Exhaustion

The Telekom Cup had only two matches, but they were scheduled very close together.

According to the fixture, after advancing to the next round, they would travel to challenge another opponent, Borussia Dortmund, on August 6th, which was the following day.

In the game against Hamburg, Borussia Dortmund's goal from Lewandowski secured a narrow win, leading them to the final against Werder Bremen.

Due to the tight schedule, Werder Bremen had to quickly fly to Dortmund after defeating Bayern Munich.

By the time they landed and arrived at the designated hotel in a bus, it was already 2:30 in the morning.

At this point, there were only 17 hours left until the start of the match.

"Hurry up, everyone back to your rooms and sleep. We'll have training at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow!"

The coaches rushed the players to their rooms to rest, leaving little time for them to recuperate.

If they didn't sleep well that night, they might not even have the energy to run on the field the next day.

"What kind of schedule is this? It's so tight, there's no time for rest!"

Coach Schaaf couldn't help complaining after settling the players.

"The Telekom Cup has always been like this, but it's indeed unfair for us!"

As the home team, Borussia Dortmund had a relaxing time, while Werder Bremen had to travel across half of Germany, causing substantial difficulty for Werder Bremen, which wasn't an issue for their opponents.

However, as supporting actors who were invited to accompany the "prince" for his studies, it was already good to participate in the match. They shouldn't expect more.

"Alright, everyone, go rest. Stay in good shape because we have a match tomorrow!" Schaaf clapped his hands and sent everyone off.

He then opened his computer to review the Hamburg versus Borussia Dortmund game that day.

As the team's head coach, it would be unprofessional not to study the upcoming opponent before the match.

The new season saw some changes in Borussia Dortmund's lineup. They brought in several players and let go of some.

Borussia Dortmund's major signing this summer was acquiring the promising talent, Reus, from Borussia Monchengladbach for 17.1 million euros to replace Shinji Kagawa, who was bought by Manchester United.

In addition, they spent 5.5 million euros to bring in Stuttgart's forward, Schieber.

Schieber was bought by Klopp as a backup, as their substitute striker, Barrios, was sold to the Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande for 8.5 million euros.

While Barrios had performed well at Borussia Dortmund, once Polish forward Lewandowski established himself as a key player in the team, he had fewer opportunities to play.

If Barrios had been willing to serve as a backup, it would have been fine. However, as he was not content to be a substitute and had a temper, it posed a potential problem for the team in the locker room.

Thus, facing the attention from the Chinese Super League, Klopp sold him without hesitation.

Overall, Borussia Dortmund's squad didn't suffer significant losses this summer. Despite losing their key midfielder, Shinji Kagawa, the new talent Reus had even greater potential. Once they integrated well with the team, his future contributions might surpass those of Shinji Kagawa.

Unlike Bayern, Borussia Dortmund is a fiery young defense force. Their aggressive and energetic style has caused a youthful storm in the Bundesliga.

Last season, with this youthful storm, they defeated the Bundesliga champion, Bayern Munich, three times, winning the league and cup double, and leaving Bayern powerless.

Facing an opponent who plays in this aggressive manner with pressing and active running, Werder Bremen can't use the same tactics they used against Bayern.

Allowing Dortmund's relentless attack near their own goal is extremely dangerous. Once they go all-out, even top clubs can't stop them.

So, what tactics should they use to face them?

Schaaf rubbed his temples, pondering deeply.

---

Perhaps because they had defeated the mighty Bayern, many young players in the team were very excited.

Even though they went to bed early as per the coach's instructions, they found it difficult to fall asleep.

When they finally drifted off, they didn't know what time it was.

At 10:30 a.m. the next morning, it was time for the team to gather for training.

However, less than half the players were able to come on time. Most of those who showed up were senior players, and nearly all the young players were absent.

"I'll go call them down!"

Seeing the unpleasant look on the head coach's face, assistant coach Heinebach spoke up proactively.

"How about letting them have some extra sleep, and we start training first!"

The fitness coach disagreed, saying that waking up the young players at this time would lead to inadequate rest and greatly affect the evening's match.

However, Coach Shaaf nodded to Heinebach and asked him to go call the players.

"I'd rather lose this game than not tell these young people one thing: in my team, I do not welcome those who do not follow the rules!"

He had already delayed the team's meeting time, giving them enough rest.

It's the responsibility of these individuals as well. They didn't adjust their mindsets, leading to oversleeping. 

Of course, he should have guided the players' psychological states in advance, comforted the young players, and imparted experience to them. 

But now, he couldn't allow the players to violate the rules without consequences. 

This would undermine his authority as the head coach and give the young players the wrong impression: that not following the team's rules wasn't a big deal and wouldn't be punished. 

If they were to develop such feelings, it would not only affect the team's future tactical arrangements but also impact the young players' careers.

Any team wouldn't like players who lacked discipline and didn't follow the team's rules.

Lin and De Bruyne exchanged a glance, gaining a deeper understanding of their coach.

Coach Shaaf might not give you a hard time when he should be understanding, but when working, he also has a firm and strict side, with strong principles.

 Indeed, being able to hold a head coach position in a team for this long is definitely not simple!

Because some players were absent, the morning training was very simple.

During this time, Lin had been practicing set pieces with De Bruyne, with one training powerful shots and the other practicing curved shots with the outside of the foot.

De Bruyne's free-kick level was already very high, but it lacked a bit of variation in front of the goal. Therefore, when facing some experienced goalkeepers, his free-kicks were easily saved.

So, he intended to add some variation to his free-kicks, similar to the "knuckleball" that Cristiano Ronaldo often plays. This makes the ball drop suddenly in mid-air, catching the opponent off guard.

Mastering this skill isn't easy. Besides needing adequate power, one also needs to control the angle of the shot and the part of the ball you strike. After kicking a knuckleball, it's crucial to make the ball spin as little as possible. This way, the air resistance on the ball in flight is much greater than that on a spinning ball.

When a player kicks the ball forcefully, it gives the ball very high initial velocity.

When the initial velocity is greater than the final velocity, the Magnus effect becomes very apparent. 

When the ball reaches the highest point of its flight, instead of descending like a normal parabola, it drops suddenly, just like taking an elevator.

That's the principle of the knuckleball!

This principle was the conclusion reached by hiring professional experts in sports science and mechanics who made precise calculations.

According to the experts' calculation formula, to produce the knuckleball effect, the initial velocity of the ball must exceed 100 kilometers per hour – a considerable requirement in terms of the penalty kick player's power.