"Good evening, football fans everywhere!"
"Welcome to today's Copa del Rey coverage, Real Madrid vs Leoia!"
"I'll be commentating on this match alongside my colleague Jackson!"
"Jackson, give us a rundown of what we can expect today!"
Yulav turned to Jackson beside him.
"This match has plenty going for it!"
"One of our own goalkeepers going head to head with Ronaldo in the Copa del Rey!"
"I'd say that alone is enough to get every fan interested!"
Jackson said with a smile.
Before the match, neither of them had known a great deal about Leon Feng.
The previous evening they had both scrambled to go through Leon's background and match footage, but there wasn't much useful information to be found.
A player with no prior trace in any football league back home suddenly appearing on their radar had genuinely caught them off guard.
Out on the pitch, both sets of players had already walked out.
On the touchline, Burke Abel shook hands with Real Madrid head coach Ancelotti.
Before the match, Leon and Hachim Mastour had gone to find Burke Abel together.
"What? Push the entire line up? Aggressively work the offside trap?!"
Burke Abel was still reeling from Leon's proposal even now.
Even though Burke Abel was the sort of manager who enjoyed a gamble, the thought of going toe to toe with Real Madrid in an open attacking match made his stomach drop.
Playing this way could very easily end in a disaster.
Never mind the Leoia home supporters going wild for their side right now, because if Leoia conceded seven or eight goals, Burke Abel had serious doubts about whether he and his players would be able to leave the ground safely.
"Coach, deep down you already expect to lose this match, don't you? So what's the difference between losing by one and losing by ten?"
"There's no difference in the result, but we can't let a disaster unfold in front of our own fans!"
"Coach, stopping one-on-ones is my greatest strength, and I can guarantee not a single one gets past me, but I can't make the same promise for other types of shots."
"Right, well..."
"Coach, let's have a go!"
"Fine, let's do it!"
The conversation with Leon and Hachim Mastour was still replaying in Burke Abel's mind, and his heart wouldn't stop racing.
Had he gone completely mad?
But if they actually managed to beat Real Madrid, it would be one of the biggest upsets imaginable, and his standing and reputation in the coaching world would surely rise considerably, giving him a genuine shot at managing a side in a higher division.
"Feeling nervous, are we?"
The rotund Ancelotti noticed something unusual in Burke Abel's expression and gave a quiet smile without reading too much into it.
Having been through so many enormous occasions in his career, this Copa del Rey tie could barely stir even a flicker of interest in Ancelotti.
As far as he was concerned, losing this match would actually be the difficult outcome, because Ronaldo had shown up today with every intention of filling his boots, and who was going to stop him?
Out on the pitch, the players from both sides exchanged handshakes.
"Look at that, Ronaldo is walking over to Leon Feng!"
"So that's Leon Feng, he's a good-looking lad!"
"Ronaldo and Leon Feng are making eye contact right now, he must be thinking about how he's going to break through the goal Leon is guarding!"
"Don't get carried away, Ronaldo has absolutely no idea who Leon Feng is!"
Fans back in the East were buzzing with excitement watching Leon Feng shake hands with Ronaldo, as this was the first time a player from the East had come face to face with Ronaldo in a competitive match.
Out on the pitch, Ronaldo's expression gave nothing away when shaking hands with Leon.
More precisely, Ronaldo hadn't even glanced at Leon's face properly.
Leon didn't let it bother him in the slightest.
He had already persuaded head coach Burke Abel, and now it was time to let Ronaldo find out exactly what the [One-on-One Specialist] talent felt like up close.
Before this match, Leon had spent another 50 system points to upgrade his [Rushing Out] attribute from 9 to 10, giving himself better timing on his decisions to come off his line.
Even with [One-on-One Specialist], if his timing in coming out was off, all sorts of inexplicable things would inevitably happen in order for him to make the save, and if that happened too often it would be far from ideal, as it would only be a matter of time before the media started asking questions and official bodies began looking into things.
After spending those 50 system points, Leon was left with just 22 points remaining.
System points were in desperately short supply, which made completing the system quests in this match to earn 5,000 points something Leon wanted more than anything.
What did it matter that it was Ronaldo?
Nobody was unbeatable.
"Tweet!"
The referee's whistle sounded and the match was underway.
Real Madrid had made sweeping changes to their lineup for this match, fielding just three undisputed first-team regulars, and beyond Ronaldo, the other two were left back Marcelo and goalkeeper Navas.
Leoia, for their part, were putting out their strongest available side.
Leoia kicked off.
To everyone's astonishment, Leoia's defensive line had been pushed up extremely high, sitting almost level with the centre circle.
"What on earth is this? Are they trying to take the game to them from the start?"
"That's reckless, they're basically handing Real Madrid a free invitation!"
"Ha, Leoia probably think they're still in the Segunda División B and haven't adjusted yet!"
The fans were caught completely off guard by the sheer boldness of Leoia's opening approach, and even Real Madrid were momentarily taken aback.
That said, the resale value of any one of Real Madrid's substitutes would comfortably exceed the value of Leoia's entire squad.
In the 2nd minute, Hachim Mastour drove forward and took on Marcelo directly, then chose to play a through ball rather than carry it further.
But Marcelo read it effortlessly and slid in to intercept the pass cleanly.
"At least he's actually passing the ball now, which is something!"
"The timing of when to play those passes still needs a lot of work though!"
"At this level, defenders aren't so easily fooled!"
Up in the stands, Watson felt a quiet satisfaction seeing Hachim Mastour making a greater effort to involve others, and as for the pass being cut out by Marcelo, that was entirely to be expected.
Marcelo was widely considered one of the finest left backs since Roberto Carlos, and very few players ever got the better of him.
For a sixteen-year-old, Hachim Mastour had shown real courage attempting a move against Marcelo in the first place, and that in itself was admirable.
After winning the ball, Marcelo glanced up and spotted Ronaldo drifting in the space around the centre circle, then launched a long ball forward that split clean through the entire Leoia defensive line.
"Oh, God!"
Ronaldo burst forward and effortlessly outpaced everyone to find himself clean through on goal, sending a wave of anguish through the home supporters.
This was surely it.
Even with Leon having produced extraordinary one-on-one saves in the previous matches, the player bearing down on him now was Ronaldo.
Ronaldo powered forward with the ball at his feet, already quietly congratulating himself inside.
If he didn't get a hat-trick at the very minimum today, he'd be doing himself a disservice.
Messi, I'll be overtaking you in the goalscoring charts again very soon.
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