A preseason match of the Xia Super League, featuring the poorly reputed Yun City Team. This match didn't attract much attention at first, but as it went on, the number of people in the live stream gradually increased.

The Wei Family's father and son contributed to this, as they had predicted that the Yun City Team was bound to lose. So before the match even started, they had spread negative articles online, creating a negative trend.

According to the Wei Family's plan, they aimed to have as many people ridicule Lin Fan as possible, thereby saving Lin Fan the expenses on promotion.

Lin Fan indeed didn't spend much on promotion because he wanted to speak with results. If the Yun City Team could become popular in the future, it must be due to their strength and victories. Other promotional methods would only be icing on the cake, and if their performance was poor, over-hyping would backfire and cause resentment.

Lin Fan saved money, while the Wei Family's father and son spent theirs.

Thanks to the Wei Family's efforts, more people were made aware of the match.

Initially, people still didn't have much interest in the seemingly already decided match.

Until the Yun City Team scored.

Just ten minutes in, Yecheng Team and Yun City Team had each scored a goal. The Yun City Team's goal was especially surprising to everyone, so unexpected.

After Yun City Team scored, the number of viewers in the live stream started to rise, and those who initially weren't interested suddenly found their interest piqued.

Lu Dong, a celebrity in the live stream, led the narrative by saying that Yun City Team's goal was a lucky one and disdainfully remarked that the Yun City Team had gotten lucky.

The live stream was filled with mocking voices, everyone laughing at the Yun City Team for merely being lucky.

However, amidst the ridicule, some expressed: "Am I the only one who thinks this goal was pretty good?"

"I think it was great!"

"The teamwork was excellent indeed!"

Though these few voices existed, they were drowned in the ridicule.

It's like the Emperor's New Clothes, where everyone praises the king in his underpants, saying how great the clothes look, while only the honest person murmurs, doesn't he have no clothes on?

Ironically, people's mockery was based on their negative impression of the Yun City Team. How could such a lousy team deliver a good goal? So this goal must have been a lucky one.

Regardless, the number of viewers in the live stream was rising; clearly, many people's interests were piqued, whether to mock or praise, everyone wanted to see Yun City Team's subsequent performance.

The match continued.

After Yun City Team scored unexpectedly, Yecheng Team's coach, Antonio from Spain, started to rage on the sidelines, cursing his players for being careless, after being translated.

Yecheng Team's players' mentality shifted because they had indeed been arrogant, completely disregarding Yun City Team.

They changed their attitude slightly, but their arrogance wasn't rectified overnight.

In their view, Yun City Team just got lucky, and such luck couldn't persist.

So, although they began to take it a bit more seriously, they weren't really focused; they still believed they could easily defeat Yun City Team.

On the other hand, Yun City Team picked up momentum after scoring; they were in no rush to score again. Instead, they followed Wu Da's instructions, finding their rhythm, and using the first half to gradually try to control the match.

For the rest of the first half, neither side scored.

Near the end, the laid-back Yecheng Team gave some effort, perhaps thinking they'd score one more goal before halftime, so Yecheng Team launched a serious offensive.

Yecheng Team successfully breached Yun City Team's penalty area.

In the live stream.

Host: "Something's happening; let's watch this play. Yun City Team's defenders reacted quickly. In my view, their defense was passable, but they're facing Yecheng Team. Let's see if they can hold off this shot, oh, it's a shot!"

Bam!

Yecheng Team's forward, after entanglement with Yun City Team's defender, suddenly turned, found an opportunity, and took a shot, aiming to enter Yun City Team's goal.

But the shot bounced off the post and flew away, and Yun City Team's defender Sun Jihai quickly rushed in, took a powerful shot, and kicked the ball to midfield, neutralizing the threat.

"The ball didn't go in!" The host said, "Though this shot was quite threatening, it unfortunately went wide, but Yun City Team's reaction was swift."

The host's commentary was quite objective.

But Lu Dong disagreed: "This statement is incorrect. What do you mean by quick reaction? In my opinion, they were just lucky. They had no real ability to block this shot. My conclusion stands; their defense is as fragile as paper. If Yecheng Team really wanted to score, it'd be effortless."

Host: "..."

The host wanted to say Lu Dong's black-bashing was awkward, but the host had a good temperament and didn't argue with Lu Dong.

"We see that after this shot went wide, Yecheng Team's players remained relaxed, laughing and chatting." The host shifted the topic.

Indeed, although the shot went wide, Yecheng Team's forward showed a playful smile.

Other Yecheng Team players were also carefree, entirely unfazed by the missed shot.

"Oh, missed the shot? No worries, we can score easily later."

That was their mentality.

This is a typical mindset strong teams have when facing weak teams; they feel certain of victory, so missing a couple of shots is seen as a joke.

Although Lin Fan didn't usually watch matches, he'd watch during the World Cup. Lin Fan remembered during the 2002 World Cup opening match, the defending champion France against Senegal, he had seen the same expression on France's players' faces as Yecheng Team's players now.

Everyone knew France was a football powerhouse, the 1998 World Cup champion.

And Senegal, that year, entered the World Cup for the first time, and coincidentally, that year Huaxia also entered the World Cup for the first time.

Senegal and France were in the same group at that time. Before the match, everyone thought France would crush Senegal, and this obscure little country's football would unsurprisingly die in the group stage.

This was almost a universal belief among global football fans; until the match began, everyone still thought the same.

Sure enough, France's players didn't take Senegal seriously; they were playing with a cat and mouse mentality.

As a result, Lin Fan was deeply impressed by one scene: a France football star missing a shot, which was seemingly certain.

Yet, the France players showed smiling faces, with a bit of mockery, a bit of carefree attitude.

The outcome...