19 The System Wakes Up Again
On July 20th, two weeks into the team's training camp, the club welcomed their first opponent for a friendly match—Cottbus.
For Werder Bremen, choosing Cottbus as the first friendly match opponent was clearly a deliberate decision.
Cottbus is a team from the German second division. They were briefly promoted to the Bundesliga and played two seasons, but due to their limited strength, they were quickly relegated.
Their strength is not very strong, probably half a level weaker than Werder Bremen.
Playing against them is helpful for boosting the confidence of the team's young players. With many senior players leaving the team for the new season, the team has to rely on these young players to achieve success.
However, the mentality of young players is not very stable, and they are prone to collapse in the later stages of the season, just like Arsenal, who are wild in the top four every year in the first half of the season but weak in the second half.
Other than helping boost the confidence of the team's young players, choosing a weaker opponent means that their own defense won't be put under too much pressure, allowing them to focus more on attacking, thus better evaluating the results of the team's attacking tactics.
In this match, Lin and De Bruyne were both included in the squad.
The difference was that De Bruyne was in the starting lineup, while Lin was on the bench.
Lin was very calm about this. He hadn't expected to get a starting position right away, as his current fitness level wouldn't allow him to play the full game.
Being a substitute and coming on in crucial moments in the second half, taking advantage of the opponents' lower energy levels to turn the game around, is much less challenging than starting and facing opponents with full energy.
"Hey, give it your all! I believe in you!" Lin fist-bumped De Bruyne to encourage him, and De Bruyne gave a shy nod in return.
The match started quickly. There were a total of 23,000 spectators at the Weser Stadium, with many empty seats.
This wasn't surprising. After losing many senior players, and playing a friendly match against a lower-level team, the attraction for the fans wasn't very strong.
After the game began, Werder Bremen quickly took the initiative.
Cottbus chose to defend their own half and play on the counter-attack.
This was a very practical choice, as a weaker team facing a strong team, rushing out to attack the opponent would easily lead to a defeat.
Especially facing a team with a strong attacking capability like Werder Bremen, if they didn't strengthen their defense, a disastrous defeat could adversely affect the players' mentality for the new season.
"They indeed chose to defend!"
Assistant coach Rolf furrowed his eyebrows, looking a bit nervous as he spoke.
"Yeah, as expected!"
Schaaf was very composed, as if he had expected the opponent's choice.
"There are too many defenders in the opposition's backline. We can't penetrate through the ground, so we can only rely on crosses from the sides, but the effect may not be great!"
Another assistant coach, Hennebach, was also worried, as breaking through a packed defense is a worldwide challenge. He was concerned whether these young lads on the field could cope with this problem.
"We'll have to see if these young lads can handle the pressure and turn the game around!"
Schaaf sat on the coaching bench, arms folded across his chest, calmly observing the players' performance in the game.
This and the upcoming few friendly matches were crucial references for him to determine the starting lineup for the new season.
The strong players, those who perform exceptionally, can easily be identified in practical situations. Those who perform well will play, and those who don't will be benched. This season, Werder Bremen will resolutely implement this principle.
Moreover, even if the team temporarily can't turn the game around, he's not worried because he still has an ace up his sleeve.
Thinking of this, Schaaf turned his head and looked at Lin, who was sitting on the bench, completely focused on watching the game.
He was looking forward to witnessing the surprises this young lad, who had shown so much on the training ground, would bring in a real match.
On the bench, Lin appeared to be fully focused on watching the game.
But if one observed him closely, they would notice that his gaze wasn't fixed on the field.
Yes, Lin was distracted.
Right at the moment when the main referee blew the whistle to start the game, the dormant dog system had resurrected.
There was no "ding" sound, and no sudden release of tasks.
However, there was a perceptible module that appeared in Lin's consciousness.
Curious, Lin let his consciousness spread to explore. This module then unfolded in his mind.
After opening the module, he saw something similar to an operation interface.
It looks like a game, and the main character seems to be him.
Clicking on the player profile section, his information pops up.
[Name: Lin Quan]
[Age: 16 years 153 days]
[Birthday: February 20, 1996]
[Nationality: Spain]
[Position: Undecided]
[Club: Barcelona]
[League: Bundesliga]
[League Appearances: 0]
[National Team Appearances: 0]
[Current Template: Messi]
The first half of the information was nothing special, but the last column surprised Lin Quan.
The current template is easy to understand, but does the appearance of this word mean he can change to other football legends' templates in the future? To this question, Lin Quan asked the system.
[In theory, it can be, but in reality, it's not that feasible because the previous legends have already retired, their abilities have greatly declined, and they can no longer reach the level of football legends. So, their attributes cannot be replicated.]
Well, that makes sense. After all, it's not easy to obtain a football legend template! Having the peak Messi template, Lin Quan was already content.
Then, he began exploring other things on the operating interface.
Besides the player information section, there are two other modules.
One is the task module, and the other is the system store.
The system seems quite lazy with just these three things. Are they really confident to call themselves the ball king system?
Even though he questioned that, his curiosity clicked on the task module and found an unread task reminder.
Upon clicking, a system task popped up:
[Task Description: Football legends don't appear overnight, just like Rome wasn't built in a day. They grow through games and battles, and you are about to take the first step in your professional career!]
[Task Requirement: Play in the match between Werder Bremen and Cottbus, lead the team to victory, and complete the task to earn 1 point!]
According to the system introduction, points are the key to unlocking the system store.
Accumulate enough points to access the system store.
Moreover, the currency for buying items and equipment in the system store is points.
And points can only be obtained by completing system tasks and winning matches.
Initially, Lin Quan didn't pay much attention to this. With the Messi template in hand, what more could he ask for? What could be better than the Messi template?
So, even without those gadgets in the system store, he still had confidence in becoming the next football legend.
But after browsing the system store, Lin had to exclaim: "It's so cool!"
Leaving aside everything else, the talents in the system store, like injury immunity, top-notch prediction, unstoppable running, big heart, and clutch player abilities, were too cool!
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Debating on whether if I should drop this.
