Chapter 125: The Opponents: He's Too Hard to Defend Against!
After Yun Da Bremen took the lead, Borussia Dortmund's counterattacks became fierce.
This season, Lewandowski, who has scored more than 15 goals in the league, was very active in this game.
Lewandowski isn't like Messi or Ronaldo, who excel with the ball at their feet, so his presence on the field isn't as prominent. However, this doesn't mean his threat is less than theirs.
On the contrary, his off-the-ball abilities, including running off the ball, creating space, making runs, and positioning in the box, are all very strong.
Perhaps at this moment, these abilities aren't at their peak, but in a few years, with his technical improvements, accumulated experience, and better physical condition, he has the ability to become the world's number one striker.
In this game, facing the targeted defense of Yun Da Bremen's defenders, Lewandowski still found several opportunities to shoot under tight marking.
With Götze targeted and the team's attacking power significantly weakened, Lewandowski, with his outstanding performance, became Dortmund's main attacking force.
This caught the attention of scouts from various top clubs watching the game live, many of whom entertained the idea of recommending him to their own teams.
Lewandowski is still young this year, at 24 years old, he has at least seven or eight years of prime performance ahead of him.
Bringing him back at this time would solve the team's striker problem for a long time to come!
On the sidelines, Klopp watched Lewandowski's performance with both joy and worry.
Lewandowski's performance was so good that he genuinely worried that other top clubs might take notice and forcibly take him away.
With Dortmund's financial strength, if faced with lucrative contracts from other top clubs, Dortmund might struggle to keep him.
And thinking about Götze's contract expiring next summer, Klopp's headache grew.
The team started contacting Götze's agent at the end of January, hoping to renew his contract. But Götze's response hasn't been very positive, and there's still no progress on the renewal.
This made Dortmund wonder if Götze was considering a transfer?
Two years ago, several top clubs including Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Arsenal made offers to Götze, with Arsenal even offering €40 million in the hope of signing him.
This winter transfer window, after failing to acquire Lin Quan, Manchester City, in a desperate move, submitted offers to multiple clubs, hoping to bring in another superstar for the team.
And Dortmund's Götze was within the range of their offer.
Compared to the hesitant offers from other clubs, Manchester City's offer was very tempting.
Not only did they offer a higher transfer fee, but they also offered extremely high wages.
They offered a weekly wage of £330,000, equivalent to an annual salary of over €20 million. If Götze really went to Manchester City, his annual salary would surpass Eto'o's in the Russian Premier League, becoming the highest-paid player in football.
Klopp had some doubts—was Götze lured by the promises of Middle Eastern billionaires?
If that were the case, the team might need to prepare for losing Götze in advance.
Losing a player like Götze would severely weaken Dortmund's morale. If Lewandowski were to be poached as well, the team's attacking system in the forward line would need to be completely reset.
Thinking of this, Shaaf's face was filled with worry.
What's wrong with Dortmund?
Why can't they keep their own stars?
...
On the pitch, the situation was still somewhat unfavorable for Dortmund.
Although Lewandowski's performance was outstanding, with Götze being marked, he was somewhat isolated up front.
Dortmund's attacks were fierce, but once they reached the opponent's penalty area, it was like hitting a wall—difficult to break through their defense.
Yun Da Bremen didn't employ any special defensive tactics, simply stacking numbers at the back to limit Dortmund's attacks with their numerical advantage.
Since they were leading now, they could afford to reduce the number of players in the front, leaving only Arnautovic as the center forward, while Lin Quan lay in ambush behind, waiting for a chance to counterattack against Dortmund.
So, a strange scene appeared on the field:
Dortmund relentlessly attacked Yun Da Bremen's goal, with many shots, but few posed a real threat.
In contrast, Yun Da Bremen had few counterattack opportunities, but each one caused chaos in Dortmund's defense.
If it weren't for Dortmund's goalkeeper, Weidenfeller, performing exceptionally well, Dortmund might have conceded more than one goal.
At 33 years old, Weidenfeller was still in his prime.
With his excellent performance this season, he made his first start for the German national team in a friendly match against England last month, becoming the oldest player in German history to start for the national team.
"Stay alert and don't give them counterattacking chances!"
After making another high-quality save from Lin Quan's long-range shot, Weidenfeller broke out in a cold sweat, couldn't help but roar at his teammates, reminding them to mark tightly and not let anyone slip through.
Dortmund's defenders all had ugly expressions, feeling bitter:
Mark tightly? Of course, I want to mark that guy tightly and not give him any shooting opportunities.
But can we actually do it?
With Schmelzer injured and unable to play, Dortmund's defense had a noticeable gap at fullback.
And Lin Quan was the kind of player with high football IQ. After discovering this gap, he naturally seized upon it relentlessly, not giving Dortmund a chance to catch their breath.
This won't do!
On the surface, Dortmund seemed to have the advantage. In terms of shot attempts, shots on target, possession, and other statistics, they were leading across the board.
But in reality, Yun Da Bremen's attacking threat was slightly greater!
They couldn't just rely on the goalkeeper to continue his god-like performance and save all their opponents' shots, could they?
Seeing his long shot saved by the goalkeeper, Lin Quan shook his head.
As he retreated, he pondered the shortcomings of that shot just now.
Weidenfeller's performance today was indeed excellent. His reaction speed was fast, and his positioning in defense was also good.
If he continued shooting from outside the box, it probably wouldn't be enough to threaten his goal.
So, the next time he attacked, he had to get into the penalty area to create better scoring opportunities!
In the 43rd minute of the first half, Lewandowski forcibly turned inside the penalty area, but his low shot was easily saved by the goalkeeper.
Militz didn't waste time lying on the ground. He quickly got up, ran out while shouting loudly:
"Lin, watch the ball!"
As he spoke, he threw the ball out.
Lin Quan had witnessed Neuer's long-range hand throws in the game against Bayern Munich before, but he didn't expect his teammate Militz to do the same.
He looked up at the trajectory of the ball, judged the landing point, and then accelerated towards Dortmund's half.
This counterattack from Yun Da Bremen was even more sudden and fierce than the previous ones, catching both teams in a transition from attack to defense.
This made many of Dortmund's players, who had just participated in the attack, unable to retreat in time.
Although Dortmund's players saw Yun Da Bremen starting a counterattack and chose to withdraw immediately, their excellent teamwork execution and discipline were indeed admirable.
However, most of Dortmund's players were far from Lin Quan and couldn't disrupt his progress forward right away.
At this moment, Dortmund only had three defenders left in the backline, with midfielder Gundogan and two center-backs.
Dortmund's midfielder Gundogan was the closest to Lin Quan, rushing up to intercept him.
But after receiving the ball, Lin Quan made a fake move, kicked the ball out, and then chose to use his speed directly against Gundogan. Gundogan's tackle was too fierce, not expecting the opponent to make such a choice, hurriedly reached out to grab Lin Quan's jersey, but still couldn't hold him, allowing Lin Quan to swiftly bypass him with his speed.
After getting past Gundogan, Lin Quan took a few more steps forward and had already reached Dortmund's dangerous area of thirty meters.
Because Lin Quan had previously taken several long shots from here, Dortmund's captain Hummels, who had retreated to the penalty area, didn't dare to be careless and immediately came over, intending to hold up Lin Quan and buy time for his teammates to retreat.
Dortmund's players were all fast, as long as he could delay for two or three seconds, his teammates could get back in position, and the threat of Yun Da Bremen's counterattack would be minimized.
And leaving the penalty area also had another advantage, that is, when necessary, he could use fouls to disrupt Yun Da Bremen's counterattack.
Although committing a foul in this position was likely to result in a booking, trading a yellow card for a highly threatening counterattack from the opponent was still worth it.
Lin Quan didn't know what Hummels was thinking, but he knew he couldn't be held up by the opponent.
So he immediately passed the ball to his right foot, while shifting his weight forward, ready to burst from the right side.
Hummels faced the dilemma that many defenders faced when defending against Lin Quan:
How to judge whether the opponent's breakthrough move is real or fake? The opponent's move looks so real, completely unlike a fake move.
If it were an ordinary player, Hummels would definitely have no hesitation in making a tackle.
But this wasn't an ordinary player, this was Lin Quan, the forward with the highest success rate in one-on-one dribbling in the entire Bundesliga.
Thinking of this, he held back and didn't rush into a tackle.
But if he didn't tackle, then Lin Quan wouldn't be polite.
Just as Hummels hesitated, Lin Quan turned his fake move into a real one, smoothly dribbling past him.
The audience at the scene erupted into an uproar. From their perspective, it seemed like Dortmund's captain was letting Lin Quan through as if he were deliberately allowing him to bypass himself.
"Hehe, it's this move again!"
In the CCTV broadcast room, Duan Xuan saw Lin Quan easily dribble past Hummels and couldn't help but smile.
His partner Xu Yang also chuckled beside him:
"Lin Quan's move may look simple, but it's unstoppable. His fake moves are as real as they come, making it difficult for defenders to judge which move is fake and which is real!"
"Yes, for defenders, they must be cautious when defending against him because if they misjudge, it could lead to conceding a goal."
Although the two explained and believed that the blame for this goal didn't lie with Hummels.
But on Tieba and forums, many fans still shouted foul play.
"Foul play, too fake, even a wooden dummy would be more effective than Hummels!" "Yeah, how can this guy still be Dortmund's captain? Can you live up to the captain's armband on your shoulder, live up to us?" "Ahem, you two upstairs are so angry, did you bet on Dortmund to win?"
This comment silenced the previously very vocal netizens.
So, other netizens teased:
"Hehe, the guys above silenced themselves, Galen's verdict is silent and piercing!" "Yeah, directly silenced the ones above!"
When Lin Quan got past Hummels, he also made his way into the penalty area.
Looking up at the goalkeeper's position, and before the other center-back Subotic could block him, he pretended to shoot.
Subotic immediately lifted his foot to block, and the goalkeeper also prepared to dive with force.
But Lin Quan was just bluffing. After tricking both of them into making corresponding movements, he finally took the shot for real.
The football flew towards the top right corner of the goal, not fast, but the angle was very tricky.
Dortmund's goalkeeper leaped high, fully extending his body to its limit.
But unfortunately, he was just a little bit away from the football, only able to watch helplessly as it bypassed his fingertips and flew into the net!
It's a shame, just a little bit!
If he hadn't been shaken earlier, with the form Weidenfeller showed in this game, he might have had a chance to save this shot.
But there are no ifs in the game!
Seeing Lin Quan score the second goal just before the end of the first half, the fans at the Weser Stadium were ecstatic.
If they felt a bit uneasy when the team was one goal ahead before, then at this moment, with a two-goal advantage, the fans of the Parrot Legion felt that the game was secure.
At halftime, leading the opponent by two goals!
And still at their home stadium, could they still be overturned by the opponent? The coaching staff and players of Yun Da Bremen were also very happy, but they didn't forget the last time they almost let the opponent come back when they were leading at halftime.
So they didn't dare to be careless at all, continuing to maintain the same high-intensity defense as before, not giving Dortmund any chances.
There was little time left in the first half after they finished celebrating, and after Dortmund completed a hurried attack, the referee blew the whistle for the end of the first half.
The players from both sides returned to their respective dressing rooms, listening attentively to the tactical arrangements of their respective head coaches during the break.
In Dortmund's dressing room, after Klopp explained the team's tactics for the second half, he called Götze aside:
"Mario, the team needs you to step up!"
Götze nodded. He knew his performance in the first half wasn't good, and he felt guilty.
But Yun Da Bremen's defense against him was too targeted, and he couldn't find a good way to break through their cage.
Seeing Götze's reaction, Klopp sighed inwardly.
Not every player is as smart as Lin Quan. When Bayern used this tactic to limit him, he quickly found a way to deal with it.
But Götze...
Thinking of this, even if Klopp was biased towards Götze in his heart, he couldn't help but admit that there seemed to be a big gap between Götze and Lin Quan.
If Reus hadn't been injured, the team wouldn't have been so restricted in attack.
(End of this chapter)
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