Chapter 1 A Perfect Start

When the football arced into the Mexican Olympic team's goal, commentator He Ping thought it was the most beautiful curve in the world, like a rainbow across the sky.

"China scores first! We're in the lead!"

His excited voice was transmitted via satellite to millions of homes across China. The game kicked off at 9:30 p.m. Beijing time, prime viewing hours, so many fans were watching. Even people who weren't usually fans were tuning in. Because it was the Olympics, every event attracted many viewers who weren't enthusiasts of the specific sport. These games were all about one thing: national honor.

The Olympics are supposedly about faster, higher, stronger, and sportsmanship. But in reality, the Olympics are a battlefield without bloodshed. Countries compete against each other, and the winning nation is naturally overjoyed, while the losing nation, no matter how much they claim "participation is what matters," still feels bad.

Sports and politics are as intertwined in the Olympics as an old married couple.

Chinese football has always been a symbol of weakness and incompetence, making many Chinese people feel ashamed when the topic is brought up.

The previous Olympics were held in Beijing, so the Chinese Olympic team didn't need to go through qualifying rounds and could directly enter the main tournament. But the team's performance was so poor that many Chinese fans felt it would have been better to require the host nation to qualify, so the team wouldn't embarrass themselves in the Olympics.

If it hadn't been for the addition of the Five Little Dragons, this Olympic team would never have made it to London. Before the first game, Chinese fans had mixed feelings about the team. On one hand, they had high hopes for the five overseas players, hoping they could lead the team to a strong performance in the Olympics. On the other hand, they worried that the chronic problems of Chinese football would render the five players powerless. If even the Five Little Dragons couldn't help Chinese football achieve good results, who could they rely on?

Now, seeing this goal, many people's worries immediately lessened.

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After scoring, Zhou Yi turned and ran toward Wu Lei, who had passed him the ball, while also calling He Ying and the other teammates to come and celebrate together.

He was doing this deliberately, using this method to unite the whole team and avoid any divisions between the Five Little Dragons and the others. The five overseas players were obviously the stars of the team, but if they stood out too much, what would the others think?

Although everyone seemed to get along well now, the difference in status could easily leave a hidden danger within the team.

Zhou Yi was the team's captain, and he had a responsibility to keep the team united. Even a team with explosive fighting power couldn't win a championship without unity.

All the Chinese Olympic team players on the field rushed to celebrate the goal, even goalkeeper Sun Pan.

This was the team's first goal in the Olympics, making it especially memorable.

"Zhou Yi scored the first goal for the Olympic team in this tournament! This is the Chinese Olympic delegation's first appearance at the London Olympics, a truly perfect start!" He Ping said excitedly at the scene. "A textbook counterattack, so fast that the Mexican defenders didn't even have time to react! By the time Zhou Yi scored, most of the Mexican Olympic team players had just returned to their own half..."

Before the game, the Chinese media knew that the team's strategy was to play a counterattacking defense. No one objected. As long as they could win, it didn't matter what strategy they used.

However, before the goal, watching the Chinese team being pinned back in their own half and bombarded by the opponent, everyone was somewhat worried.

A counterattacking defense relied on not conceding goals. If they conceded a goal, it would all be over.

Fortunately, the Chinese team's performance was reassuring. First, they withstood the opponent's bombardment in defense, and second, they were very efficient when launching counterattacks.

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After conceding the goal, the Mexican Olympic team naturally couldn't accept the result and launched a fierce attack on the Chinese goal.

But this was exactly what the Chinese team wanted.

So Mexico attacked fiercely, and China countered.

After a while, Mexico realized the awkward situation they were facing—if they continued to attack so frantically, they might concede another goal to China before they could equalize.

If they fell behind by two goals in the first half, the game would be over.

So before the end of the first half, the Mexican Olympic team had to slow down their pace. As soon as they slowed down, the Chinese team also slowed down. Even when they had the ball, they didn't rush to pass it forward, but passed it back and forth in the midfield and backfield, and time was consumed in this passing.

When the first half ended, many people were even surprised—the first half was already over?

As they left the field, Zhou Yi and Yang Muge walked off together, chatting and laughing. And it wasn't just them, the other Chinese players also looked relatively relaxed.

Seeing this scene, He Ping praised, "The Olympic team's lads are looking very relaxed, which is great. Although it's an Olympic game, it's just a normal ninety-minute football match. Don't carry too much burden. Going into the game lightly will lead to good results. Keep it up!"

If the Chinese team could defeat the strongest opponent in the group, the Mexican Olympic team, He Ping believed that the team's minimum goal of qualifying for the knockout stage would be achieved.

Of course, he hoped that his national team could go as far as possible in the world competition. As a football commentator, this meant he could commentate on more games. Even if he wasn't a football commentator, but just a Chinese fan, he would still hope for this.

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In the locker room, Blazevic didn't praise the Chinese team's performance in the first half. He still looked serious and warned the players, "...There are still forty-five minutes left in the game, and anything can happen. So don't think that just because we're leading by one goal, we can definitely win the game. In the next game, you must concentrate and not make mistakes."

"Remember, there are many coincidences in football, but behind every seemingly accidental thing, there is a necessary basis. If you get carried away because of a one-goal lead, you will inevitably be punished."

On the other side, the Mexican coach, Tena, was making personnel adjustments. He would use a substitution during halftime, replacing forward Peralta with Dos Santos.

In fact, the biggest star in the Mexican Olympic team was definitely not Javier Aquino, who was on the list of top ten new stars, but Dos Santos.

Dos Santos' full name is Giovani dos Santos Ramírez, and he became famous very early.

In 2002, he and his brother Jonathan dos Santos joined Barcelona's youth training camp and were first called into Barcelona's first team in 2006.

A year later, he was once again recruited by Rijkaard into Barcelona's first team for the pre-season training camp. After this training camp, he finally stayed with the first team and became a member of Barcelona's first team.

Because his technical style and flamboyant braids were very similar to Barcelona superstar Ronaldinho at the time, Dos Santos was dubbed "Ronaldinho II" by the media. Fans had high hopes for him, hoping that he could inherit Ronaldinho's mantle at Barcelona, and everyone was optimistic about his future development.

But who would have thought that the career of this Ronaldinho II would not develop smoothly.

He only played for Barcelona's first team for one season before being sold to Tottenham Hotspur. He also failed to become a starter at Tottenham Hotspur and was loaned out several times, with equally disappointing performances.

Now, when the Mexican Olympic team was encountering difficulties in the game, coach Tena finally thought of this once famous genius who was sitting on the bench.

Although Dos Santos was no longer seen as a "Ronaldinho II," he was still an outstanding player for the Olympic Games.

And for Dos Santos, if he could perform well in the Olympics, he might be able to rise again, which was a good opportunity to get out of the quagmire.