"How are we playing today?"
Seeing Raul and Huang Kaiwen take the field, Cassano came over and asked.
He had been strolling around since he started, and now that Huang Kaiwen was on the pitch, he decided to ask for Huang Kaiwen’s opinion.
If Huang Kaiwen wanted to play seriously, then he wouldn’t hold back.
"Guti is off, I’ll organize the midfield, and you two play as double forwards,"
Pirlo played as an attacking midfielder and only started to shine as a holding midfielder.
But given the intensity of today’s match, moving up wasn’t a problem.
With Diarra, De Jong, and Gago covering for the Yellow Ball King at the back, he could run around freely.
Cassano nodded and replied.
After Huang Kaiwen discussed the plan with his midfield teammates, they had no objections.
Both De Jong and Gago had decent skills to assist Huang Kaiwen in organizing the game, and playing against the Chinese Super League team, they could be considered a discount version of a ceremonial midfield with Diarra dropping back to defend.
Cissinho came up to throw the ball in from the sideline.
Diarra passed horizontally in front of the defense line to Gago, who then inside-foot passed straight to Huang Kaiwen.
Huang Kaiwen played in the midfield and wasn’t planning on showing off his organizational skills.
While chatting with his compatriot Higuain, they exchanged insights about their time at Real Madrid and had thoroughly figured out how to survive in the locker room.
When Huang Kaiwen received the ball and was pressed by Walter Martinez, he swiftly pulled the ball with his right foot and spun in a small circle on the spot—Xavi’s "Magic Power Circle" was very useful for getting rid of markers.
After shaking off Martinez, Huang Kaiwen immediately curled the underside of the ball with his right foot.
The ball flew quickly from behind the midline towards the right flank in the frontfield, with Cassano bursting past Zhang Shuai to receive it.
"He’s through on goal!"
"Huang Kaiwen’s long pass was incredibly accurate, with Zhang Shuai still chasing back. Cassano cut inside from the top angle of the box, pulled the ball, oh, he got past."
"Yes, Cassano could have taken the shot directly, but he chose to dribble past the rushing Yang Zhi, who managed to get a hand on the ball and poke it away."
"From his position, it looks like Huang Kaiwen is playing in Guti’s previous spot today."
"Indeed, Capello’s initial formation was more conservative, with Cassano and Higuain as double forwards, and a diamond midfield behind them. After Huang Kaiwen came on, he took over organizing the attack without playing his usual winger position."
[That’s Huang Kaiwen for you.]
"Is Huang Kaiwen going easy?"
"Fuck, if this isn’t going easy, what is? Huang Kaiwen’s strongest position is winger, right?"
"Huang Kaiwen’s also impressive when he plays in midfield. Hasn’t he played there twice before? Damn, that was an all-round performance from one penalty box to the other."
"Today, with such a big gap and Huang Kaiwen not dribbling but passing directly, you can tell he’s taking it easy. Normally, with such a gap, he would have dribbled all the way to the box to shoot himself."
"You see the Real Madrid players aren’t playing that great today, and Zhang even said they’re tired. Cassano and Guti were out at Houhai playing and eating until 2 a.m., it doesn’t look like they’re tired at all."
"You guys should know better, do you really need Pepe to rough up the Super League players for you to be happy? Watching today’s game, I’ve realized Pepe can play so clean."
"And you’re still saying Huang Kaiwen isn’t the boss of Real Madrid? When they came in 2003, they were arrogant, but when they came back in 2007, they were all humble as hell. I’ve looked at hundreds of Real Madrid event photos, and not a single one showed a bad expression."
"Hahaha, I died laughing, remember at the Audi event? Raul was smiling so hard for an hour and a half that he had to rub his face. Whether it’s for Huang Kaiwen’s sake or not, Real Madrid has no negative press from this trip to China."
"Stop it, you guys are the embarrassing ones. I’ve realized it now—you all talk big in the forums, but offline, you’re dying to call Huang Kaiwen ’Daddy.’ Some brother chased him all the way to Badaling just to get a photo with him, and other tourists caught it all."
"Isn’t the funniest thing the guy from North University of Technology? When he asked Huang Kaiwen a question, he stammered and called him ’senior,’ but at night, his posts were all ’Huang Kaiwen, this asshole,’ and Huang Kaiwen called him out on it face-to-face."
"This asshole Huang Kaiwen always browses the forums. After the self-exposure this time, I bet he’s changed his handle. Look at the featured posts, Huan summarized Huang Kaiwen’s writing style and commonly used words."
"No use, ever since Huan’s summary, a bunch of people have been posting, imitating Huang Kaiwen, and now it’s even harder to tell them apart."
"Speaking of Huan, I remembered something. Shanshan got a game-worn jersey, and apparently, an older brother offered several tens of thousands for it but was turned down."
"Shanshan is a bit silly for that, better to have sold it. Huang Kaiwen’s jersey is like our country’s real estate prices—unreasonably high, better to wait till it’s cheaper to buy."
Cassano turned back and applauded Huang Kaiwen.
Huang Kaiwen smiled and waved his hand.
Making or missing wasn’t a big deal; a friendly match was about warming up and finding form.
Guoan started organizing an attack from the kickoff, with Zhou Ting taking it up the right flank. Cassano made a token effort to intercept but was bypassed; Gago rushed up quickly to press.
Zhou Ting hurriedly knocked the ball sideways, Martinez received and slanted a pass to Pantaleo. Pantaleo took the ball, cut inside from Diarra, and squeezed past, but the oncoming Cissinho quickly cleared the ball away.
Gago, who had recovered, took the ball and turned around, passing it forward with his right foot.
Huang Kaiwen received the ball back to goal, pinned down by both Huang Baiwen and Martinez. He quickly passed the ball back to the left flank, where Marcelo stopped the ball with his right foot, not rushing the attack.
Only when Huang Baiwen pressed did Marcelo twist his body and send a quick slant pass to Huang Kaiwen.
Huang Kaiwen received the ball with a touch of his right foot, positioning himself to face the Guoan half. Before Martinez could press, his right foot was already curling underneath the ball.