The prestigious Centennial School Cup │ A thrilling showdown of the "Su Super", this is what campus football is all about!

Written by / Zuo Rui The well-known "Su Super" has permeated campuses in Jiangsu, and even in the emerging youth events like "Let Women's Football Come Home" and the "Centennial School Cup", whenever a Jiangsu team appears, the essence of "Su Super" can always be felt.

The second "Centennial School Cup" football elite exchange competition has been significantly upgraded, attracting 16 teams from 15 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions in the elementary school group alone. Only the host Qidong City and Hehe Primary School, along with Yixing Experimental Primary School, are teams from the same province. Thus, the "Jiangsu Derby" in the second round of Group C on the morning of the 23rd is seen as a rare county-level elementary school "Su Super" clash between Nantong and Wuxi.

Before the two teams met, both had suffered heavy defeats. "The passing of Zhongguancun Primary School was incredibly smooth; we can't find such opponents in Qidong or even the entire Nantong City," praised Hehe Primary School's head coach Sheng Jinhao regarding the capital team's technical skills and passing combinations. After the game, this sports teacher, who loves football and is also keen on learning, sought out the opposing coach Hong Jian to inquire about training methods and execution plans, concluding that the opponent indeed "practices harder and is more efficient than us." Sheng Jinhao estimated that even if a Nantong team of the same age group came, they would still "not be able to beat them."

The host, who lost by five goals in the first round, was somewhat fortunate. The Yixing Experimental Primary School, from the same province, was defeated by the renowned Zhengzhou Zhengshang Road Primary School with an even more lopsided score, failing to score a single goal themselves. Team leader Jiang Wenfeng believes that the outcome of the clash between "Zhongguancun" and "Zhengshang Road" in Group C is hard to predict, and their "provincial derby" against the host is also a battle of equals. "Including our two teams, the elementary schools in Yixing and Qidong have never faced each other on the football field," he noted, explaining that the two places are over two hundred kilometers apart, and there is rarely any exchange in campus football between them, "We are separated by a long river."

After the match began, the tense stalemate lasted nearly 20 minutes, with the visiting team scoring first. But just one minute later, the home team also found the net. The 1-1 tie held until the second half, and the atmosphere intensified, far exceeding the local temperature of 30 degrees Celsius under the Jiangtao sea breeze. For both teams, if they couldn't extinguish the opponent in the second half, their dreams of "chasing light" in Qidong would end in total defeat.

Objectively speaking, the host was somewhat passive on the field, with their opponents from Yixing threatening the goal several times. The voices and intentions projected from the coaching bench intensified the intensity of the match. Seeing the home team's player injured and lying on the ground, Sheng Jinhao was eager to jump in himself, hearing the visiting coach's furious shout, "Whoever isn't fighting, get off immediately!" This was undoubtedly a dramatic clash in the tranquil summer campus.

The coaching staff's incessant Mandarin, mixed with a lot of "Wu dialect," received firm execution from the players on the field and even prompted deep involvement from the substitutes. "Shut up! What are you shouting about?" warned the assistant coach while also directing the action on the field, not forgetting to caution the bench players.

With three minutes left in the game, the tension was at its peak, and the dramatic effect you love finally arrived. Unable to organize an effective attack, Hehe Primary School seized a completely opportunistic chance, gaining possession in the front and being brought down in the box by a defender. A penalty! The designated penalty taker chosen by Sheng Jinhao scored effortlessly, and it was exhilarating! 2-1 — the home team erupted in celebration, but the story was far from over.

Yixing Experimental Primary School quickly restarted the game, swiftly breaking through the opponent's defense, and quickly scored within the box — 2-2. The visiting team celebrated avoiding a last-minute defeat while Tan Zhan immediately substituted in a backup goalkeeper to prepare for the impending penalty shootout. The last time something like this happened in the world of football was when renowned coach Van Gaal did it during the 2014 World Cup, ultimately having his substitute goalkeeper save two penalties, leading the Netherlands past Costa Rica into the semifinals.

However, the "Centennial School Cup" is not the World Cup, and elementary school campus football has its own style of play. Since many children are accustomed to playing on smaller 5-a-side fields before playing 8-a-side matches, directly shooting from the kickoff has proven to be one scoring method. Many teams have attempted this in the second "Centennial School Cup," but none succeeded due to the distance being too far.

The first goal from a center circle kickoff actually occurred in the elementary school version of the "Su Super" match. With no substitutes available, Hehe Primary School's backup goalkeeper, No. 22 Sun Zhixuan, had already come on as a defender for a while. As the team's strongest player, he had experience scoring from a center circle kickoff and repeated the feat, sending the ball straight into the corner, just as the final whistle blew. He ran off the field shouting, "Last-second winner!"

The highly anticipated penalty shootout did not occur, but an unexpected world-class goal came out of nowhere — this is what campus football should look like. After the match, Sun Zhixuan told "Football" in an interview that he had scored similar goals before, and to improve his long-range kicking accuracy, he often practices on the grass outside his home.

It is known that Sun Zhixuan regularly watches the "Su Super" on television. The closest home ground to Qidong for the Nantong team is in Haimen, and with only over 20,000 seats, even head coach Sheng Jinhao couldn't get tickets, "Otherwise, I would want to take the whole team to Haimen to watch the 'Su Super'." In this regard, the guests from Yixing are relatively fortunate, as they have three home games in Wuxi this season.

"I think 'Su Super' is great; it allows more parents to understand football and encourages more children in Jiangsu to play," said 51-year-old Sheng Jinhao. He believes that the standard for judging whether an event is successful is not the competitive level, but whether it can attract more people to pay attention to football, "Even if you see it as an event that became popular due to hype, it is still beneficial for the development of Chinese football." In fact, promoting the development of Chinese football is also the goal of the "Centennial School Cup."