Chapter 550 Crazy Away Game
Su Dong still clearly remembers that when he first met Lazio, the Serie A Blue Eagles were still one of the top teams in the world.
The team at that time had top central defenders such as Stam and Mihajlovic, as well as a group of outstanding stars. It was definitely a team that the fledgling Soviet and Eastern European teams looked up to.
In Su Dong's mind, there has always been an indescribable impression that all the teams in Serie A are strong teams.
But when he met Lazio again after the phone-gate incident, he couldn't hide the loss in his heart.
Compared with the star-studded Serie A Blue Eagles of the past, today's Lazio is obviously much weaker in terms of both star lineup and overall strength. This makes Su Dong recall the exodus of Serie A stars in the summer of 2006.
If the impact that Su Dong had on the Serie A phone-gate scandal was only in his imagination, then in the match against Lazio, he experienced the gap firsthand.
Lazio's overall strength is similar to that of Werder Bremen, Schalke 04 and other teams in today's Bundesliga, let alone the Blue Eagles of that year, or even worse.
This was reflected on the field, as Bayern kept a firm grip on the situation throughout the game and took possession of the ball from the very beginning.
In the 29th minute, Lazio left-back Kolarov made a mistake in stopping the ball and was intercepted by Schweinsteiger. Lahm then made a run-in and made a cross from the bottom. Sudong in the penalty area rushed over and pushed the ball into the goal, making it one to zero.
After the second half, Bayern continued its offensive against Lazio.
Schweinsteiger made a lob pass from the right, Su Dong came in from behind, stopped the ball with his chest, flicked the ball with his right foot to avoid the goalkeeper, caught up with the ball before the baseline, and easily pushed the ball into the empty goal, making it 2-0.
In the 82nd minute, Su Dong created a foul by the opponent in the middle of the penalty area, winning a free kick opportunity for Bayern.
Su Dong, who had already scored two goals in a row, felt that his footwork was just right, and he had also practiced free kicks for a long time, so he immediately asked to take the penalty.
The free kick was of very high quality, with good arc and strength, but the player was too focused on quality, the angle was too straight, and the goalkeeper saved it sideways.
Ribery took the opportunity to catch up and scored in front of the goal, scoring another goal for Bayern, making it 3-0.
When the French scarface was celebrating his goal, Su Dong looked depressed.
After practicing free kicks for so many years, I finally got a chance to take a free kick. The ball was well kicked and aimed at the goal, but it just didn't score. It's really sad to think about it.
…
In the end, Bayern defeated Lazio 3-0 and won three consecutive group stage games.
At the Bernabeu, Real Madrid defeated Olympiacos 4-2 and reversed the situation to second place in the group.
In this way, the situation in the group stage becomes much clearer.
Bayern is far ahead, followed closely by Real Madrid. It is difficult for Olympiacos and Lazio to pose a threat to these two giants.
Among them, Lazio's performance was the most disappointing.
The Blue Eagles had previously tied 1-1 with Olympiacos away and 2-2 with Real Madrid at home, which made many people expect them to be the spoiler of this group. However, they did not expect that this team could cause any trouble to the two strong teams, which was very disappointing.
We can also see from Lazio that the overall strength of Serie A teams has declined after the Calciopoli scandal.
But the German media are more happy because the decline of Serie A is undoubtedly an opportunity for the Bundesliga.
This also makes people in Germany more expectant that the Bundesliga teams, led by Bayern, can catch up and surpass Serie A as soon as possible, and preferably reproduce the heyday and prosperity at the turn of the century.
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On the afternoon of October 28th, in the 11th round of the Bundesliga, Bayern challenged Dortmund away.
The Hornets are currently ranked 11th in the Bundesliga and there is still a gap in strength between them and Bayern, but Bayern is playing away after all.
Bayern has always had a tradition that every time the team goes to an away game, they only take Bayern's own bus.
If the distance is short, then take a bus. If the distance is far, even like the previous visit to the Bernabeu, the team bus will take the equipment, food and water for the players in advance and set off to Madrid first to prepare. The team will then arrive by plane, and the team bus that arrived earlier will come to pick them up.
The same is true for this away challenge against Dortmund.
Unexpectedly, this time in Dortmund, the team bus was stuck on the road, causing the team to arrive at the stadium twenty minutes later than the scheduled training time, and the team did not have much time to warm up.
This also meant that Bayern was immediately suppressed by Dortmund after the opening.
It was not until the 31st minute that Bayern broke the deadlock.
A long shot from Van Bommel was saved by Dortmund goalkeeper Weidenfeller. Su Dong seized the opportunity in the chaos in the penalty area and scored the first goal for Bayern.
This goal also lasted until the end of the game.
Bayern beat Dortmund 1-0 thanks to Su Dong's goal.
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After playing away against Dortmund, the entire Bayern team returned to Munich, but the team bus still remained in Dortmund.
Three days later, the team will head north to participate in the second round of the German Cup.
The opponent is a third-tier team called Red and White Allen.
It is said that they were lucky in the first round draw, drawing a weak team, and defeated the opponent at home to successfully advance.
The team is currently ranked first in the Northern Division of Germany's third-level regional league, so it should be quite strong.
The top of the Bundesliga versus the top of the third-level league, such a game is really interesting.
…
After the team returned to Munich, Klose and Robben officially participated in the team's training.
The former's recovery was later than originally expected, while Robben's recovery was also acceptable.
Since they have just returned from injuries, they will not travel north with the team for away games.
But the return of Klose and Robben is a great relief for Bayern.
The most difficult time has finally passed.
…
The team rested for two days in Munich and set off north in the middle of the week to participate in the second round of the German Cup.
Bayern still arrived in Dortmund, got on the team bus, and headed to the small town called Allen.
Since Klose is not with the team, Su Dong is traveling with the team this time. In addition, Podolski is not in ideal condition after suffering from influenza, so Su Dong is likely to start in this game.
Heynckes discussed the matter with Su Dong before leaving and received a positive response from Su Dong.
From Valencia to Barcelona, and now to Bayern, Su Dong rarely plays in domestic cup competitions, unless it is a dialogue between strong teams. Su Dong has never played in a cup competition like this away expedition to challenge a weak team.
I have to say, it really feels very fresh.
Toni Kroos will start in this game and is in a very good mood. He even specially asked his teammates to change positions and sat in front of Su Dong. He kept chatting with Marcelo, the talkative one, which made Su Dong speechless.
In the past, Marcelo's best chat partner was Ribery. The French scar-faced guy is actually a lively guy and gets along well with Marcelo. But this time Ribery did not travel with the team. Marcelo thought he would be depressed all the way, but he didn't expect Toni Kroos to come to him on his own initiative.
Along the way, they chattered and admired the rural scenery of the North Rhine coal mining area. Soon they drove into the small town of Allen.
But what surprised Su Dong was that with the King's Cup knockout round approaching, the fans here did not have the slightest hostility towards Bayern. Even though they were actually very close to Dortmund, they still chased after the Bayern bus and cheered.
After arriving at the Weser Stadium of the Red and White Allen, Su Dong was even more surprised by what he saw.
The stands of this stadium are very small, and can only accommodate about three to four thousand people, but the area around the stadium is densely packed with fans, and all of them have bought standing tickets.
When Bayern's bus arrived, there was even a round of warm applause to welcome Bayern's arrival.
"Oh my God, is this an away game?" Su Dong felt very fresh.
Heynckes laughed, "You rarely play in this kind of cup games, right?"
Su Dong nodded. He had really never played before. He felt like he was back to the time when he played for Sporting CP in Portugal, but there would be more fans and more enthusiastic fans in low-level leagues like Germany.
"We seemed to be here to win, but why are they..." Su Dong felt very strange.
"Not hostile to us?" Heynckes asked with a smile.
Su Dong nodded. Logically speaking, shouldn't the home fans criticize the visiting team? Not only are the fans not hostile, but even the red and white Allen greets Bayern like a VIP. Isn't this a bit too enthusiastic?
"When we get on the court, they will foul when necessary, and they will do a lot of tricks, because that is part of their strength. But off the court, even though they know we are here to win, they still welcome us and even hope to draw a team like us."
Su Dong was not stupid either. He looked at the crowds of people around him, especially those on the sidelines who were so crowded that there was no room to stand. It was simply unbelievable. He believed that it would be impossible for them to have such an attendance rate on normal days.
"It seems like we are here to help them stimulate the ball market." Su Dong said with a smile.
Heynckes nodded and sighed again. "For us, it's just a formality. We may even complain about the trouble in our hearts. But for them, it's a golden opportunity. Our presence can help them attract fans who would never come to the stadium on weekdays."
"You know, it's not easy for lower-level teams in all leagues around the world. They are basically struggling to survive. We may not care about a game like tonight and forget about it after the game, but for many of these teams, it may change their development and even their destiny."
"The giants are standing too high. They should bow their heads occasionally and look at the lower-middle-class teams that support the league pyramid. They should give them more room to survive and give them the opportunity to dream. This is the virtuous cycle that a healthy league system should have. What do you think?"
Su Dong did not answer, but looked at the enthusiastic fans in front of him and fell into thought.
(End of this chapter)
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