Chapter 915: The Smoker's Champions League Debut
Late at night, the lights in the office were dimmed.
A video of a match was playing on the TV hanging on the wall. If you were a football fan, you would definitely be able to tell at a glance that this was the European Super Cup match between Manchester City and Barcelona that had just ended in late August.
Opposite the TV wall, in the dim light, one can see a tall and burly figure slumped on the sofa. He holds the remote control in one hand, fast-forwarding and rewinding the video from time to time, while in the other hand he holds a cigarette and frequently puts it to his mouth to take a deep puff.
Every time he exhaled, the room was filled with smoke.
The ashtray on the armrest of the sofa was already full of cigarette butts. Every time the person finished smoking a cigarette, he would put it into the ashtray and extinguish it, a lot of cigarettes would always overflow and scatter on the armrest, the leather surface of the sofa and the floor, making it look dirty and messy.
But he still ignored it and smoked one after another without stopping.
The whole room was filled with a strong, pungent smell of cigarette smoke, but he was completely unaware of it.
Just like that, he didn't know how much time had passed, until he finished the last cigarette in the cigarette box and found that several packs of cigarettes were already empty. Then he let out a long breath and sat up straight from the sofa.
I turned over my wrist and looked at the time. It was already the next day.
The man stretched out his arms on the sofa, trying to stretch himself, but accidentally knocked the ashtray on the armrest to the ground. Cigarette butts and ashes were scattered everywhere, but he just glanced at it, turned off the TV and stood up.
This man had a strong build and was estimated to be over 1.9 meters tall. When he stood up, he looked extremely powerful.
He turned his sore neck, clenched his fists, and performed a series of boxing moves to stretch his muscles. Then he walked over to get his coat, opened the door and walked out of the office.
As soon as I went out, a cool breeze blew on my face, and I felt a lot more energetic and the air was fresh.
The big man took a deep breath of air, then turned his head and sniffed the familiar smell of smoke in the room, as if that was the smell that fascinated him the most. Then he closed the door and left.
…
This is a huge, high-level modern football training base located in a place called Brakel, south of the small town of Scharnhorst in the eastern suburbs of Dortmund, Germany.
When the big man walked out of the training building, the yellow BVB logo was still lit, very eye-catching. This is the logo of the Bundesliga giants Dortmund, and it is also the football palace in the hearts of countless German fans.
After walking a distance, the big man did not forget to look back at the yellow sign. The corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a proud smile. Like a policeman, he saluted with his right index and middle fingers.
He is Borussia Dortmund's head coach Jurgen Klopp.
Behind him is Dortmund's new training base, which was started in 2005 and was only put into use at the beginning of this year. It took the club nearly six years and consumed countless time, energy and money.
Messy long hair parted in the middle, a square face, a beard, antique thick black glasses, sneakers, jeans, training shirt...
When Klopp turned his back to the training building and walked towards the parking lot, under the backdrop of the lights in the distance, his image as a sloppy uncle and the BVB training building behind him had a unique kind of rugged beauty.
…
Dortmund's start to this season has not been ideal.
After the first five rounds, the Hornets had two wins, one draw and two losses, ranking eleventh in the Bundesliga.
The most recent game was a 1-2 loss to Hertha Berlin at home.
Many people have questioned Klopp and believe that it will be difficult for Dortmund to reproduce the glory of last season. The reason is simple. Last season's midfield core Sahin went to Real Madrid for a transfer fee of 10 million euros.
Everyone who knows football knows how important Sahin is to Dortmund.
What’s different from last season is that this season Dortmund will participate in the Champions League and face a three-front battle.
This is Klopp's first Champions League game in his coaching career, and his opponent is Manchester City, the champion team from the Premier League.
Interestingly, this is also the first time that Manchester City head coach Guardiola is participating in the Champions League.
What’s even more interesting is that since August 2003, when Dortmund lost to Belgium’s Bruges in the preliminary qualifiers and failed to participate in the Champions League group stage, the team has suffered a huge disaster and has been in decline ever since. At the worst time, it was even on the verge of bankruptcy and had to frantically sell off its stars to stabilize its position.
After eight years and 3,100 days, Dortmund finally returned to the Champions League.
Today's Dortmund is completely different from the Hornets that swept across Europe back then. Back then, Dortmund was a veritable star army, while today's Hornets are younger and play with more passion.
Head coach Klopp is a sloppy uncle famous throughout Germany. The most interesting news about him is that Hamburg chose not to hire him because of his smoking, which allowed Dortmund to get a big bargain.
Therefore, every time Klopp defeats Hamburg, he will use this incident to mock his opponents.
Dortmund has not played in the Champions League for eight years and 3,100 days, while Manchester City has never played in the Champions League in history. Both head coaches are rookies in the Champions League, which makes everyone curious about the upcoming game.
Guardiola is best at passing and controlling the ball. Even in the European Super Cup against Barcelona, Manchester City still insisted on passing and controlling the ball and was not conservative. Dortmund, coached by Klopp, played very aggressively, known for their passionate pressing and oppression, and their counterattacks were even more amazing.
The two head coaches and the two teams can be said to be natural enemies of each other. It depends on who will have the last laugh.
…
On the afternoon of departure for the UK, Dortmund held a press conference at the Brakel Training Center.
Klopp still had his sloppy image, wearing jeans and training shirt that looked like they had not been washed for a long time. He yawned, revealing his yellow teeth from smoking, and came in front of everyone.
He always gets straight to the point and never beats around the bush, directly announcing the 18-man squad for Manchester.
The only special thing is that the main scorer Barrios is out due to injury, and Lewandowski is expected to start.
Klopp did not give a direct answer to this question, but said that he believed in everyone in the team.
"I know a lot of you feel that we haven't performed well enough this season, but we are going to prove you wrong."
"In Manchester, we will use our courage, determination and belief in winning to defeat our opponents and regain respect and recognition."
Klopp said it was really bad that Dortmund was unfortunately drawn into the group of death.
"It felt like I stayed up until midnight last night and found that I had no cigarettes in my pocket. It was terrible!"
The media reporters present all burst into laughter.
Everyone knows that he is addicted to smoking.
"This is a very strong group, but we will use our strength and performance to prove that we are capable of competing. We will compete with the other three teams for the two qualifying spots, which is very important to us."
Dortmund does not have strong financial resources, so participating in the Champions League is very important to them. If they can qualify, the rewards will be greater.
Of course, no matter what, the Bundesliga is equally important because it affects the qualification for the Champions League next season.
Barrios' absence due to injury will have some impact on Dortmund, but Klopp doesn't think it matters.
"We also have Lewandowski and Perisic, both of whom are very good attackers."
Both players are highly anticipated. Perisic performed well in Bruges, Belgium, with many goals and assists, but after coming to Dortmund, he played in the first five rounds but failed to score any goals or assists.
Obviously, he is still in the adaptation stage.
Lewandowski is the best striker in Poland, but after joining Dortmund, one season has passed and he has not yet shown very convincing results, but Klopp is still full of confidence in him.
"I don't doubt his ability and potential. He is only 23 years old and scored a lot of goals in the Polish league. We are very optimistic about him, so we brought him to Germany. He needs some time to adapt and improve himself. This requires a process. We have enough patience to wait for his growth."
As for Manchester City and Sudirman, Klopp said he didn't have too many feelings.
"It's like smoking. Rich people, middle class people and poor people smoke different cigarettes, so I don't look at rich people smoking cigars and think I have to smoke like that because I don't have money in my pocket."
Klopp's words once again made everyone present burst into laughter.
"There is no doubt that freezing the Soviet Union will be a difficult problem, but it is not necessarily so. We will try some methods and try our best to do it."
During Su Dong's time at Bayern, Klopp played against Su Dong many times. He knew very well the threat and strength of Su Dong, but the more so, the more he downplayed it.
Finally, an interesting question.
For example, a familiar reporter asked Klopp whether he would continue to wear his usual outfit on the day of the game or dress up a little? This question caused another round of laughter at the scene, and the atmosphere was very lively.
"Hey, please, don't cheat me." Klopp cursed with a smile.
"Although I haven't read much, I know that UEFA has a strict rule that you have to wear a formal suit when playing. I wore it when I played in the Europa League last season, and they reminded me repeatedly."
"If I get fined, I won't have money for cigarettes."
The last sentence was just a low murmur, but it just made all the reporters at the scene burst into laughter again.
In fact, he is a very charismatic head coach and a unique person.
He is like this whether on the court, off the court, or facing the media.
He has never been a polite gentleman like Hitzfeld. On the contrary, he would roar, get crazy, and even make unreasonable demands. It was like there was a tiger living in his heart, ready to show off his power anytime and anywhere.
This is not something that can be restrained by a suit.
Everyone is looking forward to it. In the Champions League debut of the two teams and the Champions League debut of the two head coaches, can Guardiola's passing and control of the ball be able to trap Klopp?
(End of this chapter)
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