T/N: i just want to clarify that some of the players' characters are not depicted as they are in reality. Take it as if this is an AU.
***
"Pass it over!!"
"Here!!"
"Pass! Pass! Hey!"
"Sorry, my bad, my bad."
Panyu, Guangzhou University City Training Base.
The Borussia Dortmund players were sweating profusely, and Klopp, the head coach on the sidelines, was frowning. The late July heat in Guangzhou was oppressive—a humid, clinging warmth that sapped the legs and clouded the mind. Even the most routine drills looked laboured.
"I'm just baffled. It's clearly not a difficult tactic, so why are they performing so poorly?"
Last season, Borussia Dortmund's smooth and fluid coordination had been a joy to watch. Recognized by fans worldwide as one of the three teams with the most gorgeous coordination—Arsenal, Barça, and Borussia Dortmund. Among them, Borussia Dortmund was the team with the fastest average counterattack time, with each counterattack taking no more than 14 seconds! It was truly exaggerated! Completing over 6 passes within 15 seconds and scoring a goal—logically, such a team should have already mastered the divine art.
Yet, after a short off-season, the players returning to the field seemed to have forgotten how to play football. Experts who could dance with swords and practically perform flawlessly had suddenly become beginners who couldn't even hold their swords steady. Isn't this a joke? No wonder Klopp was so anxious.
"I think it's just your mindset that's the problem."
"How is it not working?" Klopp was unconvinced.
Assistant Krawietz shook his head. "The team's midfield commander has changed, and many players have also been replaced. What affects one affects us all; the tactics definitely need to be practiced again."
"But—"
"Anyway, there are a few warm-up matches coming up; let's see the level in actual games."
"I can't wait."
The 2009 German Super Cup starts on August 1st. The opponent for the double-champion Borussia Dortmund is the Bundesliga runner-up, Wolfsburg. Immediately after, on August 7th, the Bundesliga will begin. With such a gruelling schedule, there wasn't much time for joint training, and the club's damn "Asia Tour" was going to waste a lot of time on the road. Klopp really wanted to grab CEO Watzke and beat him up!
"Hey..."
Krawietz still wanted to persuade him, but he didn't know how the team could gel either. Right now, the content of their play on the field was quite poor.
"Rest for 5 minutes, stop practicing for now."
The Borussia Dortmund players finally felt relieved; late July in Guangzhou was simply too uncomfortable. The humid and hot weather, combined with training under the scorching sun, was practically hell! They had already started missing the mild, comfortable summer in Germany.
"Jin, come here for a second."
"Captain?"
Taking advantage of the break, Captain Kehl beckoned to him, and Jin Hayes curiously followed. It turned out to be head coach Klopp looking for him. He was sitting in the shade to cool off, although it wasn't much cooler there. Holding a small handheld fan bought from a local market, Klopp was sweating profusely.
"Jin, what do you think of the training content these past two days?"
"It's a bit messy."
Jin Hayes spoke his mind. "The new players can't get our passing and running routes yet. This requires a certain amount of time to build chemistry; it's hard to see results in the short term."
In the lineup just now, Lewandowski served as the lone striker, with Reus and Jakub Błaszczykowski on the left and right. Behind Jin Hayes were Gündoğan and Kehl. Having lost Şahin, Gündoğan needed to shoulder more responsibilities during the match, which was a huge test for his precise passing and on-field decision-making. Gündoğan was smart, but the specific details of handling the ball still needed improvement. Currently, Gündoğan was not in his best form.
As for Lewandowski, it was simply a lack of chemistry. If Jin Hayes didn't use his passing talent, if he turned off the green arrow effect and played only according to tactical arrangements, it was hard to create threatening links with Lewandowski. If he used passing assistance on the training ground, the training would be meaningless. For the past two days, Jin Hayes had been looking for ways to coordinate with his new teammates.
Moreover, Klopp had formulated two plans. Plan A: Routine scoring scheme, with the midfield trio being Jin Hayes, Kehl, and Gündoğan. Plan B: Hard-fought defensive counter-attack scheme, with the midfield trio being Jin Hayes, Kehl, and Sven Bender. Kehl and Sven Bender were both defensive midfielders, so the heavy responsibility of organizing passes fell entirely on Jin Hayes. This placed higher demands on his passing and coordination with teammates. If the defenders were replaced by Piszczek, and the forwards were replaced by Shinji Kagawa, Barrios, and other new players, the passing was simply a mess.
"Is that so."
Faced with this problem, Klopp had no better solution for the time being. The only way was to tough it out, hoping that enough chemistry would form after long-term cooperation. The prerequisite for cultivating chemistry was first to get familiar with the new players.
After these few days of contact, each of the new players had their own issues.
First was the calculating Shinji Kagawa. Shinji Kagawa was truly like the Japanese stereotype, nodding and bowing, saying "Hai" here and "Hai" there. Surface politeness and etiquette were quite thorough. But it was impossible to have a heart-to-heart talk with him; the Japanese aloofness and indifference were deep in his bones. However, given time, once he got used to his teammates, he should be fine. Kagawa was quite easygoing and very willing to cooperate with teammates. His intuition and footwork were indeed excellent, and sometimes he could pass out some eye-opening routes. If they cooperated, they might be able to pull off some imaginative attacks.
Sven Bender, unlike his twin brother, the "Bayer Leverkusen beauty" and defensive midfielder Lars Bender—the older brother, Lars Bender, was an outgoing person with natural leadership qualities—the younger brother, Sven Bender, was true to his name, gentle and introverted. In Jin Hayes's evaluation, he was an honest kid. Whatever he was told to do, he would do it seriously, but he rarely expressed his own thoughts or opinions. On the field, when coordination was needed, Jin Hayes hoped he would be bolder and take the initiative to express himself, so that teammates could better form chemistry with him.
Barrios, straightforward and enthusiastic, a typical South American. His fiery temper also matched the South American stereotype, charging around on the field. Jin Hayes sometimes hoped he would move back to coordinate, handle the ball more deftly, and not tangle with defensive players. But Barrios, once stubborn, couldn't care about much else; with a hot head, he insisted on fighting for physical position with defenders, causing them to miss good attacking opportunities.
Barrios had average talent but was good at fighting for the ball and finding opportunities, while also possessing enough height and speed, with full impact. He was a substitute for Lewandowski. If he could restrain his fiery temper and be calmer on the field, his achievements might be higher.
Piszczek, the Polish right-back, was probably the teammate with the fewest problems. He quickly integrated with everyone, getting along well with defenders Subotić, Hummels, and Schmelzer, becoming good brothers. Fast, strong ball-handling ability, and a certain level of crossing. Although Piszczek had only joined for a few days, he had gradually replaced the original right-back, Patrick Owomoyela. But he was just a right-back and couldn't help much with the team's overall attack.
The one that gave Jin Hayes the biggest headache was, of course, the key signing, the Polish striker, Lewandowski.
When meeting new teammates, everyone, including Shinji Kagawa, was very polite. Now, no one dared to look down on Jin Hayes because of his age. At 17, he had already become the core of Borussia Dortmund. The coaching staff simply gave Jin Hayes the position of vice-captain, showing how much they valued him. After losing Şahin, there was no one left to threaten Jin Hayes's position; he was the king of the locker room.
However, only Lewandowski seemed to look down on Jin Hayes.
The Polish striker was very polite on the surface and had no dissatisfaction with Jin Hayes, but his actual actions revealed his arrogance and aloofness, as if he disdained to associate with the crowd. Through a few days of observation, Jin Hayes concluded that this guy didn't look down on Borussia Dortmund; otherwise, he wouldn't have given up the Polish Footballer of the Year award, the Polish Golden Boot, and the championship to rush to join Borussia Dortmund. Lewandowski simply looked down on everyone, including world-class superstars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi.
On the field, as long as there was an opportunity he deemed suitable, Lewandowski would choose to shoot directly instead of passing to a teammate. In the short term, Lewandowski was still willing to cooperate with Jin Hayes on the surface. But Jin Hayes knew clearly that there would definitely be problems in the future. And Jin Hayes didn't know how to handle his relationship with Lewandowski either.
Head coach Klopp must have been able to see these problems, which was why he was squatting in the shade, worrying.
"Forget it, I'll just play my own game well; let Klopp worry about the tactical level."
Isn't it just being a ball-hog? Who doesn't know how to do that? At critical moments, Jin Hayes didn't mind dribbling the ball through the defence himself to score.
After a few days of short-term grinding, Jin Hayes was about to face their first opponent of the summer training camp with his new teammates!
Guangzhou Pharmaceutical!
When he accompanied Chen Jianping to watch the game here, he was still attending as a fan. Today, at Tianhe Stadium, the moment Jin Hayes walked out of the player tunnel, he was slightly dazed.
A huge TIFO appeared in the South Stand of Tianhe Stadium! The familiar five-star red flag was waving over the stadium! Below the hand-painted portrait of Jin Hayes were the heavy expectations of his hometown fans for him!
[Chen Tao—The Pride of Asia!]
Jin Hayes stood at the mouth of the tunnel, frozen for a moment. The roar of the crowd washed over him—thousands of voices, all chanting his name. He had played in front of packed stadiums across Europe. He had heard the Westfalenstadion roar, the Camp Nou whistle, the Bernabéu jeer. But this was different. This was home.
The TIFO stretched across the entire South Stand, a massive canvas of yellow and red. His face, painted with painstaking detail, stared back at him. Below it, the words in bold Chinese characters: The Pride of Asia. Next to it, the five-star flag fluttered in the humid Guangzhou breeze.
For a moment, Jin Hayes felt the weight of it all—the expectations, the hopes, the dreams of a nation that had waited decades for a football hero. He had carried that weight before, in quieter moments, in the back of his mind. But seeing it displayed so openly, so passionately, by his own people, was something else entirely.
He thought of the boy who had left this city two years ago, just another face in the crowd. He thought of his parents, watching from the stands somewhere in this very stadium. He thought of Chen Jianping, who had brought him to this ground as a fan, never imagining that one day Jin Hayes would walk out of the tunnel wearing the yellow and black of Borussia Dortmund.