Chapter 30: Spoon Penalty and the German Football Association's Invitation
On July 29, Werder Bremen traveled to face their last warm-up match opponent of the month, Paderborn from the German 2nd Division.
In this game, Coach Schaff did not adjust the starting roster for the midfield and frontcourt, but instead focused on adjusting the arrangements for the back line.
Paderborn ranked fifth in the Bundesliga last season, not far from the promotion zone.
So their club chairman is ambitious and wants to realize the dream of promotion to the Chinese Super League.
To this end, they have made great efforts in recruiting players this season and bought many strong players.
Therefore, in terms of overall strength, they are stronger than their previous warm-up match opponents Cottbus.
Werder Bremen and Paderborn are both teams with strong offense but weak defense, and the game was like a collision of the two teams.
In the 13th minute of the first half, Paderborn, playing at home, scored the first goal.
Just five minutes later, Werder Bremen equalized the score with a goal on a counterattack.
In the 28th minute, Werder Bremen scored directly from a free kick in the frontcourt, and the score became 2:1.
In the injury time of the first half, Werder Bremen had a great chance, but unfortunately De Bruyne's shot hit the post and bounced out.
After the half-time break, both sides changed sides and continued the game.
In the 53rd minute, Lin Quan, who came on as a substitute, dribbled into the opponent's penalty area and was tripped by a defender. The referee awarded a penalty kick.
Because captain Fritz, the team's first penalty taker, was on a rest, Schaff let Lin Quan take the penalty kick himself.
Taking a penalty kick is a test of a player's mental quality. He wanted to take this opportunity to observe Lin Quan's ability to withstand pressure and his mental quality.
Lin Quan has eight years of professional experience like Messi and is accustomed to things like penalty kicks.
He stood at the penalty spot, observed the goalkeeper's position and started a run-up.
When he approached the football, he suddenly used a change in rhythm to shake the goalkeeper, and when the opponent subconsciously made a save, he kicked the football.
Seeing that Lin Quan touched the ball with his toes, Coach Scharf stood up immediately.
This kid is so brave, he actually dared to take a penalty kick in this way! The ball jumped high, not fast, but with a high arc.
The ball flew over the head of the goalkeeper who had just reached the bottom line and went steadily into the goal.
Lin Quan scored a goal with a spoon penalty, and the score was rewritten to 3:1.
"This kid has such a good mentality, doesn't he? Most players should play as safe as possible, but he actually used a spoon to take the penalty..."
Coach Schaaf breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the ball go in.
After sitting down, I couldn't help but complain to several colleagues around me.
"Well, let me ask you, is it possible that the spoon penalty is the most reliable solution in this kid's mind?"
Hernebach's words silenced everyone...
In the following dozens of minutes, neither side was able to change the score.
The final score of 3:1 remained until the end of the game, and Werder Bremen won three consecutive victories in the warm-up matches.
Lin Quan, who played in all three games, also earned three economical points.
Unfortunately, the team did not have any warm-up matches before the end of the second phase of training.
This means that he will have no games to play in the next half month, which makes him feel a little melancholy.
The day of buying top-level talents is still far away! ...
Just when Lin Quan was worrying about the lack of games, at the headquarters of the German Football Association, officials of the German Football Association were discussing with the sponsor telecommunications company T-Home about the team invitation quota for this season's Deutsche Telekom Cup.
The Deutsche Telekom Cup was founded in 2009 and was formerly the German League Cup.
The event is sponsored by the famous telecommunications company T-Home and is held annually.
There are four participating teams in each competition, in addition to the permanent invitations of the champions and runners-up of the previous season's Bundesliga.
We will also invite one team from the mid-table team and one team from the relegation team.
Because there are relatively few participating teams, the rules of the competition are also very simple.
The Deutsche Telekom Cup uses a random draw to first hold two semi-finals. The winning team advances to the final, and the losing two teams play in the third and fourth place finals, for a total of four games.
Therefore, the prize money is not high, and the champion's prize money is only 300,000 euros.
However, being able to hold such a high-level competition before the start of the season will facilitate testing whether the signings of each team are successful, which is still attractive to the invited teams.
In order not to affect the team's preparations, the Telecom Cup's competition time is relatively short, and four games are scheduled to be completed within two days.
Moreover, the time of a single game is also limited, with each half only 30 minutes.
If the game is still tied after sixty minutes, it will go straight to a penalty shootout.
Because of this special competition system, the Telecom Cup has always been full of upsets.
Even giants like Bayern Munich often fail. Since the establishment of the Deutsche Telekom Cup, the Bundesliga giants have never won a championship.
This season, the first three invited teams of the Telecom Cup have been determined, namely last season's Bundesliga champion Dortmund and runner-up Bayern Munich.
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The team in the relegation zone is Hamburg, which barely managed to stay in the league by 1 point last season.
All three teams are easy to choose, but which one is the best choice for the mid-table team?
The German Football Association and sponsors do not agree on this issue.
According to the German Football Association, there are a total of 18 teams in the Bundesliga, and the mid-level team must be ranked ninth or tenth.
The two teams are Werder Bremen, ranked ninth, and Nuremberg, ranked tenth.
However, the sponsors felt that the cities where the two teams were located were too small, which would not be conducive to publicity and promotion, so they wanted to choose Stuttgart, a big city.
Stuttgart is the sixth largest city in Germany, with a larger population and greater commercial value.
Holding the Telecom Cup competition here will have a stronger advertising effect for sponsors.
The two sides were arguing, and the German Football Association insisted that the rules should not be broken.
Football is a national sport in Germany and has huge commercial value, so there is no shortage of sponsors.
The reason why we cooperated with T-Home was because they were a local company, and we had very pleasant experiences working with them in the past, so we chose them.
If they become complacent and start interfering in the work of the Football Association, the German Football Association would not mind changing its sponsor. For example, Volkswagen is a good choice.
Upon hearing this, T-Home immediately backed down and expressed its respect for the Football Association's decision.
Seeing that the other party had compromised, the German Football Association also gave them face and chose Bremen, a slightly larger city, between Werder Bremen and Nuremberg.
Soon, the invitation from the German Football Association was sent to the club's head coach Schaff.
Seeing this invitation, Scharf hesitated:
Should I accept or not? Accepting the invitation would give me a chance to win the 300,000 euro prize and a share of the ticket sales.
However, this will disrupt the team's training plans.
Moreover, playing two consecutive games within two days is also a test for the players.
It might be OK for the older players, but for the younger players, especially those who haven’t played in the Bundesliga, it’s a huge challenge.
In particular, they are very likely to play against strong teams such as Bayern Munich and Dortmund.
If they were to be beaten badly by the opponent by accident, then the confidence they had accumulated from the previous three consecutive victories would probably be completely reduced to zero.
So, instead of making the decision himself, he called together the coaching staff and also called Lin Quan and De Bruyne, the two best performing young players, to ask for their opinions.
When he heard that there was still a game to play, and it was against the champions and runners-up of the Bundesliga, Lin Quan's eyes widened.
This is a game worth two points! Go, you have to go!
(End of this chapter)