The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 33 - 21: Debut and the One-on-one

In the 29th round of the 2nd Bundesliga, Mainz faced Paderborn at home.

Perhaps due to the influence of many recent unfavorable factors, combined with the increasingly pessimistic outlook for promotion, Bruch Road Stadium was not at full capacity tonight.

19,500 people.

That was the number given by the stadium announcer just before kickoff.

Normally, Bruch Road Stadium was sold out for every match.

Besides the lower attendance, there was another very big change for Mainz in tonight’s match.

The starting lineup.

Klopp had made a major adjustment for this game.

Goalkeeper: Daniel Ischdonat;

Defense: Marco Rose, Nowitzki, Subotic, and Hogland;

Midfield: Gunkel, Pekovic, and Kalhan;

Forwards: Foyelner, Balik, and Wang Shuo.

This was the starting lineup announced over the PA system before the match.

The jersey numbers at Mainz were mostly taken.

The first team had a total of four goalkeepers, and Ischdonat, the starter for this match, wore number 30.

As a player promoted from the youth team, the only jersey numbers available to Wang Shuo were basically 35 and up.

In the end, he chose number 36.

Why 36?

plus 6 equals 9!

According to Subotic, after Wang Shuo chose number 36, the team’s top scorer, Borja, who had been benched for this game, was not happy.

Because he was the one who wore Mainz’s number 9 jersey.

But that had nothing to do with Wang Shuo.

The nearly 20,000 Mainz fans in the stadium had already heard the name Wang Shuo in the news before the game. They also knew that the club had pulled a lot of strings for this young player to be able to play.

His outstanding performance in the youth team naturally led to high expectations.

When Wang Shuo took the field, the home fans gave him a supportive round of applause.

This also thrilled the fans back in China who were watching the live stream of the game online.

"He’s on! He’s on!"

"It’s really Wang Shuo!"

"He’s actually in the starting lineup!"

"Oh my God, he’s only 17, and he’s starting in his debut match. That’s comparable to Dortmund’s midfield prodigy, Shahin."

"Wang Shuo is awesome!"

"Go for it! Score a goal in your debut!"

...

In a small mountain village in Lingshan State, in southeast China, Wang Shuo’s parents and family were all gathered around a laptop.

To watch this game, Jiang Pengju had called in a favor with a friend to rush the installation of the broadband internet, which had just been connected today.

Just as they connected to the live stream on an internet forum, they saw Wang Shuo taking the field in his red jersey.

They could also hear the applause from the Mainz fans in the stadium.

"It’s really Ah Shuo."

The moment Wang Shuo’s mother saw her son appear on the small laptop screen, she couldn’t help but cry, her voice trembling as she spoke.

When Wang Shuo played in Hu City, he only came home once every six months to save money on travel expenses.

This time, he hadn’t even come home, going straight to Germany instead. They hadn’t seen him in months.

Although he would call occasionally, international calls were expensive, so they could never talk for long.

Now, hearing from Jiang Pengju that their son was making a name for himself in Germany and was on the path to success, they were all overjoyed for him.

Even his father’s eyes were red as he fought back tears, his lips twitching uncontrollably.

"Jianwei, can you zoom in a little? Let your uncle and aunt get a clearer look at your cousin," Wang Shuo’s aunt said to her son, He Jianwei.

The couple, Wang Wenjun and Xu Xiuying, nodded repeatedly, looking expectantly at their nephew.

"Uncle, Aunt, it’s a live broadcast. I can’t adjust it," He Jianwei said regretfully.

He and Wang Shuo had been close since they were children, and after not seeing him for so long, he missed him quite a bit too.

"Well, watching it like this is fine too," Wang Wenjun said, a little disappointed.

"Jianwei, your cousin called a few days ago and told me to tell you something. Since you’re doing well in school, just focus on your studies. Get into high school, then go to college. Your cousin will pay for all your tuition and living expenses."

Wang Shuo’s aunt had already heard about this from her brother and sister-in-law. "Jianwei, what are you waiting for? Thank your uncle and aunt, and your cousin. You must never forget this."

"Yes. Thank you, Uncle, thank you, Aunt."

"Don’t mention it, we’re family," said Wang Shuo’s mother. "It’s just you and your brother now, and below us, Ah Shuo and Jianwei. They should look out for each other. Besides, when they were little, you were always better to Ah Shuo than to your own son."

As they were talking, the scene on the laptop changed. The two teams lined up, and the Mainz players walked past the refereeing crew and the Paderborn players, shaking hands.

At that moment, the broadcast camera zoomed in for a close-up.

They got a clear view of Wang Shuo.

"He’s gotten a bit tanner, but he looks more spirited," his father, Wang Wenjun, said, his voice slightly choked with emotion.

...

For Mainz, this was a game they could not afford to lose.

The fate of their promotion bid was at stake, and it was a home game.

Paderborn’s head coach, Pavel Dochev, set up a 4-4-2 formation, clearly intending to play a defensive counter-attacking game.

Both the announcer at Bruch Road Stadium and the 2nd Bundesliga broadcast reported Mainz’s formation as a 4-3-3.

Wang Shuo was positioned as the right winger.

But once the match started, everyone was surprised to see that Wang Shuo was actually the one playing furthest forward.

Balik, on the other hand, had drifted out to the right.

Interestingly, Foyelner was a two-footed player, dominant with his right foot, but he was playing on the left wing.

Balik was a left-footed player.

This detail would soon influence the course of the match.

As soon as the match began, Wang Shuo pressed the Paderborn players furiously, like a tiger descending a mountain.

This was also part of head coach Klopp’s plan.

Go all out!

However, the team wasn’t pressing too high up the pitch.

Wang Shuo was focusing his pressure in and around Paderborn’s 30-meter area.

As a 2nd Bundesliga powerhouse aiming for promotion playing against the last-place team, Mainz controlled the game from the very beginning.

The fans in the stadium continuously cheered the players on.

But Paderborn was no pushover.

Their defense was considered quite good for a team in the bottom half of the 2nd Bundesliga table.

Their two center-backs, Dorin and Duric, were both over 1.9 meters tall, typical tall and strong defenders.

Dorin was a left-footed center-back playing on the left side, while Duric, a player from Black Mountain, was a right-footed center-back.

Of the two central midfielders, the local midfielder Fisher played a holding role, responsible for defense. His passing was steady, but his technical skills were average.

The 31-year-old Sven Lintjens had average skill on the ball but loved to make late runs from midfield.

Klopp’s pre-match scouting was incredibly detailed, covering not only the players’ strengths and weaknesses, but much more.

Take Lintjens, for example.

Paderborn had signed him in January from Wuppertal, a team in the Northern Division of the German Third Division.

In the first half of the season, he had scored 5 goals and provided 4 assists in 18 matches, an outstanding performance.

His greatest strength was making those late runs from deep.

After joining 2nd Bundesliga side Paderborn during the winter break, he was heavily featured.

But unexpectedly, before he could even fully integrate into the team, he suffered a minor tear of his cruciate ligament in early March and was sidelined for a month.

In the last round, Paderborn’s 2-2 home draw against Cologne, he watched the entire match from the bench.

Returning to the starting lineup for this match, he was definitely fired up and eager to prove himself.

Aware of this situation, Wang Shuo paid special attention to Lintjens.

In the 13th minute, when he pressed Fisher, the latter immediately passed the ball to Lintjens.

But Lintjens didn’t pass it on immediately. Instead, he knocked the ball forward, wanting to dribble it himself.

Just then, Wang Shuo suddenly accelerated and closed him down.

They were about the same height, but Lintjens was stronger than Wang Shuo and better in physical duels.

But Lintjens was the one on the ball.

Under Wang Shuo’s pressure, Lintjens’s dribbling rhythm was thrown off.

He hastily tried to make a pass, but it was intercepted by Gunkel, who then passed it to Foyelner.

Foyelner received the ball side-on, carried it forward, and upon entering Paderborn’s 30-meter area, he made a square pass to the middle.

After helping win the ball back, Wang Shuo had sprinted forward at top speed and was now level with Foyelner.

But Wang Shuo had a better angle. Taking one touch to control the ball, he sent a through ball with his right foot to the right side of the penalty area.

Balik arrived at full speed.

"Great chance!"

"Mainz, he can shoot directly!"

If it had been a right-footed player, it would have been an almost certain goal.

But Balik was purely left-footed; his right foot was practically useless.

Therefore, upon reaching Wang Shuo’s pass, he wasn’t confident enough to take the shot with his right foot, choosing instead to control it with his left before shooting.

As a result, the left center-back, Dorin, who had rushed back in time, blocked his shooting angle.

This tiny detail, in that split second, affected the course of the match.

This was professional league football!

A collective gasp echoed through the stadium.

Everyone had thought it was a certain goal.

But in the end, Balik fluffed his shot!

"What a shame!"

"That was an excellent one-on-one opportunity, coming from a fast counter-attack by Mainz."

"But Balik didn’t shoot immediately, and Mainz missed a golden opportunity to score."

The live commentators also expressed their deep regret.

Although no goal was scored and the fans were very disappointed, they still applauded.

It had been a very well-executed counter-attack.

At almost the same time, hundreds of replies flooded the live-commentary thread on sports forums back in China.

"Holy shit! What the hell is that guy doing? How could he miss such a good chance?"

"Wang Shuo’s pass on the counter was great. He got dragged down by his teammate."

"Is this Serbian forward secretly a player from the Chinese national team?"

"In that moment, I swear I saw the spirit of a Chinese national team forward possess him."

"Held back by his teammate."

...

Balik was a decent guy.

Having failed to convert the one-on-one, he raised his hand apologetically toward Wang Shuo.

Truthfully, Wang Shuo felt a bitter taste in his mouth.

’After all, that was the first assist for a one-on-one I’ve ever made in a professional match. That’s a rare opportunity.’

’More importantly, if that had gone in, the rest of the match would have been so much easier.’

But he didn’t let it show. Instead, he walked over, shook Balik’s hand, and comforted him, "It’s okay, it’s okay. We’ll have more chances."

This made the Serbian feel a little better.

His impression of Wang Shuo improved even more.

At the very least, his personality was much better than Borja’s.

However, after that scare, Paderborn started to play even more conservatively.

In the following minutes, Mainz tried to launch several attacks but couldn’t capitalize on their opportunities.

Wang Shuo was mostly occupied with pressing, covering ground, and supporting his teammates. He hadn’t yet found an opportunity to truly shine himself.

He hadn’t even had a single shot on goal.

For a forward, at least in the eyes of the fans, this couldn’t be considered a good performance.

Of course, on the sidelines, head coach Klopp and Buvac were full of praise for Wang Shuo’s performance.

Even though Mainz hadn’t scored, Paderborn was being suppressed so effectively that they had no chances at all.

The pressure Wang Shuo applied in the attacking third was a major reason for this.

As time ticked by, the fans in the stadium began to grow anxious.

Especially as the match approached the 30-minute mark, Mainz still hadn’t managed to create any good shooting opportunities.

This made the home crowd a bit restless.

Paderborn, on the other hand, having stabilized their formation, began looking for a chance to strike back.

And the first one to conceive of this idea and put it into action was Lintjens.

In the 29th minute, just as Wang Shuo was about to track back on defense, he saw Pekovic decisively press forward, heading straight for Lintjens.

He immediately sensed an opportunity, decisively turning and sprinting forward, running straight at the center-back, Duric.