The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

"3-0!"

"The situation is looking very grim for Bayern!"

...

The first half ended 3-0!

Bayern was completely dominated.

"Did you hear that?"

In the locker room, Klopp pointed toward the pitch outside and asked his players.

"The once-invincible Allianz Arena is now dead silent!"

"We’ve completely flattened them!"

"The record they were so proud of—broken by our Wang Shuo!"

"Today, right here, at the Allianz Arena, right on Bayern’s home turf, we’ve completely and utterly shattered the ceiling they were so proud of!"

By the end, Klopp was practically roaring.

"40 years! A full 40 years!"

"Hennes was absolutely right. This is a record, but it’s more than just a record!"

At this, Klopp walked over to Wang Shuo, pulled him to his feet, and wrapped his star player in a fierce hug.

"Wang, from now on, you ARE the ceiling of the Bundesliga!"

"You are the pride of Dortmund!"

"From now on, we’re going to keep Bayern crushed under our feet!"

"Not just in today’s match, but in the DFB-Pokal semifinal in three days’ time!"

"We’re going to shatter every last bit of pride that once belonged to Bayern!"

"From this day forward, we, Dortmund, are the new leaders of the Bundesliga!"

Klopp’s speech was incredibly rousing.

Wang Shuo and his teammates roared in response, all jumping to their feet and crowding tightly around their manager.

After the second half began, Bayern attempted a comeback.

But Dortmund’s defense held strong, repelling Bayern’s attacks.

In the 55th minute, Bayern managed to create an opportunity from a corner kick. Ribery sent the ball into the box, causing a scramble.

After the ball was cleared, Robben collected it on the right wing, cut inside, and fired a shot into the net.

1-3!

But just four minutes later, from another corner, Hummels headed one in, scoring against his old club.

The final score was locked in at 4-1!

Thanks to a hat-trick from Wang Shuo, Dortmund defeated Bayern 4-1 in an away match!

...

The match was over.

The fans at Allianz Arena had also filed out.

Even though the DFB-Pokal semifinal was in three days and would also be held at Allianz Arena, the Dortmund team headed home first. They would prepare there before traveling south again for the match.

As Allianz Arena sank into silence, the bars in downtown Munich were, by contrast, growing ever more raucous.

Having lost the match, Bayern fans poured into the bars, coming either straight from Allianz Arena or from their homes.

The TVs in the bars were still replaying the match highlights.

The broadcast was focused heavily on Wang Shuo.

Every time he touched the ball, he posed a threat.

The air in the bar was thick with the rich smell of German dark beer.

They downed one beer after another, endlessly cursing Van Gaal.

That damn Dutchman has been unreliable from the start!

"I don’t know what Hennes and Rummenigge were thinking, choosing to trust him!"

"Tell me about it. We’re so far behind in the Bundesliga it’s a new record. If we lose the DFB-Pokal semifinal too, then all we’ll have left this season is the Champions League!"

"And we might not even beat Inter Milan in the Champions League!"

"I think Hennes was right. We’ve been making mistakes constantly for the past two or three years."

"We should have hired Klopp as our manager instead of Klinsmann. And when we were buying a striker back in ’09, we should have gone for Wang Shuo, not Gomez."

"What’s the use of talking about it now? They’re both at Dortmund!"

"Do you think we could buy Wang Shuo? Bring Klopp over? Just like when we poached Heynckes back in the day."

"No way. Klopp has already made it clear he’ll never manage Bayern."

"Wang Shuo will probably want to go to the Premier League. There’s nothing left for him to challenge in the Bundesliga."

"Dortmund hit the jackpot."

"When you get down to it, it’s just that Van Gaal is useless. Our squad is definitely stronger than Dortmund’s. The only difference is Wang Shuo, and yet every game ends up like this."

"Exactly. Look at their Champions League match against AC Milan. Dortmund couldn’t do much of anything then."

"Sigh... It’s too late for all this. Even Gerd Müller’s record is broken. What do we even have left?"

At the mention of this, a silence fell over the bar.

Gerd Müller was like a totem.

Not many people mentioned him on a daily basis, but everyone remembered him in their hearts.

It was a feeling that outsiders could never understand.

The history of the Bundesliga began in ’63.

When the German Football Association formed the Bundesliga, they required that only one team from each city could participate. At the time, Munich 1860’s record was much better than Bayern’s—they had just won a championship—so Bayern was forced to play in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Back then, the 2nd Bundesliga was divided into five independent divisions.

Bayern back then was far from the glorious powerhouse it is today.

In their first season in the 2nd Bundesliga, they didn’t even earn a promotion.

It wasn’t until ’64 that Gerd Müller transferred to Bayern from his hometown team.

What many people didn’t know was that Müller hadn’t actually wanted to come to Bayern; he’d wanted to go to Nuremberg, who were in the Bundesliga.

But Nuremberg didn’t rate him, thinking he was too short. That was how he ended up at Bayern in the 2nd Bundesliga.

That same summer, a young Beckenbauer was promoted from the U19s to the first team.

That season, led by Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller, Bayern blazed a trail through the league, earning a historic promotion into the Bundesliga.