The God of Football starts with passive skills

Chapter 18 Impossible Mission
After this period of learning, Wang Shuo has gained a deeper understanding of the [God of Ball System].

The passive skills I acquired were indeed very helpful, and the improvement was quite significant.

Especially at the People's Bank stadium.

After the match, Wang Shuo noticed the look of admiration in the eyes of the Frankfurt U19 players as they looked at him, which made him feel particularly relieved.

But after calming down, he had to reconsider his actual situation.

Having trained with the Mainz first team for a few days, he was well aware of the situation the team was facing.

More importantly, head coach Klopp relies on him.

Ultimately, what Klopp values ​​most about Wang Shuo is his running ability on the field.

Mainz's entire tactical system is derived from Wolfgang Frank's early days.

From the first team to the second team to the U19 team, all teams have placed great emphasis on pressing and tackling in the midfield and forward areas.

This places high demands on the players' running ability.

After being relegated from the Bundesliga, Mainz began to encounter big trouble due to player losses.

Mainly in the midfield and forward areas.

Of the three key midfielders, the Montenegrin midfielder Pekovic, who plays as a deep-lying player, was born in August 1977 and will soon be 31 years old.

Slovakian midfielder Miroslav Karhan will be 32 years old in June.

The youngest is Daniel Gunkel, who holds dual German and Ivorian citizenship and will soon turn 28.

The team has been plagued by injuries this season, largely due to the advanced age of many of its key players.

With the three key midfielders at their age, and with ample physical strength and few injuries in the first half of the season, they can operate very smoothly.

Therefore, Mainz at that time was unstoppable, and their offensive storm was renowned not only in the second division but also throughout Germany.

However, as the season progressed and the players became fatigued, Klopp's tactics became less effective.

If the midfield can't control the game, many problems in the attacking third will be exposed.

For example, the team's top scorer, Borja.

He belongs to the more traditional South American small forward category.

Standing at only 1.8 meters tall, he is very strong in one-on-one situations, with excellent scoring and heading abilities. However, he plays a rather selfish style, has weak tactical awareness, and rarely participates in defense in the attacking third.

Moreover, he relies heavily on passes from his teammates.

Therefore, when the team is running smoothly, he can get a lot of opportunities and his goal-scoring efficiency is very high.

However, the team's performance was not smooth, and he also went silent, falling into a goal drought.

Serbian striker Valjak has good speed and decent technique, but his performance is very inconsistent.

In terms of pressing and tackling in the attacking third, his contribution was even less than Borja's.

Ghanaian striker Isaac Boakye was loaned from Wolfsburg during the winter break.

This player's ability is beyond doubt, but he has also had a lot of misfortunes.

Since joining Arminia Bielefeld in the Bundesliga in 04, he has consistently performed well, but almost every season he has suffered a serious injury.

Most notably, he performed exceptionally well before the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but suffered a serious knee injury in March, causing him to miss the World Cup.

Even so, Wolfsburg still signed him for €120 million.

Last season at Wolfsburg, he was injured as soon as he joined the club and only started playing regularly in November.

Overall, the performance was quite good.

But in the summer of 07, Wolfsburg signed strikers such as Grafite, Dzeko and Radu in one go. Where would Isak Boakye, who was plagued by injuries and whose performance was always inconsistent, find a place?
Therefore, they were loaned to Mainz in January.

However, from the Bundesliga to the 2. Bundesliga, from Magath's Wolfsburg to Klopp's Mainz, Boakye was initially trusted and started in consecutive games, but his performance was quite average.

So far, they have only scored one goal in 10 games.

Judging from the performance of Mainz's three main strikers, it is not difficult to see that they are unable to meet head coach Klopp's tactical requirements and are unable to provide the team with extensive pressing pressure in the attacking third.

In this way, all the pressure is placed on the midfield.

Unfortunately, the midfielders are all getting older.

Mainz's collapse in the second half of the season was basically due to this reason.

Knowing the reason, the role Wang Shuo needs to play becomes very clear.

For him, whether or not he can score a goal is secondary.

The most crucial thing is to address the weakness of the football team's insufficient pressing and pressure capabilities in the midfield and attacking third.

Having figured this out, Wang Shuo didn't have much more to think about.

He entered the system on the bus returning to Mainz from Frankfurt.

This time, instead of drawing a new passive skill, he directly used a skill card to upgrade his passive skill [Breathing].

"You have used a passive skill card. Do you wish to upgrade the passive skill [Breathing] from the class level to the area level?"

Wang Shuo chose "Yes" without hesitation.

He soon noticed that the side of the giant soccer ball suspended in the middle, where the "breathing" symbol was located, was brighter.

Based on his research over the past period and the mastery of several passive skills, especially after training with the first team recently, he has roughly estimated his own strength level.

The professional level is roughly equivalent to the level of the main players in a mid-to-lower-tier Bundesliga team.

To be promoted to the regional level, players should reach the level of top Bundesliga teams, which is equivalent to the level of Champions League group stage teams.

Moving forward to the national level, that's the level of a national powerhouse like Bayern Munich, roughly equivalent to the players in a Champions League Round of 16 team.

At present, Wang Shuo can only roughly estimate this level.

Beyond that, he wasn't quite sure.

For Wang Shuo now, raising his [Breathing] skill to the regional level should be enough to handle the German Second Division league.

But he is still a student who is clearly unbalanced in his studies.

He possesses the stamina to run tirelessly in the German second division, is fast, has a high frequency of movements, and has a strong ability to read the game and excellent off-the-ball movement. These are all his strengths.

However, Wang Shuo is still lacking in ball handling skills and physical confrontation.

However, he was not in a hurry.

In less than two months, he transformed from an overlooked player in Frankfurt's U19 team into a rising star for Mainz's first team, attracting even the attention of Bayern Munich. He is confident that given more time, he will continue to improve and surprise everyone!
……

On the afternoon of the same day that Mainz U19 thrashed Frankfurt U19 4-0 away, the Mainz first team traveled to Augsburg to challenge the mid-table team.

Klopp's team scored first this time.

Just 11 minutes into the game, Gunkel assisted Baljak to score.

But just 10 minutes later, Augsburg equalized with a quick counter-attack.

In the 64th minute of the second half, the home team took advantage of a corner kick opportunity and broke through Mainz's goal again.

Augsburg came from behind to defeat Mainz 2-1 at home.

In the same round, Cologne drew 2-2 with Paderborn away from home.

Hoffenheim lost 1-2 to Aachen at home.

Greuther Fürth lost 0-3 to Borussia Mönchengladbach away from home.

Freiburg defeated Jena 2-0 at home.

After 28 rounds of matches, Borussia Mönchengladbach leads the standings with 55 points.

Hoffenheim still has 50 points and is in second place.

Cologne earned 1 point this round, bringing their total to 47 points and placing them in 3rd place.

Freiburg earned 3 points this round, bringing their total to 46 points, placing them 4th.

Fiat scored 44 points, ranking 5th.

Mainz is in 6th place with 43 points.

So far, Mainz has fallen four points behind Cologne.

The day after the Augsburg match, following the recovery training session, Klopp held a meeting with the first-team players.

He was very disappointed with the away loss to Augsburg and named several players, including Borja.

He believes the team is losing a great opportunity to gain promotion.

"As I said before, to get promoted to the top league, we need to get at least 60 points."

"We currently have 43 points, and there are 6 rounds left in the league. What does that mean?"

Scoring 17 points in 6 rounds is practically an impossible task!
"I don't care what you think, but I can tell you very clearly now that for the next six rounds of matches, I will choose players who are truly willing to play for this team!"

Klopp immediately announced the call-up of two players from Mainz II to the first team.

They are Roman Neustäd, the son of Peter Neustäd, the head coach of the reserve team.

This 20-year-old center-back can play in both center-back and deep-lying midfield positions.

Also included is Mario Franjic, a midfielder with dual Croatian and Bosnian citizenship, who will only turn 19 in May.

In addition, two more players will be called up from the U19 team: André Schürrle and midfielder Kirchhoff.

It's clear that Klopp wants to strengthen the midfield and attack.

He hopes that the addition of these new players will bring more excitement to the team.

……

The first team's current predicament has not had a significant impact on Wang Shuo.

In the match against Frankfurt U19, he scored another hat-trick, making him incredibly popular within the Mainz team.

If he weren't too old and his participation permit hadn't been approved, he would have already played for the first team.

Three days after the match, Wang Shuo asked Klopp for leave.

This had already been approved beforehand.

He followed Thomas Essien south to Herzogenaurach.

That is, the global headquarters of Adidas and Puma.

Who would have thought that these two global sports giants would live in the same small town?

Wang Shuo's purpose for this trip was to sign a contract and also to cooperate with Adidas in taking some photos to be used for promotional purposes in China.

After a two-hour drive, upon arriving in Herzogenaurach, Wang Shuo's first action was not to sign a contract, but to visit Adidas's headquarters campus.

It is indeed very modern.

The horseshoe-shaped brand center, in particular, is filled with so many vintage shoes that it's practically a sneaker museum.

It is said that there are more than 10,000 pairs of collectibles, and they are kept at a constant temperature, which made Wang Shuo exclaim that he was an expert.

But what really caught Wang Shuo's attention was that horseshoe-shaped corridor, which was named the Avenue of Stars.

Muhammad Ali's boxing boots, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's basketball boots...

As a football player, Wang Shuo not only follows the footsteps and boots of German players such as Franz Beckenbauer, the "Emperor of Football," but he also noticed Zinedine Zidane's boots.

In the sports world as a whole, Adidas of Germany and Nike of the United States are considered to be evenly matched.

But in the realm of football, Adidas is truly number one in the world.

From Beckenbauer to Platini, and then to Raul, Zidane, Beckham, Kaká, Robben, Gerrard...

Adidas has always been the most influential brand in the world of football!
Thomas Essien privately told Wang Shuo that among the most popular superstars in world football right now, Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United and Ronaldinho of Barcelona both belong to the Nike camp.

But Kaká and Messi belong to Adidas.

Of course, Messi's status is still relatively low right now.

Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to win the Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards this season.

Walking on Adidas's Walk of Fame, Wang Shuo felt as if he were strolling alongside dazzling football superstars.

He discovered that Zidane had signed with Adidas back in 1996.

Messi, like him, signed with Adidas very early on.

They all eventually became Adidas's "pride," even leaving their boots and footprints on this Walk of Fame.

This made Wang Shuo feel a longing for the first time.

I want to be just like them!
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(End of this chapter)