Mark's cut-in, dribble, and shot from the inverted winger position were absolutely brilliant. Coach Hecking on the sidelines applauded his protégé while mentally comparing Mark to Perisic.
Such goals are rare for the left-footed Perisic.
Compared to Perisic, Mark's advantage lies in his superior footwork and higher success rate in dribbling.
However, his weakness is that both his passing and shooting are average.
Nevertheless, the chemistry between Mark and De Bruyne is also a point worth noting.
The two, making their Wolfsburg debut on the same day, showed great understanding on the field.
Many times, they could execute fluid passing and movement combinations without needing much communication.
Moreover, with Mark on the field, De Bruyne performed more calmly and effectively.
It's one thing to play well yourself, and another to make your teammates better!
Of course, in terms of immediate impact, Perisic is definitely the first choice at present.
But Mark is six years younger than Perisic, and with his visible talent, he has a lot of room for improvement.
As long as he is carefully nurtured and fulfills his potential, he will definitely be stronger than Perisic in the future!
The key is, if Mark fulfills his potential, will he still be able to stay at Wolfsburg? As Mark's goal broke the deadlock, the home team, Braunschweig, had no choice but to push forward and attack.
This, in turn, created more space in their own half.
Because he had promised the coach before the match to pass more and dribble less.
Therefore, in the first thirty minutes of the game, Mark tried to hold the ball as little as possible and focused on off-ball movement to support the play.
And before scoring this goal, he had only completed his first true dribble of the match.
However, with the lead and facing Braunschweig, a newly promoted team with generally average player strength, Mark couldn't suppress his desire to dribble.
After all, in addition to his per-match dribbling task, he also needed to ensure his season-average dribbles per game remained at four or more to complete the [Season Goal] set by the system.
When facing strong giant teams or opponents specifically marking him, the difficulty of dribbling with the ball skyrocketed.
Just like Alaba, a top Bundesliga full-back, he only dribbled past him twice in one match!
In the remaining failed dribbles, he would either be directly shouldered off by Alaba or fouled and brought down.
So, Mark came up with a solution:
As long as he dribbles more times against weaker opponents, his average successful dribble statistics can be boosted!
This way, even if his successful dribbles in a single match against strong teams don't reach the minimum requirement of four, he can still maintain his average dribbling statistics.
This is also a compromise given his current lack of ability.
Developing discreetly is the way to go.
Once he truly reaches the peak strength of Ronaldinho, he won't have to think too much.
No matter who defends him, he'll dribble past them easily!
Subsequently, Mark frequently called for the ball on the wing and started dribbling!
In just ten minutes, he attempted three dribbles, and all three were successful!
Of course, while he was frantically racking up dribbling statistics, he also didn't forget to pass the ball to De Bruyne in the middle.
After Mark attracted the defense, De Bruyne gained ample passing space and delivered several highly threatening through balls.
It's just that Olić and Vieirinha's shots were too central and were collected by the goalkeeper.
Otherwise, the team would have already extended their lead to two goals in the first half... With the referee's whistle, the first half ended.
With a one-goal lead, the Wolfsburg players returned to the locker room.
"I'm satisfied with the team's performance, keep it up!"
"Mark, pay attention to the number of times you hold the ball in the second half; the opponent will definitely strengthen their defense against you."
Hearing Hecking's reminder, Mark immediately nodded:
"Okay, coach."
As the second half began, just as Hecking had predicted, Braunschweig indeed strengthened their marking against him!
Seeing that Mark's dribbling was incredibly destructive and almost unstoppable on the wing, Braunschweig's coach also began to shout at his players, urging them to increase the intensity against the young man.
So, every time Mark tried to get the ball, nearby Braunschweig players would immediately rush up, pulling and tugging at him.
If he didn't lose the ball under this rough man-to-man defense and still tried to dribble, they would simply foul him!
In just ten minutes, Mark was fouled four times!
Three times he was brought down, and once his jersey was pulled, resulting in a yellow card for the opponent's winger.
Rubbing his sore backside and hips from the falls, Mark also began to reduce his dribbling frequency and speed up his passing.
In the sixtieth minute of the match, Braunschweig launched an attack.
Right winger Bellarabi dribbled down the right flank, forcefully beating R. Ricardo Rodriguez, and then delivered a cut-back cross from the byline.
Fortunately, the defensive midfielder Malanda, who had tracked back, intercepted it in time and immediately passed the ball to De Bruyne in front.
De Bruyne let the ball run, turned, and advanced a few steps with the ball, not forgetting to observe the wingers making runs on both sides.
At this moment, as Braunschweig pushed forward to attack, a huge space appeared behind them.
"Kevin!"
Hearing the familiar shout from the left, De Bruyne unhesitatingly passed the ball to the left.
The moment he received the ball, Braunschweig's right-back Reichel fiercely rushed towards him with a grim expression.
However, just as he charged forward with the mindset of "the ball can pass, but the man cannot," he didn't expect that the black-haired teenager in front of him simply executed a sudden stop, a simple trap and flick, and the ball obediently slipped between his legs!
"What?!"
Immediately after, the black-haired teenager abruptly accelerated with a powerful step and dribbled past him on the inside, cutting into the half-space!
"Beautiful dribble!"
Dribbling and cutting inside to the left edge of the penalty area, Mark did not continue to advance, but after attracting the center-back to cover, he decisively passed the ball horizontally to the middle with his left foot.
And there, was the late-arriving and unmarked De Bruyne!
Facing such ample space to shoot, De Bruyne naturally didn't hold back, striking the ball with a powerful instep shot!
Boom!
The ball, like a cannonball, transformed into an elusive black blur, flying directly into the top right corner of the goal!
The moment he watched the ball hit the net, a passionate roar involuntarily erupted in Mark's mind:
"Bruyne!"
"What a handsome long-range shot!"
And he immediately ran to high-five De Bruyne in celebration,
"That long-range shot has some serious power!"
"Haha, your pass was very comfortable..."
"Teach me long-range shooting someday!"
"Sure, after you beat me in 2K!"
"F*** you!"
With De Bruyne scoring the second goal, the scales of victory had already tipped towards Wolfsburg.
Seeing Mark's stamina clearly starting to decline, Hecking on the sidelines replaced Mark with Caligiuri.
In the end, thanks to the mutual passing and shooting between Mark and De Bruyne, Wolfsburg defeated the last-place promoted team Braunschweig two-nil away from home!
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