The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills-Chapter 205 - 59: Mr. Clutch! A Historic Final! Mainz’s Big Trouble! What a Bountiful Season

Chapter 205: Chapter 59: Mr. Clutch! A Historic Final! Mainz’s Big Trouble! What a Bountiful Season

But Mainz mostly employed a suffocating press in the area between the penalty box and the 30-meter line.

This was because Wang Shuo needed some space to be a threat.

Klopp’s tactic paid off wonderfully in just the 9th minute.

After a back-and-forth struggle for possession on Mainz’s left flank, Foyelner seized an opportunity.

The German striker sent a chipped pass over the top with his right foot, landing the ball directly behind Hamburg’s defensive line near the penalty spot.

Wang Shuo, lurking on the edge of the box, suddenly shook off Demel and charged forward. He burst past the penalty spot and, before the ball could land, beat Dutch center-back Mathijsen to it. Twisting his body, he unleashed a furious volley with his right foot.

The shot was like a thunderbolt, blasting past Rost at incredible speed and finding the right side of Hamburg’s net.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!"

"Just nine minutes into the game, Wang Shuo opens the scoring for Mainz!"

An ecstatic Wang Shuo sprinted across the pitch of the People’s Park Stadium, celebrating his goal relentlessly.

At that moment, countless people were hoping that Mainz could build on their momentum and press their advantage.

But to everyone’s surprise, after that initial attacking blitz, Klopp’s team completely changed their style, switching to a defensive counter-attacking strategy.

They were sitting back!

That’s right, you’re not seeing things. They were really sitting back!

This left even Martin Jol in disbelief.

’Is this still the Klopp everyone knows?’

But things were just that strange.

The embarrassing part for Hamburg was that even after their opponent scored on a sucker punch and then fell back with their entire team, the "Northern King" still couldn’t find a breakthrough.

They barely even managed to create any threatening attacks.

Not only were Guerrero and Olic unable to pose a threat, but during halftime, Martin Jol brought on Polish midfielder Trochowski for defender Atuba to further strengthen the attack.

But it was still to no avail.

Hamburg subsequently made a series of substitutions to further bolster their offense.

By the 70th minute, Martin Jol had already used all three of his substitutions.

By now, Hamburg had even switched to a three-man backline, with every other player throwing themselves into the attack.

But even so, they were still unable to effectively break down Mainz’s defensive formation.

This proved that Klopp, with his background as a defender, wasn’t incapable of setting up a defense.

He simply preferred not to.

In the end, Mainz defeated Hamburg 1-0 away from home.

After the match, nearly every German media outlet analyzed that Klopp had used this game to test tactics for the upcoming DFB-Pokal final, using the "Northern King’s" offensive prowess to test his own team’s ability to absorb pressure.

After all, in the DFB-Pokal semi-finals, Hamburg had been evenly matched with Bayern.

However, in another match, Bayern was also testing out its formation.

As a result, Klinsmann’s team was held to a 2-2 draw away at Hoffenheim.

All four goals were scored in the first half.

In the second half, when Bayern started to ramp up the pressure, they just couldn’t break through Hoffenheim’s defense.

In this round, VfL Wolfsburg, thanks to a hat-trick from Dzeko and a brace from Griffith, thrashed Hannover 96 5-0 away from home.

...

On May 23rd, the final matchday of the Bundesliga, all nine matches kicked off simultaneously.

Mainz hosted Bochum, who had already secured their survival in the league.

Klopp’s team once again went for an opening blitz.

Just eight minutes in, Wang Shuo opened the scoring against Bochum.

In the 24th minute, Wang Shuo provided an assist for Hainauer to score another.

In less than half an hour, Mainz was leading by two goals and had essentially secured the victory.

The rest of the game descended into garbage time.

Mainz needed to save their energy for the DFB-Pokal final a week later.

And Bochum had no reason to keep fighting tooth and nail against Mainz.

Bayern scraped by with a nail-biting win against Stuttgart at the Allianz Arena.

In the end, thanks to an own goal by Bolaruoz and a goal from Van Bommel, they narrowly defeated Stuttgart 2-1.

VfL Wolfsburg, with a brace from Griffith, thrashed Werder Bremen 5-1 at home.

With that, all 34 matchdays of the Bundesliga season had concluded.

Magat’s VfL Wolfsburg ultimately won this season’s Bundesliga title with 69 points.

Bayern, meanwhile, finished second in the Bundesliga with 67 points.

Mainz, with 19 wins, 7 draws, and 8 losses, earned 64 points, placing them third in the Bundesliga.

Although they finished behind VfL Wolfsburg and Bayern, this was still Mainz’s highest-ever finish in the league.

Most importantly, Mainz secured a spot in next season’s Champions League.

They would, however, have to go through the preliminary qualifying rounds.

Following the top three, Stuttgart finished 4th, Hertha Berlin 5th, and Dortmund 6th.

Further down were Hamburg, Hoffenheim, Schalke 04, and Bayer Leverkusen.

Wang Shuo finished as the Bundesliga’s top scorer with 29 goals.

He also tallied 13 assists, placing him third on the Bundesliga’s assist chart, behind only Misimovic of VfL Wolfsburg and Mesut of Werder Bremen.

Behind Wang Shuo on the top scorer’s chart were two of VfL Wolfsburg’s center-forwards.

Thanks to a god-like scoring spree in the final few rounds, Griffith finished in 2nd place with 28 goals, and Dzeko in 3rd with 26.

With that, the dust had settled on the Bundesliga season.

All that remained was for Mainz and Bayern to begin their final preparations for the DFB-Pokal final.

For Wang Shuo, it had been an incredibly fruitful season!

The moment the league season was over, he began to assess the fruits of his labor from the past half-season and initiated a round of upgrades, all to ensure he would be in peak condition for the DFB-Pokal final!