Chapter 30: Killing the Suspense

Before the game resumed, both head coaches called their respective captains over, offering urgent instructions and clearly making slight tactical adjustments. When play restarted, Kashiwa Reysol, trailing by a goal, predictably pressed forward in attack. Unexpectedly, however, even with an away goal advantage, the Evergrande side maintained an aggressive attacking stance.

Thus began a fiercely contested battle of end-to-end offense. With Carroll’s goal, the match between Kashiwa Reysol and Evergrande reached a fever pitch, the clashes growing ever more intense. Despite Evergrande’s one-goal lead, no one dared to underestimate the indomitable spirit of the Japanese team.

The match soon settled into a stalemate, but Evergrande continued to dominate, leading in both possession and attacking opportunities. Goulart, picking up a goal kick from Zeng Cheng in the midfield, swiftly played the ball to Dai Zhiwei on the right wing before making a run into Kashiwa’s left channel.

Dai Zhiwei was already perfectly positioned. As the ball reached his feet, he spun, flicked it with his right foot, and sent it quickly to the left before bursting forward with explosive speed. Kim Chang-soo, anticipating the move, shifted his balance to block the left, but felt a sudden pressure in his chest and found himself slightly off balance.

Accelerating, Dai Zhiwei saw Kim Chang-soo move into his path. With a deft touch of his left instep, he shifted his body, then, with a feint, nudged the ball with his right foot and slipped past on the opposite side, cutting sharply toward the center.

Kim Chang-soo, unable to stop Dai Zhiwei, was left behind by a single misstep, but quickly recovered and desperately chased back after the surging forward. Having beaten Kim, Dai Zhiwei now faced another line of Kashiwa defenders, but his run had already thrown their back line into chaos.

The home crowd erupted in jeers, curses and shrieks echoing through the stadium as Dai Zhiwei advanced. With defenders converging, he drew the ball back with his right foot, shifted his body right, then changed direction again, darting in from the right.

Yet this move allowed Kim Chang-soo to catch up, and he kept hacking at the ball, trying to dispossess Dai Zhiwei. Despite the forward’s exceptional dribbling, the risk was immense with such aggressive—almost illegal—defending.

“Hey! Over here!” came a shout in Chinese. Recognizing it could only be a teammate, Dai Zhiwei stopped abruptly, shaking off Kim Chang-soo, and, taking advantage of the space, passed the ball back to the teammate who had called out, then surged forward once more.

The one calling was his strike partner, Gao Lin. Linzmann Gao received the ball unmarked—Kashiwa’s left flank had only Kim Chang-soo left to defend. As Kim hesitated over whether to press, Gao Lin sent an incisive pass to Goulart, who had arrived at the top of the penalty arc.

Goulart killed the ball dead but didn’t dribble on. Instead, he sent a diagonal lofted pass just above the grass, curling behind the entire Kashiwa defense, landing near the penalty spot.

Kashiwa’s center-back, Yuta Nakayama, saw the ball rolling toward him. Unable to control it in time, he could do nothing but swing his leg to clear—at this point, as long as the ball didn’t end up in their net, any clearance would do.

But could Nakayama avert the crisis?

The answer came a second later. Just as Nakayama’s right foot was about to strike, Dai Zhiwei—who had sprinted into the box after passing to Gao Lin—lunged forward, adjusted his stride, and leapt into a textbook flying kick.

“Take my Foshan Shadowless Kick!” Dai Zhiwei shouted mid-air, beating Nakayama to the ball and smashing Goulart’s pass with his studs.

The ball compressed slightly under the force, then rocketed straight toward goal, tracing a brilliant line through the air like a shooting star.

Kashiwa’s keeper, Takahiro Sugeno, flung himself sideways, arms stretching to their utmost, but could not reach the lightning-fast strike.

The distance was simply too close, and the shot too fierce. When the ball smacked against the net with a sharp crack, the sound rang out clearly above the roar of Hitachi Kashiwa Soccer Stadium!

He Wei, momentarily stunned, finally shouted, “What a goal! Dai Zhiwei of Evergrande scores his second!”

His co-commentator, Xu Yang, watching the slow-motion replay, remarked, “It looks like Dai Zhiwei shouted something as he struck—judging from his lips, it might have been ‘Foshan Shadowless Kick’?”

He Wei was left speechless.

After the shot, Dai Zhiwei’s right leg was clipped by Nakayama, burning with pain, but he staggered to his feet and ran to celebrate with his jubilant teammates.

“Haha! From now on, just pass me the ball—I’ll rack up the assists for you!” Dai Zhiwei boasted loudly. “Trust in me, and you’ll achieve immortality!”

While Goulart and the other foreign players looked bewildered, domestic players like Zhang Linpeng and Gao Lin said nothing, simply slapping Dai Zhiwei hard on the back in celebration.

Kashiwa Reysol, conceding another goal, found themselves in a quandary.

To attack would risk an exposed defense and possibly another goal for Evergrande, ending the tie there and then. To retreat meant accepting a 0:2 home defeat.

What could they do?

On the sidelines, Cannavaro paid no heed to the opponent’s tactics, waving his arm grandly and signaling his team to keep attacking.

Cannavaro was determined to end the suspense of this two-legged tie in a single match.

Seeing Evergrande continue to press forward, Kashiwa Reysol had no choice but to respond in kind.

Unfortunately, in the 38th minute, they squandered another golden chance. Cristiano sprang a quick counter, sending the ball left to Yosuke Tsukada, whose deft pass at the edge of the box set up Kudo, but his ten-yard shot was miraculously blocked by Zeng Cheng’s outstretched leg.

Zeng’s save found Zhang Linpeng, who immediately played it forward to Zheng Zhi, who in turn switched it wide to the surging Paulinho.

Paulinho surged forward and passed; Goulart received it at the edge of the box, and the tightly wound Yuuki Ohtsuka rushed up to defend. Facing Huntington’s challenge, Goulart shifted the ball left, found a gap, and instantly unleashed a left-footed shot.

Previously it was Zeng Cheng who produced a miracle save; this time, it was Sugeno’s turn—he blocked Goulart’s thunderous strike with both fists.

“Mine!” Zhang Linpeng collected Zeng’s save, but this time Sugeno’s punch-out landed at the feet of the alert, onrushing Dai Zhiwei.

Sugeno’s punch rebounded straight into Dai Zhiwei’s chest. Without letting it drop, Dai Zhiwei kneed the ball directly into the net!

Having completed his hat-trick, Dai Zhiwei lifted his leg high and caressed his knee—the very knee that had just put the ball away.

It was his second hat-trick of the Champions League season; with ten goals, even if he failed to score again, he was a strong favorite for the Golden Boot.

“It’s in the bag, my friend!” Dai Zhiwei laughed gleefully.

With yet another goal conceded, Kashiwa Reysol, expected to mount an all-out assault, instead found themselves completely overpowered by Evergrande’s relentless attack, led by Dai Zhiwei.

As the match wore on, Kashiwa Reysol’s situation grew increasingly precarious under Evergrande’s intensifying pressure.

In the 73rd minute, Paulinho won possession in midfield and passed to Dai Zhiwei, who received it at the top left corner of the box. Kashiwa’s defense, highly alert to his threat, sent three players to surround him.

Seeing no way through, Dai Zhiwei rolled the ball lightly with his right foot. Just as Kashiwa’s defenders braced for a step-over, he suddenly nudged the ball back with his right foot.

Paulinho, arriving from deep, met the ball some 25 yards out and unleashed a fierce shot with the outside of his right foot. The ball deflected off a Kashiwa defender’s calf in the box; Sugeno, diving to the right, could only watch as the ball spun left and into the net.

“What a goal! 4:0!” Xu Yang roared. “No more suspense! Evergrande are heading for the Champions League semifinals!”

Even before the restart, Cannavaro substituted Han Chao for Dai Zhiwei—three days later, Evergrande faced Shanghai SIPG in a league title clash, and Dai Zhiwei was irreplaceable in Cannavaro’s eyes.

With Dai Zhiwei off, Evergrande shifted focus to controlling the game, while Kashiwa Reysol, their spirit broken, limped through the final twenty minutes.

Amid the anguished sighs of the home fans, Kashiwa Reysol suffered a crushing defeat.

With a 4:0 scoreline, including four away goals, everyone now considered Evergrande’s progression all but assured. Even if they lost 0:3 to Kashiwa Reysol at Tianhe Stadium a week later, they would still advance with ease.