Chapter 96: High-pressing, Crazy Dog Tactics!
After the goal, facing the eerily quiet stadium.
Lin Quan put his finger to his lips, ran to the sidelines, facing the South Stand of Schalke 04, and made a gesture for silence.
This was clearly in response to the provocation and booing from the Werder Bremen fans before.
Having played for over thirty minutes in an environment filled with noise and jeers, Lin Quan had long been annoyed by these fans.
He was booed when he entered the field, booed when he received the ball, and even booed when he passed the ball.
And now it's quiet! What, I scored and you won't even give me face? Not gonna boo me? You look down on me, Lin, huh?
Come on, boo me, I'm not used to it if you don't! Schalke's fans were furious!
Not only did they boo loudly, but some fans on the sidelines even threw things onto the field.
Paper, beverage bottles, fruit peels, keychains, coins... Huh? This coin is actually a 2 euro coin, who's so generous?
Lin Quan pretended to pick up the coin in front of him, further angering the home fans. A burly fan was so angry that he started tearing down the seats in the stadium, seemingly intending to smash Lin Quan to death.
Lin Quan was startled and quickly slipped away before the opponent succeeded.
The fans at the Werder Bremen Stadium were extremely angry. The opponent's provocation, coupled with the team's conceding a goal, ignited their anger to a level that could almost burn through the roof of the stadium.
They couldn't accept that the opponent scored under such circumstances!
Are those two defenders fucking moles, or did they buy the opponent to win, so they came to play rigged matches? Other than this explanation, they couldn't find any other reasonable explanation to make them believe that their own defenders' defense like wooden stakes wasn't intentional.
But there were also some who were rather unusual: "It's worthy of Lin, his feints are just too real, I really can't defend against him!"
Although Atsuto Uchida was in a very embarrassing situation, there was no trace of frustration on his face. Instead, having witnessed the opponent's strength firsthand, he felt a kind of excitement akin to being a brain-dead fan.
There are quite a few Japanese and Korean players in European leagues, like Shinji Kagawa, who was bought by the English Premier League powerhouse Manchester United a few months ago, is the pride of the Japanese national team.
However, Atsuto Uchida felt that compared to Lin Quan, his national team teammate Shinji Kagawa was far inferior!
Shinji Kagawa was not an absolute core player in Borussia Dortmund, at best, he shared the core position with players like Marco Reus and Robert Lewandowski.
But in Werder Bremen, Lin Quan was the absolute core.
And the goal just now further proved his judgment.
In training with the national team, he could freeze Shinji Kagawa.
But when facing Lin Quan, even with the good cooperation of his teammates, they were still easily bypassed by the opponent.
The defensive arrangements they had carefully prepared for Lin Quan seemed like decorations in front of the opponent and had no effect whatsoever.
How could a yellow-skinned person achieve this level? Atsuto Uchida felt no jealousy in his heart, only admiration!
...
After this goal, the situation on the field changed drastically.
Schalke 04, behind in their home field, became somewhat disoriented.
Although the fierce offensive play between the two sides before seemed thrilling, with no one scoring, it meant that everyone was still on the same starting line.
But now, Werder Bremen scored first.
The balance between the two sides was broken! After breaking the balance of the game, Schalke 04 players attempted a full-scale attack to equalize the score.
But as they intensified their attack, their defense became increasingly vulnerable.
The tactics that Schaff had formulated for today were to defend and counterattack after taking the lead, attracting the opponent's attacks, and then seizing the opportunity of the opponent's defense being empty in the backfield to counterattack, using the speed of the two wingers.
This tactic might not be effective in positional battles.
But when the opponent pressed forward, the effect was excellent.
In the 38th minute, Schalke's siege on Werder Bremen's goal was fruitless.
After Werder Bremen ended the opponent's attack, they quickly launched another rapid counterattack.
After Yunusovic intercepted the ball, he quickly passed it to De Bruyne. De Bruyne's pass of over 30 meters diagonally found winger Elia in the frontcourt.
Elia accelerated along the wing with the ball, and Schalke players chased after him frantically.
The off-the-ball speed of the Dutch winger was fast, but with the ball, it was a bit slower.
Seeing that he was about to be double-teamed by the opponent, Lin Quan came over in time.
Elia quickly passed the ball to Lin Quan. Lin Quan took a few steps, attracted the attention of the defending players, and then quickly sent a straight pass to Hunt.
By the time Hunt received the ball, he had already run to the edge of the penalty area.
He accelerated into the penalty area and took a shot directly.
Angersthal made a great save, quickly moving and jumping high to tip Hunt's shot over the crossbar.
It was a beautiful save, and Angersthal fully utilized his tall stature advantage.
If it were a slightly shorter player, facing such a shot would likely result in surrender.
After missing this opportunity, Hunt knelt down and sighed.
At the beginning of the first half, he missed a similar opportunity. I didn't expect to be blocked by this little goalkeeper again! This guy, when facing his own teammates, is as clumsy as a bear, but why is he so agile when facing us?
After missing this chance, both sides were unable to change the score in the remaining time, and the first half quickly ended.
In the second half, Schalke 04 changed their defensive strategy.
They began to implement a high-pressing tactic, with several forwards chasing Werder Bremen's backcourt players like crazy dogs, intending to contain the opponent's attack in Werder Bremen's half.
This tactic put great pressure on Werder Bremen's backline, and the players had fewer options when receiving the ball.
They had to be more careful with their passes because if they were intercepted by the opponent carelessly, the opponent could immediately counterattack.
In the face of the opponent's forwards directly confronting the backline, such counterattacks were very dangerous.
The high-pressing tactic also limited the opponent's attack. When their three defensive lines were pushed forward, the opponent's long passes from the backline wouldn't work.
Because their passes were easily caught offside, and it wasn't easy to penetrate the tightly-packed three defensive lines with ground passes.
As a result, the situation on the field became less favorable for Werder Bremen.
In the 55th minute, Schalke 04's Jones intercepted the ball in midfield and passed it to Hunterlar. Hunterlar's long shot was saved by the goalkeeper.
Milic wanted to kick the ball to his team's forward, but he gave up after taking a glance.
His teammate was in an offside position, and if he dared to pass, it would be giving the ball to the opponent.
So he had to pass the ball to the defender and organize the attack from the back.
Seeing this, Schalke 04's players immediately started pressing the holding defender.
The defender dared not dribble too much and immediately passed the ball to the captain, Fritz.
Before Fritz could receive the ball, two Schalke players rushed towards him.
This made Fritz feel immense pressure, so he dared not dribble too much and immediately passed the ball to De Bruyne.
But this pass had long been anticipated by the Schalke players. Schalke's midfielder Noichstart moved in advance and intercepted the ball.
Schalke launched a counterattack on the spot!
After conceding the goal, Werder Bremen's defensive line immediately retreated, but the opponent's speed was faster.
Hunterlar, who had ghost-like positioning, had slipped into the penalty area unnoticed, and the ball was passed to him at this moment.
Werder Bremen's defender Schmidt wanted to intercept, but Hunterlar unexpectedly didn't receive the ball.
He let the ball go and dodged the defending players, disrupting their focus.
In the second half, Drakler, who came on as a substitute, charged into the penalty area like a speeding tank and scored a goal into Werder Bremen's goal.
The score on the field became 1:1, and Werder Bremen's 20-minute lead was gone.
After Drakler scored, the Werder Bremen Stadium erupted into a tsunami of cheers.
The enthusiasm of the Miner's team's fans was thoroughly ignited, and the heavy atmosphere of the first half disappeared.
They were all extremely excited, waving their fists desperately, shouting at the Werder Bremen players on the field:
Bremen's bitches, it's our turn, you guys better be prepared! On the sidelines, Schaff felt somewhat uneasy when he saw the opponent adopt a high-pressing tactic.
Werder Bremen had a single holding midfielder, a single outlet, which made it easy for the opponent to predict their passing routes and intercept them.
After realizing the problem, he was about to make adjustments, but he didn't expect the opponent to score before he could adjust.
This made Schaff very frustrated. After discovering the problem, he shouldn't have hesitated. If he had adjusted immediately, maybe they wouldn't have conceded this goal.
He immediately made personnel adjustments, adding a midfielder, replacing a forward, and pushing the forward line back, shortening the distance between the defensive lines.
By increasing the number of players in the backfield, he aimed to limit the opponent's pressing, and at the same time, when attacking, play more through the wings, bypassing the midfield and forming combinations between the full-backs and wingers.
The high-pressing tactic was indeed powerful, and teams that used it well had good records.
However, this tactic required high physical fitness from the players. Unless they were a team like Borussia Dortmund that played with high intensity every game, most teams' fitness didn't support such a style of play.
Moreover, Schalke had just fought Arsenal on the Champions League stage, and their physical fitness was not as good as Werder Bremen's.
Now they were still using this tactic, really not knowing what death is!
Don't look at Schalke's current glory, when their physical fitness is exhausted, they'll be crying.
Getting a draw away from home, Werder Bremen could actually accept it.
After all, they didn't have much ambition for the championship, as long as they could draw with Schalke 04, they could continue to exert pressure on them in the standings.
However, Schalke definitely couldn't accept this score.
They would definitely continue to increase their offensive efforts and try to change the score.
And this, was Werder Bremen's opportunity.
Just wait, after eighty minutes, when you guys can't run anymore, we'll come to decide the outcome!
(End of this chapter)