The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 260 - 67: A Blessing in Disguise; 1 vs. 3, Wang Shuo Scores Again; Klopp’s Belief
For example, compared to last year, this season’s Bundesliga has clearly become a bit more conservative.
In the first round of last season’s Bundesliga, seven of the nine matches had a clear winner, with a total of 31 goals scored.
This season, however, only 26 goals were scored.
A five-goal difference across nine matches is actually quite significant.
Therefore, after this round of matches, Kicker Magazine analyzed that after the offensive storm of last season’s Bundesliga, the momentum this season was showing a clear reversal.
Furthermore, regarding the two most-watched teams this season—Klopp’s Dortmund and Van Gaal’s Bayern—Kicker Magazine believed both teams were still in an adjustment phase.
Take Bayern’s away match against Hoffenheim, for example.
Van Gaal’s team was clearly different from Klinsmann’s last season. Even playing away, they dominated the match on the field.
But Bayern struggled to convert their dominance into goals.
Gomez, who had performed exceptionally well in the pre-season friendlies and cup matches, had a terrible game against Hoffenheim.
He also seemed particularly restless.
In this match, Hoffenheim employed a high-pressing tactic, and their defensive strategy was built around an offside trap.
Bayern was caught offside 12 times in the entire match, and Gomez alone accounted for six of them.
After the match, Bild gave Gomez a failing grade of 4.
The reason given was that "Mr. 30 Million" did not perform at the expected level.
Van Gaal’s explanation for this was that the absence of Ribery and Robben led to Bayern’s lackluster offense.
And so, in the first round, the thirty-million-euro man, Gomez, failed to score.
But Dortmund’s twenty-million-euro man, Wang Shuo, managed to score the winning goal.
As a result, after this round, Wang Shuo received praise from numerous media outlets.
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「One week after the first round of the Bundesliga, the second round began.」 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮
Bayern played at home, but the result was a 1-1 draw against Werder Bremen.
Two consecutive draws, especially one at their own home stadium, was absolutely unacceptable for Bayern.
At halftime, with Bayern trailing 0-1, the entire Allianz Arena erupted in a storm of boos.
Who would have thought that with the new season just beginning, Van Gaal was already hearing boos.
Ribery had returned, Robben also played, and Gomez, who had faced criticism after the first round, finally scored.
But Bayern still couldn’t get a win.
In contrast to Bayern, Dortmund was playing away against Hamburg this round.
Things were also going terribly for them.
Hamburg’s head coach was Labbadia, who had managed Bayer Leverkusen last season.
He was still using a 4-4-2 formation with two strikers.
But Dortmund was not last season’s Mainz.
But just as the Bumblebees were ambitiously looking to make their mark away from home, a terrible mistake from Hummels occurred just three minutes into the game.
During a defensive corner, Hummels lost his man, and Hamburg defender Demel scored with a header.
After this goal, the game completely opened up.
Just one minute later, Kuba sent a diagonal through ball from the right flank. Wang Shuo timed his run perfectly, breaking the offside trap between Mathijsen and Jerome Boateng. Receiving the pass, he scored on a one-on-one, equalizing for Dortmund.
1-1!
Both teams were back on level terms.
But in the 10th minute, a long-range shot from Ze Roberto caused Weidenfeller to make a save error, and they conceded another goal.
Two minutes later, it was Ze Roberto who orchestrated another attack, and former Bayern striker Guerrero scored again.
In the short span of three minutes, Dortmund’s defense conceded two goals.
1-3!
After that, the match descended into a stalemate.
Having secured a comfortable lead, Hamburg began to focus on defense.
Although Labbadia had his two center-backs, Mathijsen and Jerome Boateng, man-mark Wang Shuo, he still kept trying to find an opportunity.
But Dortmund’s biggest problem in this match was that their midfield and defense were in disarray.
When Dortmund tried to counter the home team’s high press with their own, the experienced Ze Roberto and Trochowski changed the course of the game.
This was especially true for the two goals conceded in the 10th and 12th minutes.
In the end, Dortmund lost the away match 1-3!
At the post-match press conference, a dejected Klopp said, "We only played poorly for three minutes, and we were brutally punished for it!"
For the rest of the match, Dortmund had actually played well.
But in those three minutes, they conceded two goals back-to-back.
After the match, both Hummels and Subotic received a rating of 5.
Wang Shuo, having scored in two consecutive rounds, received a rating of 2.
Bild’s commentary was: "In the first 15 minutes, he was the only Dortmund player who performed normally."
"Throughout the entire match, his performance was as stable as ever, but his teammates didn’t give him enough support."
Dortmund and Bayern, the two most-watched teams in the Bundesliga this season, both had a poor start.
Of course, this was different from the Bayern fans booing Van Gaal.
Dortmund’s attitude toward Klopp was more lenient.
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「On the bus back to Dortmund from Hamburg, no one said a word.」
Everyone sat in their seats.
This made the atmosphere inside the bus, speeding down the highway, feel somber and oppressive.
Everyone knew that playing Hamburg away would be difficult.
For the past four years, Dortmund had never won in Hamburg.
But to lose in such a manner left everyone furious.
"Lads!"
After an unknown period of silence, Klopp, sitting in the very front row, suddenly stood up.
It seemed he had had enough of the oppressive atmosphere.
