The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 90 - 43: Topping the Table! Not for Sale! He’s Klopp’s Treasure! When You’re Slaughtered by Bayern

"Wang Shuo has now scored in three consecutive Bundesliga matches!"

"It's hard to imagine that he's not even eighteen years old yet."

...

After Wang Shuo opened the scoring, the match opened up.

The trailing home team immediately made two substitutions to further bolster their attack.

They even took off the other of their two defensive midfielders in the 4-2-3-1 formation.

The price for this gamble was paid in the 84th minute when Hainauer made a late run forward. His long shot from near the top of the arc pierced Karlsruhe's goal once again.

In the end, Mainz defeated Karlsruhe 2-0 away from home.

The scoreline suggested a convincing victory, but the match itself was a perilous affair.

Moreover, Mainz paid the price of an injury to Van der Heyden.

But after this round of matches, it was all worth it!

After the first two rounds of the Bundesliga, only two teams had maintained a perfect record with two consecutive wins.

And surprisingly, both were newly promoted teams.

Mainz and Hoffenheim.

But in the third round, Hoffenheim suffered a disastrous 2-5 away defeat to Bruno Labbadia's Bayer Leverkusen.

As the German media put it, the Pharmacy brought Hoffenheim crashing back down to earth in this round.

Thus, after the first three rounds, the only team with a three-game winning streak was Klopp's Mainz.

This came as a surprise to the entire German football scene.

Who could have imagined that this small team, with almost no financial investment, would climb to the top of the table after just three rounds?

This immediately garnered intense attention from the German media.

When analyzing Mainz's three-game winning streak to start the season, two individuals were impossible to ignore.

Head coach Klopp, needless to say.

His iconic tactical style was considered one-of-a-kind in Germany.

Moreover, the German media and fans were already very familiar with him.

But the other was a fresh face.

The under-18 Chinese starlet, Wang Shuo!

This season's Bundesliga was star-studded.

There was Luca Tony from Italy, Ribery from France, Pizarro from Peru, the Brazilian genius Diego, Croatia's Olic, Portuguese international Almeida, and even former European Cup sensation Volosin.

Not to mention the recently emerging talents like Griffith, Dzeko, and Demba Ba.

And that's not even counting Germany's homegrown stars like Gomez, Helmes, Kuranyi, Kiesling, Klose, and Podolski.

Which one of them wasn't a star renowned throughout the European football scene?

Yet, after three rounds of the new Bundesliga season, the top two players on the goal-scoring chart were both relatively unknown.

In first place was the Bosnian center-forward for Hoffenheim, Ibisevic, with four goals in the first three rounds.

The 24-year-old Ibisevic was nicknamed "Super Ibi" by the Hoffenheim fans.

Then there was Wang Shuo from China, with three goals in the first three rounds, who wasn't even eighteen years old.

What was most astonishing was that, in addition to their goals, both Ibisevic and Wang Shuo also had two assists each.

This sent shockwaves through the entire German football scene!

'Are all the young players this fierce nowadays?'

Hoffenheim's excellent performance, however, had been somewhat anticipated by the public.

After all, backed by a wealthy owner, Hoffenheim had invested heavily over the summer, bringing in formidable players like defensive midfielder Gustavo, fullback Beck, and former national team goalkeeper Hildebrand.

But Mainz had invested almost nothing over the summer.

How on earth did this small team, nicknamed [Arsch] by German fans, manage to sit at the top of the table?

In stark contrast to the dark horse Mainz at the top, traditional powerhouse Bayern Munich was sitting in just eighth place after three matches.

After a disappointing home draw against Hamburg in the first round, they were held to a 1-1 away draw by Dom's Dortmund in the second.

However, Bayern bounced back in the third round, thrashing Hertha Berlin 4-1 at home.

Ribery was out with an injury and had yet to make an appearance this season.

Goals from Tony, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, and Klose helped Bayern secure the victory at home.

Bayern thrashed Hertha Berlin 4-1, Bayer Leverkusen thrashed Hoffenheim 5-2, and Hamburg defeated Bielefeld 4-2 away...

With the exception of Wolfsburg, who now had two draws and one loss, all the pre-season favorites made a strong comeback this round.

...

After the third round of the Bundesliga, the league went on hiatus for a two-week international break in September.

Mainz didn't have many senior internationals, but a few players were called up, and some youth team players also had to return to their home countries for their respective competitions.

Although Wang Shuo's performance in Germany was outstanding and had caused a huge stir back in China, he wasn't called up to any national team squad.

Klopp, meanwhile, continued to train and prepare with the players who were not on international duty.

Because in the fourth round, Mainz would be hosting Bayern.

This would be Mainz's second major test of the season!

"From February 2001 until now, I've led Mainz in 274 official matches and faced Bayern seven times."

During a break in training, Klopp shared his thoughts on facing Bayern with Wang Shuo, Subotic, Foyelner, and a few others.

"The embarrassing part is, out of those seven matches, I've lost six and drawn one. I've never beaten Bayern!"

"In those seven matches, Mainz scored 11 goals and conceded 24."

"We were held scoreless only once, and that was in the 2006-07 season, round 17, a disastrous 4-0 defeat at home to Bayern."

"We were relegated that season."

Klopp scanned the players before him, his eyes filled with fierce determination!