The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 158 - 53: Top Scorer! Massive Reward! A Miracle! Wang Shuo’s Underestimated Potential (Part 2)

Chapter 158: Chapter 53: Top Scorer! Massive Reward! A Miracle! Wang Shuo’s Underestimated Potential (Part 2)

All the photos featured Wang Shuo on the pitch.

A few of them were clearly taken at very close range, as if you could reach out and touch him.

But Wang Shuo obviously hadn’t noticed.

Only the space below the 8th ticket stub was blank, without a photo.

Below it was written a line of elegant, small script: DFB-Pokal Second Round, Mainz at home against Cologne.

The girl flipped through the scrapbook page by page, caressing each photo, ticket stub, and plane ticket as if they were beautiful memories, until she reached the most recent page.

She took out the 19th ticket stub and plane ticket from her backpack.

Bundesliga Matchday 17, Bochum at home against Mainz.

The plane ticket was from London, United Kingdom, to Düsseldorf, Germany.

The name on it was: Shen Qinghe.

...

The news of Mainz becoming the Bundesliga Winter Champions spread like wildfire!

For a newly promoted team to surpass traditional powerhouses like Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, and Dortmund to become the Bundesliga Winter Champions was an unbelievable feat in any league.

Germany’s Kicker Magazine wrote an article titled "The Commoners’ Uprising."

In this article, Kicker Magazine argued that Mainz was not a particularly strong team.

But why were they able to become the Winter Champions?

This was something all the Bundesliga giants, including Bayern, Dortmund, and Pharmacy, needed to reflect on.

"Before the season began, everyone had listed Mainz as the top favorite for relegation."

"No star players, no national team players, no new signings, and even... no money."

Yet it was this have-not team that, relying on sheer, stubborn tenacity, defeated one opponent after another to become the Winter Champions.

Kicker Magazine believed that Klopp’s team still had all sorts of problems.

For example, after October, their form clearly took a big dip, which was an old problem for Klopp.

Injuries also started to pile up.

The squad was thin, and they were overly reliant on Wang Shuo for goals...

But this team ultimately became the Winter Champions!

This was an iron-clad fact!

"Remember, before Matchday 4 of the Bundesliga, when Mainz played Bayern, some media outlet said that a single star player from Bayern was worth the entire Mainz team. And that was indeed the case!"

"In that match, Bayern stormed to a three-goal lead."

"But did they crush Mainz?"

"The answer is, no!"

"On the contrary, Mainz, led by Wang Shuo, broke through Bayern’s defense with a brilliant long-distance solo run, launching a counter-attack that left Bayern completely flustered."

"Other than winning on the scoreboard, Bayern lost everything else."

Kicker Magazine believed that this commoners’ uprising was more of a wake-up call for Bayern.

The strength of the Bundesliga’s reigning champions was beyond doubt, but the problem was the severe internal strife within their team.

Klinsmann had consistently failed to unite the locker room or manage the relationship with the board, preventing Bayern from unleashing their full combat power on the pitch.

"This is just the beginning!"

Kicker Magazine warned.

"Don’t forget, Hoffenheim also secured 4th place, and this newly promoted team is just as ambitious!"

...

Bild, on the other hand, explained the first half of the Bundesliga season from a different angle.

Disruption!

The best-performing teams in the first half of the Bundesliga season almost all had a "disruptor" figure behind them.

Klopp of Mainz, Rangnick of Hoffenheim, Labbadia of Bayer Leverkusen, and Klinsmann of Bayern. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Among these four, the oldest, Rangnick, was only 50 years old.

But the Hoffenheim he coached was the youngest team in the entire Bundesliga.

The four young coaches brought a brand new way of thinking about attacking football.

Most importantly, they were all native German coaches.

In contrast, foreign coaches were all struggling in the new Bundesliga season.

"This is the most beautiful half of a season in the history of Germany!" Bild lauded.

It gave its reasons: two newly promoted dark horses ran wild, the league’s dominant giant started low but rose high, attacking football was all the rage, and the competition was fiercer than ever before.

Bild believed that this season’s Bundesliga was completely different from those of the past.

Look no further than last season.

Heynckes had built a super defense for Bayern, winning the league title.

Stevens brought his defensive philosophy from Schalke 04 to Hamburg, which almost got the Northern King into the Champions League spots.

Magat had declared at VfL Wolfsburg: "Only defense can win a championship!"

But what about now?

Wolfsburg’s improved results stemmed from Magat starting to unleash the attacking power of the trident of Misimovic, Griffith, and Dzeko.

Hoffenheim’s Demba Ba, Ibisevic, and Obasi were arguably the most fearsome trident in the Bundesliga’s first half.

Klinsmann’s Bayern was also renowned for its offensive firepower.

Mainz?

This team was no believer in conservative play, either.

Klopp still adhered to his old philosophy of high pressing and fast attacks.

Mainz was one of the most passionate teams on the pitch in the first half of the Bundesliga season.

There was also one astonishing statistic in which the Bundesliga outshone the entire European Football Scene.

An average of 3.02 goals per match, the most since 1988.

Over 60% of matches had three or more goals.

34.64% of matches had four or more goals.

18.3% of matches had five or more goals.

This was something no other league in Europe could achieve.

Attacking football had taken the entire Bundesliga by storm!