Chapter 1 Dortmund U19 Takes the Lead

"Mario Götze! Beautiful! Borussia Dortmund U19 takes the lead! They're ahead in this final!" Leff exclaimed.

He rarely commentated on youth team matches, but he knew a bit about Götze. This kid was a prodigy that the whole of Germany was paying attention to.

Leff had followed Götze's performance with the German youth team at the U17 European Championship last summer. Compared to then, Mario seemed more mature now. He was growing rapidly.

"It's a bit of a surprise that Dortmund took the lead so quickly. After all, Freiburg's level in youth training is very high, and Streich is also a coach who excels at youth training. Freiburg was also the U19 national champion last season. Compared to last season, Streich's coaching of the team is even more complete. But against Dortmund, they conceded a goal after just twelve minutes..." Leff said. "Obviously, Freiburg isn't the only one who has improved. Dortmund's performance this season can also be described as a complete transformation."

Leff's eyes turned to Zhou Yi. Götze scored the goal, but Zhou Yi provided the assist.

If it was just a through ball, it would have been a good play.

But it wouldn't have drawn extra attention from an experienced commentator like Leff.

He remembered the series of consecutive passes that Dortmund had made before Götze scored.

Starting with Zhou Yi, a no-look pass directly to Götze, Götze passing it directly back to Zhou Yi, Zhou Yi then passing it to number twenty-five, Mark, Mark passing it back to him, and then Zhou Yi, facing the ball, again with a no-look pass.

The ball flew toward where Götze was.

Did you see it?

In this attack that led to Dortmund's goal, Zhou Yi touched the ball the most. The ball was always being passed to his feet.

He was the core of Dortmund U19.

Leff already knew this when he was preparing for the match.

At the time, he was quite surprised. Why wasn't Götze the core of Dortmund U19, but an unknown Chinese kid?

Now he understood a little.

Freiburg's starting goalkeeper, Oliver Baumann, was considered a mature and calm goalkeeper for his age.

But now Leff believed that Zhou Yi was the one with maturity and calmness beyond his years.

Generally speaking, a midfielder will inevitably panic when someone is marking him closely, especially young people. Their ability to withstand pressure is obviously not as good as first-team players, which is also related to the fact that they have experienced fewer complex situations.

But in the dozen or so minutes of this game, Leff didn't see a trace of immaturity from Zhou Yi.

Whether in the attack that led to the goal, or in the stalemate in the ten minutes before that, Zhou Yi didn't show any signs of panic.

Facing Freiburg's high press, he seemed at ease. His passing speed was very fast, without any of the process of receiving the ball, observing, and then passing it out.

Instead, after receiving the ball, he could immediately send it out, without wasting any time.

So even though Freiburg had arranged for someone to mark Zhou Yi closely, the effect wasn't very good.

So why could Zhou Yi do this?

Leff also noticed through observation that Zhou Yi would often turn his head to look around in the game. This reminded Leff of Barcelona's current midfield core, Xavi.

What he wasn't sure about was—was this young Zhou Yi deliberately imitating his idol, or was he just like this by nature…

But this question wasn't too important.

What interested Leff was that he originally thought Dortmund's youth team only had one Mario Götze, but he didn't expect to discover another little genius while commentating on this match.

"Mario Götze's goal came from an assist by Dortmund midfielder number twenty-three, Zhou Yi, a young man from China... This is very rare. There is a Chinese player in the youth academy of a German club, and he can play as a starter, the core!"

※※※

Klopp was sitting in front of the TV, and when he heard Marcel Leff's evaluation of Zhou Yi, he smiled.

Although he had only watched the game for a dozen minutes, Zhou Yi already had an assist.

It seemed that Licken was right. With Zhou Yi, Götze's performance was much better.

Before Zhou Yi, Götze had to shoulder too many tasks, which would distract him and affect his state and performance.

Klopp stroked his chin and began to consider things further…

※※※

Streich stood on the sidelines, staring blankly at the field.

He never expected that the high-press tactic, which was supposed to be Dortmund's nemesis, would be broken so easily by the opponent...

Freiburg only lasted twelve minutes before conceding a goal!

Their number twenty-three, their core, was even more powerful than he had imagined!

He, Götze, and that number twenty-five, the three of them passed consecutively, penetrating Freiburg's "cage" at high speed.

Originally, he thought that Dortmund would use direct long passes from the backcourt to find Jinczek to deal with his high press, so he asked the players to create offsides, the goalkeeper to attack as soon as possible to expand the control range, and to strengthen the press in the frontcourt to interfere with Dortmund's ball-playing center-back, Russell Sobiech.

Although Sobiech was a center-back, he was steady on the field and had a high passing success rate, so if Dortmund wanted to play long passes, the point of release would almost certainly be Sobiech.

But he didn't expect that Zhou Yi, whom he thought would be easily marked, performed extremely well.

The continuous passing and cooperation between their three small guys caught him off guard.

However, Streich was not defeated by this goal. He frowned and began to think about countermeasures.

※※※

"It's twelve fifteen..." Li Cuiyun glanced at the time in the lower right corner of the computer, "The game has been going on for fifteen minutes, and we still haven't figured out how to watch it... Lao Zhou, tell me, will we be able to see our son before the game ends?"

"We definitely can, we definitely can..." Zhou Jianliang wiped the sweat from his forehead with a piece of paper and continued to squint at the screen.

Seeing her husband so focused, Li Cuiyun didn't say anything more. Instead, she got up and left. After a while, she returned with Zhou Jianliang's teacup in her hand, filled with water.

She didn't say anything, just placed the teacup where her husband usually put it, and then sat down again, quietly watching her husband busy.

※※※

After the game restarted, Streich didn't change his tactics. Freiburg still insisted on their high press.

Because there was no need to adjust, Freiburg wasn't playing a defensive formation before. After losing the ball, they needed to press forward, and they were already pressing forward.

The only adjustment was that Freiburg's midfielders were pressing harder, especially on Zhou Yi and Götze.

The fouls on the field began to increase, and the referee kept blowing his whistle to stop the game frequently.

Boos from Dortmund fans also rang out in the stands—they thought Freiburg's players were playing too barbarically.

"Idiots! You're kicking people, not the ball!" Mrs. Wagner stood up in the stands and waved her hands at the field, dissatisfied. She was speaking up for Zhou Yi, who had just been kicked down.

Kottana sat next to her, frowning and not saying a word.

"Hey, Zhou Yi, are you okay?" Mark ran over to check on Zhou Yi.

"I'm fine, Mark." Zhou Yi extended his hand to Mark. "Help me up, thank you."

Mark pulled Zhou Yi up.

"Don't run back to check on me next time, Mark." Zhou Yi said to Mark after getting up. "You should stay up front at this time. What if we have a chance for a quick counterattack?"

"Ah... I was so worried when I saw you get kicked... I didn't think about anything else."

Zhou Yi patted his head: "Winning is the most important thing. If we can lead them by two goals in the first half, we're sure to win. Didn't you see that they're pressing harder and harder now, but the gaps behind them are also getting bigger and bigger? They're fouling like this, it might be our chance."

"I understand, Zhou Yi." Mark nodded, but he didn't forget to ask again, "Are you really okay?"

"Nonsense." Zhou Yi pushed him away. "Go up!"

※※※

The game continued, and Freiburg's high-press tactic and their fierce defense against Zhou Yi and Götze didn't change at all.

Before long, it was Götze's turn to be knocked to the ground.

Götze, who fell to the ground, looked to be in great pain. He rolled around a few times, holding his calf.

The referee's whistle also sounded, again calling a foul on a Freiburg player.

The boos from Dortmund fans rang out again in the stands. The boos of more than two thousand people were still quite intimidating...

Dortmund U19 players were complaining to the referee, suggesting that Freiburg players had been fouling too much during this period, and shouldn't the referee give out a card?

The Freiburg players were saying that Götze was faking it.

"I made a reasonable challenge, but he's holding his calf!" Sorge was also very aggrieved, or rather, he acted very aggrieved.

Götze was lying on the ground, the ball not far from him.

Zhou Yi stepped forward, glanced at Götze, who was still rubbing his calf, bent down, picked up the ball, and put it down again.

On the other side of him, players from both sides were still surrounding the referee, arguing whether this was a foul that deserved a card, or an exaggerated dive by Götze.

Then Zhou Yi got up, took a step back, and then took a step forward and kicked the ball!

*Bang!*

The ball was kicked forward by him!

Mark, who didn't come back to check on Götze because he listened to Zhou Yi, saw the ball coming towards him, and he immediately understood that this was his chance!

He immediately turned around and ran forward!

"Good ball! Mark! Mark!" Mrs. Wagner exclaimed. Beside her, other Dortmund fans were also shouting loudly.

Their shouts reached the field and were heard by the referee, so he also noticed that the ball had been kicked out.

He didn't blow his whistle to stop the game and return the ball to its original place, but ran out of the encirclement and followed forward.

Any fan would understand this action—this was tacit approval of Zhou Yi's kick!

"Quick free kick!" the commentator Leff shouted excitedly.