On the pitch, sweat was streaming down Ronaldo's forehead without stop.
No matter how he looked at it, he simply could not fathom how a Copa del Rey match against a Segunda División B side had turned into this.
The clock had reached the 88th minute.
The scoreline on the pitch was still 1-0.
Leoia were leading.
After conceding, Real Madrid had hammered away at Leoia's goal for twenty minutes.
But the shift in their mental state meant that very few of their shots were landing within the frame.
And the rare high-quality efforts had been dealt with by Leon one by one.
Leon was not in a comfortable position either.
His energy had been drained to its absolute limit.
"About five minutes left and the match will be over."
'Hold on. You have to hold on.'
Leon wiped the sweat from his forehead and said it quietly to himself.
Over the course of this match, Leon had already pushed past the limits of his ability and pulled off saves that were beyond what his current level should have allowed.
But for a goalkeeper, saving a hundred shots was simply expected.
One shot that got through, and he would become the man who cost his team the match.
What Leon wanted was victory.
Not to blame his teammates after conceding.
Ronaldo received a long ball from Marcelo, nudged it aside with a touch of both feet, and swept straight past Xio who had stepped up to defend.
"Tweet!"
The referee's whistle sounded.
Watching Ronaldo glide past him so easily again, Xio's composure cracked for a moment, and in a flash of impulse he went in with a sliding tackle from behind that brought Ronaldo down.
Red card.
Without a moment's hesitation, the referee showed Xio the red card.
Leoia's captain was sent straight off.
"Oh, God!"
"Real Madrid have won a free kick in a very dangerous position!"
"Xio is off. Who is going to defend for Leoia? Who is going to organise the back line?"
Up in the stands, every Leoia supporter buried their head in their hands.
At this stage of the match, if Real Madrid levelled from this free kick, the ten men left on the pitch might not be able to hold off Real Madrid's bombardment for the remaining five minutes.
Meanwhile, the Real Madrid supporters in the corner of the stand finally let out a small sigh of relief.
It would have been truly embarrassing to lose to Leoia in this match.
Ronaldo had been shut out by that goalkeeper from the East in what should have been the perfect match to rack up goals.
The Real Madrid fans felt as though their entire worldview had collapsed.
Leon had saved at least seven of Ronaldo's one-on-ones in this match.
It was simply absurd.
"Leon! Hold on for these last few minutes!"
Xio did not argue with the referee.
In truth, having played until this point, Xio had nothing left in the tank and was completely out of energy.
Xio removed the captain's armband and placed it directly onto Leon's arm.
"Captain?"
Leon was taken aback for a moment.
"You are worthy of this armband."
"You have already been outstanding."
"But I need you to take on the captain's responsibility in these last few minutes and be even more outstanding."
Xio patted Leon on the shoulder and walked off the pitch.
"Oh, good grief!"
"Leon is actually wearing the captain's armband? Is that really right?"
"What's wrong with it? Has Leon's performance in this match not been good enough?"
"That's not how it works!"
"It works exactly like that. Did you not see that it was captain Xio himself who put it on Leon? And the manager has no objection either."
Leon put on the captain's armband and became the captain on the pitch.
"Move a little to the left. Yes! A little more to the left!"
"Add another man on this side!"
Leon did not stop to think about it too much and quickly got to work setting up the wall.
Fortunately, Leon had already raised his [Organise Defence] attribute to 10.
Setting up the wall presented no significant problem for him.
Leon had decided to take a gamble.
He placed the entire wall on the left side of the goal, leaving most of the space on the right completely open.
Leon was betting that Ronaldo would go to the right.
And Leon intended to face Ronaldo in the most direct possible duel over the free kick.
Ronaldo stepped up to the ball without any hesitation.
Marcelo also stood over it, though he was only there to make up the numbers.
Everyone knew it would be Ronaldo taking the shot.
The run-up.
Contact.
The instant Ronaldo's right foot struck the ball, Leon's eyes snapped sharp.
A goalkeeper's instinct told him in a flash that this was a knuckleball of the highest quality.
The ball was going to drop to the bottom right, the hardest area for any goalkeeper to reach.
'I'm going for it.'
Leon had no way of pinpointing exactly where the free kick would land.
All he could do was commit to a spot and hurl himself there.
For a high-quality knuckleball, that was the only way to have any chance.
Because while the ball was travelling through the air it would dip and rise unpredictably, making it nearly impossible to read its final destination from the flight path alone.
If that was the situation, then leave it all to fate.
Leon threw his entire body into the air, and whether he reached it was no longer within his control.
"Thwack!"
A sudden jolt of impact from the football came through Leon's right palm.
He had it.
The gamble had paid off.
"He's saved it!"
"He's saved it!"
"He has saved Ronaldo's high-quality knuckleball!"
"In this moment, the spirits of Kahn and Schmeichel are alive within him!"
"Leon has shown the potential of a world-class goalkeeper in this very moment!"
"The future belongs to Leon!"
In the commentary booth, as Leon leapt and palmed away Ronaldo's direct free kick, Jackson completely lost his composure.
Throwing aside any concern for his own image, he launched into a classic roaring-style delivery.
"Good lord!"
"Bloody hell!"
"Unbelievable!"
"This is absolutely insane!"
Every single fan from the East could not hold back their outbursts.
Many leapt clean to their feet and kept on shouting.
As though the East's national team had just scored a crucial goal.
The fans from the East had rediscovered a passion they had not felt in a long time.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"I backed the right man!"
"I backed the right man!"
Xio, watching from the tunnel, was overcome with excitement as well.
He already felt it in his bones that this match was going to be theirs.
They were about to beat the mighty Real Madrid.
The real Real Madrid.
Out on the pitch, Ronaldo watched Leon celebrating with his teammates and his expression went blank.
Why?
Why.
Why can I not break through the goal he is guarding?
A knot he could not untangle had quietly taken root in Ronaldo's heart.
One that would follow him throughout the rest of his career.
"Hold firm!"
"No letting up in the last few minutes!"
"Everyone stay sharp!"
Leon did not carry on celebrating with his teammates.
Because he knew the match was not over yet.
Leon shouted across to his teammates.
And in that moment, every single Leoia player fell into line without a word, each running back to their position and summoning every last bit of focus they had.
With just one free kick save, Leon had already become the on-pitch captain they were ready to trust with everything.