The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills

"It’s nothing serious." Shahin forced a smile.

But Dr. Marcus Braun’s expression was clearly not good.

"It might be the ligaments."

When Wang Shuo heard this, his heart sank.

’Ligaments?’

’This is a huge problem!’

Especially since he was carried off on a stretcher. It had to be serious.

’Who would have thought? Just a moment ago, there were rumors about Shahin transferring to Real Madrid.’

And now, injury had come knocking.

Getting injured is often closely related to a player’s own mentality and condition.

Sometimes, the harder a player tries to perform well, the more susceptible they are to injury.

And every time he saw someone get injured, Wang Shuo would count himself lucky.

"Wang."

After seeing Shahin into the players’ tunnel, Klopp walked over to Wang Shuo.

An ambulance was always on standby outside for every match. They would immediately take Shahin to the designated hospital for a detailed examination.

"Get ready. I might need you in the second half."

Seeing Klopp’s grave expression and glancing at the more than 80,000 fans in the surrounding stands, Wang Shuo immediately nodded.

"Don’t worry, I understand."

No fan is happy to buy a ticket just to watch their team lose or draw.

If it was unavoidable, that would be understandable.

But Dortmund had no match scheduled for the following Wednesday.

Therefore, it was only natural for them to push for a win in this home game.

In the end, Klopp substituted Foyelner for Shahin, pairing him with Gundogan.

In the subsequent minutes of the match, Freiburg continued to sit deep, focusing primarily on defense and counter-attacks.

Although Dortmund dominated possession, they struggled to break the deadlock.

After play resumed for the second half, the situation still hadn’t improved.

Klopp finally made his second substitution of the match in the 60th minute.

Number 9 replacing number 32!

The entire stadium erupted in a roaring cheer.

The South Stand, in particular, was ecstatic, singing and dancing.

"All you fans in Westfalen Stadium, let’s give our warmest round of applause to welcome our number 9, Wang Shuo!"

The whole stadium went wild with cheers and screams!

"A little louder, how about it?"

"Dortmund fans, do you want a goal or not?"

"YES!"

"Louder! Answer me, do you want to see a goal?"

"YES!!"

"With all your might, tell our number 9, do you want a goal?"

"YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!"

Freiburg’s head coach, Robin Dute, stood in front of the away team’s dugout, watching Wang Shuo come onto the pitch. The scene was incomprehensible to him.

’Have the Dortmund fans gone insane?’

He wanted to say, ’Just because Wang Shuo is coming on as a sub, does that guarantee he’ll be able to score against Freiburg?’

But in the end, he held his tongue. He walked briskly to the sideline, yelling at his players and reminding them to be careful.

"Mark Wang Shuo! Stick to him tightly!"

Dute even pointed directly at Wang Shuo as he walked onto the pitch, shouting loudly in German.

Wang Shuo heard him.

Everyone heard him.

But so what?

Dute couldn’t care less.

’If we don’t mark Wang Shuo tightly, can we really expect to get away unscathed?’

’What Bundesliga team doesn’t do this?’

The Freiburg players also looked as if they were facing a great enemy, especially the captain and center-back, Oliver Bart, who seemed particularly tense.

However, when facing his surrounding teammates, Bart cracked a grin.

"Relax, it’s alright. It’s just Wang Shuo, right?"

"Dortmund’s running out of stamina in this second half."

Up to this point in the game, under Bart’s organization, Freiburg’s defense had been well-ordered and, despite a few scares, had held firm.

But soon, he wouldn’t be smiling anymore.

...

Last summer, Dortmund had scouted Gundogan specifically as a player in the mold of Shahin.

Both were of Turkish descent, and their technical characteristics were very similar.

But in reality, as his teammates, Wang Shuo and the others knew they weren’t the same at all.

For example, Shahin’s forward Passing ability was better than Gundogan’s, and he was more willing to take risks.

Therefore, his ability to create chances was also stronger.

But more through balls meant more mistakes.

Shahin’s pass completion rate was only 76%, while Gundogan’s was 85%.

And for through balls, Shahin’s success rate was less than 40%, whereas Gundogan’s was close to 90%.

As for long balls, Gundogan’s ability was much stronger than Shahin’s, with a success rate as high as 80%, far surpassing Shahin’s 60%.

In terms of dribbling and shaking off defenders, Gundogan was also superior to Shahin.

Some might ask, if Gundogan seems stronger than Shahin, why was Shahin the starter?

The reason was simple: Shahin was better defensively and had a stronger ability to make late runs into the box.

To put it simply, Shahin was more of an all-around midfielder with outstanding Passing who could shoulder playmaking duties, while Gundogan was more of a technically refined midfield orchestrator.

Just like what happened in the 68th minute of the second half.

Gundogan received the ball about 30 meters from goal.

If Shahin had been directing the midfield, he certainly would have distributed the ball to the wing for an advance down the flank.

But Gundogan?

He hit a direct diagonal long ball, sending it into open space on the front left flank.

Schmelzer made a high-speed overlapping run down the left, caught up to Gundogan’s pass just outside the left of the penalty area, broke through to near the byline, and cut into the box.

Before making his run, Wang Shuo first took two steps back, then suddenly made a diagonal dart toward the near post.

Schmelzer’s cross from near the byline went straight to the near post, right in front of the six-yard box.

Sandwiched between two center-backs, Wang Shuo had no angle for a shot. But in a flash of inspiration, he used his right heel to deftly flick the ball between his own legs.