In the morning, the goose feather snowflakes fell silently, but in the vast white city of Kaiserslautern, there was not a single person to be seen. From Otterbach Street to Weibestrasse, then to Rosenstrasse, and finally to Pariser Strasse, the entire downtown area of Kaiserslautern was walked through, but it was hard to spot even one person.
Every household had locked their doors and windows tightly, and the white snow covered them up.
If someone stood in mid-air and listened at that time, he must have heard the shouts of the commentators on TV sets all over the city, the cheers from the 40-meter-high small hill stadium, and the excited applause coming from every household.
On Saturday afternoon, the entire city was hijacked by football! From Roggen Street, along the winding mountain road to Fritz-Walter-Stadion, the parking lot was already full, except for a few security guards in thick down jackets listening to the radio in the corner. You couldn't see anyone, but you could hear everyone! The Fritz-Walter-Stadion had become a sea of red! In the stands, everywhere you looked, there were fans with painted faces and menacing expressions, they had transformed into demons, willing to risk everything to drag Bayern down to hell! The Bayern fans who followed their team to the away game were undoubtedly miserable, as they became just a small part of this vast ocean, unable to change the direction of the water. They discovered with dismay that in this stadium, it was the Kaiserslautern fans who ruled! On the field, the Bayern players also discovered with dismay that "the masters of the game were the Kaiserslautern players", they could only passively resist, resisting wave after wave of attacks like a stormy sea. From the first minute of the game, Kaiserslautern used their own style to pull the game into their familiar rhythm, they could quickly speed up the ball as soon as it entered Bayern's territory; but they could also slow down, as soon as the attack was lost, the ball would be passed back and reorganized. And Bayern discovered with dismay that "they could only passively resist, following Kaiserslautern's fast pace, following Kaiserslautern's slow pace" They couldn't control their own rhythm, they had no control over the football at Kaiserslautern's feet.
Vanni, Larsen, Nielsen, Bellon, Schneider and Barak, these 6 players in the midfield with a series of runs and combinations, mobilizing Bayern's defense line, finding out the weaknesses in Bayern's backline and making use of them to create one chance after another. The defensive line composed of Lizarazu, Kuffour, Helmer and Babbel could only repeatedly respond to Kaiserslautern's wave-like offense with fatigue, they bore great pressure because as long as they made a wrong judgment, Kaiserslautern would be able to create chances and turn them into shots that threatened Bayern's goal. This was a group of players who attacked to the extent of near madness, Trapattoni's defense which relied on survival appeared precarious in Kaiserslautern's offense, even the forwards like Elber had to fall back to defend. "What is called attacking being the best defending? Look at Kaiserslautern's performance! They used their actual actions to nearly perfectly interpret this sentence!" Even the live commentator couldn't help but feel astonished by Kaiserslautern's performance after the opening.
No fancy tricks, no extra moves, from the first minute of the game, Kaiserslautern's starting lineup had only one goal: Attack! Score!! Every time Kaiserslautern launched an attack, every successful pass could bring cheers from the fans in the stands and applause from countless fans watching TV at home. Yang Cheng and Trapattoni stood on the sidelines, one 8 years old, full of youthful energy, the other 60 years old, at the golden age of a professional coach, looking serious and focused on the game. In this match, Trapattoni knew that Fritz-Walter-Stadion was a tough place to play, so he started with Fink and Strunz, two defensive specialists, in midfield. Linke and Sauer on the left and right sides retreated to protect the flanks, while Elber also fell back to participate in defense, leaving only Janker up front.
Klose's injury gave Trapattoni the confidence to use Yankler, but he didn't expect that in this match Yang would start with another central defender, and this Brazilian defender quickly made Yankler, a tall and strong German striker, realize what it means to be tough. Lucio is not comparable to Klose in terms of defensive skills or awareness, the Germans have rich experience against German strikers, so Yankler was helpless when facing him, but Lucio wasn't, he had something that Klose didn't - his body! The clash between Lucio and Yankler, two Bundesliga strongmen, is enough to ignite the whole game, and what's more rare is that both players are of the fierce and muscular type, making their confrontation like a Hollywood action movie, intense and explosive.
Without exception, in this strong dialogue, Lucio's body has the upper hand, his speed is faster, his body is more agile, and his technique is more excellent. Jankert was completely at a disadvantage in the confrontation with Lucio. Freezing Jankert, plus Kaiserslautern's defensive line pressing forward, put tremendous pressure on the attacking end, and Gattuso and Keir even joined forces to cut off Bayern's front line and midfield connection, forcing Elber to retreat and respond, Bayern's attack couldn't get started at all. On the other hand, Kaiserslautern's defense was light as a feather, very stable, and the team could devote itself wholeheartedly to the attack.
"He must not dare to believe that you not only didn't choose a more balanced tactic, but also performed even more crazily than 3 days ago, almost without considering defense, and launched a desperate attack!..." Paul Baier was satisfied with Kaiserslautern's overwhelming performance and sincerely praised them. If we look at the offense, Kaiserslautern's attacking power this season is not only the best in the Bundesliga, but also among the top in Europe. Vanni and Larsen are very efficient scorers, and players like Dernis, Bellon, Schneider, Nedved, Barak, Salihamidzic, Deko, and Desler can provide endless opportunities for the front line. This makes Kaiserslautern's offense a nightmare for any team. The attacking routine in this game was slightly different from the previous one, with Yang Cheng emphasizing patience and changes in attacking methods, requiring players to run more, whether it's the forwards pulling back or Barak, Bellon, Schneider, Dernis, etc. making forward runs. With more coordination, the offense is no longer a direct confrontation between the front line and Bayern's defense, but rather a clever manipulation of Bayern's defense, forcing them to reveal weaknesses and exploiting them. This increases the difficulty of Bayern's defense. Just like this time, when Schneider received the ball on the right, he made a diagonal run to the middle, while Larsen ran from the middle to the right, leaving Kufour and Lizarazu in trouble. They didn't know whether to stay in their positions or follow the player. Schneider pretended to pass the ball, and Kufour and Babbel both rushed to block Larsen, but Schneider suddenly sent the ball forward lightly, and Barak burst out from a diagonal run, directly into the gap left by Kufour's retreat, and shot with great force in the narrow space. The ball was like a cannonball shooting out from under Barak's feet, almost instantly reaching the goalmouth. Kahn reacted, but unfortunately heard the sound of the ball hitting the crossbar and bouncing back."
Everyone was shocked, but Schneider outside the penalty area judged the ball's landing point in advance and knocked it to the left without stopping. The ball was transferred to Bellon, who had already come up on the left side, and he sent the ball forward with a volley. Due to Bayern's defense leaning to the left, Denilson got an opportunity behind the penalty area on the left side and kicked out a curved ball. This curved ball had a very strange trajectory and a tricky angle. Kahn stood up from the ground, stretched his right hand as hard as he could, almost using his middle finger to lightly touch the football once, and then saw the ball hit the intersection of the post and crossbar at the top-right corner of the goal.
The ball fell into the penalty area, and Kaiserslautern's two former forwards rushed in. Bayern's four or five defensive players also squeezed in, making the entire penalty area chaotic. First, Van Nistelrooy took advantage of the chaos to shoot a goal that hit Helmer's body, and finally Bellon's shot was too direct and was intercepted by Kahn. The whole process seemed long, but it actually happened in an instant. Kaiserslautern completed four shots, each of which forced Bayern into desperation, and each of which was just inches away from scoring. After four consecutive shots failed to score, Bellon and other players walked back with a look of regret, waiting for Kahn to kick the ball out. "Don't worry, keep it up! Press on!" Yang Cheng shouted from the sidelines, but his hands kept making alternating motions, telling the players on the field not to just attack in one place, but to try sudden changes in attack points. Just like earlier, when the ball suddenly came from Schneider's right foot, passed through Bellon's feet, and arrived at Nielsen's left foot, the latter completed a shot that was very sudden. If Kahn hadn't performed too well, if Nielsen's shot hadn't been too angled, maybe that ball would have scored! Compared to Yang Cheng's confident appearance, Trapattoni on the sidelines was frequently furious, especially when Bayern players were caught off guard by Kaiserslautern's four penalty area shots. This was absolutely not allowed in his opinion! To know, Trapattoni's defensive philosophy is to limit Kaiserslautern's attacking space and not give them easy shooting opportunities, but earlier, Bayern's entire defensive system was in disarray. It's absolutely impossible to ignore Bayern's defensive strength just because of this. After all, players have to make judgments in an instant, especially when facing strong attacking pressure, and it's definitely not as seamless as usual, so mistakes are inevitable. With previous experience, Kaiserslautern played even more comfortably afterwards, their offense flowing like clouds and water. Wherever they saw a gap, they would desperately shoot into it, and from time to time, they would make a transfer, playing a game of smoke bombs. Bayern's defense emphasizes strict order, Trapattoni's Italian defense requires minimizing the number of times the opponent enters the penalty area, and to achieve this, Trapattoni even played two defensive midfielders in this game.
However, when the rigorous order encountered a random attack, it suddenly became extremely passive and embarrassed. In the 29th minute, Kaiserslautern launched a counterattack after stealing the ball in the backcourt. Bellon made a long diagonal pass on the midfield, directly passing to Lizarazu who was unguarded on the right flank. He supported the attack and left a large space behind him. Larsson robbed the ball from Bayern's defender and passed it to Schneider, who was running forward. Schneider then made a horizontal pass, and Ballack ran over to receive the ball but sent it towards the 45-degree angle of the penalty area. Larsson received the ball and rushed into the penalty area, but Kufour tightly pressed him, not giving him a chance to face Kahn directly. He could only stop suddenly and make a horizontal pass. Van Bommel used his body to lean against Hargreaves, whose legs were very long, stopping the ball. However, his teammates around him seemed to be restricted by Bayern's defenders, and he decided to do it himself in an instant. Just as he was about to turn around and shoot, he suddenly discovered a player wearing a red jersey rushing over from the backcourt. In the chaos, he couldn't see the player's face clearly, but he made a gesture that everyone often used during training. Van Bommel almost desperately squeezed his body towards Hargreaves, and the ball was lightly sent away from his feet. He ran to the left, looking like he was going to turn around and shoot. This fake action not only deceived Hargreaves but also Kahn, who moved their center of gravity to the left. At this moment, everyone was surprised to see a red figure receive the ball and stop it with an extremely awkward posture before lightly sending it into Bayern's goal. Kahn felt something was wrong, but when he reacted and made a save, it was too late. This shot was too pursuit of angle, as if the shooter lacked confidence, so the shot seemed weak. However, because Kahn was deceived by Van Bommel, his reaction was slow, and he could only watch as this weak shot rolled into Bayern's goal.
"In the 30th minute, Kaiserslautern broke the deadlock! It was Gattuso, the Italian youngster Gattuso, who scored the leading goal, which is also his first goal since joining Kaiserslautern and his career's first goal as a professional defender!"
"Unbelievable, this is absolutely shocking because many people thought Kaiserslautern would score, but no one expected it to be Gattuso!..."
"Fanni, Larsen, Barak, the top three scorers of Kaiserslautern this season are all on the field, but who would have thought that the first goal would come from Gattuso, who has never scored a goal in his professional career?"
"Not only was the commentator stunned, even the Kaiserslautern players were shocked because Gattuso had never scored before. If he had scored an easy goal, it wouldn't be surprising, but he scored a crucial goal, which is almost a miracle!"
"Haha, you little rascal, you suddenly popped up! But the players are all excited and rushed to congratulate Gattuso, who still looked stunned."
"You're so lucky, you fisherman, you finally scored!..."
Gattuso stood there, dazed, this was one of his rare forward runs this season and the first time he had done so in this game.
"It... it was the coach who told me to make a run!"
The players were all shocked again. Yang Cheng had been trying to improve Gattuso's attacking ability all along, which was well-known, because he thought that with Kaiserslautern's pressing and counter-attacking tactics, Gattuso, as a defensive specialist, was being wasted. He wanted Gattuso to participate more in the attack, but the Italian seemed to be a defensive genius, but an attacking idiot. Half a season had passed without any progress, but unexpectedly, he scored in this game!
"The coach kept signaling me to join the attack, I didn't think much of it, saw that you guys were being marked by Bayern players, and there was a gap in the middle, so I just ran forward and ended up in the penalty area!"
Gattuso smiled foolishly. The others almost collapsed, should they say this kid is lucky or what? Yang Cheng on the sidelines also looked stunned, scoring a goal felt great, but as the head coach, he thought more about it.
"Catuzo is probably not good at organizing counterattacks, but I think we can increase his participation in frontcourt attacks, such as participating in attack coordination, or even directly scoring goals!..." Moniz and Moulins looked at each other and smiled wryly, because they both knew how difficult it was to train Catuzo's skills. This kid seemed to be born with a natural aversion to technology, but he couldn't bear the boredom of practicing simple moves like Vanney did for half an hour. "His football is very simple, and his technique is just enough, so I think your arrangement is ideal for him, because he's just a pure butcher!" Moniz laughed. Yang Cheng thought of Catuzo's personality and smiled.
