Chapter 106: Mr. Key’s Birthday Party

“Did you see Nikulai’s face just now?”

As they walked into the player tunnel, Ronnie put his arm around Su Dong's shoulder with a smile on his face and asked with a gloating look.

Su Dong shook his head. He didn't have the habit of paying attention to other people's expressions.

Besides, now, he doesn’t care what Nikulai thinks.

"I tell you, it was brilliant." Ronnie was very satisfied. "But I think he must be very unconvinced."

"Why?"

"Think about it, to be honest, this goal of yours was not difficult. If he were to score, he should be able to score as well."

Hearing Ronnie say this, Su Dong raised the corner of his mouth slightly and sneered, "Really?"

Scoring a goal does not only depend on the technique of the ball at the moment of scoring, but also on the passing process before that.

Su Dong's goal seemed simple, but in fact, before that, he retreated and passed the ball to Quaresma on the right, then turned around and sprinted quickly.

If it were Nikulai, could he do it?

If Nicolaj could retreat to get the ball and pass it to the other side, Boloni would not have such a headache. If his speed allowed him to rush into the penalty area quickly after turning around, his impact would be more threatening.

Nikulai couldn't do either of these two things.

If he couldn't do it, how could this goal-scoring opportunity come? "I'm telling you, brother, we're almost there now. Take this opportunity and just..." Ronnie made a gesture of wiping his neck.

"Kill him?" Su Dong pretended to be surprised.

Ronnie was furious. "Kill him! What I meant is, kill him and don't give him a chance to turn things around."

"Boloni will not give up on him." Su Dong stated the fact lightly.

Ronnie was also smart and understood immediately, "They are all Romanian."

Nicolaj came to Sporting Lisbon because of Boloni. If Boloni did not take care of his compatriot, his reputation in Romanian football would definitely be greatly damaged.

Sometimes, this relationship bond is also an advantage.

…………

…………

In the locker room after the game, the players were in a good mood.

The home comeback against Santa Clara gave us our first win of the new season, which is definitely worth celebrating.

As the number one contributor tonight, Su Dong naturally received unanimous praise from his teammates.

Even Albertini, who was always taciturn and had high demands on him, rarely praised him for doing a good job.

When Boloni pushed open the door of the locker room and came in, the originally noisy locker room gradually became quiet.

The Romanian head coach felt the change in atmosphere and he knew why.

Since Jardel left the team, the dressing room of Sporting Lisbon has never been normal.

Many times, for many things, it's not that he doesn't know about them, but he is just unwilling to remedy the situation, nor does he think there is a need to remedy it.

As long as the team wins and the results are good, everything will be fine.

Now, we finally won.

The problem is that the hero was not his confidant Nikulai.

…

“Everyone did a great job in this game.”

Boloni walked among the players and gave them affirmation with a smile.

This is a routine after a win.

"Especially our midfield and defense. Apart from the goal we lost, our defense in the midfield and backcourt tonight was very good. I believe we will perform better and better in the future."

"The frontcourt was also good. It was a pity that Quaresma's one-on-one shot didn't go in. Ronnie, your goal was beautiful."

As soon as Boloni finished speaking, Ronnie responded with a smile: "It's mainly because Su Dong passed the ball well. He fed the ball directly to my mouth like a pizza. There is no reason for me not to eat it, right?"

After hearing this, everyone burst into laughter. This description was also interesting.

At least half of the credit for that goal should go to Su Dong.

Everyone looked at Boloni. After praising so many people, shouldn't they praise Su Dong? After hearing what Ronnie said, Su Dong smiled and patted him, pretending to bow his head, but actually waiting for Boloni's reaction.

Boloni was a little embarrassed. He felt everyone's eyes and the change in the atmosphere in the locker room.

He knew he had no choice.

"Of course, the best performance was by Su Dong. He changed the course of the game after coming on as a substitute. Our key man, our little god of war is back!"

When everyone heard this, they all applauded loudly, and Ronnie and Pepe cheered even louder.

The Brazilian central defender finally completed his trial at the end of August and officially transferred from Maritimo to Sporting Lisbon. He has been included in the squad recently, but has not yet made his debut.

"Thank you." Su Dong thanked Boloni, "Actually, I never left. I was just waiting for an opportunity."

"I've been keeping an eye on you too. Don't worry, you'll get more playing time next time."

Su Dong nodded in greeting.

No matter how nice the words are, the key is to see what he does.

Boloni was actually very annoyed. He was annoyed at Su Dong's forcing him to abdicate, and also at Nikulai's lack of energy.

Now that the situation has developed to this point, Boloni has been forced to make a statement.

He had a strong feeling that if Su Dong maintained his condition, he, as the head coach, would no longer be able to suppress him.

Nikulai can only sit on the bench!

…………

…………

The next morning, Alcochete.

Aurelio Pereira had just arrived at the office when a fresh copy of the Morning Post lay on his desk.

The front page headline: Mr. Key’s birthday party! The cover shows Su Dong taking off his jersey and celebrating his goal on the sidelines.

Although there are rumors that FIFA is going to change the rules to prohibit players from taking off their clothes to celebrate goals, the rules have not been changed yet, so there are basically no restrictions on players taking off their clothes to celebrate.

But when Su Dong took off his clothes, he revealed a body of strong muscles, which surprised Aurelio.

Many things can be faked, but muscles cannot be faked.

Lazy players tend to gain weight easily, and only players who work hard and diligently can develop muscles.

The current Su Dong is still far from reaching the level of the Warcraft macho man, but compared to a year ago, he is much stronger.

It seems that he has worked very hard in these few months of this summer.

Aurelio recalled a question that Su Dong's agent asked him when he was having dinner with Mendes last night.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

“Want to sell another Ugo Viana?”

Aurelio was very excited.

I miss it so much that I am going crazy.

…

Time's up.

When Boloni arrived in Alcocheti, he went directly to the office of technical director Aurelio.

Aurelio kindly asked him to sit down, and his first words went straight to last night's game.

The technical team was not satisfied with Nikulai's assessment and believed that his performance was not good enough.

But Aurelio gave positive comments on Ronaldo, Sudon and Quaresma.

"Look, the front-page headline of the Morning Post described last night's game as Su Dong's birthday party."

"I think we should not be too harsh on young players. We should give them more opportunities to practice, let them try, take risks and make mistakes."

“This is not only the opinion of the technical team, but also the opinion from above.”

Boloni understood.

"Aurelio, I understand what you said, but we are a first-team team, and you should know that young players have ups and downs in performance, so I think we should continue to wait and see for a while."

"More importantly, there is the first leg of the first knockout round of the UEFA Cup in midweek, and we cannot afford to lose."

Aurelio knew that Boloni was still unwilling to give up Nicula, and he was mentally prepared, but his face still sank, and he simply kept silent.

Boloni felt the pressure and immediately changed the subject, "Of course, the technical team's opinion is also reasonable, so I will increase his playing time. If he performs well, I will seriously consider letting him play more games."

"Well, it would be best if you could manage the locker room well." Aurelio said lightly.

The technical director must know what happened in the locker room.

Boloni also knew very well that he did not have many chips in his hands at the moment.

…………

…………

On the evening of September 19th, at the Alvalade Stadium.

UEFA Cup first knockout round, first leg.

Sporting Lisbon was eliminated from the Champions League qualifying round, which dealt a heavy blow to the local football market.

Although it is the League Cup, in reality, there were only 15,000 fans present. The attendance was even more than 10,000 less than the game against Santa Clara at the weekend, which shows the sluggishness of the football market.

The opponent in the first round of the knockout stage is Belgrade Guerrilla from Yugoslavia, which is also a strong team with good strength.

The head coach is Tubakovic, who is called "one of the greatest coaches in Europe" by UEFA. He is also the most successful head coach in the history of Belgrade Partizan, leading the team to win six league titles, three cup titles, and won the best coach of Yugoslavia for six consecutive years.

Tonight, in the away game against Sporting Lisbon, he deployed a 3-5-2 formation.

As a result, no one expected that less than eleven minutes into the game, Sporting Lisbon center back Hugo scored an own goal and conceded the first goal.

In the 25th minute, Tonito equalized the game for Sporting Lisbon.

But in the 35th minute, Guerrilla scored another goal and increased the score again.

During the half-time break, Bologna replaced two players, with Ronnie and Rodrigo Tello both coming on.

The Green Lions displayed a fighting spirit, trying to crush their opponents in one fell swoop.

But center forward Nicolaj missed too many opportunities in the frontcourt.

Perhaps because he hadn't scored a goal in a long time and was in a hurry to score, he was not decisive enough in seizing opportunities. Sometimes he acted too hastily and sometimes he was too hesitant, which led to him frequently wasting opportunities.

Sporting Lisbon had the advantage on the field, but was unable to convert that advantage into goals.

It was not until the 70th minute that Boloni finally could not sit still anymore.

At Pontes' call, Su Dong stood up from the bench, took off his coat, and slowly walked to the sidelines.

At this time, the entire Alvalade Stadium was filled with cheers from fans.

"Little God of War!"

The fans were full of expectations for Su Dong's coming on as a substitute. Even head coach Boloni was surprised and even a little envious of this treatment.

Is he already so popular among Sporting Lisbon fans?

Soon, No. 36 Su Dong replaced No. 7 Nikulai.

The substitutions were the same as in the previous game against Santa Clara.

But, can Su Dong continue his magical performance from the last game this time?

(End of this chapter)