In the 14th round of the league, Kaiserslautern sat at home and beat visiting Rostock 4-0, followed by a two-week national team training camp and match day.
On November 18, Kaiserslautern visited M?nchengladbach to challenge this Bundesliga team led by Tiger Effenberg. However, the situation of M?nchengladbach was worse and they were on the verge of relegation. Tiger Effenberg could not help much after all, he was alone.
After 90 minutes of play, Kaiserslautern won away from home.
3 days later, Kaiserslautern away 3:0 victory over promoted Wolfsburg, although Bellon, Dannesen and other national players returned to the main lineup, but the performance was general, Kaiserslautern's victory was more due to Larsson's outbreak, the Swede scored all three goals for the team.
By the way, Flinns, who started with Deco in midfield, played his best game since joining Kaiserslautern, contributing two assists and performing well on defense, being voted as the team's second-best player after Larsen.
Ferguson also gained confidence through this game and won the applause of fans.
A week later, Kaiserslautern, who had sufficient time to rest and recover, played at home with their main players, and they won 4-0 against Hamburg, achieving a crucial victory.
Almost simultaneously, Bayern Munich away challenged Leverkusen. In the case of two equalizers, Kierspe's hat-trick made Bayern Munich ultimately lose at Haberland Stadium. And the gap in points between this green Hollywood and Kaiserslautern also widened to 4 points.
Kaiserslautern topped the league with 46 points from 15 wins, one draw and one loss in 17 matches, while Bayern Munich ranked second with 34 points, and third-placed Leverkusen had only 23 points at the halfway point.
As a result, the biggest favorites to win this season's Bundesliga are Kaiserslautern and Bayern Munich, especially Kaiserslautern, who as a newly promoted team, have performed very steadily in the Bundesliga, without any signs of nervousness or confusion.
However, many authoritative media are also worried about Kaiserslautern's second half of the season. After all, many examples of promoted horses have proven that "the first half of the season performed well" is because their opponents ignored them and lacked experience in dealing with them, but as the second half of the season comes, they have all found ways to deal with Kaiserslautern.
"The second half of the season is what will truly decide Kaiserslautern's fate this season!"
It was as if to prove this point, four days after the end of the league match, Kaiserslautern welcomed the German Cup round of 16, and lost 2-1 away to Bayern Munich. Trapattoni's team relied on Elber's two goals to narrowly beat the Bundesliga Red Devils, advancing to the next round and eliminating Kaiserslautern from the German Cup.
The away team's dressing room at the Olympic Stadium is better than Fritz Walter Stadium's home team dressing room, with more luxurious decorations and more complete facilities. To put it in a flattering way, "even their chairs are softer than those of Fritz Walter Stadium".
After the game, Yang Cheng led the players back to the locker room with their tails between their legs. Throughout the process, no one spoke and everyone was sulking.
In this game, Kaiserslautern had the absolute initiative, with a possession rate of 43:57, and more shots on goal than Bayern, 7:16. Kaiserslautern also had 6 shots on target, while Bayern only had 3. However, Kaiserslautern scored only one goal, while Bayern scored two.
The whole game had no major controversy penalty, it can be said that this game Kaiserslautern lost without any excuse.
Took the lead, but was reversed by Bayern's two consecutive goals. Yang Cheng undoubtedly suffered the most painful lesson in his coaching career.
He was originally confident about this game, thinking that his away team's starting lineup with sufficient attacking power would make Trapattoni fail again. However, the Italians chose to be conservative and set up targeted counterattacks, followed by Elber's reversal.
Young, aggressive, mistakes, lack of experience... Yang Chen can find a lot of excuses for this game, but he didn't!
"We lost!" Yang Cheng broke the silence in the locker room.
The players were all somewhat surprised, because they never gave up, even in the game where they lost to Dortmund, Yang Chen still insisted that his team should have won, but now he actually admitted defeat!
"Losing is losing, I won't and don't want to make excuses for myself, we really lost!..." Yang Cheng frankly admitted, because he has never been a person who can't afford to lose.
Those who can't afford to lose will never become a great head coach!
"Football matches are like that, someone wins and someone loses, it's normal. We can't always be the winners because there is no team in the world that always wins, so we will also lose games, there's nothing to be ashamed of!"
Yang Cheng stood in the center of the locker room, with all eyes of the players focused on him.
"The game is over, what we need to do now is not to continue regretting and feeling guilty about the loss of this game, but to stand outside the game and re-examine the process of this game with a neutral attitude. Why did we lose? Where did we lose?"
The players all hung their heads in shame. Since Yang Chen took over the team, losing had become a rare occurrence, whether it was in the 2nd Bundesliga or the Champions League. They were used to winning, but now they had lost a crucial knockout match and been eliminated from the German Cup by Bayern Munich, which was a first for them, and the blow was inevitably a bit bigger.
"Although we lost this game, I'm still very pleased. At least we stuck to our tactical concept, we were always thinking about attacking, and actively trying to reverse the game. Unfortunately, the opponent's defense was too solid, so we had to reflect on ourselves, whether our attacking means are too single-minded?"
Here is the translation:
To this point, as the team's top scorer, Van Nistelrooy hung his head in shame, because in this game he seemed to have completely lost his shooting accuracy, especially under the opponent's interference. Among his only four shots, one was miraculously saved by Kahn, two were too weak, and one went wide.
Others in the team are also like this!
It has to be admitted that Kahn showed god-like strength in this crucial battle. He at least resolved Kaiserlautern's necessary scoring opportunities, his performance can almost be described as perfect, and his outstanding performance greatly boosted the morale of Bayern players and dampened the morale of Kaiserlautern players.
Kahn used his hands, his will and his performance to prove that the goalkeeper can also be the core of the team!
Losing to such a person, Yang Cheng had nothing to say.
"In 3 days, it will be the league's ninth round. You all should know better than me that we are going to face Bayern Munich at home!" But in Yang Cheng's heart, he thought of those two matches at the beginning of the season.
It's unclear whether it's a coincidence that the league cup final and the first round of the league are 3 days apart, the German Cup quarterfinals and the Bundesliga are also 3 days apart, Kaiserslautern and Bayern Munich have been entangled throughout the season.
At the beginning of the season, Kaiserslautern won the League Cup by defeating Bayern Munich in the final. They then went on to beat Bayern again away from home without conceding a goal. Now it seems that the situation has turned around and Bayern have overturned Kaiserslautern's lead. Can they now go on to defeat Kaiserslautern once more?
Yang Cheng looked at the players in front of him, they all seemed to be dragging their heads, looking listless and had not yet recovered from the blow of losing the game. But as the team's head coach, he certainly couldn't let the team continue like this.
"Now I give you a choice to decide how we should play against Bayern 3 days later," Yang Cheng said gritting his teeth, "There are still 3 days left, we follow the usual practice, decide the big list and tactics the day before the game, but this time is different from the past."
Yang Chen looked very determined, "This time the decision on team tactics and starting lineup is not mine, but yours. You tell me how we should play in three days' match against Bayern, whether to continue attacking or retreat to defense? Whether to strive for a draw to avoid defeat or take the initiative to attack and beat Bayern to wash away the shame of losing at home?"
"I'll wait for you to make a decision, and at the pre-war preparation meeting 3 days later, you tell me the answer. If you decide to retreat, then I'll let you retreat. If you decide to take the initiative to attack, then I'll accompany you to fight it out, and we'll give it our all!"
Yang Cheng nodded without stopping, "You think carefully, and when you have an answer, tell me!" After finishing speaking, he turned around and left the locker room. As the head coach, he still had to attend the post-match press conference.
It's not easy to win against Kaizerslautern, Trapattoni looks in a good mood, at least he won't scold anymore, and answers media questions politely and elegantly.
Yang Cheng as a loser, although a bit awkward, but he seems to be completely unbothered.
"There's no doubt that Kaiserslautern is an excellent team, especially in terms of their attacking capabilities, which are absolutely top-notch in the Bundesliga and among the best in Europe when it comes to creating scoring opportunities! The white-haired Italian first smiled and praised Kaiserslautern, but everyone knew it wouldn't be that easy."
As expected, he quickly changed his tone of voice, "However, I am very happy that we found a way to contain Kaiserslautern. In the 1-0 situation, my players did not lose confidence in the game. We persisted with our tactics and finally achieved results, reversing Kaiserslautern, which is an extremely difficult thing."
Trapattoni flashed a nouveau riche smile, "At least we should be the first team to reverse Kaiserslautern in two seasons!"
The reporters below suddenly nodded in unison after a moment of contemplation.
The most well-known characteristics of Kaiserslautern, led by Yang Chen, are their tenacity and attacking football. Another point is their strong fighting spirit, so this team has almost never been reversed, even the games that were tied at halftime are few and far between. However, they have now been overturned and defeated by Bayern.
Tieba Trapatoni brought this up at this time, it's clear that he wasn't showing off, but rather to further attack Yang Cheng.
"Excuse me, Mr. Trapatonni, you said that you have found a way to contain Kaiserslautern, does that mean you are confident of winning the league in three days?" asked a reporter who raised his hand.
Trapattoni was in a good mood, smiling brightly and nodding: "I am very confident. Although anything can happen on the football field, I believe that as long as we can maintain this game's state and performance, we can completely defeat Kaiserslautern away and then reverse Kaiserslautern to win the league championship!"
This season, Bayern fans have long been dissatisfied with Bayern's long-term inferiority to Kaiserslautern. If Trapattoni can't reverse the situation and let Kaiserslautern win the championship, then even if he is re-elected, he will definitely be scolded by Bayern fans, because he is not even as good as a newly promoted team.
The media then asked Trapatonni several questions, and the Italian obviously did not miss the opportunity to attack Yang Chen and Kayserispor, trying his best to shift the topic to attacking Kayserispor.
To enliven the atmosphere of the press conference, the media suddenly shifted their focus onto Yang Cheng.
"Hello, Mr. Yang Cheng, what's your take on this match?"
Yang Cheng suddenly remembered a very famous phrase of Ferguson in the future, and gave a slight cold smile. "We are unlucky, Bayern has a god-like Kahn, but we are also lucky" because Bayern only has one Kahn!
The media were instantly amused by Yang Cheng's witty remark, and they all rushed to record it.
"Are you implying that Kaiserslautern's defeat in this match was due to Kahn's outstanding performance?"
Yang Cheng shrugged his shoulders, "This is just one aspect of the reason" but not all!
"What do you think is the main reason for Kaiserslautern's loss in this crucial match? Who should be held responsible?" The media continued to fan the flames.
Yang Cheng's current personality has been tempered quite well, at least this time he didn't get carried away by the media's hype and just coldly laughed, "No one should be responsible for this loss" or rather, if someone must take responsibility for this loss, then as the head coach, I should bear all the responsibility!
Yang Chen's words came out, and suddenly all the reporters in the field were in an uproar, which was equivalent to putting all the responsibility for losing the ball on his own shoulders.
Many reporters looked at the young Chinese coach sitting in the middle of the press conference, with a hint of respect in their eyes. At least he dared to take all the responsibility after the loss, rather than shifting the blame to others.
Trapatonni took a cautious glance at the young head coach beside him, he himself was a qualified head coach, so he knew very well that if one were clever, they could shift the blame onto some of the players who had performed poorly, but Yang Cheng did not do so.
Should I say he is a fool or should I say he has a sense of justice?
Trapatoni's face showed a hint of confusion and bitter smile, but at least, his gaze towards Yang Chen had less coldness, and more appreciation and recognition.
"How do you think your players performed?" Perhaps stung by the previous remarks, the media's questions were not as sharp as before.
"Very good, they gave their all in the competition and I'm satisfied with their performance."
Just then, Gran and Nac from afar raised their hands high and stood up after being called.
"Hello. Mr. Yang Cheng, in this game, Kaiserslautern adhered to their own tactical concept and responded to Bayern with an active and initiative attacking football, which indeed forced Bayern to adopt a more conservative Italian-style defensive counterattack tactic. The game was lost, we are all regretful, but I don't know if it will affect Kaiserslautern's future tactical thinking? Will Kaiserslautern continue to adhere to their own attacking football concept in the future, or will they become more conservative for the sake of results?"
Yang Cheng nodded towards Gran and Nac, everyone in the audience knew that the two had a close relationship and were already used to it.
"We lost the game, I don't think it's a problem with our tactical concept. I think we didn't do well enough in some aspects, it's our own problem, not tactics. Because I always believe that tactics itself is unbiased, so I can be very sure that Kaiserslautern's tactical thinking will not change!"
Glen Nak, applauded spontaneously, he admired Yang Cheng's persistence in attacking football.
At first, only Gran Nak was applauding alone, but gradually more and more people started to clap, eventually evolving into a full-house applause from all the journalists present, clearly showing their approval of Yang Cheng's persistence.
Nowadays, the head coaches who insist on offensive football in the Bundesliga are rare, except for Yang Chen of Kaiserslautern. Stuttgart's Ralf Rangnick was also affected by Elber's departure this season, and the team's offense has been impacted, with tactics starting to focus more on balance. Other teams like Bochum are also doing so.
It can be said that Kaiserslautern's offensive football is a unique landscape in the Bundesliga this season, and after the initial grinding at the beginning of the season, the team's offense has become more and more exciting. What's even more precious is that the team's record is excellent, ranking first in the league standings.
Being able to lead Kaiserslautern, a newly promoted team, to achieve today's results with attacking football, Yang Chen's coaching ability has long been beyond doubt. What really needs to be worried about is whether the team he leads can continue to firmly implement this concept, and whether Kaiserslautern can continue to maintain its current momentum.
"Can you reveal a bit about your tactics for the next match? Are you going to continue strengthening your offense?" a reporter asked tentatively.
"Of course, we will not give up our pursuit of attacking football!"
Whatever he says in front of the media now is not a problem, if three days later in the match he plays attacking football, then he has fulfilled his promise, if he plays more balanced or even defensive counterattack, then he is deliberately playing smoke bombs.
He has already given the players the power of choice, so he is willing to wait for them for 3 days and let them make a decision!
This is not only to let them take the lead, but also hope that they can walk out of the shadow of loss through the 3-day decision and regain the confidence and morale to defeat Bayern!
If the players really can't get over this loss, then Yang Cheng's previous efforts and hard work will all be in vain. In that case, even if he loses, he will have no regrets!
