In the just-concluded U19 Ruhr derby, Dortmund's youth training director, Lars Ricken, had something to do and did not follow the team to the away game. So, the next day, he came to the U19s to find Yebala to inquire about the latest news.

When he pushed open the door to Yebala's office, he saw Yebala staring intently at the computer screen.

He walked behind Yebala and found that Yebala was watching a game video.

"Yesterday's game?" he asked.

"Yeah." Yebala nodded.

"Perfect. I haven't seen it yet." Ricken pulled up a chair and sat next to Yebala to watch together.

This was a highlight reel, or rather, not a complete game video, just the last half hour of the game.

It started from when Mark came on the field.

When Mark scored the first goal, Ricken asked Yebala, "This is that... Mark, right?"

Yebala nodded.

Soon Mark scored his second goal with an assist from Zhou Yi.

"Wow! That's amazing! He can still put the ball in the opponent's goal under the close pressure of two defenders!" Ricken couldn't help but whistle and praise.

Yebala didn't say anything.

Later, Mark assisted Zhou Yi in scoring the winning goal. This time, Ricken simply clapped his hands: "It's like having eyes in the back of his head! Beautiful!"

After that, Zhou Yi was substituted, and Mark continued to stay on the field, cooperating with Götze many times. Unfortunately, they were unable to score another goal to completely secure the victory.

But this was enough for Dortmund U19 to defeat Schalke 04.

After watching the game video, Yebala asked Ricken, "Lars, what do you think?"

"I didn't see the previous part of the game, but judging from the part I watched... I think that Mark is interesting. He can not only score goals, but also assist his teammates. At the same time, his cooperation with Götze looks good. The two of them seem to click more."

Ricken expressed his feelings.

Yebala nodded: "I think so too, so I watched the game video again. In fact, before Mark Wagner came on the field, the game was completely different, which was not good for us. It was difficult for us to get good opportunities in the frontcourt. But when he came on the field, the situation was reversed. We scored three goals. But this is not the most important thing. The important thing is... after he came on the field, our frontcourt attack was completely alive."

Yebala pointed to Mark's figure frozen on the screen.

"His understanding with Zhou Yi is very good." Ricken was not surprised by the cooperation between Mark and Zhou Yi at all. "What surprised me a little is that his cooperation with Götze is also good..."

"Actually, it's not surprising, Lars. Our forwards, whether it's the injured Stippelmann, or the current Gincheck and Schneider, are all tall center forwards with slightly lacking foot skills and not flexible enough, and their tactical awareness is not particularly strong. It is indeed difficult for them to spark anything with Götze. On the other hand, this Mark Wagner has foot skills, is willing to run, is flexible, and has ideas... so he can cooperate with Götze."

"See, I told you he was good. Otherwise, why would I have transferred him from the U17s?" Ricken began to brag about his vision.

Yebala glanced at him: "But when he first came to my team, he wasn't like this. He could only cooperate with Zhou Yi and couldn't integrate into the team at all."

Ricken was silent.

"I put him on the bench, but I didn't expect this kid to not give up, but to become more and more courageous. Originally, I just wanted to give him a reward for his hard training. I didn't expect him to seize the opportunity and convince me. Lars, I plan to change our offensive tactics and create a trident for the U19s."

Ricken was a little surprised when he heard Yebala say this: "Trident?"

"Yes." Yebala nodded. "Yesterday's game gave me a lot of inspiration. Götze, Zhou Yi, and Mark are all short, but they are all very flexible. I plan to form these three flexible little guys into an offensive combination, making full use of their characteristics and cooperation."

Ricken recalled the fourth goal of Dortmund U19 that he had just seen. Götze dribbled the ball inside, and after encountering a block, he passed the ball to Mark, who was responding in the middle. Mark took the ball and attracted the opponent's defense, and then passed the ball to Zhou Yi, who was moving forward, allowing Zhou Yi to shoot and score without being defended...

From this goal, you can probably see the prospects after the formation of this trident.

"I support you, Peter. Go for it!"

※※※

The next day, the players who participated in the game also returned to the team, and the entire U19s began normal training.

Although Zhou Yi screamed repeatedly from the cold ice, it must be said that Mark's sister's method did have some effect. After a day, the places where he was kicked in the game were not as painful as before, and the bruises had subsided a lot.

He also performed better when participating in training.

It seemed like an ordinary day of training, until before the offensive training...

Before the offensive training started, coach Peter Yebala said with a smile to all the players participating in the training: "Let's play a little game, kids."

As soon as they heard about playing a game, everyone became interested, which often meant interesting training content. Especially when their coach said it with a smile.

"An offensive and defensive game, we have six defensive players, and your task is to defend three offensive players."

After speaking, Yebala called out Zhou Yi, Götze, and Mark.

"And you." He said to the three players who hadn't figured out what was going on, "The task is to shoot the ball into the goal within two minutes. If you don't score, you lose. If you don't even shoot, you lose. If the ball is intercepted by the opponent when you are attacking, you lose. If the ball goes out of bounds or the baseline during the attack, you lose. If the attacking side is offside, you also lose. We will play seven rounds, and finally count the scores. The losing side has to carry a player from the other side and do a twenty-five-meter shuttle run back and forth."

Everyone was stunned when they heard the rules of the game.

They had done offensive and defensive training before, but it was generally ten-on-eight offensive and defensive training. For example, ten players on the attacking side and eight players on the defending side. This was done to practice defense. When practicing offense, it was eight players on the attacking side and ten players on the defending side.

The difference in numbers was always two players.

But now, the number of defensive players is twice as many as the offensive players in this offensive and defensive practice... they had never done it before.

This was too unfair to the attacking side.

Many people felt that the attacking side was definitely going to lose.

Schneider was also dumbfounded—is this training? Isn't this just making things difficult?

He suddenly felt a little fortunate that he wasn't selected by the coach...

Zhou Yi and the other two were also very surprised, and they cast questioning glances at the coach.

Yebala smiled and patted Zhou Yi on the shoulder: "Although it's a game, don't give up easily."

He didn't explain why he did this, nor did he ask Zhou Yi, Götze, and Mark what they should do. After speaking, he withdrew from the training area.

"Everyone, get ready, prepare to start training!" he shouted, putting the whistle in his mouth.

The other offensive players looked at each other and also withdrew, standing on the sidelines to watch. There were only three offensive players wearing red vests left on the field: Götze, Zhou Yi, and Mark. And in front of them were six defensive players wearing blue vests, four defenders, and two midfielders, in addition to the goalkeeper.

The attacking trio looked at each other, and then Zhou Yi raised his hand and asked the coach, "Coach, can we shoot from long range?"

"Yes. But all three of you must touch the ball before shooting, otherwise the goal will be invalid." Yebala took down the whistle and answered Zhou Yi's question. "Can we start?"

"Wait a minute, let's discuss a strategy!" Zhou Yi waved his hand, and then beckoned the three of them to his side.

The three of them stood in the center circle, whispering.

"Do you have any ideas, Zhou Yi?" Mark asked.

"Since we can shoot from long range, let's just have the three of us touch the ball once and then pass the ball to Mario, and let Götze finish with a long shot. This way, we don't have to entangle with the defensive players who obviously have a numerical advantage." Zhou Yi naturally already had a countermeasure.

"Good idea." Mark listened to Zhou Yi.

Although Götze felt that Zhou Yi's approach was a bit of an exploit of the rules, it was still a solution, since the opponent had twice as many defensive players as they did. So he nodded to show his agreement.

"Then it's settled. Later, at the kickoff, Mark will pass the ball to me, and I'll pass the ball to Mario, and then Mario, you shoot."

After discussing, Zhou Yi shouted to Yebala on the sidelines: "We can start now!"

The three of them stood in the center circle.

Seeing that everyone was in position, Yebala blew the whistle in his mouth.

Hearing the whistle, Marco kicked the ball to Zhou Yi, and Zhou Yi turned around and passed the ball to Götze, who had already run up.

After receiving the ball, Götze made a slight adjustment and then shot from about thirty-seven or eight meters away from the goal!

Seeing Götze shooting from such a distance, Yebala sneered.

The goalkeeper standing in front of the goal didn't even make a save, and turned his head to watch the ball fly high and wide out of the baseline...

At the same time as the ball flew out of the baseline, Yebala blew the whistle: "The attacking side loses one point!" He held up one finger and said loudly.

Zhou Yi turned his head to look at the coach blankly, and then realized that they had lost the first of ten rounds...

Realizing this, he shouted to Götze: "Damn, Mario, aren't you supposed to be good at shooting!"

Götze resolutely refused to take the blame: "You want me to shoot the ball into the goal from forty meters away?"

Zhou Yi was speechless, so he raised his hand: "Okay, let's move forward a little more..."

The spectators on the sidelines realized that Zhou Yi and the others were planning to use long shots to avoid the defensive players and directly send the ball into the goal, but it was too whimsical to want to score from such a distance.

So they all laughed, feeling anxious about the attacking trio's IQ.

With a whistle from Yebala, the training restarted.

This time, Zhou Yi waited for Götze to run a little further before passing the ball over.

After receiving the ball, Götze adjusted and then shot from long range before the defensive players could catch up.

But this time the ball still went over the crossbar...

"The attacking side loses two points!"

"It's still too far!" Götze complained.

The spectators on the sidelines who saw this scene laughed again, all feeling gloating—it's a good thing we're not the ones attacking up there...

※※※

In the third round, Zhou Yi waited for Götze to run a little further before passing the ball over.

This distance was much closer than the previous two times, but as soon as Götze received the ball, he was besieged by three defensive players. With a moment of carelessness, the ball was lost...

Yebala's whistle sounded again: "The attacking side loses three points!"

"Ahhhhh!" Zhou Yi roared to the sky in frustration, but he quickly gritted his teeth and shouted, "Again!"

Fourth round.

Zhou Yi's pass was directly intercepted by the defensive players who saw through his intentions, and snatched away from in front of Götze.

"The attacking side loses four points!"

In the seven-round game, the attacking side had already lost four rounds. Even if the attacking side won all the last three rounds, it would not be able to change the fact that they had lost.

So Yebala blew the whistle to stop the game.

"The game is over, you lost." Yebala went on the field and pointed at the attacking trio.

The three of them were already in a daze.

"Accept your bet, choose one yourself, and carry them on your back." Yebala pointed to the six defensive players opposite.

Zhou Yi felt a little dizzy looking at them—they were all tall and strong men!

To carry them and run a twenty-five-meter shuttle run? A round trip would be fifty meters!

With his small body... it was simply an unbearable weight in his life!

"Can't we not carry them..." Zhou Yi wanted to play rogue.

Yebala smiled and nodded and said: "Yes, but you can't play in the next game. Choose one."

When Zhou Yi heard this, he quickly shrank his neck and went to look for someone.

Finally, he stood in front of the team's captain, Marco Hohnschu.

He looked up at the captain and asked cautiously: "Um, Captain... how much do you weigh?"

Hohnschu said with a smile: "Eighty-nine, kilograms."

Zhou Yi wailed: "Why are you, a right back, so tall and strong..."

Hohnschu had already opened his arms and said with a smile: "Come on, Zhou Yi, carry me."

This tone was like a girl waiting for her lover to hug her, but Zhou Yi shuddered.

He turned around with a sad face and squatted down. When Hohnschu pressed down on him, Zhou Yi almost knelt on the grass with his knees softened.

"Damn, Captain, you should lose weight!" Zhou Yi gritted his teeth. The veins on his neck were bulging, and his entire face was red to the root of his neck—this was not shyness, but caused by exertion.

He finally managed to carry Hohnschu up, but found it difficult to even move his legs.

It was really too difficult to have a little guy who was one meter seventy-five tall and weighed sixty-five kilograms carry a strong man who was one meter eighty-eight tall and weighed eighty-nine kilograms.

Of course, the other two were not any better than Zhou Yi...

Yebala on the side was still urging them loudly: "Move, step your left leg! Step your right leg! If you stand still, the twenty-five meters won't be any less!"

So the three of them had to "move" towards the turning point with great difficulty...

Of course, they didn't forget to argue and shift the blame, mainly Zhou Yi and Götze blaming each other, while Mark was just a bystander.

"Mario... you should practice long shots!"

"If you can do it, you come! It's so far! It's your own strategy that... that... has problems!"

"I... I... trusted you so much, and you... you actually, actually said that?"

"Have some common sense, common sense, okay? No matter how good my long shots are, they can't be so good that I can, can succeed in shooting from so far away... okay!"

The two of them shifting the blame and arguing affected their speed. On the other hand, Mark, who didn't say a word, had already moved ahead of them.

"Damn, Mark, you... you're sneaking!" Zhou Yi shouted when he noticed this.

"What... what do you mean sneaking!" Mark was going crazy. Whether it was height or weight, he was a little better than Zhou Yi and Götze, and his strength was relatively better, so it was normal for him to perform like this. As a result, Zhou Yi's words turned his efforts into slacking.

Looking at the three people crawling like snails on the court, while still arguing, the teammates on the sidelines laughed so hard that they bent over.

Schneider also laughed very happily—it's great to be able to see them make a fool of themselves!

Even Yebala couldn't help but smile when he saw this scene. He shook his head while laughing.