Chapter 59 – A Miraculous goal!
Chapter 59 – A Miraculous goal!
Xu Yan was very calm. She turned and looked Dong Xuebing slowly. “You play?”
Dong Xuebing nodded. “Yes.”
“You are good at goalkeeping.” Li Qing frowned. “Strikers and goalkeepers are very different positions!”
Xu Yan had already given up on winning this match. She waved her hand. “Forget it. There is only 1 minute on the clock. No matter how we play, we will not win. You have just been discharged from the hospital. Didn’t the doctors tell you not to do strenuous sports? The Eastern District players are too rough. What if you get injured again? There is no need for you to take the risk.” Xu Yan sighed. “Director Li, tell the referee that we will not change players. We will carry on with 10 men.”
Dong Xuebing stubbornly insist: “Chief Xu! Please let me play!”
Li Qing scolded. “Xiao Dong! We are doing this for your own good!”
Xu Yan looked at Dong Xuebing’s determined look. She hesitated and said: “Just be careful.”
“Yes!” Dong Xuebing turned and ran onto the pitch.
The referee announced there was one minute of injury time and blew the whistle. The Western District players saw Dong Xuebing, who had just been discharged from the hospital and was the reserve goalkeeper replacing their injured striker, they lost confidence. Tan Limei, Changjuan, and the rest of the supporters stop their cheering. They watched the match silently. They had lost hopes for winning. Their district will be known as the district with zero wins from 8 games.
59 seconds remaining……
55 seconds remaining……
The player taking the freekick was big sized. He ran up to the ball and aimed straight at the goal.
But it was too far, and the player was not skillful enough. The ball hit Guo Shunjie’s chest which was beside the wall and rolled to the feet of the opposing team player!
Political Commissar Xu shouts: “Attack! This is the final chance!”
49 Seconds remaining……
The best defense was to attack. The Eastern District players did not hide in their own half. All of them rushed forward. With a series of short passes, they moved towards the Western District penalty box.
28 Seconds remaining……
The Western District players were running back to defend at full speed.
Dong Xuebing did not join the rest to defend. As the striker, he can only wait at the center of the field waiting for his teammates to pass him the ball. Come on! Get the ball back!
The Eastern District player who had injured Zhuang Zhi suddenly shot at the goal!
Bang! The ball hit one of the defenders and deflected to feet of the Western District player from Commission for Discipline Inspection!
15 seconds remaining……
Political Commissar Xu screams at her players. “There is no more time! Stop him from passing!”
Two nearby Eastern District players immediately charged at him and one of them, a midfielder, managed to steal the ball away from him!
There were only 11 seconds left!
That’s it! It’s the end of the match!
The Eastern District players stop attacking, and the Western District players also gave up hope of winning.
10 seconds remaining……
9 seconds remaining……
The Eastern District midfielder managed to dodge Guo Panwei and another player’s tackle and kicked the ball back to his own half. But he used slightly more strength, and the ball flew over the last two defenders and landed outside the penalty box.
That was not important as there was no more time.
5 seconds remaining……
4 seconds……
The ball bounced twice and went out of play.
The referee looked at his watch and did not award the throw in. He blew the full-time whistle!
That’s it. No wins in 8 matches!
Xu Yan laughed at herself and walk off with her bag. The Western District players were walking off the pitch, disappointed. The players did not even shake the other team players’ hands as they walk away.
The only person that was behaving differently was Dong Xuebing. He was deep in thoughts as he stared at the other team’s penalty box.
After a while, Dong Xuebing’s eyes brighten up!
BACK!!!
……
There were shouts and sounds coming from everywhere!
The next moment, Dong Xuebing saw the Eastern District midfielder stole the ball!
There were only 10 seconds left!
The opposing team players were smiling, and after dodging Guo Panwei and another player’s attempt to get the ball back, the Eastern District midfielder laughed and kicked the ball back to his half. He wanted to waste the remaining few seconds. The moment he kicked the ball, the players from both teams knew that was the end of the match. No one wanted to run after the ball and were standing there waiting for the referee to blow the whistle!
But something unexpected happened!
“Ah! Look!”
“Damn! Who is that?”
Everyone realized that a few seconds before the ball was kicked, a player from the Western District started running!
It was Dong Xuebing!
The moment that midfielder kicked the ball, Dong Xuebing ran past the last two defenders! To everyone’s surprise, the outstanding goalkeeper from yesterday’s match seems to know where the ball was heading and where it will land! Dong Xuebing did not even look at the ball and continued running towards the area two meters outside of the penalty box. 1 meter! 2 meters! 3 meters!
There were 6 seconds left!
Everyone was staring in shock. The ball amazingly landed at that spot!
The ball accurately landed at Dong Xuebing’s feet, and he stopped it.
Xu Yan jumped up from her seat!
One on one with the goalkeeper!
There were no defenders in front of Dong Xuebing! It was only the goalkeeper in front of him!
Dong Xuebing could hear the footsteps of the defenders approaching from behind. He kept his cool and continue his run forward with the ball!
There were only 3 seconds left!
The goalkeeper ran forward to stop Dong Xuebing!
Dong Xuebing tapped the ball lightly with his feet and changed his direction!
1 second left!
Bang!
Dong Xuebing used all his strength to kick the ball with his right foot!
The football brushed against the goalkeeper’s left boots and continued flying towards the goal!
Dong Xuebing and all the rest of Western District players could feel their hearts skipped a beat. They stared at the ball nervously as the ball flew towards the open goal. It was only 0.5 seconds, but it feels like an eternity. 5 meters, 4 meters, 3 meters, 2 meters. 1 meter! Swished! The ball entered the goal in the top right corner!
Goal!!!!!
A miraculous goal!!!!
The whole stadium was dead quiet. There was no cheers or shouts. It was eerily quiet!
1-second pass……
2 seconds pass……
3 seconds pass……
Xu Yan was the first to react. She dropped her bag on the floor and shouted with all her might: “Goal!!!!!!!”
Dong Xuebing dropped on the ground, raised his arms, and shouted.
“We won?” The Western District players could not believe their eyes!
“We won! We won the match!!!”
Then…… the whole stadium cheered!