Chapter 197: Open and Hidden Arrows! Being used as a target...
The celebration of the opening of the Capital-Port City Railway coincided with the TBL's anniversary month, and TBL was naturally happy to invest heavily in providing full live coverage of the series of events. Since the return date was confirmed, TBL's stance has been quite firm, and they have cooperated with the other side in joint performances and various exchange activities. Now that they have encountered this kind of cooperation, they will definitely give it their full support.
Upon learning that the exhibition match would be held at the Hong Kong Stadium, Lun Yongnan, who had failed to achieve a successful concert there years ago, immediately got excited and seized the opportunity to propose holding a charity concert on the evening following the match.
Firstly, it would fulfill his regret of not being able to fully enjoy his concert at the stadium back then and make up for the fans who love him; secondly, it would also express his goodwill by donating all the ticket revenue to maintain railway operations, connect the people of the two places, and deepen the friendship between them.
Charity concerts held for a specific reason are a traditional event in Hong Kong. Coupled with Anthony Lun's influence and his good relationships in the entertainment industry, many artists signed up to participate after hearing the news.
With such enthusiastic participation, what was originally planned as a "charity concert" attended by only one or a few people quickly transformed into another star-studded "charity variety concert"...
The news that there would be a charity concert after the exhibition match made the already popular tickets even more sought after. Even after the event organizers communicated with the stadium management and tried their best to increase the number of tickets to the maximum of 50,000, the demand still exceeded the supply. It was an absolute bargain to do good deeds and support the country while also enjoying a free concert featuring so many big stars!
We need more events like this that are both thoughtful and sincere!
They accept all comers!
Those who managed to snag tickets were overjoyed, while those who didn't could only watch with a mix of regret and relief, keeping an eye on their TVs at the designated time to watch the live broadcast.
Amidst the eager anticipation of everyone, the day finally arrived for the exhibition match to begin.
Fans and celebrity fans are the groups that are best at creating excitement and hype. Now that they have this opportunity to unite and sit together in the packed stands of the Hong Kong City Stadium, the overwhelming and earth-shaking momentum, combined with the visual shock created by the sea of people, is too much for anyone with a slightly weaker mentality to handle.
This time
By then, the celebrity cheerleaders, who were already quite impressed with Li Sishi, were even more convinced of her abilities: compared to them, who were nervous about such a grand occasion for the first time, Li Sishi, as the captain, remained as composed as ever, showing no signs of stage fright.
Seeing Li Sishi standing calmly in front of them, their inner panic seemed to be infected by her composure.
With such a stabilizing cheerleader captain, the others backstage, who were initially overwhelmed by the excitement outside, gradually calmed down. When the staff returned backstage to inform them that they were about to perform, they immediately followed Li Sishi onto the field and into the center of the court. They took their positions according to the rehearsal, smiled, and performed a series of lively and dynamic opening dances.
A group of brightly colored, cheerful, and long-legged beauties dressed in vibrant cheerleading skirts performing a dynamic dance on the green field with smiles on their faces is the perfect way to liven up the atmosphere. It is loved by people of all ages and genders, and thus it immediately drew enthusiastic applause and whistles from the very beginning.
The final few challenging human tower-building maneuvers brought the atmosphere to an unparalleled peak!
When Li Sishi, as the team captain, climbed to the top and performed various difficult moves in mid-air, stepping on the raised hands of her teammates, her graceful figure and the stunningly beautiful yet thrilling scene became an unforgettable classic memory for many local fans in the port city.
The current situation in Hong Kong's football scene is quite chaotic, not to mention the pre-match cheerleading showdowns. In the past, when watching foreign matches, there were always those beautiful cheerleaders known as "football babes" who would take the stage first before the game started, and their dance battles were both beautiful and intense, making local Hong Kong fans extremely envious and jealous.
But things will be different from today: their matches will now have "football babes"!
Moreover, their football babes are either former Miss Hong Kong contestants or female artists who have worked in the entertainment industry. As for Li Sishi, the captain of the cheerleading team, she is a world-renowned super beauty who has won awards in four beauty pageants and possesses both beauty and intelligence. Just the fact that Li Sishi is a beauty pageant champion-level captain means that there is no team of football babes in the world with more weight than their team!
Amidst waves of cheers and shouts, after striking her final pose, Li Sishi and her cheerleading squad gracefully leaped from mid-air and bowed to the audience in gratitude, eliciting another round of enthusiastic applause.
After the opening dance performance, the cheerleaders' graceful figures disappeared from the stage.
The two teams that will be competing in this exhibition match began to enter the field one after another.
Li Sishi sat on the upper part of the stands reserved for cheerleaders, watching the celebrity football team and Qizhi enter while observing the situation on the field: It has to be said that in exhibition matches where one side is composed of all-star artists, the celebrity team has a particular advantage in terms of the support of the audience, and even strong football teams find it difficult to compete with them for a while.
It was clearly less enthusiastic than the cheers and excitement from the All-Star soccer team; the reaction from the audience to the Qizhi team was significantly less enthusiastic.
After all, the celebrity football team is full of stars, especially Lun Yongnan, who was able to hold a concert in the stadium by himself back then. His fan appeal in Hong Kong was already terrifying. Not to mention that there are also many celebrities in the football team who have good looks, strength and popularity.
Qizhi is currently a small local team, and no matter how much support its fans and some spectators show, it is difficult for them to withstand the "offensive" of the celebrity football team.
Most importantly, Li Sishi could vaguely tell that Qi Zhi and his group of young players were a little stage fright—there was no way around it.
Compared to the celebrities who are used to being in the spotlight, this is the first time that the young players, including her cousin, have come to Gangcheng Stadium to play football.
Compared to Qi Zhi's usual training ground, the Gangcheng Stadium, which was now packed with seats, was undoubtedly a "giant" that made them feel incredibly shocked.
Lei Shenglin, the captain of Qizhi, understood that his young players had skills but lacked experience in large-scale competitions. That's why he accepted the invitation to this exhibition match at such a tense time. In addition to letting the revitalized Qizhi team make its debut in front of the public, it was also to give the young players in the team a chance to play a real match at Gangcheng Stadium.
Therefore, in the first half, he only arranged for the team's most senior goalkeeper, Lu Bing, to play, while he and the team's head coach, Rema, stayed in the back to keep a close eye on the situation on the field.
Goalkeeper Lu Bing was a veteran player of Qizhi before Lei Shenglin returned to Gangcheng. After the team's old hands left because they were dissatisfied with him as the young captain, Lu Bing was the only one who helped him rebuild the new Qizhi team. Therefore, after Lei Shenglin rebuilt the new Qizhi team lineup, he immediately promoted Lu Bing to vice captain.
With the mature and steady Lu Bing in charge, the first half shouldn't be too bad.
After all, it's a celebrity soccer team... They themselves are aware of their limitations; when Jiang Zhiwei contacted him, he proactively mentioned that it was a celebrity team.
Given the issue of player ability, it is hoped that he will be "more cautious" in arranging the players on the field.
Lei Shenglin was actually a little helpless: although Jiang Zhiwei had implied that the celebrity soccer team was quite weak, the celebrity soccer team did have three former professional players who had switched careers: Jiang Zhiwei, Ye Yanghua, and Luo Jiasheng. Although Lun Yongnan was not a professional, his father, Lun Bo, was a member of the national team known for his headers during the Republic of China era. With such a family background, his strength should not be underestimated.
Apart from Lu Bing, the players on Qizhi's team this time are all newcomers with very little competition experience. It is difficult for them to fully demonstrate their usual level of skill. With these two factors combined, if the All-Star team is more cunning, they might be able to gain a slight advantage by relying on their experience.
However... this is also the "first half ending of the exhibition match" that he and the head coach hoped to see.
When some new fans in the stands saw that Lei Shenglin didn't play in the first half, they were confused: "What's going on? If the 'Football Player of the Year' isn't playing, what are we supposed to watch?"
Lei Shenglin was absolutely brilliant in Qizhi's Division A league last year. Even though the rest of the team kept dragging him down, he still delivered countless outstanding performances.
Just when the Hong Kong football community was looking forward to this rising star returning from Great Britain shining brightly, Qizhi first suffered from the failure and bankruptcy of its sponsor, and then a few old hands in Qizhi who refused to accept the talent deliberately played badly and passively. Although their individual performances were outstanding, their individualistic approach led to a dismal overall performance for Qizhi. In the end, their points at the end of the season were so dismal that they were relegated to the second division ahead of schedule...
But in a surprising turn of events, other teams tried to emulate the example of splitting up the former champion team, Hao Yitong, and seized the opportunity of Qizhi's crisis to grab players and resources. Unlike those old hands who left for other teams, Lei Shenglin stayed with Qizhi and gradually built up a completely new team on his own.
It was thanks to Lei Shenglin's perseverance that the veteran team Qizhi finally found a new sponsor and owner, and then started to play the "Qizhi" brand again to prepare for the promotion competition. The goal was to lead his new team back to the top division. This tragic hero, who has both strength and character and good looks, is simply a killer idol for novice fans.
"They're so young. We only have something to watch because the 'Ball of the Year' isn't playing." An older fan, who immediately understood the situation, clicked his tongue twice. "There's definitely a gap between the All-Star team's strength and that of professional players. Even if the opposing team is just a group of youth academy graduates, these 'veterans' of the All-Star team will find it hard to resist."
"Therefore, in order to ensure the performance nature of this event and to ensure 'fairness',"
Qi Zhi certainly can't become an ace right away.
Veteran fans always have a sharp eye. They not only saw the deeper meaning behind Qi Zhi's player lineup, but also noticed the anxiety of Qi Zhi's young players: Hmm, it seems that Qi Zhi plans to let the All-Star team score some points first, and then catch up in the second half.
This way, the team can showcase the training progress and current abilities of its young players without making the All-Star team lose too badly. It's a really thoughtful approach...
While everyone is eager to watch matches between evenly matched strong opponents, encountering a seemingly fun clash between underdogs is also a rare treat. Many veteran fans buy tickets to attend the event not only because some are fans of a particular star and want to catch a bonus concert, but also mostly out of curiosity to have some fun...
Just like the previous rumors that Huang Qianyan would be a guest performer at the concert, in this age of entertainment to the death, it's not that we're afraid you'll perform too badly or outrageously, it's just that we're afraid you won't present any gimmicks that will attract people to watch.
Amidst the diverse thoughts of the audience, a whistle blew, and the first half officially began.
As Li Sishi and the veteran fans had predicted, the members of Qizhi, who were attending a large-scale competition of this level for the first time, appeared quite stiff under the scrutiny of tens of thousands of spectators and a multitude of cameras.
The only players who didn't seem to be in such a stiff state were goalkeeper Lu Bing and Zhu Yu, who was directly matched up against Shang Hanyou. In Li Sishi's memory, compared to her cousin Zhou Huiguang, whose strength had been steadily improving, Zhu Yu was indeed a particularly magical player who was very dependent on his form. His current performance on the field could basically be described as "opening a blind box"...
At this moment, Zhu Yu's stage fright was overwhelmed by hatred, so he performed no differently than usual. However, what he lacked now was not technique but experience. Therefore, he kept a close eye on Shang Hanyou's fate, which was to be outmaneuvered by Shang Hanyou, who, although not very skilled, had a lot of competition experience, and run around like a big monkey...
Before anyone knew it, Zhu Yu, who was actually tall and nicknamed "Tall Guy," was caught off guard and matched up against Jiang Zhiwei, a short and stout striker who also had the nickname "Tall Guy."
Jiang Zhiwei is a truly talented player on the celebrity soccer team. In the blink of an eye, he snatched the ball from Zhu Yu's feet with his short, stout but agile movements, and then sprinted all the way to Qi Zhi's side, scoring the first goal of the game.
Seeing the latest score of 0-1, the young players of Qizhi, who had been tricked by the old guys, finally woke up.
Now, stage fright was no longer an issue.
Forget about hatred, a group of young people eagerly began to unleash their hard-earned skills, chasing after the star team and going all out, openly and directly fighting them.
Soon, with the help of his teammates, Zhou Huiguang scored a goal to equalize, bringing the score back to 1-1.
However, Wan Yibo, the striker who passed the ball to Zhou Huiguang, was temporarily suspended due to a muscle strain. So the Qizhi team discussed substitutions on the other side of the bench, while the All-Star team went back to the bench to rest.
Li Sishi led her cheerleaders to give water to the celebrity team members, and also came to Shang Hanyou's side, slapping him for deliberately bullying the younger brother: "I told you not to bully my fans!"
Despite his tall stature, Zhu Yu is actually the youngest member of the Qizhi team, even two months younger than Li Sishi's cousin, Zhou Huiguang. In addition, he is a loyal fan of Li Sishi, so Li Sishi can't help but spar with Shang Hanyou.
"Are you kidding me? You can't take these things into account on the football field!" Shang Hanyou took the water Li Sishi handed him and argued, feeling quite aggrieved. "If age matters in football, then why is it that we have to 'love the young' and they can't 'respect the elderly'?!"
"Hey! You're the old one, I'm only 28!" Li Dewen, who was drinking water nearby, quickly chimed in with a sarcastic remark.
Although 28 years old is considered "old" for a professional player, compared to the group of amateur veterans in the All-Star Soccer Team, most of whom are in their thirties or forties, he, whose age starts with "2", is a total heartthrob!
While the people on one side were laughing and joking, Lun Yongnan and Jiang Zhiwei on the other side had other ideas.
As two of the few truly capable members of the celebrity soccer team, Lun Yongnan and Jiang Zhiwei served as the vice-captain and captain of the team, respectively. At this moment, they were reviewing the previous match and trying to figure out if they could find a way out.
Why were they able to score a goal just now?
It seems that Qi Zhi's group of youngsters were stage-frightened and therefore performed poorly. The only two who were not stage-frightened were the goalkeeper who had difficulty performing and the other who kept his eyes fixed on Shang Hanyou.
As a result, the exceptionally tall young man Zhu Yu was outmaneuvered by the cunning Shang Hanyou, and recklessly lost his position. This allowed Jiang Zhiwei to steal the ball with his experience and then score the first goal.
As for why Zhu Yu was chasing after Shang Hanyou, as well-informed gossips, they could probably guess: it was simply because Shang Hanyou was Li Sishi's rumored boyfriend, and Zhu Yu, this young man, was Li Sishi's fan.
When enemies meet, they're bound to be extremely hostile!
Most importantly, Zhu Yu, this young man, is particularly "favored" in Qizhi. Although he and Li Sishi's cousin Zhou Huiguang are not "native children" trained by Qizhi's youth training camp but joined halfway, the current atmosphere in Qizhi's team is particularly good, and everyone takes special care of these two youngest members.
The veterans on this team are definitely inferior to these professional young players in terms of both skill and stamina. The only reason they can create scoring opportunities is because they have more match experience and performance experience than these young players.
If you can't win with open warfare, then you can only resort to unorthodox methods and "underhanded tactics"—evenly matched strong teams have their own unique rivals, while weak teams also have their own unique open and underhanded tactics...
Ultimately, even in official matches, there are still many "football hooligans" who will do anything to win.
Exhibition matches like these, where the bigger the gimmick, the more entertaining they are, are even less likely to guarantee any image or "fairness."
A chaotic yet orderly free-for-all is the kind of game that can entertain both fans and non-fans.
“Ah May, Hanyou is sweating a lot, could you grab a towel and wipe him down?” Jiang Zhiwei suddenly said.
Li Sishi responded, and without understanding why, she casually used the white towel in her hand to wipe the sweat from Shang Hanyou's forehead, before leading the cheerleaders off the field.
This fleeting action, as seen by each person, will naturally elicit different thoughts and interpretations.
Especially Zhou Huiguang, who had been coaxed into treating Shang Hanyou as his future brother-in-law, was fine when they were just joking around, but when he saw the two of them being so intimate, he inexplicably felt a sense of displeasure that Shang Hanyou was trying to steal his cousin away. As a boy, when his sister is "taken away" by someone else, the resulting sense of loss and displeasure can overshadow all other emotions.
Previously, Li Sishi had visited Qizhi's training sessions multiple times during filming, and as Zhou Huiguang's cousin, she was essentially seen as both their "goddess" and their "half-sister" among the young players at Qizhi.
So, Shang Hanyou, who was equally clueless but secretly pleased with this close interaction, only realized what was happening when he stepped back onto the field and faced the complex and "hateful" gazes of Qizhi's young players: Damn it! I've been used as a target!
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