Chapter 8

Passing and receiving training is the foundation of Brazilian football training, being the most important technical training item. Even after mastering it, players continue to practice it frequently. Even the current São Paulo under-18 youth team schedules two dedicated passing and receiving training sessions each week.

The coach employs a variety of constantly changing running and passing methods to train the players' ability to pass and receive while on the move, requiring them to run quickly and perform continuous one-touch passes without stopping. This training method is highly effective for developing the Brazilian style of short-passing play.

However, that is advanced training content.

What Rongguang needs to do now is the most basic passing and receiving training.

He and Lucas stand facing each other, passing the ball back and forth.

There is no need to run back and forth; both passing and receiving are done while standing still.

In a square space measuring ten yards (about nine meters) by ten yards, Rongguang and Lucas pass the ball to each other. They start with the simplest and most commonly used pass—the inside-of-the-foot push pass.

The push pass is the most reliable technique for accurate short-range ground passes. When passing, the kicking foot is turned outward, and the part of the shoe that contacts the ball is aligned at the correct angle. The ankle should be tense and firm; otherwise, you won't be able to control the direction of the pass. To prevent the ball from flying up, the shoe should contact the ball along its horizontal midline.

The supporting foot should be positioned far enough from the side of the ball to ensure the kicking leg can swing freely.

The action of receiving the ball with the inside of the foot is also simple. It's similar to the push pass, but one is striking the ball, and the other is receiving it—when the ball rolls over, the receiving foot should be slightly pulled back to create a buffer, so that when the ball comes with too much force, it won't bounce away and lose control. This is where the practice of juggling the ball comes in handy for Rongguang.

Through juggling practice, he has become accustomed to the feeling of pulling back his foot to buffer the ball. After juggling, the ball must be kicked up again, but when receiving, the ball can be stopped directly after the buffer.

So, for Rongguang, who has already mastered juggling, receiving the ball with the inside of the foot is very simple.

After breaking down the key points of passing and receiving, Lucas stepped back and began practicing with Rongguang.

"Come on, pass the ball to me," Lucas shouted, raising his hands from about nine meters away.

At the same time, the youth team players on the training ground were paying attention to this training session.

They turned their heads to look at Rongguang.

Rongguang stepped back and swung his right foot to kick the ball!

The ball didn't go flying, but his right foot hit his left ankle, causing him to lose balance and trip over himself!

"Ahahaha!" Some of the youth team players burst out laughing.

"Too stupid! Stupid to the point of being unbearable!"

"Is this idiot really boasting about defeating Kaká?"

"Defeat Kaká? In your next life!"

"What are you doing? Focus on your training!" Waldemar's scolding voice rang out.

Lucas also heard the laughter from the youth team. Although he couldn't hear what they were saying, the laughter was enough to tell him the problem.

"These bastards..." Even though they were on the same team, he felt they were being a bit too harsh.

A beginner expressing his aspirations, what was there to mock?

He looked at Rongguang, who had already gotten up from the ground.

"Was my supporting foot too close to the ball just now?" Rongguang asked Lucas seriously, ignoring the laughter.

His seriousness surprised Lucas.

He never expected Rongguang's first words after getting up to be about a technical issue. He thought Rongguang would have started yelling back at them...

"Ah... Oh, yes. When you passed the ball, your supporting foot was too close, which not only made it hard to generate power but also caused you to kick your own supporting foot, just like that ridiculous mistake you made."

"Okay, let's try again!" Rongguang shouted with renewed determination, seemingly unaffected by the malicious laughter.

***

After dinner, Rongguang left the house with a football.

Godo knew he was going to find a place to train, so he just reminded him, "Don't come back too late," and then continued watching TV.

Rongguang went to the rooftop of the building.

This was a fifteen-story apartment building where he and Lucas lived.

The top floor was the rooftop.

There were few people there, so Rongguang could train undisturbed.

After doing the basic warm-up, he started juggling the ball.

He no longer counted how many times he could juggle the ball in a row.

He could juggle while thinking about other things, multitasking, which showed that his body had memorized the feeling, and the purpose of juggling to familiarize himself with the ball was achieved.

The ball went up and down, up and down in front of Rongguang's eyes.

It was like a pendulum swinging vertically.

Looking at the ball, Rongguang thought about far-off China, his hometown. What time was it there?

Were his grandparents doing well?

Was his younger brother studying hard?

And his parents and sister working in Shanghai, how were they doing?

When he first arrived in São Paulo, he wrote them a letter, but he didn't know if they had received it.

It had been almost a month since he arrived, but he hadn't earned any money yet.

Every day, he was doing the most monotonous and basic training.

He didn't know how long this would continue.

When would he be able to play matches like the professional players in the first team and earn big money and fame?

He heard the laughter from the training ground today.

But when would he be able to prove himself and silence them?

Rongguang finished his juggling practice and looked at the ball at his feet. He had come up to practice passing and receiving. Even without a partner, he had a way to practice.

The stairwell protruded from the rooftop, with walls on all four sides. He could kick the ball against the wall to practice passing.

When the ball hit the wall and bounced back, he would extend his foot to stop it, practicing receiving.

As long as he had a wall and a ball, he could practice passing and receiving, which was very simple.

But when Rongguang stood with the ball at his feet, looking at the white wall opposite, he suddenly felt a bit reluctant.

Although the idea of learning to shoot had been discouraged by the coach, when he was alone without a coach, that desire stirred again...

Rongguang moved the ball to a spot about ten meters from the wall, almost at the edge of the rooftop. The chest-high concrete railing was against his back. He couldn't retreat any further.

The summer night wind in São Paulo was strong on the fifteenth-floor rooftop, howling and blowing through Rongguang's increasingly long hair and his thin T-shirt.

The lights from nearby buildings were bright in Rongguang's field of vision. As he focused on the white wall opposite, the lights in his eyes became blurry, forming spots, and his focus landed on the white wall.

The moonlight shone on the rooftop, and although there was no lighting, the white wall reflected the moonlight and appeared bright.

By coincidence, the wall was exactly 7.3 meters long and 2.5 meters high, similar in size to a standard goal.

In Rongguang's eyes, this was his goal.

Godo had said that the most exciting moment in a football match was when a player took a shot, and the climax was when a goal was scored. Just like in basketball, where slam dunks are the most attention-grabbing and popular.

This statement was deeply etched in the mind of the novice Rongguang.

The desire to learn to shoot and score had taken root and grown stronger since then.

Although Coach Waldemar said that learning to shoot now was meaningless, Rongguang still wanted to try...

He wanted to try the feeling of shooting, to see what it was like.

Rongguang looked at the "goal" opposite and then at the ball at his feet.

He imagined himself in a match, with the howling wind on the rooftop being the疯狂的球迷在看台上的呐喊声。

他们在高呼：“荣光！射门！射门！荣光！能不能进球，就看你的了！”

被寄予厚望的感觉让荣光热血涌上了头，他助跑，然后一脚踢中了足球！

射门！

足球腾空而起，在夜空划出了一道弧线。

然后高高越过了楼梯间的那堵墙，奔着前方的灯火通明而去……接着便消失在了那些光斑中。

他踢飞了。

稍后，远处传来了玻璃破碎的声音，人的惊呼和狗叫。

***

Godo heard the door and turned to see Rongguang returning. He glanced at the clock on the wall, surprised. It had only been half an hour...

"Back so soon today?"

"Uh... Can you buy me another football tomorrow, Godo?" Rongguang said, a bit embarrassed.

Godo then noticed that Rongguang had no football in his hands or at his feet.

"What happened?"

"I kicked it off the rooftop and can't find it..." Rongguang scratched his head.

Godo laughed.

It seems the passing and receiving practice didn't go well... to be able to kick the ball off the rooftop in one shot.

But that's normal, considering it was his first day of passing and receiving training. Even if Rongguang was a quick learner, he couldn't master it in one day.

He didn't blame Rongguang but nodded, "Sure, I'll buy a new ball tomorrow."

After saying goodbye to Godo, Rongguang returned to his room.

He closed the door and stood behind it, head down.

In front of him, it seemed there was a football.

He recalled the feeling of his shot on the rooftop.

Although he missed, the moment of shooting felt really interesting, more interesting than juggling or passing and receiving practice...

Pretending there was a ball in front of him, Rongguang mimicked the shooting action, kicking the "football."

In his imagination, the ball was kicked accurately towards the goal, bypassing the goalkeeper's defense, and hit the net with a pleasant sound.

Beautiful!

Rongguang clenched his fists, a smile spreading across his face.

Shooting is indeed very interesting!