Chapter 44: Dortmund's Devilish Home Ground

"This is Dortmund's home ground? Truly terrifying!"

Dortmund's home fans are extremely passionate, making it one of the famous "devilish" home grounds in European football.

The stadium can accommodate eighty thousand spectators, and Dortmund's home matches are almost always sold out.

Especially the South Stand, where over thirty thousand fans fill the seats at every game.

Clad in Dortmund's black and yellow jerseys, waving various flags, they sing the Dortmund team anthem loudly, their voices soaring into the sky, echoing endlessly.

The atmosphere here is much more intimidating than Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena.

"Don't let external factors affect you. Dortmund's home ground has always been like this. If you focus too much on these things, you'll fall into their trap!"

Captain Fritz saw the young players being intimidated by the atmosphere of Dortmund's home ground, so he quickly spoke up to remind them.

It's often said that home fans are the team's twelfth man.

This saying is not unfounded!

When playing at home, the tens of thousands of home fans can cheer and applaud for the home team, boosting their morale, making them passionate and enthusiastic.

For the visiting team players, once they have the ball, they will face the boos from the home fans. The deafening boos can make them feel irritated and lose their cool judgment.

If their mental resilience is lacking, they might even fumble the ball and make various mistakes.

Moreover, the chants and cheers from the fans can also put pressure on the referees, making them more likely to make decisions favoring the home team.

All these factors combined constitute the home advantage in football matches.

This advantage is actually very obvious, so in leagues around the world, there often appear teams with formidable home records.

If you encounter such a team, the game will be very difficult.

Unfortunately, Borussia Dortmund is such a home dragon!

They lost only one of their 17 Bundesliga home matches last season, ranking first among all 18 teams in the Bundesliga by a significant margin.

Wanting to beat them at their home ground is even more challenging than conquering Bayern's home ground!

The historical head-to-head data also doesn't favor Werder Bremen. In the past two years, in nearly ten matches between the two teams, Dortmund has won 7, drawn 2, and lost 1, clearly having the upper hand.

Poor physical condition, the opponent's terrifying home advantage, and the overwhelming historical head-to-head record.

All of this indicates that for Werder Bremen, this match will be very difficult.

Coach Schaaf is well aware of this, so he has devised a very bold plan.

"We'll press for an attack in the first five minutes of the game, aiming to break through the opponent's defense. Once we score, we'll immediately fall back and defend, holding out until the end of the match!"

Dortmund's players are young, energetic, and full of vigor, which is great.

But young players have a disadvantage—they often lack stable mentality.

If everything goes smoothly, they have no psychological burden and can often deliver extraordinary performances.

Principio del formulario

Once caught in a tough situation, especially when they can't break through after prolonged attacks, they become increasingly impatient and their performance deteriorates, leading to defeat.

The last time Werder Bremen defeated Borussia Dortmund was by exploiting Sylvester's quick goal in the opening five minutes, disrupting their opponents' mindset, making them increasingly anxious, ultimately resulting in a collective underperformance and allowing Werder Bremen to win by a stroke of luck.

Therefore, for Werder Bremen, if they want to win, they must seize this weakness of their opponents and push hard.

If their tactics succeed, there's hope for victory in this game.

But if their tactics fail, it's not a big deal anyway, as their chances of winning were slim to begin with.

So when Coach Schaaf laid out his plan, all the players agreed and were willing to give it their all!

...

"CCTV, CCTV, dear viewers, this is CCTV bringing you the final match of the 2012 German Telekom Cup, with Borussia Dortmund facing off against Werder Bremen."

"I'm commentator He Wei!"

"I'm commentator Xu Yang!"

"The match is about to begin. Let's first take a look at the starting lineups of both teams:

"Starting for Borussia Dortmund are Langlack #20, Koch #21, Hummels #15, Gunter #30, Halsenborg #37, Kehl #5, Leitner #7, Grosskreutz #19, Reus #11, Bidangu #32, and Lewandowski #9.

"Werder Bremen's lineup remains in a 4-3-3 formation:

"The starting lineup is: Milicevic #1, Serassy #23, Lukimya #5, Pledl #15, Ignjovski #17, Fritz #8, De Blaun #6, Arnautovic #7, Lin Quan #10, Filkrug #41, and Elia #11."

Because of the decent viewership they garnered from the semi-final match of the Telekom Cup, He Wei and Xu Yang continued as CCTV's commentators for this match.

Before the start of the top five leagues, such matches are a must-watch for football fans.

Therefore, after the broadcast began, CCTV Sports Channel's viewership quickly soared.

And this was largely due to the presence of a young Chinese player in the Werder Bremen team.

Lin Quan scored a hat-trick in yesterday's match against Bayern Munich, breaking three Telekom Cup records in one go: the youngest starter, the youngest scorer, and the youngest to score a hat-trick.

Although the Telekom Cup matches are not particularly prestigious, for someone his age, breaking these three records at once also brought him a bit of fame in the football circle.

In addition, because He Wei compared Lin Quan to Messi during the commentary, many Messi fans and anti-Messi individuals were also attracted.

"Hehe, I want to see if this so-called Messi Jr. is as good as the commentator claims!"

"I've watched Lin Quan's previous matches. He's definitely the real Messi Jr.!"

"Upstairs, you're kidding me. Messi's talent is absolutely historic. Other players similar to Messi, if they don't have such top-notch talent, they're just imposters."

"Tsk tsk, another Messi fanboy. If your Messi is so strong, why was he balded by Germany in the World Cup?"

"Exactly, talking big about Cristiano Ronaldo, who fell in the round of 16. Who has the face to boast here?"

...

Originally discussing whether Lin Quan is the Messi Jr., the topic drifted due to the appearance of Messi fans and anti-Messi individuals, shifting to a debate between Ronaldo and Messi.

These two are the strongest and most talked-about active players in today's football world, with the largest fan bases.

During this period, they were referred to as the "Twin Legends."

They both have huge fan bases, and these fans often don't see eye to eye, so there are often arguments between fans of both sides.

Amidst the squabbling of both sets of fans, time passed slowly.

At 7:35 in the evening, with the sound of the main referee's whistle.

The highly anticipated Telekom Cup final match between Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen officially kicked off.

(End of this chapter)