There is a belief called football

Chapter 321 It's Snowing
After the 9th round and the "Hannover 96" game, the team will usher in the devil's schedule, with double matches for two consecutive weeks.

The opponents are a low-level team in the German Cup. The weekend league is against "Monchengladbach".

Fortunately, in the Champions League, Dortmund is already the first in the group, with 9 points, no pressure, but in the league, Dortmund lost 4 games at the beginning of the season. Now 9 league games, Dortmund has 5 wins and 4 losses, with 15 points, ranking fourth. Bayern Munich has 6 wins, 3 draws, and 21 points.

The top four in the Bundesliga can qualify for the Champions League. Although Dortmund is now in the Champions League, the fifth-ranked "Borussia" and the sixth-ranked "Schalke" are all tight behind them, and Klopp is still under great pressure.

*****
Beginning in the middle of the week, it began to snow all over Germany. Although the winter in Germany is long and cold, there are not many cases where it snows so early and so heavily.

The opponent in the German Cup in the middle of the week was "Hamburg St. Pauli" in the second division. The opponent was not strong and it was an away game. Klopp did not bring all the main players, but only brought some substitutes plus "Kagawa Shinji" and "Hummels". Li Qiao and others stayed at the club base for training.

There is no suspense in the result of the game. Dortmund's "second team" defeated their opponents 3-0 in the away game to advance to the next round of the German Cup.

After winning the opponent, the Dortmund team took the bus to the away game. Dortmund is very close to the location of the "Borussia" club. The two teams are actually in the same state, both in the North Rhine region of Germany.

Looking at the heavy snow outside the window in the bus, Klopp was a little worried. His team played technically and had relatively high requirements on the field. Although German stadiums have geothermal systems, if the snow is too heavy, the stadium will still be covered with snow or even freeze.

What's worse is that this game is still an away game. Borussia Borussia's home "Prussia Park Stadium" facilities are still worse than Dortmund's home. If the home staff turn on the geothermal heating later, the situation will be even worse.

Are Klopp's worries unfounded?Of course not. We know that the winter break of the Bundesliga is the longest in the entire European league. One of the important reasons is that the winter in Germany is too cold. Considering that it is not safe for players to play in snow, the Bundesliga has formulated a super long winter break.

The bus just drove into the city, everyone who saw the bus made a thumbs down gesture towards the bus, because Dortmund's team logo and mascot were sprayed on the outside of the bus, so anyone who saw Dortmund knew that Dortmund was coming.

Klopp was still smiling when he saw these unfriendly fans. He said to the assistant coach "Bovac" next to him: "It's so cold, everyone still comes out to welcome us."

"Jurgen, do you think this damn weather will affect our players",
Klopp smiled and said: "If they deliberately don't turn on the floor heating, then we are dead."

Buvac also laughed, "Probably not, we are not Italy."

"I hope not."

*****
After arriving at the hotel, Weidenfeller and Li Qiao shared the same room. It was the first time Li Qiao saw such heavy snow after returning to China.

"The snow is so heavy," Li Qiao said.

"It's like winter in Germany",
"It was the same when I was in Ukraine, but I haven't seen such a heavy snow in recent years",
"Ever played snowball?"
Li Qiao shook his head, because Li Qiao had indeed trained in snowy weather, but he was a young player at that time, and he had never participated in an official game in snowy weather. After returning to China, he had never experienced snowball in the Super League, because Chinese stadiums generally do not have underfloor heating.

"It's better for you to play as a striker. I'm the goalkeeper. I stand behind and don't move. After a game, I almost become a snowman."
Li Qiao laughed and thought about the scene, "It's true, the goalkeeper can't run around, if the snow falls heavily, he will become a snowman."

"I have to wear trousers for this game," Weidenfeller said.

"I think playing football on the snow should be fun," said Li Qiao.

Weidenfeller shook his head and said: "It's very dangerous. If the opponent tackles the ball, it's like being hit by a train. Just think about the scene. On the snow with very little friction, a person with 80 kilograms flies towards you with a shovel."

Li Qiao fantasized about that scene following Weidenfeller's description, and immediately felt shuddering.

Weidenfeller patted Li Qiao on the shoulder, "Be careful."

******
On the second match day, the players entered the court an hour earlier to warm up. The snow had stopped and the snow on the court had been cleared away.

From a distance, everything seemed normal, but the moment Li Qiao stepped on the field, he immediately felt like he was stepping on the concrete floor. The lawn below was frozen hard, which made the players feel very uncomfortable. Usually, the foot feels like stepping on the carpet when stepping on the lawn, but now it feels like stepping on the concrete floor.

After 10 minutes of warm-up, the players returned to the sidelines and told Klopp the situation. Klopp touched his stubble, and then said to everyone: "We are now fourth and Borussia is fifth. They are only 2 points behind us, which is a gap of one goal. What do you think will happen to them in this game?"
"Go all out," someone said.

"Not only in terms of the game, but they must have prepared well on the pitch," Klopp said.

The assistant coach next to him took Klopp's words, "They swept the floating snow for us, even if it's not bad, don't think about the floor heating."

Hummels looked up at the sky and said, "Fortunately, it hasn't snowed any more today, so don't complain, that's how things are anyway."

Everyone stuck out their tongues helplessly, and then returned to the court to continue warming up. In this weather, warming up is more important than usual. It takes at least half an hour of gradual warming up to completely stretch the body.

Not long after, Borussia's players also began to warm up. The first one to come out was Borussia's biggest brand No. 10 "Cross". After "Royce" moved to Dortmund, it was he who carried the banner of Borussia's offense.

When Royce saw his former teammates, he took the initiative to shake hands with them and reminisce about the past, but "Royce" was unable to play in this game because his knee injury has not fully recovered.

The players were warming up, and Klopp was watching from the sidelines. Suddenly he saw the fourth official. Although he already knew the answer in his heart, he still couldn't help asking, "Why is the stadium not heated?"
The fourth official is not in charge of this, but he should understand the situation of the stadium. He said: "This year, the snow fell early, and the heating system of the stadium has not been adjusted. I am afraid that there will be safety hazards. I guess it will be fine next week."

"Hehe, the ghosts believe it", Klopp thought to himself.

Looking past the fourth official, Klopp saw Borussia's head coach "Favre" not far away. He is a head coach known as a tactician.

When "Klopp" was watching "Favre", the other party inadvertently looked back and saw Klopp. Favre and Klopp are two completely different people. Favre is like a university professor, while Klopp is like a rock musician.

Favre smiled politely at Klopp, and then continued to discuss tactics with his assistant.

*****
Klopp's starting lineup in this game is basically the same as the previous games, except that the right back "Pishchek" was unable to play because of a cold, Klopp chose "Ginter", and Klopp did not change in other positions, especially the trident in the frontcourt.

"There is another Champions League game next week. The weekend is the national derby. We have to get one point in this game. More important than the result is not to get injured. The next game is more important, you know?"
Everyone nodded as a response to Klopp. The recent injury situation of the team really scared Klopp. Dortmund is different from Bayern. Bayern is rich and powerful, and even the substitutes are very powerful. But Dortmund only has 14 to 16 players who are really capable, so an injury is a major loss.

Then Klopp began to arrange tactics. He still moved the small disc in front of the tactical board to explain the position on the field.

"Favre is called a master tactician. I don't want to guess his tactics, and I can't guess them. We just need to play our own style. In terms of offense in this game, we have no core, and Li Qiao is not the core. This must be remembered."

Klopp guessed that the experienced Favre would definitely let the players stare at Li Qiao, so he couldn't fall into the trap.

"In this game, everyone is the core, and everyone is not the core. Depending on the situation on the court, whoever has a chance over there will give the ball to him."

"Fight hard in the first 20 minutes of the first half and try to score one. If it doesn't work, stabilize the midfield. Fight for another 20 minutes in the second half. If it doesn't work, then get a point. The season is still very long, so don't get entangled in one game."

This can be regarded as Klopp has drawn a bottom line for the players. With this, the players will know how to deploy their physical fitness and when to fight.

In the end, Klopp asked everyone to stand up and form a circle. Klopp, who was surrounded in the middle, said: "Although I will not play, I am with you. May God bless you from injury."

Klopp said very seriously, but Bender suddenly laughed.

"What's wrong"?asked Klopp.

"It's nothing, coach, when do people like you start to believe in God."

As soon as the words came out, everyone else laughed too. Yes, people like Klopp really don't seem to believe anything.

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(End of this chapter)