The Worst Stadium, the Strongest Home Advantage

Fourteen cities and prefectures across the province, fourteen teams, and this was the one job nobody wanted. Bizhou needed a team for the Provincial Super League. No funding, no players, and a gravel field for a home ground. The stands were cracked wide enough to fit a fist, and the goal net had three holes. Online, people had given it a name: Beggar’s Field.

The man who took the job was Lu Yan. A veteran, an elementary school PE teacher, and not even a certified coach.

On his first day, he received a sheet of A4 paper with five names handwritten on it, each followed by a phone number. He opened his contacts and called them one by one.

“Bizhou team, Provincial Super League. You in?”

“Sure.”

A pair of patched-up old cleats. A goalkeeper who had never played a match. A thirty-four-year-old veteran who drove a truck. A college student who spent four hours each week traveling from his village.

Twenty-three people stood on the gravel, each playing their own game, a complete mess.

In an interview with the Provincial Sports Daily, last season’s top scorer, Chen Rui, laughed. “Bizhou’s just here to make up the numbers.”

Chen Yan didn’t comment or share the post. He saved the screenshot to his photo album. It already held three pictures: a broken goal, a cracked stand, and a weed poking through a gap in the ground. Then he wrote two lines on the paper:

“Three months. Five o’clock every day. Run five kilometers.”

“Find twenty more.”

Three months later, in Xingzhou, an away game.

Penalty shootout, ninth round. Hao Zheng had saved six of the first eight shots.

Wei Hao placed the ball on the penalty spot, stepped back four paces, and raised his head.

In the stands, twenty thousand people were on their feet.