…………

  …………

  Hitzfeld's face fell as he saw the Kaiserslautern players emerge from the dressing room.

  Because he didn't see a player he wanted to see, but saw someone he wasn't very willing to see.

  Lutz replaced Kyle!

  When the stadium's loudspeaker shouted out this substitution, Hesfield's expression was so gloomy that it could be scraped off with frost, because he found that Yang Cheng reacted much faster than he had expected, and even dared to use up a substitution quota at halftime.

  Braemer, Kosch and Lutz, the three mainstays of Kaiserslautern's backline, have finally returned. These three players were all renowned defensive stalwarts in last season's Bundesliga, although they are no longer young, they are still at their peak.

  "It seems that this Chinese is not simple!" Hissfield looked at Yang Cheng, who was not far from his side, and muttered to himself.

  Yang Cheng also happened to look over and respectfully nodded towards Hissfeld.

  "What do you think he's thinking now?" Paul Bayer asked with a smile.

  Yang Cheng smiled and said, "I guess he's beating his chest and stomping his feet. After Kayel comes off the court, our defense will definitely become more solid, and Dortmund's chances will be slimmer!"

  He dared to make substitutions at halftime because, near the end of the first half, he saw match analysis information from the Super Coach system's game preparation, which focused on the backline and thought Kyle was a bit reckless and flustered in this game, making several mistakes.

  As for Dortmund's attacking tactics, the super coaching system analyzed that most of them used Keer as a pivot. That's why Yang Cheng was ruthless in his heart. Since the opponent wants to focus on Keer, I'll simply substitute Keer out of the field and see how you play!

  It turned out that Yang Chen's substitution did play a certain role, at least after the second half started, Dortmund's attack was still concentrated on the middle road, but under the premise of Yang Chen's early deployment, Dortmund's attack never opened up in the middle road.

  Gattuso still plays the role of troublemaker, Barak, Bellon and Nedved all take defending midfield as premise, Wagner and Fritz both defend two sidelines, especially Wagner, focusing on Dortmund's Ricken.

  After surviving the opening wave of attacks, Kaiserslautern's players became more and more fluent in their play, and their defense also became more and more effective.

  The players started pressing from the front court with Marshall, then to the midfield, and finally to the back court, forming a multi-layered defensive depth. On the back line, Bremer, Kosch and Lutz's experience was very rich and their strength was very strong. With years of cooperation and tacit understanding, Kaiserslautern's defense became solid as gold after a slight disturbance at the beginning of the second half.

  "It seems that the three of them are the best combination for our backline!" Yang Cheng watched the game while reflecting on his own shortcomings. He had indeed been too superstitious about the data from the Super Coach system, to the point where he naturally thought Kyle should start after seeing Kyle's accelerated growth surpass Lutz'.

  In fact, Kyle is like a typical example of being overhyped, he has the ability but lacks the experience and mental quality to be considered an absolute main force.

  "Yes, it's not just the three of them, Kadlec and Shaver also have very good strength, especially Kadlec!" Paul Bayer supports Yang Cheng's self-reflection.

  "Lusio, Luis Hut and Kyle all have outstanding potential and strength, but they are still young and can only represent the future. If it's just a matter of dealing with teams in the 2nd Bundesliga, maybe all three of them can play, but if you want to deal with teams in the 1st Bundesliga or even participate in the European Cup Winners' Cup, they will appear immature!"

  Yang Chen also felt more and more that way, especially when he saw Lutz come on in the second half and form a tacitly defensive line with Bremer and Kostic.

  …………

  …………

  "In the 18th minute of the second half, the score was still 0:0. Although Dortmund dominated the field and Kaiserslautern retreated to full defense, the scene was very passive, but Kaiserslautern's defense was very solid. Head coach Yang Cheng timely replaced young player Keil with veteran Lutz, which played a crucial role."

  "Kaiserslautern, except for striker Marshall, all the players retreated to their own half of the field, keeping a tight formation and unity, apparently intending to maintain the 0-0 score. However, Dortmund didn't think so, they were determined to take down their opponents, with all players actively pressing forward."

  In the Isolabella restaurant on Kaiserstra?e in Ottobrunn, when Toni came back from shopping outside and pushed open the door, he immediately heard the voice of a commentator coming from the TV set in the restaurant.

  The staff at the restaurant were all locals, startled by the sound of the door opening, and seeing that it was the boss who had returned, they immediately became busy pretending to work, but in fact, the few sparse customers in the restaurant at this time were also watching the live football match, so there was no need for them to take orders.

  Tony knew they were watching the Super Bowl, but he just walked to the back of the counter, smiled at the Juventus flag next to a row of wines, and tidied up things on the counter.

  "Oh no, Andy Moller on the edge of the penalty area, using his personal technique to shake off Gattuso and shoot from distance!"

  "Koshi, Koshi blocked the ball with his body in front!"

  "Ricken takes the ball on the right side, Bremer trips him up and the referee blows his whistle, indicating a free kick!"

  "Andy Mühller came to the penalty spot, while Kaiserslautern's players formed a human wall..."

  With the voice of the commentator in his ears, and the TV set right in front of him, Tony sat behind the counter, idly lifting his head as the camera panned across each player on the field.

  They looked so tired, so exhausted, their hair and clothes were all soaked with sweat, but at this moment, they stood fearlessly in front of the free throw line, hand in hand, forming a human wall.

  As he watched the players gaze steadily ahead, Toni seemed to read a feeling in their eyes that if they could, they would collectively surge forward at the moment of kickoff and use their bodies to block Andy Muller's free kick as much as possible, because everyone knew his direct free kick skills were excellent.

  As expected, when the referee blew his whistle, the players moved forward in unison, and surprisingly, no one showed any intention of dodging, each looking so resolute, as if they were brave warriors making a final desperate bid on the battlefield.

  Andy Müller's free kick hit Kaiserslautern players' bodies before being cleared by Bigfoot.

  The whole restaurant suddenly erupted in a sparse and scattered applause.

  "My goodness, this group of guys is awesome!"

  "They all did great today, one by one, their performance was too outstanding!"

  "Especially their overall physical condition, just look at that Argentine midfielder, I just saw him collapse outside the field, exhausted to the point of vomiting, but look at him running so fiercely now!"

  "And then there's Barak, this kid is going forward one moment and defending the next, as if he won't get tired!"

  "Niedermeier also worked hard, and Bremer and Kusch were also able to block opponents' shots with their bodies multiple times when they couldn't catch up, which was rare in the past!"

  Last season, Kaiserlautern's morale had been drained by the end. The players seemed listless on the field, except for winning a championship in the German Cup against a weak team, all other games were mediocre, let alone today's game which was so passionate and united.

  …………

  …………

  In the club office at Fritz-Walter-Stadion, Frederic was also watching the live broadcast of this game in the company of Werner Melzer. They both saw the players' one-by-one fighting and unity scenes, and they were both deeply infected by this game.

  "Werner, how long has it been since our club saw such a passionate and intense match?" Frederick asked suddenly.

  Meller looked satisfied with a smile, shook his head and said, "I don't know, it seems that after the away game 7:1 victory over Duisburg in 1994, which re-launched the charge for the league championship title that season, I rarely saw him again, it's been two years!"

  Frederick nodded involuntarily, "Yes, it's been 2 years!"

  "Mr. Chairman, no matter what the final result of today's game is, but I really started to believe what you said before, Yang Chen may indeed bring something different to Kaiserslautern, that long-lost feeling has finally come back, the Bundesliga Red Devils' feeling!"

  The nickname "Red Devils" of the Bundesliga comes from that 7-1 match, when Kaiserslautern and Dortmund, Frankfurt, Leverkusen were all vying for a Champions League spot, but also competing with Bayern for the league title. However, before that 7-1 match, Kaiserslautern was still 8 points behind Bayern, and with 5 rounds remaining in the league, everyone thought the outcome was already decided.

  But who would have thought that in the 29th round of the league, Kaiserslautern was away to challenge Duisburg, who was aiming for a Champions League qualification at the time, while Bayern was away to challenge Borussia M?nchengladbach.

  Both teams are determined to win the championship, Kaiserslautern shouted out the slogan of going all out for the league title before the match, and in the game, they fought with all their might, showing an extremely crazy spirit, beating Duisburg 7-1, sounding the first shot of counterattack, and also winning all four rounds of the league that followed.

  Looking back at Bayern, who were influenced by Kaiserslautern, they lost 0:2 away to M?nchengladbach and then suffered a crushing defeat in the decisive battle against Kaiserslautern with a score of 0:4. However, one round later, they drew 1:1 away to Karlsruhe.

  The final result of the season, Bayern and Kaiserslautern both scored 61 points, but Bayern finally won the championship with a net win of 31:28, three more than Kaiserslautern.

  But Kaiserslautern also owed their success to a crazy performance in the final minutes of the season, especially the 7-1 defeat of Duisburg and the 4-0 thrashing of Bayern, which conquered countless fans and earned them the nickname "Red Devils" of the Bundesliga.

  It was only after that season that Kaiserslautern had two consecutive poor seasons, and last year they even fell to relegation, the Red Devils spirit could no longer be seen.

  But today in this game, Fredrik and Melzer, as well as countless fans of Kaiserslautern, seemed to see that kind of thrilling Red Devils spirit again from this brand new team!