Chapter 1 Players Celebrating

The Chinese players were celebrating their third goal. Judging solely by their celebration, you wouldn't think they were the ones trailing. It was easy to assume they had equalized or even reversed the score.

The Borussia Dortmund youth team players who witnessed this scene were somewhat disdainful.

"It's just a lucky goal, what's there to be so happy about? They're still behind!"

"Yeah, yeah, this is just really good luck…"

"That kid clearly wanted to cross, but he shanked it and it became a shot. What a stroke of good fortune!"

Just as everyone was expressing their disdain, Götze suddenly said, "But doesn't it piss you off?"

His words silenced everyone.

Yes, they were all annoyed. Precisely because they were annoyed, they found excuses to use disdain to mask their true emotions.

Götze turned his head to look at the Chinese team. They had finished celebrating and were running back, all clustered around the number sixteen who had scored the goal.

He had already completed a hat-trick in this game, and also had an assist, but why did he still feel like that number sixteen was the most eye-catching guy?

※※※

"Two assists and a goal! Is that surprise enough?" Xu Yang asked Hao Dong excitedly.

"This kid's performance is better than anyone expected!" Hao Dong was also very happy. "I have an idea, Xu. From this game on, let Zhou Yi be the core of this team, not He Ying. This team should revolve around Zhou Yi, with Zhou Yi controlling the whole team on the field. He has that ability!"

In his excitement, Xu Yang didn't object. He nodded. "Well, with this kind of performance, he has enough prestige and persuasiveness to be the core of the team!"

Liang Qiqi sat blankly in his chair. His substitute teammates around him all stood up to cheer for the goal, but he was petrified.

He had originally thought that after Zhou Yi exhausted his stamina, his performance would decline sharply, and he would eventually be unable to handle the task, and be replaced by himself.

He didn't expect that this kid would score a goal under such circumstances! Making his performance even better!

With this kind of performance, even Liang Qiqi himself didn't dare to say that he could take back the starting position from Zhou Yi…

Isn't this kid an amateur player?

Isn't he the weakest in our team?

Why?

Why does he perform like this when he comes on the field?

Klopp rubbed his hands excitedly, his eyes under his glasses reflecting the light of the gold in front of him.

Yes, he had discovered a piece of gold. Although it wasn't perfect yet, its future was worth looking forward to.

At this moment, Klopp made a decision.

※※※

After the game restarted, Dortmund launched a fierce attack on the Chinese team's goal. They wanted to continue scoring goals before the end of the game. Zhou Yi's goal had made the score 5:3: This was not a score that the Borussia Dortmund youth team players could be satisfied with.

The Chinese team retreated across the board, with Guo Nu, Yang Muge, and Sun Pan being active in defense. Especially Guo Nu, with his excellent physical qualities, could compete against the Dortmund players without being at a disadvantage.

At this time, people realized that Guo Nu had been hindered by his personality defects all along. In fact, his physical qualities were probably among the best in this Chinese team. Although he was not tall, his jumping ability was extremely outstanding. He was short, with a low center of gravity, so he was sturdy and difficult to knock over. He had strong explosive power and fast turning speed.

Such a person, playing as a center back, actually performed better than a real center back…

Zhou Yi was completely unable to run anymore, so he stayed in front of the team's penalty area, doing symbolic defensive work.

Yang Muge knew about Zhou Yi's situation, so he ran more actively, helping Zhou Yi make up for his gaps.

Even He Ying retreated to help defend.

Under the Chinese team's united defense, they didn't let the Borussia Dortmund youth team score another goal until the end of the game!

In the end, the Chinese teenagers lost to the Borussia Dortmund youth team with a score of 3:5 at Dortmund's training base.

※※※

Although they lost the game, when the game ended, the Chinese team's players and coaches, and even the crew members, were very happy.

After losing four consecutive games, and not scoring a single goal in these four games, the significance of the game could no longer be simply measured by victory or defeat.

For them, scoring goals and performing well on the field was progress.

I believe anyone who has watched this game will no longer scold so harshly.

We lost because our strength is indeed inferior to others.

But there are many ways to lose. Today, the way the Chinese teenagers lost the game was exciting and gave people hope.

More important than the outcome is the spirit shown. Losing like in the previous four games makes people completely unable to see hope.

When the young players came off the field, assistant coach Xu Yang stood on the sidelines and gave each of them a high five: "Good game!" "Well done!" "Good performance!" "Improvement!"

He encouraged and comforted these children one by one.

However, the teenagers who were being encouraged and comforted all had smiles on their faces, which was completely different from the expressions after the previous games.

When it was Zhou Yi's turn, Xu Yang didn't just give him a high five, but gave him a hug directly.

"You kid!" He also affectionately rubbed Zhou Yi's hair, making his hair very messy.

Zhou Yi was lying in Xu Yang's arms, without the strength to resist, so he had to let him mess up his hairstyle.

Forget about the principle of "head can be broken, blood can flow, hairstyle cannot be messed up".

On the other side, head coach Hao Dong was shaking hands with Dortmund's youth training director, Ricken.

Laubal left after watching the first half because he was the club president and had a lot of things to do.

"Honestly, I'm surprised, Hao. Your strength is stronger than we thought. All three goals were beautiful." Ricken praised sincerely.

Hao Dong did not choose the inherent Chinese virtue of modesty at this time: "They are all top-notch players in China at the age of seventeen!"

"Seeing them, I believe your country's football has hope in the future." It is not known whether Ricken's words were polite flattery, or sincere words that were really bluffed by Hao Dong.

But the Chinese side was happy to hear these words.

※※※

In stark contrast to the Chinese teenagers' happiness at losing the game was the performance of the Borussia Dortmund youth team players after the game.

Although they won the game, everyone was not very happy.

Especially in the final stages of the game, after letting the Chinese team score another goal, they tried desperately to widen the score, but they never succeeded, which felt like they had lost the game.

Looking back at what they thought before the game, they thought they could easily win by double digits before the game.

Who would have thought that they only scored five goals, and let the other side score three goals! They were behind twice in the game, and they were the ones who conceded the first goal.

This was simply a disgrace.

So, although they clearly won the game, the expressions on everyone's faces were not very good.

Götze also did not celebrate the victory after the game. For him, this was no longer a victory, it was more like a failure.

He turned his attention to the losing Chinese players.

He saw the number ten player who scored two goals standing in front of the camera, a Chinese cameraman was filming and interviewing him.

As a Chinese player who scored twice in this game, it was not surprising to enjoy such treatment.

But Götze quickly looked away and turned to another person, the number sixteen of the Chinese team.

That person was being supported by their goalkeeper, sitting on the grass on the side of the training ground, surrounded by several people.

They were chatting, and he was smiling, smiling a little tiredly, but still smiling.

As a midfielder, Götze was deeply impressed by this number sixteen player in the game.

Thinking of this, he suddenly walked towards number sixteen.

※※※

"Your starting position is stable!" Sun Pan said to Zhou Yi while massaging the muscles of Zhou Yi's thigh, "Let that Liang Qiqi stick his butt on the bench! Ha!"

Zhou Yi smiled and did not speak. It was not that he wanted to show off at this time, but that he really didn't have the strength. As a student player, he had never experienced such a high-intensity ninety-minute game. Whether it was playing in the school's campus football league, participating in the national audition finals of the reality show, or even the internal scrimmages of the current team, there was no way to compare it with this game.

This was the first time he participated in such a game, and he played for a full ninety minutes, which was indeed a very severe test and challenge for his physical fitness.

He had a deeper understanding of head coach Hao Dong's request for him to practice strength and physical fitness for two weeks after joining the team.

If he hadn't trained seriously at the beginning, he would have been substituted off after the first half.

And this was just a youth team level game, not a real professional league.

His goal was to be a professional player. If he wanted to improve in professional games, there was still a long way to go and many things to do.

Yang Muge was massaging the muscles of Yang Muge's other leg, and he also praised Zhou Yi's performance: "Yes, with Zhou Yi on the field, I feel much more at ease playing. At least I don't have to rush up and then immediately retreat to defend…"

Guo Nu squatted next to Zhou Yi and said to Zhou Yi, "Th-thank you, Zhou Yi."

Although the team lost five goals in this game, Guo Nu had mistakes that led to the loss of goals, and there were also mistakes that did not lead to the loss of goals. There were also times when he lost control of his emotions in the game, but every time Zhou Yi would immediately call him loudly to keep him calm. If it weren't for Zhou Yi, he wouldn't have been able to stay on the field until the end of the game.

Zhou Yi finally recovered, and he turned his head and smiled at Guo Nu: "Let's continue tonight, Lao Guo…"

"I'll go? Again?!" Sun Pan was shocked, "That, the game just ended, and you look exhausted. I think we should rest tonight, Zhou Yi?"

"I'm just sitting and talking, why would I be tired? Lao Guo, are you tired?" Zhou Yi turned to Guo Nu and asked.

"Not tired!" Guo Nu blurted out. As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Sun Pan's murderous gaze staring at him.

He shrank his neck, but he didn't change his mind.

At this moment, suddenly a person appeared next to them.

"Hi!" He greeted everyone present in German.

And after the four people saw clearly who it was, they were all a little surprised.

※※※

It wasn't just Zhou Yi and the other three who were surprised. Everyone else present was also surprised. When they saw Götze suddenly walking to Zhou Yi's side, they all locked their eyes on that area.

They were curious as to what Götze was suddenly going to do with the Chinese team's players.

Even Ricken, who was talking to Hao Dong, was a little surprised.

"Hello." Zhou Yi said to Götze in English. He was no stranger to Götze, because in the virtual system, he had played against this person thirty-two times.

Götze was very happy to see Zhou Yi respond to him. He very quickly took off his Dortmund jersey and handed it to Zhou Yi.

Although the two people didn't speak the same language, everyone understood this action - he wanted to exchange jerseys!

"Damn, awesome!" Sun Pan exclaimed next to him.

Not counting this one, the Chinese teenagers had played four games in Europe. In these four games, no one from the Chinese team had ever successfully exchanged jerseys - because people didn't exchange, after the game ended, they shook hands and left.

Unexpectedly, the first jersey exchange of the Chinese teenagers actually happened to Zhou Yi, and... it was the other person who took the initiative to come over!

When Zhou Yi saw Götze's actions, he quickly stood up from the ground. He understood what Götze meant.

He also took off his jersey, which was soaked with sweat, and handed it to Götze.

While taking the jersey, Götze also shook hands with Zhou Yi and then gave Zhou Yi a thumbs up.

Although he didn't say anything, everyone knew what this series of actions meant.

Obviously, among so many people in the Chinese team, only Zhou Yi had gained the recognition and appreciation of the number one star of the Borussia Dortmund youth team.

He Ying, who was being filmed and interviewed, also turned his head to look at Zhou Yi.

The cameraman also shook the camera over.

He saw Götze exchanging jerseys with Zhou Yi, and He Ying turning his head to look made him think that He Ying was very disappointed. After all, He Ying scored two goals in this game. Logically speaking, if they were going to exchange jerseys, then they should come to He Ying to exchange.

So he comforted him: "Maybe Götze saw that you were being interviewed, so he went to find..."

Unexpectedly, He Ying turned his head back and interrupted him: "No, Zhou Yi deserves it."

He had a smile on his face, faint, but sincere.