Chapter 130: Farewell, 2016

Escribá walked to the touchline with his brow deeply furrowed. Clearly, he too had noticed how passive the team had become after Dai Zhihui was subjected to tight marking.

It was not an unexpected development, however. As Villarreal had grown increasingly dependent on Dai Zhihui, Escribá and his coaching staff had anticipated such a situation long ago and prepared several ways to deal with it.

Before long, Escribá made his adjustment. He sent Pato and Cheryshev out to warm up, intending to replace Castillejo with Cheryshev, while Bakambu was withdrawn for Pato.

Villarreal now had two additional outlets up front, and the team’s attack was no longer being handed over entirely to Dai Zhihui.

Escribá hoped the changes would help them cope with Atlético Madrid’s full-pitch pressing. He also intended to use the stamina and speed of Pato and Cheryshev, both coming off the bench, to stretch the defense, create space, unleash Dai Zhihui’s energy, and force Atlético to divide its attention.

With Pato and Cheryshev on the field, Dai Zhihui no longer stood there wrestling with Godín. Once he began to move, his overwhelming advantage in speed allowed him to leave Godín completely behind.

A stationary Dai Zhihui was relatively easy to contain, but once he started running, restricting him became an almost impossible task.

As Dai Zhihui picked up speed, Atlético Madrid’s defensive line was torn completely apart. At that very moment, Villarreal won the ball in midfield, and Trigueros sent a through pass forward.

In Villarreal’s previous attacks, Pato and Cheryshev had initiated the moves from the wings before Dai Zhihui finished them, so it was only natural that Atlético’s defense had begun to tilt toward the flanks. This time, however, Trigueros was looking for Dai Zhihui in the center.

“Perfect!”

Dai Zhihui praised the precision of Trigueros’s pass as he cushioned the ball with his foot. His speed did not drop in the slightest, and after two steps he had completely shaken off Godín.

He was almost through on goal. Between him and Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Oblak, only Savic remained.

“I’ll shoot from here.”

Dai Zhihui was about to enter the penalty area. He calculated that getting past Savic would not be difficult, but Oblak behind him was another matter. There were too many variables, so he decided that shooting immediately from there would offer him the better chance.

Just as Dai Zhihui drew back to fire, he suddenly felt his shoulder tighten. His balance vanished, and someone dragged him down from behind, sending him crashing heavily inside the penalty area.

“Hey! Penalty!”

The instant he hit the ground, Dai Zhihui spread both arms and appealed to the referee, indicating that he had been pulled down and that a penalty should be awarded.

Godín, the culprit, stood with his hands on his hips, helplessly explaining to the approaching referee that Dai Zhihui had been pulled down outside the penalty area.

He did not deny committing the foul.

After consulting the assistant referee, the referee awarded Villarreal a penalty and also showed Godín a yellow card.

The Calderón erupted in a storm of whistles, while curses rang out from every direction. The slow-motion replay showed that Dai Zhihui had been brought down on the line of the penalty area. Whether it should be a penalty or a free kick on the line was debatable, but the crafty forward had deliberately gone down inside the box.

One of Atlético Madrid’s players glared furiously at Dai Zhihui, only to see him shrug as though he were the aggrieved party and nothing unusual had happened. In the end, he even waved dismissively.

Godín’s temper flared at once. He had made his move only after seeing Dai Zhihui’s foot on the penalty-area line. Staring at him, he shouted, “You’re a cheat!”

“Are you sick or something?”

Dai Zhihui shot him a glance and fired back. When he saw that Godín had no intention of continuing the argument, he shrugged, turned, and walked away.

Who could say that Dai Zhihui had dived?

Godín believed his foul should have resulted in nothing more than a free kick on the edge of the area. But without that foul, Dai Zhihui would already have been inside the box. With only Savic between him and the goalkeeper, he firmly believed he would have had an excellent chance of scoring.

Dai Zhihui had no intention of arguing with Godín. He simply assumed that the defender’s mentality had collapsed after being thoroughly beaten and that he was venting his frustration.

“You want to take me down with you? Dream on!”

Dai Zhihui naturally took the penalty himself.

A major reason he had scored so many league goals that season was that he was Villarreal’s first-choice penalty taker. He had lived up to everyone’s expectations, never once missing from the spot.

After all, with the speed of his Tiger Shot, even a goalkeeper who guessed the right direction had no time to keep the ball out—unless he moved before the kick was taken.

Standing over the penalty spot, Dai Zhihui completely ignored Oblak’s calisthenics on the goal line. He unleashed a powerful Tiger Shot into the right side of the net. Oblak had not even read the ball’s trajectory before it had already flashed into the net behind him.

Three–nil!

Escribá was even more excited on the touchline than Dai Zhihui was after scoring. He flung his arms about and threw a celebratory combination punch, because the three–nil scoreline had completely removed any suspense from the match.

Simeone had already covered his face with one hand before Dai Zhihui took the penalty. After watching him score, he replaced the ineffective Gabi and Torres with Correa and Gameiro, his expression grim.

After making the substitutions, Simeone stopped directing affairs from the touchline and dropped heavily back onto the bench. Clearly, even he no longer expected his team to fight its way back into the match.

With victory already secured, Villarreal’s attacks grew increasingly fluid. Their offense unfolded like quicksilver, while Atlético Madrid also began attacking without restraint.

The Atlético players did not want to suffer such an embarrassing defeat in front of their home supporters, while Villarreal’s forwards were eager to get on the scoresheet themselves.

As for Dai Zhihui, he wanted to complete a hat trick against Atlético Madrid.

After all, Simeone’s Atlético rarely found itself in such poor form. If Dai Zhihui did not take advantage of the opportunity now, there was no telling when he would encounter another one.

In the sixty-ninth minute, Cheryshev, who had just come on as a substitute, broke free from Filipe’s challenge and sent the ball forward with a long kick toward Dai Zhihui.

“What a nuisance.”

Dai Zhihui frowned as he saw Godín still following him relentlessly. He did not engage the defender. Without controlling the ball, he immediately laid it off to Roberto Soriano, then quickly switched positions with Pato and cut toward the middle.

Roberto Soriano also released the ball first time, sweeping it across to Trigueros.

From Cheryshev’s pass to Dai Zhihui, from Dai Zhihui’s return ball to Roberto Soriano, and from Roberto Soriano’s square pass to Trigueros, all four players moved the ball first time. In less than ten seconds, they had completely pulled apart Atlético Madrid’s defensive line at the edge of the penalty area.

Such fluid passing combinations had been rare when Dai Zhihui played in China’s top flight. One could even say he had only seen them in highlight reels. In La Liga, however, they were routine.

The fundamentals and tactical awareness of domestic Chinese players still lagged far behind those of La Liga footballers.

Using his technique, Trigueros dribbled toward the penalty area. When an opponent rushed out to challenge him, he did not hesitate and sent the ball directly to Dai Zhihui, who had moved into position.

“Quickly! Close him down!”

The moment Dai Zhihui received the ball near the edge of the penalty area, everyone became tense. Whether it was Simeone on the touchline, goalkeeper Oblak, or the charging captain Godín, they were all so anxious they seemed ready to leap into the air.

“Heh.”

Dai Zhihui gave a soft laugh. Completely at ease, he took possession just outside the box, accelerating hard and dragging Atlético Madrid’s entire defense along with him.

As Godín charged toward him, Dai Zhihui gently flicked the ball with his toe. It rose past the height of Godín’s left arm and was lofted toward the right side of the penalty area.

Godín could not have intercepted it in time unless he had decided to play volleyball.

Cheryshev burst forward at full speed like an arrow loosed from a bow. Meeting Dai Zhihui’s pass, he cushioned it with his chest while pressing his back firmly against Atlético defender Filipe to shield the ball.

“Denis, here!”

Hearing his teammate’s shout, Cheryshev stretched out his foot and stabbed the ball forward. It threaded through the crowded penalty area and rolled along the ground toward the left.

Godín was beginning to feel dizzy from chasing Dai Zhihui. He had started on the right, then darted to the left, before turning and sprinting back toward the center. Meanwhile, Dai Zhihui had taken advantage of the chaos at the top of the box and slipped back into the crowd.

Pato was now unmarked inside the penalty area. Godín, already disoriented by Dai Zhihui’s movement, had no choice but to abandon his pursuit and move across to cover Pato.

Whether anyone was marking Dai Zhihui was no longer something Godín could worry about.

Godín had assumed Cheryshev would send the ball to Pato, who had previously been left unmarked. He had not realized that Cheryshev’s view was completely blocked and that, in the blink of an eye, he had no idea where Pato was.

Seeing the chaos outside the penalty area, Dai Zhihui immediately ran toward Cheryshev and called out to him.

Cheryshev happened to send the ball forward at that moment. The two men were running almost parallel to each other. Realizing that he had no one beside him, Dai Zhihui took a few quick steps forward. Instead of entering the penalty area, he chose the position that offered the higher-percentage opportunity, half-turned his body, swung his left leg back, and shot.

His body was still leaning forward as he twisted around. His right leg drove into the turf, and the instep of his left foot struck the middle of the ball with tremendous force. He smashed a volley toward the far corner of the goal.

By the time Oblak saw Dai Zhihui, the shot had already been taken. The ball flew toward him in an instant.

Oblak instinctively leaned sideways and threw himself at it, but he had no chance of making contact. Instead, he crashed backward into the goal.

Four–nil!

“Whew! Whew!”

After scoring, Dai Zhihui shaped both hands into pistols and twice performed the gesture of blowing smoke from the barrels. He felt that his form was simply blazing hot.

Besides him, who else could score a hat trick against Atlético Madrid under Simeone?

The reporters in the media section of the stands erupted. This was Dai Zhihui’s eighteenth league goal of the season, putting him clear at the top of the scoring charts.

The match against Atlético Madrid was only the fifteenth round of La Liga, yet Dai Zhihui had already scored eighteen goals. People everywhere were now speculating about how many he might score over the course of the season.

Thirty?

Forty?

Or even more?

At the start of the season, Dai Zhihui’s odds of winning the La Liga Golden Boot had been as long as eleven to one. Now they had fallen to just 3.4 to one, second only to Messi and level with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Watching Dai Zhihui celebrate with his teammates on the pitch, Escribá found himself facing a delightful dilemma.

The winter transfer window was about to open, and Dai Zhihui would undoubtedly be one of the most coveted targets for Europe’s elite clubs. As a coach without control over transfers, Escribá worried that the winter break might end with Villarreal suddenly no longer having Dai Zhihui.

“At least stay for the whole season,” Escribá murmured.

He knew that a small club like Villarreal could not keep a rising dragon of Dai Zhihui’s caliber forever. He only hoped this wonderful period could last a little longer.

In the eightieth minute, Dai Zhihui, having completed his hat trick, was replaced by Soldado.

Atlético Madrid scored during stoppage time, salvaging a little of their pride at home. In the ninety-first minute, Villarreal failed to clear a free kick properly, and Carrasco struck from fifteen meters on the right side of the penalty area. The shot took a deflection and flew into the far corner.

Even so, the four–one scoreline remained the finest gift Villarreal’s Yellow Submarine supporters could have received.

After the match, the Yellow Submarine replaced Atlético Madrid in the league’s top four, while Atlético’s defeat left them in sixth place, behind Real Sociedad.

After defeating such a powerful opponent, Villarreal had only two matches remaining in 2016.

In the sixteenth round of La Liga, they traveled away to face Sporting Gijón.

In the twelfth minute, Roberto Soriano crossed from the left side of the penalty area. Dos Santos struck powerfully from twelve yards on the right side of the box, sending the ball into the near corner to make it one–nil.

In the nineteenth minute, Pato’s shot from the left side of the area was blocked and deflected. Dai Zhihui reacted from close range to tap the ball into an empty net, scoring his nineteenth La Liga goal and making it two–nil.

In the seventy-fourth minute, Dai Zhihui crossed from the left side of the penalty area, and Pato drove the ball home from the edge of the six-yard box to make it three–nil.

Sporting Gijón salvaged some pride in the eighty-ninth minute. During a scramble following a corner, Carmona headed the ball from the right side of the penalty area, looping it into the far corner.

Villarreal thus ended their 2016 La Liga campaign with a run of victories.

Villarreal’s final match of 2016 was the second leg of their fourth-round Copa del Rey tie against Toledo.

Toledo posed little threat to Villarreal. The Yellow Submarine secured victory before halftime through goals from Dai Zhihui and Bakambu, successfully advancing to the next round of the Copa del Rey.

One notable detail was that nineteen-year-old Chinese player Shuang Biji came on as a substitute for Toledo, becoming the third Chinese player after Zhang Chengdong and Dai Zhihui to appear in the Copa del Rey.

Unfortunately, by the time Shuang Biji entered the match in the eighty-first minute, Dai Zhihui had already been substituted.

Dai Zhihui nevertheless waited until after the final whistle to speak with Shuang Biji for a few minutes and encourage him to keep working hard.

After the match, Dai Zhihui began a two-week winter break.