failed to work, but there was a mistake on the defensive end, allowing the opponent to score a goal before the end of the first half, and the team went into halftime with a trailing score.
After the change of sides in the second half, although the front trident tried very hard to turn the situation around, they were always suppressed by the opponent.
Jean James then made a decisive substitution, replacing him with Fabio Costa and pushing Ronaldo to the front line.
This time the substitution took effect quickly.
In the 71st minute, after Miguel Paichon intercepted the ball in the midfield, Ugo Pina took two steps forward with the ball and quickly made a straight pass, which passed through the opponent's midfield and landed directly at Su Dong's feet.
Su Dong passed the ball to the right side between the two central defenders of the opposing team without stopping.
Ronnie understood what he meant, stopped the ball forward, and sprinted quickly.
The attention of the two opposing central defenders immediately fell on Ronnie, so how could they care about Su Dong?
Just as Ronnie was about to dribble the ball into the penalty area, without waiting for the opposing defensive players to get close, he kicked a curve ball with his right foot.
The ball quickly fell to the left side of the small penalty area, and Su Dong didn't know when he went around the opponent's central defender, moved forward at the fastest speed, and dived directly to head the ball into the goal that was within reach.
After scoring the goal, Su Dong slid off the field, but he got up from the ground excitedly.
Ronnie opened his arms excitedly, rushed over quickly, and jumped onto Su Dong's back.
Su Dong carried Ronnie on his back and ran around the sidelines until he was stopped by his teammates.
“Well done!”
“This dive is so cool.”
"You are worthy of being called the Little God of War. Even his goals are so beautiful!"
“So cool!”
Su Dong humbly accepted the congratulations from his teammates.
He ran the entire game and wasted a lot of opportunities, but it was worth it to seize this one.
"Damn it, these two guys have always been worried about me and caused me to miss good opportunities," Ronnie complained.
Originally, he planned to dribble the ball into the penalty area by himself, but there was no way, the opponent's defensive players were coming over. Unless he shot again, it would be best to pass the ball to Su Dong at the back point.
"Because they don't know that you have become a wimp in love relationships recently." Su Dong laughed.
Ronnie elbowed him lightly in the chest and said, "I don't care. You have to pass the ball to me next time."
"No problem." Su Dong agreed readily.
Although he scores a lot of goals, in fact, Ronaldo is still the most threatening player in Sporting Lisbon II.
He dares to take the ball and dares to rush forward after getting the ball, which is very rare.
Only players who have great confidence in themselves can do this.
Although Su Dong is confident in himself, he has climbed up from the bottom of the league after all, so he still needs some time.
…
Thanks to Sudong's goal, Sporting Lisbon II tied 1-1 with Gondomar away from home.
This was the second consecutive round in which Su Dong scored, scoring three goals.
Head coach James praised Su Dong by name in the locker room after the game, believing that he had an outstanding performance in this game.
However, it was Ronnie who was voted the man of the match.
He was the most eye-catching and threatening player in Sporting Lisbon's second team and contributed a key assist.
After playing against Gondomar, Sporting Lisbon II did not return to Lisbon immediately.
The entire team took a bus to the city of Porto, only four kilometers away from Porto's home stadium, the Antas Stadium.
…
…
There is a saying that goes, changing a coach is like changing a knife.
From Machado to Mourinho, Porto's performance has changed significantly.
Especially in this game against Sporting Lisbon.
Mourinho's defense was tight, and Carvalho and Andrade's performances were as solid as in the first leg.
This central defender combination is the best performing in the Portuguese Super League this season.
Even someone as strong as Jadel would find it difficult to gain much advantage over them.
Just six minutes into the game, Andrade took advantage of a corner kick to score the first goal for Porto.
This goal dealt a heavy blow to Sporting Lisbon, and the team became passive afterwards.
Mourinho made it clear that he wanted to defend and counterattack, but after Sporting Lisbon fell behind by one goal, he had to adopt a more aggressive tactic.
The two teams played with great tension, with the two sides going back and forth and scenes of people falling down were common.
Many times, even Su Dong in the stands was frightened by what he saw.
The referee was also ruthless and frequently gave out cards.
In the 33rd minute, Barbosa scored a goal for Sporting Lisbon and successfully tied the score.
But in the next two minutes, the two teams started a full-scale fight.
Carvalho, Capucho and Pena of Porto received yellow cards one after another, while Barbosa and Paulo Bento of Sporting Lisbon also received cards one after another, which shows how tragic the situation of the game between the two teams was.
Mario Silva's foul in the penalty area gave Sporting Lisbon a penalty kick.
Jardel scored in the 35th minute to put the team ahead.
This further intensified the intense atmosphere between the two teams.
Mourinho replaced two players during the half-time break and decisively stepped up the attack.
Sporting Lisbon responded cautiously and tried hard to maintain its lead.
The two teams played very fiercely. Barbosa and Bento even received yellow cards one after another, and were sent off after two yellow cards turned into one red card.
With two players missing on the field, Porto took advantage of the situation and launched a strong attack.
Brazilian midfielder Deco, who missed the first round due to injury, stepped up at the critical moment, made a beautiful run from behind, got the ball in the penalty area, shook off the defender, and calmly shot the ball into the goal, equalizing the score for Porto.
Two to two!
Then it was Deco who led Porto to launch a fierce pursuit of Sporting Lisbon.
…
"This Porto team is really strong."
At first, Su Dong's attention was on Pena. After all, he was more concerned about the opponent's forward, but gradually, he was attracted by Deco.
This is not an attacking midfielder with outstanding skills, but he is very comprehensive in offense and defense, with strong ability to get back in. He is the best performing player of Porto this season. On the contrary, the top scorer Pena has been a bit silent this season.
"Mendez has recently focused his attention on this group of Porto players. This guy has such a good eye, these players must be good. Even if we can draw tonight and escape from the away game unscathed, the battle for the championship will still be very dangerous." Ronnie analyzed with a frown.
"And Nikulai, how long will he have to rest? After his comeback, how much of his condition can he recover since he was not able to display his full strength to begin with?"
This is not only Ronaldo's question, but also the question of everyone in Sporting Lisbon.
Narizis has not played even once so far and has not performed well in training. This makes people doubt whether he can regain his form in the Portuguese Super League after wasting half a year in Serie A?
"Su, did you see that? This is a crisis for the team, but it is also our opportunity." Ronnie seemed ambitious.
"Quaresma only played 60 minutes today. His form this season has been very up and down and his performance has not been ideal. I will be able to replace him sooner or later, and you also have to work harder. It is impossible for Jardel to play all the games."
Nikulai is injured, Nalizis is not yet adapted, Gisvi and Laurenceo are not trusted, so Sudong may not be without a chance.
Of course, not now.
It is impossible in a short period of time.
Whether it is Su Dong or Ronnie, they both need to show better performance to prove themselves.
