Cologne coach Peter Stöger was on the verge of depression.
If we only look at their record in the first four rounds since their promotion to the Bundesliga, Cologne are doing pretty well.
A 0-0 draw with Hamburg, a 0-0 draw with Borussia, a 0-1 loss to Hannover, and a 2-0 win over Stuttgart:
1 win, 2 draws, and 1 loss, temporarily placing them in the middle and lower reaches of the Bundesliga. At least they're not in the relegation zone.
For a newly promoted team, using a defensive formation to ensure survival is a common strategy.
If it weren't for Union Berlin, Cologne fans would probably be satisfied, praising Coach Stöger for being pragmatic and cautious, and for leading the team toward safety.
But now, some Cologne fans have expressed their dissatisfaction with Stöger.
"Look at Union Berlin, who are also newly promoted. They can beat Hannover 5-0. Why can't we do that? Why don't we attack?"
Union Berlin has suddenly become "the child other parents compare their kids to," especially with Su Luo scoring 11 goals alone. The entire Cologne team has only scored 3 goals!
The fans are so frustrated that they've transferred their anger to Coach Stöger, criticizing him for being too conservative and only focusing on defense.
Stöger felt wronged. What lineup does Neuhaus have? Who are these players at the club? Tell me to take them!
Ujah, Helmes, etc., are playing forwards! Can they play? No, they can't. Do you understand that they just don't have the ability?
If this continues, we'll be left far behind by Union Berlin. We need to be pragmatic and understand our football philosophy: relegation first!
But these thoughts could only stay in the bottom of Stöger's heart. He couldn't possibly argue with the fans.
He wanted to use a solid defense to completely restrict Su Luo and prove his ability!
In the 5th round of the Bundesliga, Union Berlin played against Cologne at home.
The "Bundesliga rivals" finally met in the Bundesliga!
Last season, Cologne was the well-deserved "Bundesliga overlord." With their strength, they could crush any team, including Union Berlin.
Unexpectedly, in the absence of a striker, Union Berlin promoted a 16-year-old Chinese boy.
At first, no one paid much attention to this Chinese boy.
He just dribbled the ball past two people and scored a hat trick.
Until Su Luo completely dominated the second division, Union Berlin, which was leading the relegation zone, beat Cologne twice and won the Bundesliga championship in one fell swoop!
Cologne fans realized that the rise of Su Luo was closely related to everyone!
Today, they meet in Berlin.
On that day, people suddenly remembered the fear of being dominated by Su Luo!
Before 44 minutes in the first half, Cologne did well. They simply gave up all attacks, and everyone stood in the penalty area, allowing Union Berlin to bombard them wildly.
There was no need to specifically mark Su Luo; he would fall into the siege himself.
The restricted area was full of tall men. They couldn't pass the ball in, let alone get the ball to him.
No matter how strong Su Luo's off-ball movement was, it was difficult for his teammates to penetrate for a while. Unless Su Luo could jump for a header, which was not his strong suit.
Before 44 minutes, Su Luo had attempted 4 goals, an average of 10 minutes. There were headers, attempts in the small penalty area, and long-range shots.
His shots didn't work for a while. Seeing this, Stöger couldn't help but feel proud.
"Hmph, even if you were Messi or Ronaldo, you wouldn't be able to break through my defense! The Cologne team doesn't need to attack. A 0-0 game is a victory for us! For Cologne, Union Berlin is already a Bayern Munich-level team."
Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn, after saving Su Luo's long-range shot, taunted him: "Hey Asian boy, my left side is wide open. You should kick it in!"
Only 10 seconds later, Timo Horn's words came true!
"Beautiful!!! What a goal!"
"Before the end of the first half, Union Berlin finally broke Cologne's defense!"
"Using the opportunity of a corner kick, Su Luo pulled out of the penalty area and took a shot from 29 meters away!"
"A powerful shot helped the team take the lead! Union Berlin 1-0 Cologne!"
The spot where Su Luo scored was exactly where the opponent's goalkeeper had pointed.
After scoring, Su Luo ran to Timo Horn and spread his hands, "Here, you told me to score here."
Timo Horn could only grit his teeth and swallow his pride. Who made him provoke Su Luo?
But his nightmare wasn't over yet!
In the second half, Cologne continued to defend. In the 73rd minute, Su Luo, facing a triple team in the penalty area, suddenly swung his opponent away with a deft move and rushed to the byline!
At an almost 0-degree angle, Su Luo struck with the outside of his instep!
The football curved and broke through Cologne's goal again!
"13 goals in 5 games! Su Luo is on fire!" Duan Xuan exclaimed in disbelief.
Before the season, who would have thought a Chinese player could wreak havoc in the Bundesliga?
Before this, the Chinese player who scored the most goals in the Bundesliga was Yang Chen, who scored 16 goals in 3 seasons.
Su Luo will definitely surpass Yang Chen and become the Chinese player with the most goals in the Bundesliga!
But fans no longer care about such a record. To prevent Su Luo from being injured by the rough Cologne players, he was substituted by Grealish after his goal.
He received prolonged applause from the fans.
Grealish also scored a goal, and Union Berlin beat Cologne 3-0 at home.
The once-dominant Cologne now found themselves easily beaten.
Su Luo had taken Union Berlin to another level! The two teams were now far apart!
In the sixth round of the Bundesliga, Union Berlin went away to challenge Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Mönchengladbach is a quiet small city with a population of only 335,000, equivalent to the population of a small county in China.
Compared to the city's cultural atmosphere of textiles, forests, museums, theaters, and other civilized aspects, their team style is simple and rough, full of passion.
In this away game, Union Berlin faced tenacious resistance and did not play easily.
This was the first confrontation between the two sides, and the first 15 minutes of the game were spent in mutual testing.
Since there was also a big match between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund at the same time, the CCTV leaders struggled for a long time before deciding to broadcast Union Berlin on Channel 5!
Bayern vs Borussia Dortmund was arranged on Fengyun Football Premium Channel!
Many anti-national football fans and some Bayern fans had opinions.
"Is Su Luo's game that important? Why isn't Bayern vs Dortmund on?"
"This is so disgusting. What's so good about national football?"
"What are these two teams playing? It's still 0-0 after 10 minutes. It's so boring!"
Among them, casual fans really felt the game was boring, while some didn't watch football at all and simply enjoyed criticizing the national team.
But after 15 minutes, the game suddenly picked up pace!
Borussia took advantage of their home ground to aggressively attack and launch quick counterattacks!
"Oscar Wendt crosses from the wing!"
"Luuk de Jong!! Heads it past Alex!"
"The ball is in! A tricky bounce! Fabianski couldn't save it!"
"The home team, Borussia Mönchengladbach, is temporarily ahead!"
Borussia played so cleanly that even Su Luo shook his head helplessly.
This de Jong is not Frenkie de Jong, the main midfielder of Barcelona. Luuk de Jong also joined Barcelona and temporarily formed the "Double de Jong" combination.
Xavi didn't like such big forwards, and after a round in Barcelona, he returned to Eindhoven in the Eredivisie.
Despite his unsatisfactory life in Barcelona, in the current Bundesliga, this high center forward still had an impact!
Borussia kept threatening Union Berlin's goal from the wing!
Seeing that Union Berlin was about to be overwhelmed by the opponent's swift attacks, Su Luo stood up at the critical moment!
"Union's counterattack! Su, Grealish, Su Luo! Beautiful one-two play!"
"Su Luo successfully beat the offside trap! Straight into the opponent's penalty area from the left!"
Every time Su Luo single-handedly attacked, both German and Chinese fans got excited!
"Here it comes!! The pendulum move!"
Su Luo skillfully dropped his shoulders left and right, dazzling goalkeeper Ter Stegen!
Many years later, when Ter Stegen faced Su Luo again while representing Barcelona in the Champions League, he couldn't help but recall the afternoon when he first faced Su Luo as Borussia's goalkeeper.
Taking advantage of Ter Stegen's confusion, Su Luo suddenly accelerated to the left and burst past him!
At the moment when the football was about to pass the byline, Su Luo's left foot came around and executed a difficult backheel shot!
To the stunned audience,
The ball went straight into the empty net!!
The Berlin TV commentator was so excited by the exquisite goal that his roar almost shattered the glass of the studio!
"Toooooooor!!!"
"One of the most spectacular goals I've seen this year! Definitely eligible for the Puskas Award!"
Duan Xuan was also very excited, but couldn't find the right words to express his feelings!
"Chance! This ball! It's really… wonderful! Goooooal!"
Under excitement, Duan Xuan couldn't think of any suitable words.
If He Wei were there, he might have recited a poem on the spot.
Duan Xuan could only shout "Goal."
Those fans who had complained about the boring game earlier were now silent.
Just after they called the game boring, two spectacular goals had appeared!
In fact, even Su Luo was a bit baffled by his own goal.
After speeding up to catch the ball, Su Luo hadn't used any possession. The backheel shot was purely instinctive!
Such a fancy move could only be executed by Ronaldo.
Even Haaland and De Bruyne wouldn't subconsciously play like this.
Ronaldo was the player Su Luo had followed for the longest time.
Could it be that by following him for so long, he had subtly influenced Su Luo's style of play?
But Su Luo didn't have time to think about this for now.
After equalizing the score, the game resumed.
In the second half, the two sides opened up their positions and launched a confrontation battle!
"De Jong! It's De Jong's header again!!"
"This time he was disturbed by Alex, and he missed it!"
"Union Berlin also launched a counterattack! Grealish hit the ball to Su Luo!"
"Su Luo cleverly hits the heel!"
"Sabitzer caught up in time! A blast shot into the net near the penalty spot!"
"2 to 1, an assist from Su Luo! Union Berlin leads!"
Borussia continues to launch a fierce attack! Or look for De Jong with a high ball!
"Union Berlin has already anticipated it, took advantage of the situation to make a clearance, and continued to complete a wave of counterattacks!"
"Su Luo, passes one person... Fried meatballs change direction, and another person comes to the front of the penalty area!"
"He can still pass! The bull's tail wipes the third person! Dunks Ter Stegen in the penalty area, and hits the short corner!"
"The goal is scored! 3 to 1!!"
"Su Luo scores twice to expand his Bundesliga goals to 15!"
"He still maintains a terrifying efficiency of averaging more than two goals per game!"
Su Luo's goal completely shattered Borussia Mönchengladbach.
They couldn't defend against Cologne's 10-0-0, and had some hope in thinking about playing counterattack.
Unexpectedly, going head-to-head could indeed create a threat, but the scoring efficiency couldn't keep up with Su Luo!
It's like competing with an armored warrior holding a sword with bare hands: I punch you, you cut me.
Borussia couldn't break the defense with one punch, while Su Luo almost hacked them to death.
Later, Borussia faltered directly and immediately substituted two defenders to guard against further goals.
The score finally remained at 1:3, with Su Luo scoring 2 goals and 1 assist, continuing to dominate the game!
After the game, Grealish, Su Luo, Sabitzer, and other players went to the night market to explore "Internet Celebrity Shop" in Borussia.
Brazilian Silvio, who was very playful before, did not follow.
With the rise of Grealish and the main left midfielder Forsberg occupying the positions, Silvio hasn't had a chance to play for a long time.
He never felt any sense of crisis before, but now, seeing his teammates succeed, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness.
The Bundesliga is still too difficult for him, but for Su Luo, they seem to be more than capable.
Silvio, at 32, saw no room for improvement in his career. He regretted indulging in fun and not training seriously when he was younger.
Now he could only watch his teammates go to the nightclub to have fun.
Su Luo didn't notice the change in Silvio's mentality. He was preoccupied with whether his possessed state would really affect his own body.
On the pitch, it was definitely a good thing, but what if it affected his personality or living habits?
That possessed state could become a double-edged sword.
"Hopefully, it's just an impact on the pitch."
Su Luo experimented in the illusion for a long time but couldn't get the answer. He could only temporarily not worry about this matter and keep observing at all times.
Next is the tough away game against Leverkusen.
The team is in great momentum now, strategically it is also a good time to win the winning streak in one fell swoop!
If all 3 points are scored in the away game, Union Berlin will take the initiative in the standings!
It symbolizes that Union Berlin has officially joined the championship race!
It is no longer a dream for a newly promoted team to win the league championship!
So after the battle with Borussia, the whole team only had a short holiday for half a day, then immediately devoted themselves to intense preparations for the battle.
Theoretically, Leverkusen is also very combative this season, having ranked 4th in the previous life.
The early stage is the strongest stage for Leverkusen, with wins such as 2:0 against Dortmund away, 3:2 over Bremen at home.
In addition to losing to Wolfsburg, Leverkusen has 4 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss, second only to Bayern and Union Berlin.
Therefore, the big bosses of this season are Bayern, Wolfsburg, and the pharmaceutical factory, plus Borussia Dortmund, who will make efforts in the future.
As long as Union Berlin survives these teams, the journey will be smooth!
Borussia or anyone else!
There is another reason for only wins and no losses, which is the "Asia's No. 1 brother" dispute raging on the Internet.
Before the 7th round of the Bundesliga, the debate between Chinese and South Korean netizens over "Asia's first brother" did not show any signs of stopping but instead intensified!
Relying on South Korea's unique inferiority complex and narrow national sentiment, they will exaggerate all their strengths.
Even if they don't have it, they will steal it from neighboring countries, such as "Manchu Banquet," "Korean Dumplings," "Dragon Boat Festival," and so on.
In the field of sports, it is the hardest hit area of this narrow national sentiment.
As long as they can win, they will do everything they can, making their sportsmanship a joke.
I won't mention the black history of the 2002 World Cup; every short track speed skating competition, there must be South Korean players playing tricks, without exception!
The Asian No. 1 brother this time was originally South Korea's most proud field.
Before there was Park Ji-sung, now there is Son Heung-min.
It's alright for Japan to fight, but Chinese players dare to compete?
Su Luo can be said to have touched the deepest "reverse scale" of South Korean netizens.
Later, the quarrel between Chinese and South Korean netizens over "Asia's first brother" even reached the German media.
When "Kicker" interviewed Su Luo, asking if he had the confidence to beat Son Heung-min, Su Luo just smiled lightly and said:
"Then use this game to completely shut up South Korean netizens!"
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