Chapter 1 The Celebration of Schalke 04 and the Worries of Klopp

Watching Draxler score, Schalke 04's players celebrated wildly, while Borussia Dortmund's players felt down.

Ricken, who had been watching the game from the stands, simply walked down, went around to the coaching bench, and stood next to Eckel.

Eckel was frowning.

Losing a goal was one thing; on the other hand, he was worried about Zhou Yi.

Clearly, when Schalke 04 adjusted in the second half, Zhou Yi was contained.

With Peter Lack's impolite, even somewhat rude defense, Zhou Yi had hardly any decent plays in the second half.

During this time, Borussia Dortmund was completely suppressed by Schalke 04.

In terms of overall strength, the current Schalke 04 youth team was still better than the Borussia Dortmund youth team, whether Borussia Dortmund admitted it or not.

"Zhou Yi's physical fitness..." Ricken also saw the crux of the problem.

"It's actually already very good. While doing physical training, he's also doing strength training. But his foundation is weak, there's no way around it. If our goal is to train him into a tank, that's completely impossible..." Eckel said, shaking his head.

"Of course, no one thinks Zhou Yi can become a player who can't be knocked down on the field, but at least he must have basic physical confrontation ability, right? He has to be able to withstand people and protect the ball, right?" Ricken was still dissatisfied with Zhou Yi's weak body.

"Slowly, slowly." Eckel wasn't too worried about Zhou Yi's body, because he knew that worrying was useless. Physical fitness couldn't be improved overnight, it required a long-term process. Just like Zhou Yi's stamina problem, when he first came to the Borussia Dortmund youth team, it was difficult for him to last half a game. After more than two months of hard training, Zhou Yi had already met the basic stamina requirements.

The same was true for strength.

"Then our game..." Ricken was also very helpless.

"Let's see," Eckel said.

※※※

After the game restarted, Schalke 04 tasted the sweetness of defending against Zhou Yi, so they continued to insist on this style of play.

Peter Lack still followed Zhou Yi closely, not allowing Zhou Yi to have the space to easily get the ball.

After successfully containing Zhou Yi, his mouth couldn't be idle again.

Every time he successfully defended Zhou Yi, he would mock Zhou Yi, to get back at Zhou Yi for making him speechless before.

"How is it, kid? Show me another through ball?"

"Don't you know how to pass straight? Let me see it!"

"You're so thin, soccer isn't for you, go play table tennis!"

……

So Zhou Yi felt as if there were a thousand flies around him, flying around him. Wherever he went, these thousand flies followed him every step of the way.

However, Zhou Yi didn't argue with him. His attention was now on how to break the deadlock, and he didn't have the energy to argue with others. Although when it came to verbal skills, he would definitely not lose to Peter Lack.

Now the other side was sticking to him, not even letting him turn around. How was he supposed to organize the offense?

Pass the ball backwards?

This was the only idea. To organize the offense, the ball must be passed towards the goal. In his current situation, he could only pass the ball backwards.

But even facing the goal, it wasn't easy to pass the ball accurately, let alone with his back to the goal.

He couldn't see what was behind him...

Who said he couldn't see what was behind him?

Zhou Yi turned his head, and like a high-speed camera, he took a picture of the situation behind him, and then turned his head to the other side, and the situation on the other side behind him was also in his mind.

Okay, now Zhou Yi could see everything behind him, but seeing it didn't mean he could pass the ball there.

This was also a big problem.

There were many limitations to backheel passes, and it was impossible to achieve the accuracy and power of a normal pass.

After Zhou Yi planned to try a backheel pass, he received a few more passes, but it was impossible to complete a backheel pass at all. He could only pass the ball back again, and the best result was a horizontal pass...

Behind him, Peter Lack's taunts continued, but Zhou Yi was tired of listening to them, because this kid was just repeating those few words over and over again, with no innovative spirit. After listening for a long time, the brain would automatically block it out, turning it into a meaningless background noise.

※※※

Ten minutes had passed since Borussia Dortmund lost the ball.

In these ten minutes, Schalke 04 took the initiative. Their offense was more threatening, Draxler performed prominently, and threatened Borussia Dortmund's goal time and time again on the wing and in the middle.

And Borussia Dortmund's infrequent attacks, because Zhou Yi was marked to death, couldn't threaten Schalke 04's goal.

Under Schalke 04's offensive, Borussia Dortmund's goal was in jeopardy, and they were likely to lose another goal, or even more goals.

"I think Borussia Dortmund will lose." Koutana spread her hands and said.

Her words immediately drew an angry look from her mother: "Don't talk nonsense!"

"Anyone who isn't stupid can see it, right, Mom?" Koutana shook her head. "How long has Mark not had a decent shot? That Zhou Yi can't pass the ball to his brother's feet at all."

Hearing what Koutana said, Mrs. Wagner also sighed. In fact, she knew in her heart that what her daughter said was right, Borussia Dortmund's situation was very dangerous.

But as a Borussia Dortmund fan, how could she easily admit that the team would lose to their deadly rival?

"Even if those players' heads are full of muscles, at least they have muscles. What about the Chinese boy? He doesn't even have muscles, how can he compete with that muscle man?" The "muscle man" Koutana was talking about was Peter Lack, who was following Zhou Yi every step of the way. He was nearly 1.9 meters tall, and his muscles were bulging. Just looking at him was very strong. In front of him, Zhou Yi was as thin as a child... No, Zhou Yi was originally a child, perhaps it should be said that Peter Lack was not as strong as a child.

But no matter what, in Koutana's view, Peter Lack was an insurmountable wall for Zhou Yi. With such a big difference in body, how could the Chinese boy win?

When she was bored, she also simulated the confrontation between Zhou Yi and Peter Lack, but no matter what the situation, Zhou Yi had no chance of winning.

※※※

Zhou Yi felt that the stamina in his body was being lost, and the recovery time was getting longer and longer, and the amount of recovery was getting less and less.

At this time, the game was not even seventy minutes yet.

In this game, in order to get rid of Peter Lack, Zhou Yi consumed more stamina than usual, and he felt more tired than usual in the warm-up matches.

He might not be able to last until the end of the ninety minutes, so he had to do something to change the situation of the game before being substituted.

He could see the gap behind him, and Mark could run there, but the ball couldn't get there, what was the use?

How could he get the ball over there?

Zhou Yi received another pass from his teammate, but this time the ball passed by his teammate was a little too strong. It didn't look like a pass at all, but more like... a shot!

Zhou Yi raised his foot to stop the ball, but because there was someone behind him, he lacked enough space to cushion the impact. After the ball hit the inside of his foot, it bounced out directly!

The ball was lost!

At the same time, Zhou Yi clearly heard a disdainful sneer from behind him. It must have been made by a thousand flies again...

But he didn't care about this, because he suddenly thought of something. It was as if a light had been lit in his mind by this ball!

Schalke 04 took the opportunity to launch a quick counterattack. Fortunately, Draxler's shot went high over the crossbar and didn't form a shot!

But it scared all the Borussia Dortmund supporters into a cold sweat.

Although the ball was lost at Zhou Yi's feet, Maher Hensel, the teammate who passed the ball just now, didn't shirk his responsibility. He indicated to Zhou Yi that he didn't pass well just now and used too much force.

But Zhou Yi's reaction surprised him.

Zhou Yi ran over and said to him, "It's okay, Maher, next time if there is a similar opportunity, you still pass like this!"

"I passed it too hard, Zhou Yi. I used too much force when passing the ball just now..." Hensel quickly explained.

"I know, I know. But what I want is your overpowered pass!"

"This..." Hensel was a little confused.

Zhou Yi didn't have time to explain so much to Hensel about what he planned to do, because the game was still in progress. He took advantage of the time when Draxler's shot went high over the crossbar to find Hensel. When he couldn't say it in detail, he patted Hensel on the shoulder: "In short, you believe me, Maher, pass the ball to me like this when the time comes, but the premise is that the situation must be the same as when you passed the ball to me just now!"

After speaking, he ran away. As for whether Hensel could really understand what he meant, he wasn't sure. But that's how soccer is, there are always unexpected situations, and it's impossible to really have everything under control.

And how to deal with these accidents is the interesting side of a soccer game.

Hensel looked at Zhou Yi's back as he ran away, still chewing on the last sentence he said.

The situation must be the same as when I passed the ball to him just now?

What was the situation just now?

Hensel carefully recalled it in his mind. Fortunately, this just happened, otherwise he might not be able to remember it clearly.

But now, he still remembers every detail when he passed the ball to Zhou Yi.

At that time, Zhou Yi was on the opponent's 30-meter area line, with his back to the attacking direction, and Schalke 04's Peter Lack was closely marking him behind him.

And further back was Schalke 04's defense line, but there was no Borussia Dortmund player in the middle, because Mark, who was playing forward in this game, didn't like to be fixed in one position in the penalty area, but kept running, and his running position was erratic.

When he pulled to the wing, the middle was naturally empty.

Basically, that's the situation.

Although he recalled the specific situation, Hensel still didn't know why Zhou Yi asked him to do this.

But as Zhou Yi said, just believe him.