Soccer: If they're using these kinds of cheats, what's the point of training?

After scoring two goals, the Auxerre players were very happy, but their motivation was a bit lacking, and their desire to attack was not as strong. So the rest of the game was controlled. The Sedan players also breathed a sigh of relief, as they did not want to lose too badly.

At halftime, the score was 2-0.

In the locker room, Fernandez didn't make many adjustments.

"Continue playing like this in the second half." The veteran coach drew two lines on the tactics board. "Sedan's stamina won't last the whole game, and their defense will become increasingly weak in the second half."

Zhang, you can move wider to the wings and draw your defenders out to create space in the middle.

Zhang Kuang nodded and took two gulps of water.

After the start of the second half, Sedan indeed showed signs of fatigue. Their two defensive midfielders no longer marked each other as aggressively throughout the game as they had in the first half, but instead retreated more to the edge of the penalty area to protect the defense.

51 minutes.

Auxerre gets a corner kick. Birsa's corner is headed towards the far post, where a furious start from near the penalty spot propels him towards the landing point.

Sedan's two defenders jumped at the same time – they knew the threat of the arrogant header, so from the beginning, two of them were marking him.

But his incredible jumping ability rendered their defense ineffective.

He was a full head taller than the two men in the air, his core strength supporting him as he waited for the ball to fall to the perfect height.

It's not about attacking the goal, it's about ferrying people across.

He headed the ball towards the center of the six-yard box.

Minho arrived quickly, headed the ball into the empty net.

3: 0.

"Assist! Zhang Kuang's incredible header pass!" Liu Jianhong shouted. "This isn't something an ordinary person could do—he could have shot himself, but he chose to pass to a teammate in a better position! This shows that Zhang Kuang isn't the selfish striker who only cares about padding his own stats; he has team spirit!"

Someone on an online forum noticed something else.

"How high did he jump?"

"The replay shows he was at least half a body taller than the defender."

"That's NBA-level jumping ability, isn't it?"

"To use volleyball moves on a soccer field is outrageous!!!"

"Did he install a spring?"

"..."

"Fuck." Sedan's head coach, Lundley Chauvin, slammed his water bottle to the ground. Although he had a plan for losing to Auxerre, he couldn't let himself be used as a background character too obviously, could he?

77 minutes.

Zhang Kuang put on his most spectacular solo show of the night.

Auxerre launched an attack in the attacking third, and after a series of passes, the ball reached Olic's feet. Olic received the ball on the right wing, glanced at the penalty area—Zhang Kuang was surrounded by three Sedan defenders, and it seemed he had no space to receive the ball.

But Zhang Kuang made a gesture at him.

Olic paused for a moment—the gesture meant: pass to me, high ball, behind me.

Without further hesitation, he flicked the ball with his right foot, sending it deep into the penalty area.

Zhang Kuang started moving despite being surrounded by three people.

His explosive first step caused three Sedan defenders to lose their positions simultaneously, and by the time he reached the right side of the penalty area, the ball was right in front of him.

Before the ball even hit the ground, he volleyed it directly.

"Bang—!"

The ball flew into the net from the near corner, and the Sedan goalkeeper didn't even see it.

4: 0.

"Hat trick! A wild hat trick!" Liu Jianhong stood up in the studio—he usually doesn't stand up when commentating, but today he did, and Xu Yang next to him also stood up.

"Three goals and one assist!" Xu Yang's voice trembled. "All four goals in one match were orchestrated by him! A Chinese player leading four goals in a single European match—this is not only a first, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime event!"

Zhang Kuang didn't do the "Siu" celebration this time.

He walked to the corner flag, opened his arms, closed his eyes, and his chest heaved violently. It wasn't exhaustion, but excitement—he heard the 24,000 fans in the stadium chanting his name in unison.

"Zhang! Zhang! Zhang!"

The sound came from all directions like ocean waves, crashing against his eardrums layer by layer.

He had never been called upon by so many people at the same time before.

83 minutes.

Fernandez substituted Zhang Kuang, realizing there was no need to let him continue racking up stats on the field. He saw that the Sedan coach was on the verge of exploding with rage, and if Zhang Kuang continued to play, the Sedan players might resort to drastic measures.

Zhang Kuang jogged slowly to the sidelines, and the entire stadium rose to their feet and applauded again—not only Auxerre fans, but also some Sedan fans who had traveled with the team to the stadium stood up.

It wasn't because the Sedan fans "betrayed" them, but because they knew what they had witnessed.

It is their most basic respect for the strong.

In addition to replacing the arrogant Zhang, Fernandez also substituted two other key players, replacing them with youth academy graduates.

With key players like Zhang Kuang substituted off, and Fernandez's hints, Auxerre's attack became less sharp. Although the young players who came on wanted to show off, their limited ability prevented them from posing a real threat.

The match ended with a score of 4-0.

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At the post-match press conference, Sedan's head coach, Lundley Chauvin, looked somewhat bewildered when faced with reporters' questions.

"We've studied Zhang Kuang," he said. "We watched the video of his first two games and made specific defensive arrangements against his headers and long-range shots."

But in today's match, he was responsible for four goals – the first was a long-range shot from 30 meters out, the second was a rebound shot inside the penalty area, the third was an assist even though he didn't score, and the fourth was a volley after being surrounded by three players.

Can you say we didn't defend him? We did. Three defenders surrounding him wasn't enough, was it? But he still scored. So my answer is—it wasn't our defense that failed, it was that Zhang's arrogance was too strong. We simply lost to this Chinese striker.

When the reporter relayed this question to Fernandez, the veteran coach of Auxerre had a somewhat subtle expression.

"Zhang Kuang's performance today? Normal," Fernandez said, his tone as flat as reading a weather forecast. "This is his normal level. Nothing special to say about it."

The reporters looked at each other in bewilderment.

Three goals and one assist, contributing to four goals in a single game – you call that "normal level"?

These words would be ironic coming from any head coach—but they take on a different meaning coming from Fernandez.

"Are you kidding me?" the reporter pressed.

"I'm not joking," Fernandez said expressionlessly. "He has the ability to back it up; he's just showing it on the field. There's nothing to be surprised about."

The next day, the French newspaper L'Équipe's headline was:

"Fernandez: His outrageous three goals and one assist in a single game is 'normal,' I'm not kidding."

The last paragraph of the article reads:

"Either Fernandez has gone mad, or he's so arrogant that the Ligue 1 coach thinks four goals in a single game is nothing special. We're more inclined to believe the latter—because in the past three games, this young Chinese player has already scored eight goals and provided one assist."

Of course, this was just a French Cup match. Although his performance was impressive and arrogant, it's not enough to conclude that he has truly dominated Ligue 1.

Zhang Kuang needs to prove his strength in Ligue 1; his performance in the French Cup was not enough.

Of course, he didn't care about all the noise and arrogance, because he believed that with his current strength, he could at least become a starter in French football, if not amaze everyone.

The live broadcast of this French Cup match was a boon for CCTV-5, as its viewership that night was second only to their broadcasts of the Champions League, as well as other important matches such as the La Liga duo, the Serie A Big Three, the Premier League Big Four, and the Bundesliga match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

This is just a French Cup match! If it were a Ligue 1 main match, how high would the viewership be?

Wow, they've struck it rich.

A large population means a large market, and the urgent need for Chinese football talents is a rigid market demand!

Arrogance is a money tree; we must seize the opportunity to further develop it.

So Zhang Kuang received a call from the female reporter, asking him to discuss the plan to follow and film him further that evening.

Why does it have to be at night? Can't we meet during the day tomorrow?

And why does it have to be discussed at a hotel? Can't we just go to a coffee shop?

Is this an affair disguised as work, or is it discussing work while having an affair?

How can a woman not distinguish between public and private matters?

So Zhang Kuang decided that he must teach this reporter a lesson tonight.

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