Chapter 90 What did he say?
“The game is over! The game is over! Although the Knights pressed forward in the last ten minutes, they still couldn’t break through Tyne’s goal! In fact, after Wang left the court, Tyne had almost no intention of attacking. The Knights could even surround the ball and attack across half the court… but they still couldn’t score! The Hackney Knights lost a crucial battle on the road to the championship! Now they are only two points ahead of Clayton Athletic!”

As Connor Cowley spoke, the television broadcast cut from the field to the Tyne bench on the sidelines.

In the close-up shot of the upper body, Wang Lie stood up from his seat and raised his arms to celebrate the victory. Beside him, some Tyne players rushed to the court, and some hugged him. For example, Vitini, who was substituted earlier than Wang Lie, suddenly rushed up from the side and hugged Wang Lie, almost knocking Wang Lie out of the close-up shot…

The Brazilian boy excitedly yelled beside Wang Lie, and the camera microphone nearby clearly recorded his yelling:
“Ahhhh! King! We are one step closer to the Champions League!!!”

Listening to Rivitini’s excited shouts in the headphones, Connor Cowley continued to explain at the beginning: “And Tyne also ranked seventh in the league with the victory in this game! If they can maintain this ranking at the end of the season, they will qualify for the UEFA Champions League next season. This is a great surprise for a team aiming to avoid relegation…”

Then he suddenly reacted, turned his head to look at the commentator Luke Milne next to him, pointed at his headphones, and asked him with his mouth:

“Did you hear it?”

Milne didn’t even ask what Connor Cowley was referring to, but nodded to indicate that he heard it too.

After that, the two of them tacitly did not mention this matter, for fear that they had heard it wrongly.

After all, there was a lot of cheering at the scene. Even if they were wearing headphones, the Brazilian Vitini’s English had a Portuguese accent. What if what he said was not what they thought he meant?

As commentators, they are so eager to announce it now. It will be troublesome if they are slapped in the face later, as it will make them look amateurish.

Connor Cowley controlled his emotions and continued to perform his commentary duties: “The performance of the game king was the best. There should be no suspense that he will be elected the best player of this game…”

※※※

Chi Zhen frowned and looked at the TV screen. If he heard correctly, Vitini said…

Just then, WeChat rang with a new message notification sound.

It was from Su Ju, and it was a voice message. When he opened it, he heard his friend yelling:

“Ah Zhen, did you hear that clearly? The Brazilian kid said ‘Champions League’, right?”

“Champions League” is the abbreviation of “UEFA Champions League”.

“You heard it too?” Chi Zhen asked Su Ju, using this method to confirm that he had not heard it wrongly.

“Nonsense! I haven’t turned off the live broadcast yet!”

Su Ju added: “So, Vitini was talking about the ‘Champions League’… Damn, it turns out that Brother Wang wants to take Tyne into the Champions League?! Awesome! Awesome! Who the hell dares to think of this! How many points are they behind the fourth place in the league now?”

Chi Zhen didn’t even need to search the Premier League standings online, and immediately gave the correct answer: “Before this round of the league, the difference was ten points, Tyne had thirty-nine points, and Sofia United had forty-nine points.”

“Sofo United lost this round of the league, right?”

“Yeah. We lost 0:1 away to Brighton White Mountain.”

“So now Sofia still has 49 points, and Tyne has 42 points… Only seven points difference! Damn! It’s not as far away as I imagined!” Su Ju was surprised.

He originally thought that Tyne was very far away from the Sofia League and it was impossible.

After the two of them calculated the points, the difference of seven points was still huge, but it was definitely not the kind of “huge gap” that they couldn’t even imagine.

If you work hard and have better luck, it is possible to catch up!

Then Su Ju didn’t know what to say.

Chi Zhen didn’t reply to him either.

The two fell silent on WeChat.

After an unknown amount of time, maybe a few minutes, Su Ju typed on WeChat and said, “This… If Wang Ge kicks away Sofia’s Champions League qualification, and then Wang Ge goes to the Champions League… it will be too funny! Wang Ge can’t really go to the Champions League, right?”

Chi Zhen typed a string of words, deleted it, typed it again, deleted it again, and finally replied:
“I have no idea……”

Then the chat box fell into complete silence, and no one spoke anymore.

※※※

After finishing the live commentary work, as usual, Connor Cowley and his commentary partner had to chat for a while and say some things that were not convenient to say during the commentary work.

Connor Cowley was about to talk to Milne about the word they had just heard.

He couldn’t say it during the commentary, which made him feel very depressed.

But Luke Milne put down the microphone, took off his headphones, and prepared to leave.

Seeing this, Cowley quickly stopped him and asked, “Are you in such a hurry to leave?”

Milne nodded and answered him: “I’m going to go find Wang. I haven’t seen him for a long time. I want to chat with him.”

Connor Cowley immediately realized what Milne was going to do, and he said excitedly: “Then you have to ask him about that matter!”

Milne smiled and said, “I will.”

After saying that, he turned around and left the commentary booth.

※※※

After Wang Lie finished the urine test, he saw Luke Milne in the corridor outside as soon as he came out.

“I knew you would be here.”

Milne smiled and said when he saw Wang Lie.

Looking at the smiling old captain, Wang Lie was a little surprised: “Luke? Why are you here?”

Milne pointed upwards and said, “I am the commentator for this game.”

Wang Lie raised his eyebrows: “Oh? What do you think of our team’s performance?”

“So good that it makes people suspect that the team has changed.”

Milne’s answer made Wang Lie burst into laughter. After he finished laughing, he said to Milne, “In fact, we just maximized the potential of this team. Tyne has a good foundation, but he didn’t perform well before for various reasons.”

“Speaking of this…your goal this season shouldn’t be relegation, right?” After Milne asked this, he kept staring at Wang Lie, trying to find some clues from his face.

“Of course not.” Wang Lie’s expression was very frank, “It has not been the case since I came here.”

Milne nodded and continued, “At the end of the game, Vitini rushed over to you and shouted something. That sentence was recorded by the camera next to you… If I heard it correctly, Vitini said ‘Champions League’?”

When Wang Lie heard Milne say this, he was stunned. He didn’t expect that what Vitini shouted excitedly would be recorded by the camera… What a coincidence.

But he quickly nodded and admitted, “Yes, that’s what he said.”

“So your goal is the Champions League?” Mir asked.

“Of course.” Wang Lie continued to admit it generously without hiding anything.

It’s not shameful to want to go to the Champions League, so why deny it?

“From the beginning?”

“Since I came to Tain.”

Milne was very curious after receiving a positive answer: “How did you change this ‘mercenary army’?”

“Take them to win, let them see the possibility and hope of victory.”

What Wang Lie said was very simple, but Milne recalled the games since Wang Lie came to the team, and he knew how much effort it would take to realize this simple sentence.

So far, Wang Lie has played a total of eight games since joining Tyne. Except for the loss to Clayton Athletic, Tyne won the remaining seven games.

But in these seven games, should Tyne be the winning side?

Against the Scouse team, they were already two goals behind within half an hour of the start…

If it weren’t for Wang Lie, even Milne felt that Tyne would be massacred by the Scouse at home.

Based on his understanding of Wang Lie, he just felt that with Wang Lie, it would be good enough for Tyne to tie with the Scouse at home, which was a completely acceptable result.

After all, after Sofia United drew with Scots at home in the first half of the season, head coach Heldon also said in the post-match press conference that this was a completely acceptable result… If we analyze it based on Tyne’s strength in the first half of the season, they may not win any of these seven games.

But in the end, we won everything.

Especially in the early games, it was Wang Lie who helped the team win on his own.

Wang Lie lived up to his own words “lead them to win”.

He did what he said.

“It’s really amazing…” Milne said with emotion. “Especially considering your age now, it’s even more amazing.”

Wang Lie smiled slightly and made a small complaint to the anti-doping agency in a teasing tone: “So you see, the anti-doping people want to live in my toilet.”

Milne was amused by Wang Lie. He laughed and patted Wang Lie on the shoulder. When he was a player, he also didn’t like the practice of urging players to urinate after a game.

After laughing, Milne put his hands on his shoulders and said to Wang Lie very seriously: “I wish you good luck, Wang. This road is difficult, and almost no one would choose to take it, but since you have chosen this road, I can only wish you good luck.”

“Thank you for your blessing, Luke.” Wang Lie thanked his old captain in the club. He actually didn’t have many friends in Sofia United, and Luke Milne was definitely not the kind of friend he could get close to, but the relationship between the two had always been harmonious.

When he transferred from Barcelona to Sofia, Luke Milne was the captain of this Premier League giant until the 2033-2034 season, when Milne left the team due to his age and could not meet the team’s requirements. Even though he could only be on the bench most of the time in the last two seasons, he was still recognized as the captain.

Milne is different from Taylor Murphy, the current captain of Sofia United. He is not a “nice guy”. As a central defender, he has a very bad temper and has received many red and yellow cards in his career, which makes him quite “notorious”.

The fact that he can be elected as the captain of the team in the Sofia United team election every season is enough to show his prestige. This is completely different from Taylor Murphy, who was elected as the captain just because of his good temper.

Even Wang Lie was convinced by this captain.

In the process of Sofia United creating the “Seven Crowns” feat, captain Milne naturally played a crucial role.

He was the soul of that team.

The outside world has always been surprised that Wang Lie and Milne, two people with hot tempers, can get along so well, but they both know each other very well, and that may be because they both hate failure and crave victory.

It is this common understanding of football that makes two people who are not friends become “comrades-in-arms” who understand each other.

※※※

After saying goodbye to Milne, Wang Lie returned to the locker room and found everyone singing and dancing to celebrate the victory. The music in the locker room was very exciting, but the people were even more excited.

Among them, Vitini was the most eye-catching, wearing only a pair of underwear and waving a towel while dancing samba.

Seeing Wang Lie come in, Vitini danced and sang excitedly beside him: “China Wang! China Wang! He is our China Wang!”

Then the rest of the locker room joined him in singing: “China Wang! China Wang! China Wang who can do anything!”

Wang Lie let everyone sing and dance around him with a smile.

Then he waited for the singing to die down, and said to Vitini, who was in charge of the sound system in the dressing room, “Turn off the music first, Vitini.”

Everyone knew that Wang Lie had something to say to them, so they all quieted down, and Vitini obediently turned off the speaker.

The locker room returned to silence and everyone turned their eyes to their captain, just like before the game started.

Under everyone’s gaze, Wang Lie said, “If we win this game, we will be seven points away from fourth place in the league…”

Before he could finish his words, a cheer suddenly rang out in the locker room: “YEEEEEEES!!”

Wang Lie did not raise his hand to signal for silence. Instead, he waited until the cheers died down before continuing, “These seven points have narrowed a lot compared to our initial sixteen points. To be honest, each of us is amazing and has done a great job! But now is not the time to be happy, guys. Because the opponents in front of us are not wooden stakes, they will not wait for us to surpass them. There are still nine rounds left in the league, they will not give up their Champions League qualification, we have to grab every point and win every game!”

“Roar, roar, roar!!!” The players in the locker room seemed to have really turned into gangsters, roaring and shouting in a bandit-like manner.

Wang Lie waited for them to finish yelling before speaking: “Seven points! Only seven points! But this means that in the next nine games, we are not eligible to make mistakes and lose points! As long as we lose a game, we may say goodbye to the Champions League next season – please note that I am not exaggerating.

“Some people may think that we just lost a game, so won’t our opponents make mistakes? Don’t think like that, guys. We should never hope that our opponents will make mistakes after we make mistakes. That’s the thinking of the weak! The real strong ones should win all the way and let the opponents look at us! Let the opponents make mistakes!”

When he said this, the expressions of his teammates in the locker room became visibly serious.

Seeing their reactions, Wang Lie asked them: “Now, when you think about not losing any of the next games… no, winning all of them! Do you feel extremely stressed? No one can guarantee that we can win all of the next nine games, not even me. But we have to work hard towards this goal. Of course, winning all of them is difficult, but it is worth doing because it is difficult. Otherwise, with our current ranking, we can already qualify for the UEFA Champions League next season – that is also a European competition, just like the Champions League. Why don’t we just lie down and relax now, and then have a party together tomorrow night and have some fun? We just won the first place in the league, so we are fully qualified and have reason to have fun.”

Wang Lie looked at his teammates:

“Because we all know that the UEFA Champions League is not our goal. The Champions League is! The competition that only the best teams in football are qualified to participate in… We, Tyne, will go too! And now we only need to win nine more games!
“If anyone thinks winning nine games in a row sounds too scary, then don’t think that far ahead, just win the next game first, just like we did at the beginning. Remember what I said at the time? I said that no matter what everyone thinks or what goals they have, they have to start by winning the current game. So, you see…”

Wang Lie spread his hands:

“We won one game after another and got to seventh place in the league, only seven points away from fourth place. Is this difficult? When I said we wanted to go to a bigger stage, many people thought it was difficult and almost impossible. But we still got to where we are now. There is a great man in my country who once said: ‘As long as you are determined and enterprising, there is nothing you can’t do in this world.’ He is right, everything depends on human efforts, just do it!”

No one in the Tyne locker room thought that Wang Lie’s long speech was just chicken soup for them, because Wang Lie had already proved the truth of his words with actual actions. He really did what he said and brought the team to the seventh place in the league with victory.

So when he finished speaking, everyone felt the blood in their bodies boiling, their bodies getting hot, and their heartbeats speeding up.

On the second day after Wang Lie joined the team, he told everyone that they should go to a bigger stage.

At that time, there was still controversy about what the “bigger stage” was.

And now everyone has tacitly agreed in their minds that the “bigger stage” refers to the Champions League, the European Champions League!
※※※

Lawrence Dadomo left the noisy Leather Park Stadium after the game.

As a media practitioner, it is natural for me to watch this game.

Although he is a veteran “Wang Liehei”, he knows very well who represents the traffic.

So although he is a “Wang Lie hater”, he has also watched many of Wang Lie’s games.

It’s just that his football-watching experience has been getting worse recently.

Because it was almost impossible for him to find any points to criticize Wang Lie in any of his games.

Even if there were any, it would be harmless in the context of Tyne’s victory, and it would be hard to get much traffic. Instead, it would seem that his criticism of Wang Lie was nitpicking…

Today is no exception.

Hackney Knights, the league leader, actually lost to Tyne in an away game. Jiang Dongxun, who had been so aggressive before the game, was completely suppressed by Wang Lie and did not perform at all.

What about Wang Lie himself?
He scored twice again, scoring his tenth and eleventh goals since joining Tyne.

Before Wang Lie scored the goal, he could still criticize Wang Lie for sucking the blood of the whole team, relying on the whole team to create opportunities for him, and he could only sit back and enjoy the results.

Today’s two goals were both scored by Wang Lie after he retreated to the midfield and backcourt to participate in the organization. In the entire goal-scoring process, it was definitely not as simple as just waiting in front.

Wang Lie’s two goals were like two slaps in the face.

But he couldn’t help but pay attention to Wang Lie’s games, because if he didn’t watch the games, how could he find out Wang Lie’s problems?
If you don’t watch Wang Lie’s games, how can you demonstrate your professionalism as a reporter? After all, if you don’t even watch Wang Lie’s games, how can you be qualified to comment on Wang Lie?

Just when Dadomo was having a headache about how to comment on Wang Lie’s performance in today’s game, a video suddenly popped up on his mobile phone.

This is a video recorded by a fan using his mobile phone to shoot at his own TV.

In the video, the game had just ended and Wang Lie hugged Vitini to celebrate on the sidelines.

Then Vitini roared:

“Ahhhh! King! We are one step closer to the Champions League!!!”

After posting the video, the fan asked: “Did I hear it right? Vitini shouted ‘Champions League’?”

Some people in the comments below the video had the same doubts as him, and some gave affirmative answers:

“Yes, you heard it right! Vitini shouted ‘Champions League’!”

“Oh my god! How dare Vitini shout?”

“What? It turns out that Tyne’s goal is not relegation, but the Champions League?!”

Looking at these messages, which may be genuine surprise or just sarcastic, the famous “Wang Liehei” Lawrence Dadomo suddenly knew what to do tonight…

(End of this chapter)