Chapter 1 The Away Game

Although it was remarkable to equalize after being four goals behind away from home, Borussia Dortmund also paid a price for it.

For example, Weidenfeller will continue to miss the next home game against Inter Milan.

That is still a tough battle, and the next time they meet, Inter Milan probably won't be so careless. There will be fewer opportunities for Dortmund.

Also, in the league, because they had just experienced such a tough game, Klopp made some rotations to the starting lineup, and Zhou Yi did not appear in the starting lineup.

Almost more than half of the main players were either on the bench or in the stands.

In the end, in the ninth round of the league, Borussia Dortmund was forced to a 1-1 draw by Hoffenheim at home.

This result also meant that Borussia Dortmund only stayed at the top of the league table for one week. After the draw, they had twenty-two points. Mainz, on the other hand, defeated Leverkusen 1-0 away from home in this round, taking three points and regaining first place with twenty-four points.

But Klopp didn't care about that.

Being ranked second is also good. After all, the league is still long, and it is always better to start from second place and fight for first place in the second half of the season than to start from eleventh place and fight for first place - Bayern Munich was ranked eleventh after this round of league matches.

Of the three German teams participating in the Champions League this season, only Borussia Dortmund has maintained good momentum in both the Champions League and the league.

Bayern Munich has won all three of its Champions League group stage matches and is currently ranked first. However, their performance in the league has not been good. In nine league rounds, they have three wins, three draws, and three losses… only twelve points.

The other team participating in the Champions League, Schalke 04, is even more miserable. Although they have two wins and one loss in the Champions League, ranking second, their ranking in the league has fallen to sixteenth place - and the Bundesliga only has eighteen teams in total, so they have already fallen into the relegation zone!

The coaches of these two teams are now under tremendous pressure.

Compared with them, Klopp is very satisfied with Borussia Dortmund's current situation.

Two wins and one draw in the Champions League group stage, ranking first in the group. Seven wins, one draw, and one loss in the league, ranking second in the league, what's not to be satisfied with?

Next, in three days, there will be a not-so-important game - the German Cup.

Klopp decided to participate with a mix of substitutes and second-team players.

On the one hand, because the opponent is really too weak…

Offenbacher Kickers, a team from the German third-level league, that is, the 3. Liga.

To deal with a 3. Liga team, there is really no need to send out the full main lineup.

On the other hand, because the next tenth round of the league is a match between the second and first place teams, Borussia Dortmund will go to the away game to challenge Mainz, who are in surprisingly good form this season. This game is more important to Klopp.

He certainly can't let the main players waste their energy in a game against a third-tier league team.

The third reason is that Klopp doesn't pay much attention to the German Cup anymore. With the league and the Champions League, he is too busy, so he will just play the German Cup casually.

※※※

Zhou Yi discovered in the virtual space that he could choose Offenbacher Kickers as his opponent, but he did not choose to play against this team. His thoughts were similar to Klopp's.

On the one hand, the opponent is too weak, and playing against them is meaningless and cannot improve his strength.

On the other hand, it's a waste of time. Wouldn't it be better to practice his long passes during this time?

So after seeing a new opponent, he threw it aside and continued his training.

It wasn't until two days before the game that he was curious to see how weak this team's data was.

As a result, as soon as he opened the Offenbacher Kickers' player list, he was shocked, because he found a very concise name among a bunch of messy German names, only six letters, still separated, three for the surname, three for the given name.

pan_sun.

Pan Sun?

Zhou Yi felt that this name was familiar, and then he remembered that foreigners are used to reversing Chinese names, so the correct way to read it should be…sun_pan…

Sun Pan?

Zhou Yi cursed and quickly clicked in to take a closer look.

When Sun Pan's virtual image appeared in front of Zhou Yi, his jaw almost dropped to the ground!

At that moment, he had a strong impulse to quit the virtual world, then get out of bed, turn on the computer, and ask Sun Pan on QQ.

Aren't you in the Chelsea youth team!

Why are you playing in a 3. Liga team?

Could it be that you have a twin brother? Also a goalkeeper?

Zhou Yi resisted this impulse and continued to watch.

Goalkeeper.

The height and weight were similar to the Sun Pan he knew, but the data had changed a lot, becoming somewhat unrecognizable…

Although Zhou Yi did not confirm, he was already ninety percent certain that this could not be a twin - which twins have the same name? The parents are too unreliable, right?

But how did Sun Pan appear in a 3. Liga team?

Zhou Yi really couldn't understand this.

But since Sun Pan is in this team, Zhou Yi is interested in playing a game with this team.

So he entered the game mode.

After ninety minutes of the game, Borussia Dortmund finally defeated Offenbacher Kickers 3-0.

Given the strength difference between the two teams, it shouldn't have been like this.

Winning only three goals was too few.

But after Zhou Yi played this game, he felt that winning only three goals was understandable, because Sun Pan's performance was really good. He made many high and low saves of Borussia Dortmund's shots.

It can be seen from this simulation game that Sun Pan has improved a lot compared to before.

Since everyone went their separate ways after the reality show, he hadn't seen Sun Pan play football. His impression of Sun Pan as a goalkeeper was still stuck in the reality show. Now it seems that the huge changes in the data are reasonable. Sun Pan's ability has really improved a lot.

Seeing his friend with such an outstanding performance, Zhou Yi was also happy.

He hopes that everyone can make a name for themselves.

※※※

The next day, the first thing Zhou Yi did after getting up was not to wash up, but to call Sun Pan.

"Zhou Yi, why are you calling me so early?" Sun Pan's northeastern accent sounded on the other end of the phone.

"Could it be that it's not dawn in London yet?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Ah… this, yes, it's still a bit… gloomy…" Sun Pan started to stutter.

As soon as Zhou Yi heard Sun Pan stuttering, he knew something was up, because Sun Pan only stuttered when teasing Guo Nu, that was him deliberately imitating Guo Nu. Apart from that, he stuttered because he was unnatural when speaking. This straightforward northeasterner didn't seem to be good at lying.

"Where are you now?" So Zhou Yi asked directly.

"In London, what's wrong?"

"You're not in Germany?"

"Ger… what Germany?"

He stuttered again.

Zhou Yi decided to get straight to the point: "Are you currently in Chelsea, or in Offenbacher Kickers?"

Sun Pan on the other end of the phone was stunned for a few seconds without speaking, and then exclaimed: "Damn, how did you know?"

"Nonsense, our next German Cup opponent is Offenbacher Kickers. We will get the player list, and your kid's name in there is as dazzling as a firefly in the night, how could I not know?" Zhou Yi was much more natural when telling lies than Sun Pan, and these words made Sun Pan not suspect anything at all.

But there is no such thing as an opponent's player list. If there is, it would only be with the coaching staff, and the players can't see it. Of course, he couldn't tell Sun Pan that he had discovered him in the virtual space in advance, that would be too terrifying.

"Damn, damn, damn! Not fun, not fun at all!" Sun Pan shouted. "I was going to give you a surprise! Scare you when I appear in front of you!"

"Hehe." Zhou Yi gave a forced smile. "I can tell you in advance, I probably won't be on the roster for this game. So you can't give me this surprise in person!"

"What the heck! Why?" Sun Pan was surprised to hear Zhou Yi say this.

"Playing against a 3. Liga team, do you still need me to play? Our next league game is against Mainz, that's a Bundesliga top-of-the-table clash, of course that game is more important, I want to save my energy for that game." Zhou Yi said proudly.

"Damn!" Sun Pan was very unhappy. His long-planned surprise plan died before it even started…

"Hey, weren't you in Chelsea, how did you run to Germany?"

"I was loaned here. I performed very well in the youth team last season, which impressed the club's senior management, so they decided to cultivate me greatly and loaned me here!" Sun Pan started bragging.

Zhou Yi facepalmed: "If they really thought you were worth cultivating, would they loan you to a German third-tier league team? You didn't get a lot of ignorant girls pregnant in London, so you ran to this godforsaken place of Offenbach to avoid romantic debts, right? By the way, where is Offenbach anyway?"

"Damn, don't judge a gentleman by your own petty standards! How could I, a dignified seven-foot man, not take responsibility if I really got someone pregnant!"

"That's not something to be proud of, okay!" Zhou Yi felt that Sun Pan's priorities were all wrong.

"How are you doing in Offenbach?" He asked again.

"I haven't played a game yet…"

"You still say Chelsea values you?" Zhou Yi didn't know what to say. "If they really valued you, they would at least guarantee your playing time in the loan contract!"

"Tch, I don't care. I'm going to grab the opportunity with my own hands!"

"Keep bragging…" Zhou Yi rolled his eyes over the phone.