Chapter Three: The Cheapest Point

More traveling reporters than home supporters watched Crown United's bus enter Lanhaven. Bookmakers offered twenty-nine to one on the hosts. A commentator called the match “a funeral delayed by licensing paperwork.” Gu projected the article onto the dressing-room wall, but offered no speech. “Their right winger Samuel is worth forty million. For ten minutes he'll attack the space behind Luo. Luo, you can't catch him.” Luo tightened his laces. “I know.” “So don't chase. Let him enter the place we've prepared.” Gu's sight could not reveal tactics, but it could reveal flaws. Samuel's left-foot touch lengthened after consecutive changes of direction at speed. Crown's striker misjudged high balls after physical contact.