Chapter 17 A Golden Combination

U17 head coach Eckel was reviewing the recording of the youth team match between Dortmund and Düsseldorf.

Zhou Yi's performance was perfect, except for the lack of a goal.

But then again, with a performance like that, did he even care about a goal or two?

Zhou Yi's role was as a midfield orchestrator. Passing and organizing was his job. Scoring?

That wasn't part of his performance assessment.

However, Zhou Yi's excellent performance didn't surprise Eckel too much.

Because he had seen Zhou Yi play before, in that game between the Chinese youth team and Dortmund's youth team. Zhou Yi's performance after starting in that match had left a deep impression on him.

So when he learned that Klopp had personally gone to Barcelona to sign this kid, he wasn't surprised at all.

He was even happy that Dortmund had ultimately signed Zhou Yi.

This warm-up match only proved that Zhou Yi's physical fitness was up to par for Dortmund's U17 youth team.

The person who really surprised Eckel wasn't Zhou Yi, but... Mark Wagner.

This guy, who was always a substitute in the youth team, and couldn't even make the roster sometimes, unexpectedly scored a hat trick in the match.

Some say that scoring goals isn't the only measure of a player's performance.

But for forwards, especially center forwards, scoring is the only measure.

A forward who can't score, no matter how good they are in other areas, will still be considered lacking.

But a forward who can score, even if their performance in other areas is just average, will be considered an excellent forward.

For a long time, Eckel hadn't seen any qualities in Mark Wagner that would make him an excellent forward.

His physical attributes weren't outstanding, and his individual skills weren't particularly impressive.

If he had to find a positive, it might be his versatility.

He seemed to be able to do everything.

But in reality, he was just comprehensively mediocre.

Eckel had never been optimistic about Mark Wagner's future. He believed that this kid was definitely not going to make it into Dortmund's first team, and would never get a professional contract with the club.

His best bet was to switch to another team and see if he could play in the second division.

In any case, his future didn't belong to Dortmund.

But after this match, Eckel had a different opinion.

If this wasn't just Mark getting lucky, then... Eckel needed to reassess Mark's future.

As long as Mark could continue to perform like this, consistently, the first team was still a long way off, but at the very least, he should be able to get into the U19s.

The biggest discovery from this match might have been Mark Wagner.

So why did Mark perform so well?

Eckel didn't think it was difficult to guess. It was simply because of Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi was living in Mark's house, so their understanding was guaranteed.

In the match, in addition to the three assists, Zhou Yi also passed the ball to Mark many times.

He passed to Mark far more often than he passed to his other teammates.

This conscious cooperation made Eckel think about other things.

He started to consider whether he could fix this combination in the team.

Since Zhou Yi and Mark worked together better, why not build them into a pair?

※※※

During the team's attacking drills, Mark Wagner was paired with Zhou Yi.

At first, no one paid much attention to this. They didn't think there was anything to care about in the coach's arrangement.

But when Mark and Zhou Yi were put together in every attacking drill, everyone finally realized what was going on—the coach was doing this on purpose, to take advantage of the understanding between Zhou Yi and Mark.

However, no one objected to the coach's arrangement.

Everyone had seen Mark's performance in the previous match. Scoring a hat trick meant he was in good form, so it was normal for the coach to value him.

This arrangement was also a huge encouragement and affirmation for Mark, giving him a lot of confidence in the subsequent training sessions. Recognition from the coach had an even greater positive effect on him than scoring a hat trick in the match.

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

Sometimes he started, sometimes he was a substitute. Because these were warm-up matches, starting or being a substitute didn't matter much.

What mattered was the performance in the matches.

Eckel also tested things out by separating Zhou Yi and Mark, and found that Mark's performance was completely different when he was paired with Zhou Yi and when he wasn't.

When he was on the field with Zhou Yi, he was like a fish in water.

But when Zhou Yi wasn't on the field, he seemed helpless.

But was this Mark's problem?

After careful observation, Eckel came to the conclusion that it was the problem of Dortmund's other players.

After these few warm-up matches, Eckel discovered that Mark was actually a forward who was very good at finding open spaces. He wasn't strong enough, and his speed wasn't outstanding, so if he wanted to have a chance to shoot in the penalty area, it was best if he could receive the ball in an open space.

If he couldn't do that, it would be difficult for him to score.

Finding open spaces near the penalty area seemed like an instinct for Mark.

When Zhou Yi was on the field, when Mark found an open space, Zhou Yi also found the open space and passed the ball, giving Mark a chance to shoot.

But if Zhou Yi wasn't on the field, even if Mark found an open space, his teammates might not be able to get the ball to him in time. It wasn't that the other Dortmund players couldn't find open spaces, or couldn't pass the ball into open spaces, but that Zhou Yi was faster than them in this regard.

This was what was meant by reading the game one or two seconds faster than the average player.

In this respect, Zidane was an expert. He once said that he simply shortened the time it took him to read the game by one or two seconds.

But it was this one or two seconds that determined whether a player was an ordinary role player or a world-class master.

Since Zhou Yi and Mark worked better together than the other teammates, what reason was there to break them up?

Maybe they could build a golden partnership for Dortmund's U17 team?

※※※

The Bundesliga's winter break was over, but the youth league hadn't started yet.

Because there were relatively few teams participating in the youth league.

The next youth team match wouldn't be until the end of February.

German football has a complete youth league system, with leagues for both U17 and U19 teams.

And they are national in scope.

But this wasn't the case before 2002. In 2002, in order to increase the effort to train young players, the German Football Association decided to establish a national youth football league.

The league is divided into three divisions based on geographical location: Northeast, West, and South.

Dortmund's U17 team is in the Western Division, currently ranked fifth. Their results aren't too good, but they aren't bad either. At their best, they reached second place in the league, second only to their arch-rivals Schalke 04's U17 team.

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

By the winter break, they were in fifth place.

Schalke 04's U17 team was in first place.

There are a total of fourteen teams participating in the Western Division, mostly youth teams from professional clubs.

Youth team matches are less formal than adult team matches, and are relatively more casual.

For example, you can often see an unfamiliar face in a match, and the next time you play against them, that person is gone. They may have been temporarily transferred from a lower-level youth team, and went back after the match.

There are also players who always perform well in the U17 level, and are valued by the U19 or U23 teams, or even the first team. They jump three levels like a rocket, going directly to the first team to participate in matches, and naturally won't be seen in youth team matches anymore.

For example, Gotze was like this.

Although he isn't very old, only sixteen years old, matches at the U17 level can no longer help him improve his strength. At this time, it is normal to go to a higher-level team to challenge more difficult opponents.

When there are no official matches, the youth team relies mainly on warm-up matches and friendlies with other youth teams to maintain their match fitness.

In these matches, Mark has secured a starting position thanks to his excellent performance.

Five matches after completing his first hat trick, Mark completed another hat trick. Of course, all three goals were assisted by Zhou Yi.

When the last warm-up match ended, Mark turned in a report card that caught everyone's attention—in seven warm-up matches, he scored a total of eighteen goals, making him the team's top scorer during this period.

In Mark, everyone seemed to see the story of "the ugly duckling turning into a swan."

Before the winter break, he was a perennial substitute who had difficulty even getting into the matchday squad. But now, he has become the team's most relied upon offensive firepower.

Many people initially couldn't understand why such a huge change had taken place in Mark. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe it as "earth-shattering."

Later, they realized that it was all because of Zhou Yi.

Before Zhou Yi came to the team, Mark was a mediocre player who was useless. Although he was able to rise from U9 all the way to U17 at Dortmund, U17 was the peak he could reach with all his efforts.

It was impossible to go any further.

No one was optimistic about Mark's future prospects.

But after Zhou Yi came to the team, someone was finally able to discover the hidden shining points in Mark and stimulate them.

This is how Mark was reborn.

If Dortmund's youth team didn't have Zhou Yi, Mark would have continued to decline like this until he finally left the team.

At that time, no one would know that they had missed out on a qualified professional player.

This is the risk in football. Perhaps many young people who leave football for various reasons aren't lacking in ability, but simply lack a suitable person who can inspire them.

Compared to them, Mark is undoubtedly lucky.