Champion’s Heart

U17s manager Ecker is re-watching replays of the youth team match between Borussia Dortmund and Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Zhou Yi's performance was perfect, except for no goals.

But having said that, with such a performance, does he still care about one or two goals?

Zhou Yi is positioned as a midfield organizer, passing the ball is his job, scoring goals?

That's not in his ability assessment project.

However, Zhou Yi's performance was so good, which did not surprise Eckel too much.

Because he had watched Zhou Yi's performance in the game, that is, the match between the Chinese teenagers and the Dortmund youth team. Zhou Yi's series of performances after his debut left a deep impression on him.

So when he learned that Klopp went to Barcelona himself to sign the kid, he was not surprised at all.

He was even happy that Dortmund finally signed Zhou Yi.

This warm-up match only proved that Zhou Yi's physical fitness can play for the Dortmund U17 youth team.

The person who really surprised Eckel was not Zhou Yi, but...Mark Wagner.

This person who was always a substitute in the youth team and couldn't even make it to the roster, unexpectedly scored a hat-trick in the game.

Some people say that goals are not the only criterion for measuring a player's performance.

But for forwards, especially center forwards, goals are the only criterion for measuring them.

A striker who can't score goals may be excellent in other aspects, and everyone will still feel that this striker is a bit uninteresting.

But a striker, even if his performance in other aspects is average, but he can score goals, then everyone will think he is an excellent striker.

For a long time, in the youth team, Eckel did not feel that this Mark Wagner had any qualities to be an excellent striker.

His physical fitness is not good enough, and his personal ability is not outstanding.

If you must find an advantage, it may be comprehensive.

It looks like it can do anything.

But it's really just mediocre across the board.

Eckel has always been pessimistic about the future of Mark Wagner. He believes that this kid will definitely not be able to enter the Dortmund first team, and it is impossible to get a professional contract in the Dortmund club.

His best outcome is to change teams and see if he can play in the second division.

Anyway, his future will not belong to Dortmund.

But after this game, Eckel sees things differently.

If this is not the performance of Mark's accidental luck, then...Eckel will re-evaluate Mark's future.

As long as Mark can continue this performance and continue to play, it is still too early for the first team, but at least he should be able to enter the U19.

Perhaps the biggest discovery of the game was Mark Wagner.

So why did Mark behave like this?

Eckel didn't find it difficult to guess, it was simply because of Zhouyi.

Zhou Yi lives in Mark's house, and the tacit understanding between the two is guaranteed.

In the game, in addition to three assists, Zhou Yi also sent Mark several passes.

He passes the ball far more to Mark than he passes to any of his teammates.

This conscious cooperation made Eckel think of more things.

He began to think, can this combination be fixed in the team?

Since Zhou Yi and Mark cooperate more tacitly, why not make them a pair?

※※※

During the team's offensive training, Mark Wagner was placed in a group with Zhou Yi.

At the beginning, no one took this move seriously, and they didn't think there was anything to care about the coach's arrangement.

But after every offensive training, Mark and Zhou Yi were put in a group, and everyone finally recalled it—the coach deliberately arranged this to take advantage of the tacit understanding between Zhou Yi and Mark.

However, no one has any objection to the coach's arrangement.

Everyone saw Mark's performance in the last game. Being able to perform a hat-trick shows that he is in good condition, and it is normal for him to be valued by the coach.

This arrangement is also a great encouragement and affirmation for Mark, which makes Mark full of confidence in the next training. Recognition from the coach is even more positive for him than scoring a hat-trick in the game.

In the following warm-up matches, Mark also played a very important role in the team.

Sometimes as a starter, sometimes as a substitute. Because it is a warm-up match, the significance of starting as a substitute is not important.

The key is the performance in the game.

Eckel also tested it, separating Zhou Yi from Mark, and found that Mark behaved completely differently with Zhou Yi and without Zhou Yi.

When Zhou Yi was present at the same time, he was like a fish in water.

But when Zhou Yi was not on the court, he seemed very helpless.

But is it Mark's problem?

After careful observation, Eckel came to the conclusion that this is the problem of other Dortmund players.

After these warm-up matches, Eckel found that Mark is actually a striker who is very good at finding space. He is not strong enough and his speed is not good enough. Catch the ball in the open.

If he can't do that, it's going to be hard for him to score goals.

For Mark, looking for space near the penalty area is almost instinctive.

When Zhou Yi was on the court, Mark found the space, Zhou Yi also found the space, passed the football, and Mark could create a chance to shoot.

But if Zhou Yi is not there, even if Mark finds a space, his teammates may not be able to send the football over in time. It's not that the other Dortmund players can't find space or pass to the space, but that in this respect, Zhou Yi's movements are faster than them.

This is called reading the game one to two seconds faster than the average player.

In this regard, Zidane is an expert. He once said that in fact, he is only one to two seconds shorter than others in reading the game.

But it is just one to two seconds that determines whether a player is an ordinary role player or a world-class master.

Since Zhou Yi and Mark cooperate better than other teammates, then why break them up?

Maybe a pair of golden partners for Dortmund U17 can be created?

※※※

The winter break of the Bundesliga is over, but the youth league has not yet started.

Because there are fewer participating teams in the youth team league.

The latest youth team game will have to wait until the end of February.

German football has a complete youth team league, both U17 and U19.

And it's national.

But there was no such statement before 2002. In 2002, in order to increase the intensity of training young players, the German Football Association decided to establish a national youth football league.

The league is divided into three divisions in the northeast, west and south according to the geographical location of each region.

Dortmund U17 is in the Western Division and is currently ranked fifth. The results are not very good, but they are not bad. At the best time, they rushed to the second place in the league, second only to their deadly rival Schalke 04U17 team.

Later, after Gotze, Schneider and others were transferred to the first team and U19, the team's performance began to decline, with ups and downs.

By the time of the winter break, it was ranked fifth.

Schalke 04U17 ranked first.

There are a total of 14 teams participating in the Western Division, basically youth teams from various professional clubs participating.

Compared with the adult team competition, the youth team competition is less formal and relatively more casual.

For example, you can often see a strange face in a game, and the next time you play against each other, this person is gone. He may have been temporarily transferred from the low-level youth team, and then returned after playing this game.

There is also a player who always performed in the U17 level team. He is valued by the U19 or U23, or even the first team. I can't see it anymore.

This is the case with Gotze, for example.

Although he is not very old, he is only sixteen years old, but it is very difficult for him to improve his strength at the U17 level. At this time, it is normal to go to a higher-level team to challenge a more difficult opponent.

On days when there is no official game, the youth team mainly relies on warm-up matches and friendly matches with various youth teams to maintain the state of the game.

In these games, Mark has stabilized the starting position with his excellent performance.

After completing the hat-trick for the first time in five games, Mark completed the hat-trick again. Of course, these three goals were also assisted by Zhou Yi.

When the last warm-up match was over, Mark handed in a report card that caught everyone's attention—he scored 18 goals in seven warm-up matches, which was the most in the team during this period. top scorer.

In Mark, everyone seems to have seen the story of the ugly duckling turns into a swan.

Before the winter break, he was still a ten-thousand-year substitute who couldn't even make the roster for the game. Unexpectedly, he has become the most offensive firepower the team relies on now.

Many people couldn't understand why Mark had undergone such a huge change at first. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as shaking.

It was only later that they realized that it was all because of Zhou Yi.

Before Zhou Yi came to the team, Mark was a useless and mediocre player. Although he was able to rise from U9 to U17 in Dortmund, U17 was the peak he could do his best to reach.

It is impossible to go any further.

No one is optimistic about Mark's future prospects.

But when Zhou Yi came to the team, finally someone was able to discover the shining point hidden in Mark and stimulate it.

Mark was born again.

If the Dortmund youth team does not have Zhou Yi, Mark will continue to sink like this until he finally leaves the team.

At that time, no one will know that they missed a qualified professional player.

This is the risk in football. Maybe there are many young people who leave football for various reasons, not because they are not capable enough, but because they lack a suitable person who can inspire them.

Compared with them, Mark is undoubtedly lucky.