43 The Devil's Home of Borussia Dortmund

"This is Borussia Dortmund's home ground? It's really intimidating!"

The home fans of Borussia Dortmund are incredibly passionate and their stadium is renowned as one of the most daunting in European football.

It can accommodate 80,000 spectators, and Borussia's home games are almost always sold out.

Especially the south stand, where over 30,000 fans sit packed together in their black and yellow Borussia Dortmund jerseys, waving various flags and singing the team's anthem loudly, their voices soaring and echoing continuously.

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

"Don't let the external factors affect you. Borussia 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 that the young players were daunted by the atmosphere, so he immediately reminded them.

People often say that the home fans are the team's "twelfth man".

This statement is not without basis! In home games, a team's tens of thousands of fans can provide cheers and applause, rallying them and boosting their spirits, making them passionate and eager to win.

For the opposing team's players, as soon as they have possession of the ball, they are subjected to the jeers of the home fans. The enormous jeers can make them irritable and lose their composure.

If their mental resilience is lacking, they might not be able to hold onto the ball and make various mistakes.

Moreover, the fans' cheering can also pressurize the officiating referees, potentially influencing their decisions in favor of the home team.

Taken together, these factors constitute the home advantage in a football match.

This advantage is actually quite obvious, so it's not uncommon to see home teams with formidable home records in various leagues.

Encountering such a team is very challenging.

It's unfortunate, but Borussia Dortmund is exactly such a team with a powerful home advantage!

Last season, they lost only one of their 17 Bundesliga home games, ranking first among all 18 teams and significantly ahead of the second-placed team.

To defeat them at their home ground is even more difficult than to conquer Bayern's home ground!

The historical clashes also do not favor Werder Bremen. In the last ten matches over the past two years, Borussia Dortmund has won 7, drawn 2, and lost 1, fully dominating the encounters.

Poor physical condition, the opponents' frightening home advantage, and the absolute dominance in the historical head-to-head record.

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

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

"Attack aggressively in the first five minutes after the kick-off, aiming to score, then immediately switch to defense and guard until the end of the match!"

The players of Borussia Dortmund are very young, energetic, and passionate, which is great.

But young players have a disadvantage; their mentality is not very stable.

If it's smooth sailing, they have no psychological burden, and often can produce extraordinary performance.

But once they are in a rough patch, especially a long-lasting rough patch, they become increasingly anxious and perform poorly, eventually leading to a loss.

The last time Werder Bremen defeated Borussia Dortmund was by taking advantage of Sylvester's rapid goal in the opening five minutes, disrupting their opponent's mentality, making them increasingly impatient, and ultimately causing them to collectively play poorly, resulting in Werder Bremen's fortunate victory.

Therefore, for Werder Bremen, if they want to win, they must exploit this weakness of their opponent and play aggressively!

If their tactics work, then there's hope for winning this match.

If their tactics fail, it's not a big deal, as their odds of winning were already slim.

So, when Coach Shaaf laid out his plan, all the players expressed their approval, showing their willingness to give it their all!

...

"Central Television, Central Television, dear viewers, this is the 2012 Telekom Cup final brought to you by Central Television, with Borussia Dortmund facing off against Werder Bremen."

"I'm commentator Marcy Tiwan!"

"I'm commentator Hussk Baker!"

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

For Borussia Dortmund, the squad includes: No. 20 Langerak, No. 21 Koch, No. 15 Hummels, No. 30 Ginter, No. 37 Halstenberg, No. 5 Kehl, No. 7 Leitner, No. 19 Grosskreutz, No. 11 Reus, No. 32 Bittencourt and No. 9 Lewandowski.

Werder Bremen's formation remains 4-3-3:

The starting lineup is: No. 1 Mielitz, No. 23 Selassie, No. 5 Lukimya, No. 15 Prödl, No. 17 Ignjovski, No. 8 Fritz, No. 6 De Bruyne, No. 7 Arnautovic, No. 10 Lin, No. 41 Kroos, and No. 11 Elia."

Because Marcy Tiwan and Hussk Baker's commentary in the previous Telekom Cup semi-final received good viewership, they continued as CCTV's commentators for this match.

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

Therefore, after the broadcast began, CCTV Sports Channel's viewership rate rapidly surged.

A large part of this was due to the young Chinese player in Werder Bremen's team.

Lin played a hat-trick in the match against Bayern in the previous round, breaking three Telekom Cup records. He became the youngest to start, score a goal, and complete a hat-trick in the tournament.

Although the Telekom Cup does not carry much weight, to accomplish this at his age brought him a little fame in the football circle.

Moreover, because Marcy Tiwan likened Lin to Messi during the commentary, many Messi fans and detractors were also drawn to the match.

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

"I've seen Lin's previous matches; he's definitely a genuine second Messi!"

"Come on, I didn't go to many schools, don't lie to me!"

"Yeah, every year there are so many 'Messis' popping up from all corners. When did Messi become so cheap? When did he lose his worth?"

"Based on my twenty years of watching football, Messi's football talent is definitely historical. If other Messi-like players do not possess such top-tier talent, then it's just an empty boast."

"Tsk tsk, here we go with the Messi talk again. If your Messi is so strong, why did he get knocked out with a buzz cut by Germany in the World Cup?"

"Looks like your C Ronaldo made it to the quarterfinals, falling off in the Round 16, where's the face to talk big here?"

...

Originally, the topic was whether Lin is the second Messi, but the appearance of Messi fans and detractors led to a severe deviation in the discussion, diverted towards a debate about C Ronaldo and Messi.

These two are currently the strongest active players in the football world, with the highest level of discussion and the most fan base.

During this period, these two were called the Greatest Duo of the Generation.

They both have a large number of fans and these fans often get into arguments with each other.

The quarrels among the fans went on as time passed.

At 7:35 PM, with the referee's whistle, the highly anticipated Telekom Cup final between Borussia Dortmund and Werder Bremen officially began.