The team's main goalkeeper, Sebastian Militz, was practicing penalty shootout tactics with the help of his teammates. The matches in the Telecommunications Cup often go to penalty shootouts.
So, they need to practice penalty kicks and defending against them in advance to avoid being unprepared when the time comes.
Facing an empty goal for free kicks always felt like something was missing. So Lin Quan invited the team's backup goalkeeper, Wolf, to help guard the goal.
Although Wolf was the second goalkeeper, being able to serve as a backup for a Bundesliga team meant he had considerable strength.
Facing the free kicks from Debruyne and Lin Quan, he made high dives and low saves, almost catching all their shots.
"Kevin, your shot isn't fast enough, and the trajectory is too predictable. If the goalkeeper is focused, it's difficult to threaten the goal!"
Seeing Debruyne wanting to practice the elevator ball, Wolf spoke up to advise him:
"You need to add some variation to your shots!"
Debruyne put his hands on his hips, pondering over the ball on the ground.
Add some variation to the shot? How do I do that?
The elevator ball requires controlling the spin of the ball and maintaining high speed, which is already quite difficult to achieve.
Adding more variation to it seems challenging.
"Let me try?"
Lin Quan had been practicing outside-of-the-foot shots for a while but always felt lacking compared to Quaresma's. So he became interested in Debruyne's elevator ball practice.
He didn't know if Messi had this move in his arsenal, as Messi often prefers to take curved free kicks. Lin Quan hadn't seen the elevator ball himself.
Debruyne nodded, stepping aside.
Lin Quan stood at the penalty spot, took a deep breath, and thought about the movements of several elevator ball masters: Cristiano Ronaldo, Pirlo, Juninho...
He took a few steps back, then sprinted forward. After aiming carefully, he struck the ball.
Wolf stood in front of the goal, unmoved. There was no ball in the goal, of course.
So, where did the ball go?
At this moment, a bystander near the sidelines, who was almost hit by the ball, expressed his frustration!
"Sorry, sorry, didn't hurt you, did I?"
Lin Quan hurriedly ran to the sidelines to apologize to the person.
He hadn't controlled the angle of the shot well, and the ball soared high, flying more than fifty meters before coming down.
The other person rubbed his dizzy head while looking up at the perpetrator, seemingly wanting to remember which jerk kicked him.
Seeing Lin Quan's green team jersey with the number 10 printed on it, the other person seemed to recall something.
"You're the winger from Werder Bremen?"
Lin Quan was a bit surprised that someone recognized him after just one official match. Wait a minute, could this guy be a spy sent by Borussia Dortmund to gather intelligence?
Perhaps only competitors would pay such close attention to an opponent's player, Lin Quan thought to himself.
"Let me introduce myself. I'm George Evans, a scout from Chelsea. I watched the video of your match yesterday, and you performed great!"
"Thank you, Mr. Evans. Are you here to track Kevin's performance?" Lin Quan asked, realizing the other's identity.
Werder Bremen's teammate, Debruyne, was a Chelsea player. Chelsea paid £8 million to acquire him, so they would definitely be interested in how he performed while on loan.
It was normal to send a scout to track and observe him, but this scout seemed too young, barely in his twenties.
Such a young age indicated that he was a newcomer among scouts and had little authority within the club.
Chelsea sending someone like him to observe Debruyne meant they didn't value Debruyne too much.
"Well, sort of. But since the team's forwards have collectively underperformed, I'm also tasked with scouting other teams' forwards from outside."
"So, who are you scouting now?" Lin Quan asked casually.
Chelsea's striking weaknesses were no secret in the football world.
When they spent £50 million to bring Liverpool's star forward Torres to Stamford Bridge, they imagined the "Child of Destiny" would dominate and score goals left and right.
However, their £50 million ended up buying them a "big flop." Due to injuries and tactical misfits, Torres struggled tremendously at Chelsea.
After two seasons, in which he played 60 matches for the team, he only scored 10 goals, with a terribly low efficiency!
Although Chelsea won the Champions League last season, their victories relied more on defense than offense.
If they don't address the team's offensive issues, their performance this season will surely plummet.
So, this summer, Chelsea waved their checkbook and scoured the world for strikers.
They first brought Hazard from Lille for €35 million, then spent €8 million to acquire Marco Marin from Werder Bremen.
They then spent €32 million to buy Oscar, an attacking midfielder from Internacional...
This summer, Chelsea has already spent over a hundred million euros, and it seems like they're not stopping anytime soon.
The wealthy owner, Abramovich, claims he's not short on money and wants to find a big name for Chelsea, preferably one of the top strikers in the football world.
Thus, there were rumors of Chelsea making an offer to Barcelona to buy Messi.
Of course, this rumor is mostly hearsay. After all, last year, even when Manchester City was willing to pay £250 million for Messi, Barcelona didn't let him go. Considering the feud between Chelsea and Barcelona, it's even less likely for Barcelona to sell.
George glanced at Lin Quan. "Why are you asking about this?"
The matter of the team buying players definitely couldn't be spread casually. If it were leaked in advance, it could easily lead to other teams snatching or raising prices.
"Just afraid you might come and poach our team's forwards again!" Lin Quan casually replied.
"That won't happen. Your team's stars are too few. We've already bought Marco Marin. Who else from your team is worth Chelsea poaching?"
Uh...
That's a harsh truth, although it sounds unpleasant.
The potential and future achievements of Werder Bremen's players are not high. They don't even have a single star player; they're all just a group of cheap and effective workers.
So, the only possible targets for his scouting would be players from Borussia Dortmund.
Considering Dortmund's performance last season and the impact of Manchester United buying Shinji Kagawa from Dortmund, it's quite normal for Chelsea to poach from Dortmund.
Just not sure whom they're eyeing?
Is it the future top striker Lewandowski, or Dortmund's midfield core Götze?
Considering Chelsea's striker and midfield reserves, the likelihood of them buying Lewandowski is slightly higher.
This has nothing to do with him. Chelsea certainly won't fork out money to buy him, and even if they did, he wouldn't want to go to Chelsea to play.
The intense physical confrontations in the Premier League are not very friendly to young players.
It's better for him to stay in the Bundesliga, where it's suitable for young talents to level up, until he develops immunity to injuries.
With the football in his arms, Lin Quan returned to the field to continue discussing the intricacies of the elevator ball with Debruyne.
Lin Quan has rich theoretical knowledge but lacks a bit in strength.
Debruyne has enough strength but lacks in theoretical knowledge.
Theoretical knowledge is easy to learn, but increasing strength is not that easy.
So Lin Quan shared his understanding of how to kick the elevator ball with Debruyne and guided him in practicing it.
If Debruyne can master this skill, the team will have an additional option for free kicks in the future.
...
The morning training only lasted for an hour and a half. After lunch, the team began tactical drills.
At 5:30 in the afternoon, the players boarded the bus to Dortmund's home stadium, the Westfalenstadion, to adapt to the venue in advance and warm up before the match.
At the same time, Dortmund's players also set off by bus. The two teams unexpectedly met at the entrance of the stadium.
The final of the Telecommunications Cup is about to begin!
(End of this chapter)