Chapter 127: The Korean Player Who Invited Trouble
After defeating Borussia Dortmund, Werder Bremen barely had time to rest before facing the challenge of Augsburg.
With only two days between the German Cup match they just played and the 24th round of the Bundesliga, Werder Bremen experienced their first midweek triple-header of the season.
After continuous battles, the players' physical condition became their biggest challenge.
During the team's daily training sessions, the coaching staff became very worried when they saw the players looking exhausted.
"The schedule is too tight, and we've just finished playing against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund consecutively. The players' physical exertion far exceeds that of ordinary matches. This game might not go well!"
Coach Sharf nodded, watching the players training on the field with a furrowed brow, contemplating how to arrange the starting lineup for tomorrow.
Hunter was suspended due to a red card, and Dortmund even filed an appeal for additional punishment. The match committee was investigating the game, and he might face multiple suspensions.
Additionally, left winger Elia pulled a thigh muscle in the last game and needs two to three weeks of rest.
This means they need two substitutes upfront.
Moreover, after Lin Quan and De Bruyne's consecutive intense battles, he was also worried about their condition.
They couldn't afford to get injured easily. If they were injured, Werder Bremen's performance would be greatly affected.
Huh? Strange, why does that kid look different from the others, not showing any signs of fatigue?
Sharf was initially concerned about Lin Quan and De Bruyne's physical condition. After all, those experienced veterans in the team were struggling to keep up with the intense matches.
These two youngsters lacked experience in dealing with such a tight schedule and wouldn't know how to manage their physical condition properly. Their physical condition should be worse off.
But what did he see? Lin Quan was lively and showed no signs of fatigue.
On the other hand, De Bruyne, who looked dejected, fit his initial judgment.
Sharf couldn't understand why Lin Quan was fine. Clearly, in previous games, he covered a considerable distance, and they were the kind of runs that required a lot of energy.
In theory, his physical condition should be worse off than De Bruyne's, but the opposite was true.
In the end, he could only attribute it to Lin Quan's diligent daily training. He heard from Lin Quan's host family that he would dedicate time to train his physical fitness every day.
You reap what you sow. With such a training attitude, it's understandable that he would make such progress.
Seeing the players' condition, Sharf clapped his hands and stopped the training:
"The training intensity for this afternoon will be halved. After completing this set of training, you can go back and rest.
The reporting time for tomorrow morning's training is postponed to ten thirty. Rest well tonight and don't waste your energy where you shouldn't, especially you young players. If I hear any news of someone appearing in a nightclub, you know the consequences!"
Sharf's words elicited cheers from the players, especially the news of tomorrow's delayed training time, which made them very excited.
Finally, they could sleep in tonight!
But they also remembered Sharf's final warning. Those who liked to frequent nightclubs and seek pleasure had to restrain themselves at this time and dared not to act recklessly.
Lin Quan possessed a level two talent for physical fitness, and his recovery speed was much faster than that of an ordinary player, so he didn't feel any fatigue.
Therefore, while the team was on break, Lin Quan didn't leave the training base early but chose to stay behind for extra training.
Previously, De Bruyne would stay behind to train with him, but today, De Bruyne was so exhausted that he didn't even want to move a finger, so he had to go back to rest first.
Also remaining at the club was Sharf, who was contemplating the starting lineup for tomorrow. Sitting in his office, he looked out through the window at the diligent young man training on the field.
The golden sunset shone over from the Weser River, illuminating the training ground on the left bank of the Weser, casting a long shadow of the young man on the field...
March 2nd, 4:30 PM, Weser Stadium was packed.
Although this was just an ordinary league match, and the opponent wasn't a top team in the league standings, Werder Bremen's fans showed no decrease in their enthusiasm for the game. The stadium, which could accommodate fifty thousand spectators, had no empty seats.
Tickets for the match were sold out a day in advance. Some fans who hadn't bought tickets in advance even had to buy them at high prices from scalpers outside the stadium.
This season, as Werder Bremen's performance improved, the fans' enthusiasm for watching matches became even higher.
Their last match at home against Borussia Dortmund, where they advanced to the semi-finals of the German Cup, gave fans hope of winning the championship.
The fans of the Parrot Legion understood that the twin stars of the team might leave after this season.
If they didn't come to watch their games now, they might not have the chance in the future.
Such a combination of historical-level forwards and midfielders had never appeared in Werder Bremen's history.
Therefore, having the opportunity to watch their games live, missing one less chance for such enjoyment!
Before the match even started, Lin Quan felt the enthusiasm of the fans.
When he came onto the field, he received a standing ovation from the crowd.
The players from Augsburg looked at this 17-year-old youth with surprise. They couldn't understand: why would this guy, so young, have such popularity at Werder Bremen?
The two Korean players from Augsburg, Chi Dong-yuan and Ju Jichul, glanced at each other and saw the disbelief and determination in each other's eyes.
As fellow Asians, we are older than him and started our careers earlier. Why can he be the core player at Werder Bremen while we are still struggling for a starting position?
Although both of them played for Augsburg, they were not originally Augsburg's players.
Ju Jichul was signed by Wolfsburg, but Wolfsburg felt that he wasn't good enough to start, so he was loaned to Augsburg at a low price to improve his skills.
As for Chi Dong-yuan, he was a player from Sunderland in the Premier League. However, Sunderland felt that he couldn't adapt to the pace of the Premier League, so he was also loaned to Augsburg for training.
The two Korean national team players, meeting in a foreign country on the same team, originally planned to let loose and make a big impact.
But after 23 rounds of matches, Augsburg was third from the bottom, nine points behind the fourth-to-last Wolfsburg.
With 10 rounds left in the league, it's as difficult as climbing to the sky for them to catch up with those nine points.
If they really had the ability, they wouldn't have been stuck in the relegation zone earlier.
In this match, taking advantage of Werder Bremen's consecutive intense battles and their poor form, Augsburg had some ideas.
They had a 3-3 draw against Werder Bremen in the 7th round of the league, and if it weren't for bad luck letting the opponent score three goals in a row, they should have won that game.
Also, because of that encounter, Augsburg felt that Werder Bremen wasn't that impressive.
How strong can a team be if we, a team at the bottom, can score three goals against them?
So, in this match, they took the initiative and launched a fierce attack towards Werder Bremen's penalty area from the start.
Sharf was delighted to see the opposing team adopt such tactics.
The team's fitness was not at its best, so they couldn't play a pressing attacking style. Therefore, he arranged for the team to play defensively and counterattack.
Although it felt embarrassing to play defensively against a relegation-threatened team at home, they had no choice. Results were more important now.
Third-placed Borussia Dortmund had been in great form recently, fighting hard to gain points. Werder Bremen's second-place position was not secure, and if Dortmund caught up, it would be difficult for them to overtake them in the remaining matches.
Furthermore, the gap between fourth-placed Schalke 04 and them was not large. Taking advantage of Schalke's recent losses to Dortmund and Bayern Munich, they had closed the gap considerably.
If Werder Bremen continued to lose, they might not even be able to hold onto third place.
Although the Bundesliga had four Champions League spots, the fourth-placed team had to go through playoffs with teams from other leagues. Winning the playoffs was not guaranteed, as the teams at that stage were not easy to deal with.
Seeing Augsburg choose an aggressive attacking style, Sharf breathed a sigh of relief.
This match was secure!
On the other hand, on the Augsburg coaching bench, seeing Werder Bremen's players completely subdued by their own players, the away team's coach also felt confident.
As expected, Werder Bremen's players were in poor physical condition and clearly not performing well in the match.
If Augsburg couldn't beat Werder Bremen at full strength, why couldn't they take advantage of a weakened Werder Bremen team?
We've got this game in the bag!
In the first fifteen minutes of the game, it was clear that Augsburg had the upper hand.
Werder Bremen's players seemed half asleep, slower in their movements compared to others.
They looked like an old rusty machine, barely functioning.
Losing seemed inevitable!
"This guy doesn't seem so impressive after all. Where's all the hype from the media?"
Ju Jichul and Chi Dong-yuan saw Werder Bremen being dominated by their own team and Lin Quan not making much impact on the field.
They began to feel a sense of disdain, thinking the opponents were nothing special.
The reason they had such a big reputation was just because of those unscrupulous journalists hyping them up!
However, just when they thought victory was assured, the situation on the field suddenly changed.
Werder Bremen successfully intercepted in their own half, and the ball was quickly passed to De Bruyne.
After shaking off a defender, De Bruyne passed the ball to Lin Quan in the most effortless way possible.
Lin Quan got the ball!
Chi Dong-yuan played as a central midfielder and was closest to Lin Quan. Seeing Lin Quan get the ball, he immediately chose to close in.
He thought, with his physical condition, just a little bit of physical confrontation should be enough to stop him, right?
When he played for the South Korean national team, this was how he played against Chinese players.
Those Chinese national team players hardly could withstand the collisions with him and his teammates.
Forget about them, even the neighboring Japan team, with a better record, couldn't handle their attacks.
In terms of physical fitness, isn't South Korea the best in East Asia?
Full of confidence, Chi Dong-yuan charged forward!
In his mind, he had already imagined himself easily knocking down Lin Quan, shocking the entire stadium.
Hmph, let me expose your true face, Chinese kid, and let the whole world see your huge weakness!
Seeing Chi Dong-yuan charging towards him, Lin Quan adjusted his body slightly and braced himself with his shoulder.
With a loud bang, the two collided head-on.
The sound was so loud that it echoed throughout the stadium through the close-up microphones.
The fans at the scene were in an uproar, filled with worry.
Lin Quan was a full ten centimeters shorter than the South Korean, who actively charged at him.
Wouldn't he suffer a big loss from such a collision?
On the sidelines, Augsburg's head coach saw Chi Dong-yuan's choice and nodded in satisfaction.
This Korean kid is playing smart!
Werder Bremen's number ten clearly lacked physical confrontation ability, and had been avoiding physical collisions with Augsburg players.
This should be his Achilles' heel!
And this time, the Korean's charge took advantage of the opponent's weakness and not only disrupted Werder Bremen's counterattack but also completely exposed this weakness.
In the future, when other Bundesliga teams encounter Werder Bremen, they will surely choose to learn this tactic!
Augsburg's head coach looked expectantly at the collision between the two, anticipating the scene he wanted to see.
Then they saw one of them, as if hitting a wall, being bounced back!
However, what surprised him and everyone else was that the one who was knocked back in the collision was not Lin Quan, but Chi Dong-yuan.
Chi Dong-yuan staggered back several steps and even sat on the ground, looking incredulously at Lin Quan who passed by him.
Why!?
Why is it me who got knocked back?
A thousand question marks appeared in Chi Dong-yuan's mind, unable to figure out why.
The audience was also in an uproar!
Werder Bremen's fans saw this scene and breathed a sigh of relief.
And Augsburg's fans, especially the Korean fans, were disappointed.
Why did our Chi Dong-yuan fail in the physical confrontation?
In fact, if they had watched a few more games of Lin Quan, they wouldn't think his physical confrontation was weak.
Although Lin Quan wasn't tall, he wasn't light either.
74 kilograms of weight was rare for a player of his height.
Plus, during the winter break, he learned some defensive skills from Guardiola, including how to use his body effectively in confrontations.
Mastering these skills made him like a little tank, with strong physical confrontation abilities.
Although Chi Dong-yuan was ten centimeters taller, his weight was only 75 kilograms, just one kilogram heavier than Lin Quan.
With similar weights, Lin Quan, who was faster and had a lower center of gravity, naturally had the upper hand in physical confrontations.
Chi Dong-yuan underestimated Lin Quan's physical confrontation abilities and overestimated his own, so trying to knock down Lin Quan and embarrass him backfired.
"Fool!"
Seeing Chi Dong-yuan fail in the physical confrontation, Augsburg's coach cursed angrily.
But he quickly had no time to blame the Korean, because Lin Quan had already dribbled into their penalty area!
(End of this chapter)
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