On November 24th, the 2005 football competition of Jiaotong University officially began.
A total of seventeen teams from Jiangling College signed up for the football competition.
In the first round, the previous champion, the Civil Engineering Department's Engineering major, received a bye, while the other sixteen teams were drawn to compete against each other.
In the second round, one team received a bye again, leaving eight teams to compete against each other.
In the third round, there were five teams in total, one team received a bye and advanced directly.
The remaining four teams played pairwise, with the winners advancing and the losers playing an additional match to determine the fourth seed of Jiangling College.
Matches were scheduled for two hours each, with two matches in the morning and two in the afternoon.
On the afternoon of November 23rd, Dong Jun received the notification, and Xu Xiuwen and the others also learned about their first-round opponent, the Chinese Department.
Upon knowing that their opponent was the Chinese Department, Xu Xiuwen and the others laughed.
The Chinese Department is a liberal arts department with more female students and fewer male students, so naturally, they are not very strong.
What Xu Xiuwen and the others were most worried about was encountering the Computer Science Department in the first round.
It's not that they feared the Computer Science Department, but meeting them in the first round would be boring. It would be more satisfying to wait for a crucial match and then strike them when they were overconfident, eliminating them. That would be much more enjoyable.
The first match of the Software Information team was scheduled for the afternoon of November 24th, starting at 3:00 p.m.
They didn't go to watch the two matches in the morning and the first match in the afternoon, nor did they care.
They've been seizing every moment to practice together, like Yang Baishan and a few others who are from the same hometown. They were all on the school team back in high school and now they're all playing in the front line, so they're practicing coordination.
As for the others, including Jin Haonan, they've played soccer before, but it's been several years since they last played, so they're all working hard to practice passing and dribbling, mainly focusing on passing.
Xu Xiuwen still practices passing and dribbling with Jin Haonan and the others.
Xu Xiuwen hasn't played soccer in a long time. In his previous life, he hadn't touched a soccer ball for over a decade, and since his rebirth, his body hasn't played soccer for a long time either.
But after his rebirth, his body was strengthened by mysterious forces. His reflexes, agility, strength, and endurance are far beyond ordinary people.
So when Xu Xiuwen touches the ball, he handles it like a pro, dribbling skillfully, passing accurately, and shooting powerfully, showing extremely outstanding performance.
Yang Baishan couldn't help but praise, "We can trust him with the midfield!"
Before the match started, Xu Xiuwen and the others changed into the pre-prepared team uniforms, which couldn't really be called uniforms. They were just a set of jerseys bought in the same style and color, with only the numbers different.
Yang Baishan chose the number 1, and his several hometown friends chose 2, 3, 4, and 5. Others wore mixed numbers, such as 24 and 58.
Xu Xiuwen's jersey number is 0.
He likes this number; 0 represents nothingness, but it's also a starting point.
Xu Xiuwen believes that after his rebirth, he is in such a state, striving from nothing to something.
His life is also like that, starting from zero.
Before the match started, male students from the software information major and three other majors all came, of course, totaling no more than ten people.
Dong Jun said to everyone in a grand manner: "You guys play well, you represent more than just our Management and Engineering Department. When we win the game, I'll treat you all, drinks will be abundant, and the food will be plentiful."
Yang Baishan laughed heartily: "Class monitor, you can rest assured, we've already won this game!"
Soon, the game was about to begin, and the players began to take the field one by one.
Xu Xiuwen stood in the midfield because of his speed, good ball control, and accurate passing.
Everyone, line up according to the 4-1-2-3 formation. After the serve, Yang Baishan and his fellow hometown boys quickly began pressing aggressively.
Chinese majors weren't good at soccer to begin with, and with Yang Baishan and his group pressing so aggressively, they quickly conceded a goal.
As the center forward, Yang Baishan sprinted ahead, receiving a pass from his number 3 teammate. From a 45-degree angle to the right of the goal, he executed a beautiful shot, scoring the first goal and earning a point.
Yang Baishan, who scored the opening goal, excitedly pounded his chest and cheered loudly.
Next, the opponent served, and the white ball passed between several students from the Chinese department, but after passing for a while, they couldn't break through the midfield. Instead, Yang Baishan pressured them, causing the opponent to make a mistake.
He intercepted the ball again.
After gaining possession, Yang Baishan quickly passed the ball to his teammate, then charged towards the opponent's goal with another forward. The three of them executed a brilliant cooperation in front of the goal.
"Swoosh!"
The ball is in the net again!
Yang Baishan takes another shot and scores another point!
At this moment, it's already 2:0, but the game has just begun for less than five minutes.
The goalkeeper from the Chinese department is very tall, about 1.8 meters tall, and his face looks as ugly as if he had eaten bitter melon.
The expressions of other students from the Chinese department are also very ugly.
Everyone is confused and has no confidence.
On the other hand, the students from the Management and Engineering Department, whether on the field or off the field like Dong Jun and others, are all very excited.
Dong Jun is even shouting and yelling with his roommate.
He is more excited than the players on the field.
The students from the Chinese department serve again, but at this point, they have all lost confidence, believing it's an impossible game to win.
There are fewer people running on the field, and the speed has slowed down, with everyone wearing a negative expression on their faces.
The ball is being passed among the students from the Chinese department but they still can't get it past the midfield.
Yang Baishan seizes an opportunity, steals the ball from behind one student, completes another interception, and then takes the lead, charging towards the goal.
His speed is incredible, bypassing three students from the Chinese department consecutively.
He arrives once again at the 45-degree position to the right of the goal.
"Swish!"
The ball enters the net again.
In less than ten minutes since the start, Yang Baishan completes a hat-trick!
One person scores three goals alone!
"Wow! Amazing!"
"Yang Baishan is amazing!"
"The Management and Engineering Department is amazing!"
Dong Jun and the other boys on the stands were shouting and cheering loudly. Although the crowd was small, the noise was anything but small.
On the field, Yang Baishan was also ecstatic, roaring loudly. He even made faces at the goalkeeper student.
However, faced with such mockery, the goalkeeper remained unmoved.
He lay on the grass, his eyes blank, already dazed by the game.
Yang Baishan ran back, high-fiving each teammate.
The students from the Management and Engineering Department in the back, although they hadn't touched the ball yet, felt the collective victory and honor, and everyone was excited.
Only Xu Xiuwen remained calm. He quickly said to Yang Baishan, "Old Yang, calm down. We agreed before the match that we must not win by a large margin. You're already drawing too much attention."
Yang Baishan didn't feel dampened by Xu Xiuwen's words. He hadn't forgotten that their biggest enemy was the Computer and Science Department.
He nodded and said, "Don't worry, Xiuwen, from now on, I won't shoot anymore. Let's just drag it out until the end."
The rest of the game unfolded accordingly.
Yang Baishan indeed refrained from shooting, occasionally fighting for possession and then intentionally making mistakes to give the ball to the Chinese Department.
Having lost confidence after conceding three goals, the Chinese Department's players decreased in number on the field, and their passing became sluggish.
It had become a rubbish game.
Passing back and forth among the ten players, an hour passed with only one occasion where the opposing forward took a strong shot at the goal from the backfield.
The ball arched through the air, then rolled to Xu Xiuwen's feet. Xu Xiuwen remained calm and passed accurately to his team's forward, who then "accidentally" made a mistake and lost the ball.
Until the end of the game, the Chinese Department didn't have a single chance to make a valid shot!
The game ended.
The Management and Engineering Department defeated the Chinese Department 3-0, easily advancing to the second round!