Beep—
The world spun, Chen Tao lay on the grass, looking up at the layered clouds over Borussia Dortmund, stained red by the setting sun.
Honestly, this scene should be photographed; it's truly beautiful.
"Chen! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"You motherfucker! Are you looking for trouble?"
"He's faking it, diving! Diving!"
"Go to hell!"
"That's enough! Do you want a card?"
The chaotic footsteps and noisy disputes around him ruined the harmonious composition in the sky.
Nuri Şahin reached out with a mocking expression.
Chen Tao wasn't in the mood to appreciate the sky; he grabbed his hand and stood up.
"You got taken down again, you noob."
"Get lost! This proves I'm the team's core; you're just my assistant."
"Damn it!"
Nuri Şahin cursed under his breath while secretly sighing in relief.
It seemed Chen Tao was fine. The opponent's midfielder, Fabian Ernst, had made a fierce tackle just now, taking down Chen Tao in a way that made people's hearts pound.
The referee, Wolfgang Stark, was inwardly complaining bitterly, trying his best to control the situation on the field.
The game had barely started for 4 minutes, and players were already falling all over the place. He couldn't turn into a card master just yet, so he could only sternly warn both teams' players.
"Are you alright, young man?"
After breaking up the dispute, the head referee thoughtfully asked Chen Tao in English.
The tall, thin Asian man didn't seem to have much advantage against the strong German midfielder.
He didn't want the young, technical player to suffer a setback.
In recent years, European football has been consciously protecting technical players, making the game more artistic rather than a brawl between muscular strongmen.
"Thank you, I'm fine."
Chen Tao politely replied in standard German.
If there was one thing Chen Tao felt had grown the fastest in his months in Borussia Dortmund, it wasn't football, but his German language skills.
Currently, he was almost as fluent as in his native language, much more proficient than in English.
Sometimes, German words would subconsciously pop into his head, and translating them back into Chinese would make him stumble.
He heard all the accusations and complaints from the Schalke 04 players.
He had only jumped to protect himself and avoid the tackle, but he was slandered as faking a fall.
Facing the ill-tempered Schalke 04 players, Chen Tao retorted without showing weakness:
"This is a football field, not a UFC octagon! If you can't compete with skill, do you just want to fight? Useless!"
"Damn it!!"
Fabian Ernst angrily stepped forward to argue, but Schalke 04 captain Marcelo Bordon quickly pulled him back.
"Don't be impulsive! You can't get a card!"
The Ruhr Derby lived up to its name.
From the start of the match, both sides were full of hostility, perfectly embodying "on a war footing."
Marcelo Bordon looked at Chen Tao warily, his eyes showing deep apprehension.
When they saw Dortmund's starting lineup before the match, they couldn't believe it.
Borussia Dortmund truly had guts, actually starting two kids under 20! One of them was only 15 and Asian!
In the locker room, they had mocked that Borussia Dortmund had no heroes and was starting mere youths.
Within 4 minutes of the match's start,
Chen Tao had almost taught Schalke 04 a lesson with his skill on the right wing!
"Thankfully, Chen Tao is not injured. Let's look at the excellent performance at the start of the match again through the slow-motion replay."
The commentator from German TV Channel 2, Sauer, sounded very excited:
"Look at this ball. Nuri Şahin's pass was too strong, almost going out of bounds."
"Chen's first touch this time was simply a stroke of genius, easily getting past the defender! So brilliant!"
On screen, Chen Tao lightly touched the ball with the outside of his foot just before it went out of bounds, making the ball loop over the defender's head, while Chen Tao easily broke through by overtaking from out of bounds!
Schalke 04's left winger, Georgian international Levan, looked up for a long time.
Where's the ball?
Then he turned his head again. Where's the person?
The person had already carried the ball to the edge of the penalty area, the yellow and black number 24 on his back seemingly mocking him.
"Chen's sudden cut inside at the edge of the box disrupted Schalke's setup. He continuously faked shots and made real turns, faking two players, then suddenly accelerated into the penalty area."
"If the pass hadn't been blocked by a stretched leg, Alexander Frei, who was rushing in at the far post, would have had an open goal."
"In less than 4 minutes of the match, Chen Tao has already completed two similar breakthroughs on the wing!"
"As the youngest starting player in Bundesliga history, his performance is simply too active!"
"No wonder Schalke 04 frequently fouls Chen; perhaps only fouls can stop him."
...
Chen Tao did feel immense pressure.
Before, he had always come on as a substitute, carefully observing for 60 minutes from the bench, knowing the opponent's players' characteristics inside out.
Today was his first time playing against Schalke 04. Before the match, the coaching staff had analyzed each opponent's characteristics and small habits.
However, there was a huge difference between pre-match analysis and actual combat.
Coupled with the intensity of the Ruhr Derby, this match was even tougher than he had anticipated.
The match had only been going on for 15 minutes, and his breathing became heavy, his legs increasingly tired.
But the tougher the match, the more it ignited Chen Tao's fighting spirit!
Every time he got the ball, he was immediately double-teamed by at least two players. The opponents loved physical confrontation.
They like confrontation, do they?
After this period of observation, Chen Tao had already initially grasped his opponents' small habits.
He decisively raised his hand to demand the ball, ready to open a gap on the wing!
"Borussia Dortmund's attack, once again going down the wing, Chen receives the ball... temporarily unable to turn."
Levan was behind him, and Schalke 04's defensive midfielder, Fabian Ernst, burst out from the side, intending to use his body to collide and win the ball, trying the same trick again.
Facing the two aggressive players,
Chen Tao calmly dribbled the ball one step back, feigning a pass back to the defender.
Fabian Ernst was just about to change direction to defend from the front, lowering his shoulder to collide,
But he saw Chen Tao lightly tap the ball with his heel to change direction, nutmegging Levan while also dodging Fabian Ernst's interception, breaking through the two-man encirclement in an instant!
"Beautiful! A Cruyff turn on the sideline! Another magnificent display from Chen!"
Accompanied by the cheers from the crowd, Chen Tao accelerated with a burst of pace along the sideline, instantly creating space!
"Damn it!!"
Fabian Ernst was tricked by Chen Tao again. He had used too much force earlier and, under inertia, ran out of bounds, allowing the Asian player to easily break through.
Left-back Pandèr frantically blocked Chen Tao's path.
During this time, he couldn't defend 1v1 at all, repeatedly becoming the weak point.
Seeing the Asian player charging aggressively, Pandèr's gaze was fixed on the ball at his feet.
Chen Tao, with a playful smile, started doing step-overs, his dazzling footwork disrupting the opponent's judgment...
"Now!"
The moment Pandèr couldn't help but stick out his foot, Chen Tao moved first, dropping his shoulder to the left and suddenly pushing the ball to the right to break through.
The poor left-back couldn't stop his momentum, and his legs split apart as Chen Tao feinted him to the ground!
"OHHHHH——"
Similar scenes have appeared in Chen Tao's highlights more than once!
Borussia Dortmund fans cheered wildly!
The moment he feinted past the left-back and entered the penalty area, a familiar warm current surged into his right foot.
"Here it comes!! A perfectly weighted pass!"
Facing the German international, Schalke center-back Westermann's covering defense.
Chen Tao, without any observation whatsoever, suddenly shifted his body and made a bizarre back-heel pass, a reverse triangle!
"What??"
Westermann had no idea such a pass was possible?
Do you have eyes in the back of your head?
The sudden pass broke the balance in the penalty area, while the Schalke 04 defenders were momentarily stunned.
A figure dashed in from outside the penalty area at high speed, striking the ball as it came!
"Reverse triangle!! Beautiful!!"
"Nuri Şahin!!!!!"
"In the 16th minute of the match, Borussia Dortmund scores first!"
"Chen fully demonstrated his characteristic as a green-field magician, simply unpredictable! One person completely disrupted Schalke 04's wing!"
"Borussia Dortmund's young twin stars showed perfect chemistry, the reverse triangle pass was simply a stroke of genius! How did he even see it?"
At this moment, the city of Borussia Dortmund experienced a strong tremor!
The entire Westfalen Stadium was like a volcano, with yellow and black lava gushing out!
"That's it!! Kill them!!"
"Beautiful!! Chen!! Nuri Şahin!!"
"Crush these coal dusts!!"
In the boiling stadium, Nuri Şahin, after scoring, ran frantically to celebrate with Chen Tao.
"Great pass!! How did you think of that?"
"I told you, I am God."
"No problem! You are!!"
Nuri Şahin was extremely excited; whatever Chen Tao said, he agreed.
"Come on, let's celebrate together."
The frenzied Nuri Şahin snatched a monocular camera from a sideline reporter and pulled Chen Tao over for a selfie.
"Wait! Add me!"
Hummels practically sprinted over from the backfield, squeezing half his head into the frame.
"Smile! Cheese!!"
Click!
In the spring of 2008, another classic photo was added to the football world.
In the picture, Nuri Şahin, Chen Tao, and Hummels, three youths under 20, squeezed together, full of youthful vigor!
They didn't know that at this moment, in a corner of the front row of the stands,
The slender blonde teenager, Marco Reus, quietly watched them amidst the excited crowd,
His eyes full of envy.