Chapter 15 Ruhr Derby

The last warm-up match ended, and Mark scored twice in the game, marking the end of his warm-up matches with such excellent performance, and naturally winning himself the chance to start in the next game.

The next game is the fifteenth round of the U17 Western League, Borussia Dortmund U17 at home against Schalke 04 U17.

This is the "Ruhr Derby" between the U17 youth teams.

In the world of football, there is a saying that "football is incomplete without a derby." It can be seen how important the "derby" is in football.

"Derby" is first of all a place name in England, but perhaps it is best known as a sports term.

Simply put, a derby can mean some kind of evenly matched and geographically related confrontation.

For example, if there are two teams in a city, then the confrontation between them will be called a "derby battle."

But if the strength of the two teams is too different, then the derby is not interesting. For example, the contest between AC Milan and Inter Milan, the two teams belonging to Milan, is called the "Milan Derby." But if it is a game between AC Milan and a lower-level team in the Milan city area, strictly speaking, it is also a city derby, but such a derby is not noticed by anyone.

Because the strength gap between the two sides is too large.

Therefore, a derby that is valued must meet two conditions: the strength is evenly matched, or you can't think too much, and it must be in the same area.

Of course, the latter condition is relatively loose and can be changed completely according to the needs of the gimmick.

In the same city, it can be called a "city derby," in the same region, it can be called a "regional derby," in the same country, it can be called a "national derby," and in the same Europe, it can be called a "European derby." Even if two teams are in the same direction in a city, it can also be called the "North London Derby"...

But no matter what, as long as it is a derby, it will attract attention, and it also involves many things beyond football.

When teenagers are naive, they always think that football should also be naive and simple, and should not involve politics and money. But after teenagers grow up, they will find that football and politics and money are natural symbionts, especially in the derby, which is even more vividly reflected.

For example, the world's most famous "old brand derby," the Rangers against Celtic in Glasgow, Scotland, each collision between these two city rivals is not just football, but also involves political demands and religious beliefs, which is really "not about life and death, but higher than life and death."

In Germany, although Bayern Munich is the most famous, the most intense derby in Germany has nothing to do with Bayern Munich.

Because that belongs to the "Ruhr Derby" between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04.

Even after Munich 1860 withdrew from the Bundesliga stage, the only truly heavyweight derby in the entire Bundesliga is the Ruhr derby.

Because both teams are located in the Ruhr area of Germany, the game between these two teams is called the "Ruhr Derby."

Unlike the class opposition between the rich and the poor like Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, the contradiction of the Ruhr Derby is a "civil war"—whether it is Borussia Dortmund or Schalke 04, they are teams that came out of the mines, their supporters are miners, and they are all working people, and there is no class contradiction.

But the two sides still hate each other so much, which is a geographical contradiction.

Borussia Dortmund Football Club is located in Dortmund, while Schalke 04 is located in the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen.

The two clubs are only tens of kilometers apart and are located very close to each other.

In such a close area, there are two top teams, can one tolerate two tigers?

Naturally, they are fighting to the death.

Every year, the first-team games of the two clubs are the most eye-catching and attract worldwide attention.

As a youth team game, although it does not attract so much attention, the intensity is not low. The feud between these two teams extends from ordinary fans to the players. Many of the youth team players are supporters of their respective teams, and they will inevitably be extremely jealous when they meet their deadly rivals.

※※※

When Zhou Yi entered the world of FIFA Online 3, he found that the new opponent, the Schalke 04 youth team, had entered the ranks of opponents that could be selected.

Of course, he wanted to choose to play a game.

This system has a good effect for him, a midfielder commander, that is, he can know the opponent's information in advance, and he has enough time to study the opponent.

He has done this in the past few warm-up matches. Although they were warm-up matches, he still studied his opponents seriously and then competed with them.

Now that it is a formal game, he can't be negligent.

However, when he started to check the list of players of Schalke 04 U17, he suddenly found a name that was completely out of style in a large group of German names.

muge_yang.

Muge Yang?

Shepherd Yang? (A play on words, as "shepherd" and "Mu" share the same pronunciation in Chinese)

Damn it!

Zhou Yi suddenly had a flash of inspiration in his mind.

Isn't this Yang Muge!

Old Yang!

Old Yang actually went to Schalke 04!?

Zhou Yi was really surprised and delighted.

He had heard from Sun Pan before that a German club had taken a fancy to Yang Muge, but he never thought it would be Schalke 04!

He thought it might be Bayern Munich. After all, they had played against the Bayern Munich youth team, and it was normal to be spotted.

But he didn't expect that it would be Schalke 04, which had nothing to do with their program back then...

How did this team see Yang Muge's performance?

Zhou Yi had many questions in his mind, but he didn't intend to get out of bed now and call Yang Muge to ask what was going on.

Because he didn't have Yang Muge's contact information in Germany at all.

When the game comes, he will have to ask Old Yang how he came to Schalke 04.

At the same time, he also thought that if Old Yang could also enter the first team of Schalke 04 in the future, could he and him have a Ruhr Derby between Chinese players?

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi decided to have a youth team-level Ruhr Derby with Yang Muge in the virtual world now!

※※※

Although it was a youth team-level game, Zhou Yi had already felt the atmosphere in Mark's home in various aspects.

When the family was eating together, the topics of discussion were limited to this game. Mark's parents would frequently mention Schalke 04, not only the youth team, but also the first team.

And their words were full of disdain for this team.

Whenever they said that, Kotana, who was sitting at the dining table, would show a hint of helplessness.

Although it was not very obvious, it was still discovered by Zhou Yi, who was good at observing life.

Kotana, who is not a fan, obviously felt very speechless about this extreme emotion among fans.

While the Wagners were talking bad about Schalke 04, they also didn't forget to cheer for Mark.

Although what they said were encouraging words such as "Mark, you must not be nervous," "Mark, just play normally," and "Mark, we all believe in you."

But after being processed by Mark's ears and brain, the final analysis made Mark very nervous—if he didn't perform well in such an important game, then all the goals he scored in the warm-up matches before would probably be useless!

Seeing his younger brother so nervous, Kotana turned her attention to Zhou Yi. She found that the expression on Zhou Yi's face was much calmer, and he was even peeking at herself. When he saw that he had been discovered, he quickly turned his gaze away.

This kid...

After Christmas, Kotana also secretly reflected.

Was she too much that time? For a little boy from China, was that kind of behavior too impactful?

But what's done is done, does she still have to go to Zhou Yi to explain and tell him not to think too much?

Kotana could never do such a thing.

"Okay, Mom, if you keep talking, Mark won't be able to finish this meal." Kotana stopped her mother's nagging.

Mrs. Wagner then noticed that her son was so nervous that he was wooden.

So she quickly wanted to make amends: "Ah, son, don't take what I just said to heart. Just play casually, it doesn't matter how you play!"

In Mark's ears, the subtext was actually "Anyway, we don't have any hope for you, so we don't care how you play"...

This was simply a fatal blow.

Hearing what his mother said, Mark pushed his plate away: "I'm full!"

Then he lowered his head and went upstairs alone.

Kotana shrugged at her mother.

Zhou Yi turned his head to look at Mark. This was the first time in more than a month that he had seen Mark have such a performance. He thought that scoring goals in the warm-up matches would have completely gotten rid of Mark's lack of confidence.

The first official game is the Ruhr Derby between youth teams, it's really difficult for Mark...

※※※

The game against the Schalke 04 youth team came soon.

On the day of the game, Mark and Zhou Yi set off from home. This time, Kotana also set off from home together, so there was no need to worry about being late.

In fact, these days, because Mark is about to usher in the most important game of his life, his sister Kotana has been going home to live every day.

The five people filled old Wagner's not-so-spacious Audi car.

The three young people sat in the back row, Zhou Yi by the window, Mark in the middle, and Kotana on the other side.

Fortunately, the three of them were not very obese, otherwise Mark and Zhou Yi might be absent from the game because the car they were riding in on the way to the game was too small, and they were inconvenient to move, and their knees and ankles were strained for a long time in one position.

That would be too tragic...

Sitting in the car to the Brackel training base, Mark still seemed a little nervous, or rather, as the game approached, he became more nervous.

So nervous that his hands were shaking.

Seeing him like this, Kotana smiled and said to her brother: "Mark, you see, my suggestion is correct, right? You are really not suitable for the path of professional football. Just a Ruhr Derby at the youth team level makes you so nervous, what will you do when you get to the first team in the future? Wouldn't you be so nervous that you can't play the game?"

The smile on her face made people think that she was trying to comfort her brother, but the words she said were not very pleasant.

"Kotana!" The mother in the passenger seat couldn't help but reprimand. "The meaning of the Ruhr Derby is extraordinary!"

"But it's just a game." Kotana shrugged. "No matter how extraordinary the game is, it's just ninety minutes..."

"There are also one hundred and twenty minutes." Zhou Yi added.

Kotana glanced at him.

Bearing Kotana's gaze, Zhou Yi continued: "If you count the penalty shootout, the time will be even longer. Uh, I'm just making a statement."

"Thank you for the explanation." The expression on Kotana's face didn't look like she was sincerely thanking Zhou Yi at all.

Zhou Yi also seemed to completely not understand her expression, and waved his hand: "You're welcome!"

Kotana really had no temper with Zhou Yi, so she had to continue to say to her brother: "So Mark, reconsider my sister's suggestion, you are not the material for playing professional football."

Originally, she thought that Mark would be hit by Kotana, but unexpectedly, after hearing what his sister said, Mark suddenly shouted indignantly: "No! I will prove it to you!"

Zhou Yi noticed that Mark's hands were still shaking, but not as obviously as before.

He suddenly had a guess about Kotana, and looked up at Kotana.

But Kotana completely ignored Zhou Yi, turned her face away, and looked at the scenery flying backwards outside the car window.