Chapter 15 Being Left on the Field

Soon, about three minutes later, when the ball was dead on the field, the fourth official on the sidelines raised the sign.

Mats Hummels was standing next to the fourth official, ready to play.

"Ah, it looks like Zhou Yi is going to be substituted..." Duan Xin said with some regret. As he said this, the TV broadcast gave a close-up of Zhou Yi's face.

It seemed that even the game director knew Zhou Yi was about to be substituted, so they gave him a special shot.

"In any case, his performance is still very good. I don't think he should be responsible for the loss, even if Dortmund loses the game," Tao Wei said. "His first Ruhr derby, and he's not intimidated at all. Zhou Yi's performance is gratifying."

"But after Zhou Yi leaves the field, Dortmund's attack..." Duan Xin was a little worried.

"There's no way around it. Zhou Yi's stamina has always been his weakness. Staying on the field would be useless if he can't run," Tao Wei said.

"Ah, this is really..." Duan Xin sighed regretfully. Although he was a supporter of Bayern Munich, he still hoped that Dortmund could win when it didn't involve Bayern Munich's interests, after all, Zhou Yi was a Dortmund player.

Zhou Jianliang in front of the TV was also very regretful. Under normal circumstances it wouldn't matter, but this was the Ruhr derby!

In such a crucial game, his son had to leave early due to stamina issues. How could a father not feel regret?

But what was the use of regret?

Marcel Reif was also summarizing Zhou Yi's performance in this game: "It looks like Zhou Yi is going to be substituted. His performance in this game has been outstanding. Dortmund's ability to draw with Schalke 04 can be attributed to Zhou Yi. One strong breakthrough into the penalty area caused a foul by Schalke 04's center-back Bordon. One assist to Barrios with his back to the goal. This is Zhou Yi's first Ruhr derby in Dortmund's first team. It can be said that no matter what the final result of this game is, Zhou Yi can get a high score!"

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"Zhou Yi's performance has been very good! Very impressive!" Mrs. Wagner said in front of the TV while applauding, giving Zhou Yi applause in advance.

Mark clapped even louder, nodding vigorously to express his agreement.

Sitting on the sofa, Cotta pouted and began to think that after Zhou Yi left the field, she shouldn't have to listen to her mother and younger brother's endless praise of that kid, right?

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Just when everyone thought Zhou Yi would be substituted, reality surprised them all—after the fourth official raised the sign, it showed Santana's number "27" to be substituted in, but the number of the player to be substituted out next to it was not Zhou Yi's "23", but... "15"!

This was Hummels' number!

"Zhou Yi wasn't substituted?" Marcel Reif was surprised.

"Zhou Yi wasn't substituted?!" Duan Xin was excited in addition to being surprised.

Zhou Yi staying on the field meant more possibilities, and it also meant that Chinese fans could enjoy Zhou Yi's performance for a longer period of time!

They weren't too surprised that Hummels was substituted, because Hummels' performance in this game wasn't very good either. It was right to be substituted, even if Zhou Yi was substituted in this substitution as they had expected, Hummels should have been substituted in the next substitution.

They didn't care much about Hummels being substituted; they cared more about Zhou Yi being left on the field.

"Could this be what Zhou Yi was discussing with Klopp just now? I just don't know if this was Zhou Yi's decision or Klopp's decision... But in any case, Zhou Yi staying on the field is a good thing for us Chinese fans!" Duan Xin said excitedly.

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Schalke 04's coach Magath originally thought that Zhou Yi should be substituted as well. He was preparing to make adjustments after this substitution to have the team besiege Sahin.

But to his surprise, the player being substituted was actually Hummels, not Zhou Yi!

He turned his head to look at Klopp on the neighboring coach's bench.

Was he unwilling to accept a draw and still wanted to win?

But Zhou Yi's stamina problem was unavoidable...

Even if Zhou Yi was left on the field, he wouldn't be able to do anything in the last period of time, so what was the use?

In Magath's opinion, Klopp's failure to substitute Zhou Yi at this time was obviously because he still had some ambitions for this game. But Magath wasn't afraid of anything, because with Zhou Yi's stamina, even if he continued to stay on the field, he wouldn't be of much help to Dortmund. On the contrary, he would become a burden to Dortmund, making Dortmund have one less player in the game.

He even thought that the turning point of this game might be Klopp's decision. From the moment he decided to keep Zhou Yi on the field, Dortmund was destined to lose!

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Seeing that Hummels was substituted instead of Zhou Yi, Sahin himself was also very surprised.

He turned his head to look at Zhou Yi, who smiled at him and said, "Remember to pass the ball to me later, Nuri."

Sahin asked in surprise, "Can you still run?"

"I won't let you down at critical moments." Zhou Yi didn't answer Sahin's question directly, so Sahin was still a little skeptical.

But if He Ying, Yang Muge, Sun Pan, and Guo Nu were on the scene to hear Zhou Yi's words, they would definitely not have any doubts about it.

When they were filming the reality show, Zhou Yi had proven more than once that he was a reliable teammate at critical moments.

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Although Zhou Yi stayed on the field, the stamina problem was indeed something he had to face. Everyone's eyes on him were still doubtful, and they felt that Klopp's decision to let Zhou Yi continue to stay on the field was a very risky move.

So, would Zhou Yi disappoint Klopp?

In Zhou Yi's own opinion, stamina was indeed a problem, but it wasn't a fatal problem.

Although there was no stamina penalty in the virtual space, Zhou Yi was still demanding of himself according to the stamina rules in reality. Improving stamina was not something that could be done overnight; it required long-term accumulation. So, before the quantitative change caused a qualitative change, would he accept the setting of only playing seventy minutes per game?

Of course, Zhou Yi wouldn't accept it just like that.

He had been practicing how to extend his playing time as much as possible with limited stamina.

The total amount of stamina was fixed, and the game time was also fixed, so how to use stamina most efficiently in a fixed unit of time? This was the topic that Zhou Yi had to study and experiment with in the simulated space time after time.

In short, it was to learn how to reasonably allocate stamina.

When to run and when to walk? When to have a fast pace and when to have a slow pace?

Didn't the fitness coach Bartlett also say that stamina in football matches is not simply the ability to run, but also includes the body's ability to recover?

And how to reasonably arrange for the body to recover stamina in the game was also a required course for high-level professional players.

Zhou Yi wanted to become a world-class player, so this lesson must be learned.

No one told him exactly how to do it. He started self-study in the simulated space. Anyway, he could conduct a large number of repeated matches in a short period of time, and he had enough opportunities for experiments and practice.

Unlike when he was on the reality show, at that time he was the team's midfield core, and because the strength of his teammates and the strength of his opponents differed too much, he had to handle the ball frequently. So he always had to keep running.

But in Dortmund, his teammates were also of a very high level, such as Grosskreutz, for example, Sahin. He didn't always have to receive the ball or pass the ball. He might not even touch the ball for several minutes.

What did he do when he didn't touch the ball?

Jogging, or even walking.

Engaging in aerobic exercise to allow the body to break down lactic acid and glycogen through aerobic metabolism, thereby replenishing energy for the body.

In continuous simulated matches, Zhou Yi found suitable timings and rhythms for replenishing stamina.

When he had no experience at the beginning, he would often stay behind to rest when he needed to accelerate forward, resulting in missed opportunities and slowing down the team's offensive rhythm. Or he would run around the field when there was no need for a lot of sprinting, wasting his stamina in vain, and then be powerless when he really needed it.

After continuous practice, Zhou Yi has now accumulated a lot of experience in this area.

At the beginning of this game, Zhou Yi was intentionally allocating his stamina reasonably.

For example, in the first half, Zhou Yi basically didn't play well, because he was constantly being brought down by his opponents.

Many people only watched the first half and would definitely think that Zhou Yi's physical confrontation ability was really weak, and he would fall almost as soon as he was bumped.

This was also why Schalke 04 fans were so dissatisfied with Zhou Yi falling in the penalty area and winning a penalty for Dortmund. Because they thought that Zhou Yi had fallen too exaggeratedly many times before, and there was suspicion of diving. This time, falling in the penalty area was undoubtedly a dive.

But in fact, Zhou Yi wasn't diving.

He was just not wasting his strength and stamina playing "tug-of-war" with his opponents.

If he felt that he definitely couldn't maintain his balance, Zhou Yi would basically fall to the ground. Of course, before falling to the ground, he would try his best to poke the ball away to avoid the situation where, if the referee didn't call a foul on Schalke 04, they would easily hand over possession of the ball.

The downside of doing this was that it made Zhou Yi look simply vulnerable. But there was a hidden benefit, which was that it saved Zhou Yi a lot of stamina. You must know that physical confrontation also requires stamina.

Zhou Yi kept falling, but his stamina consumption was actually less than in the entire game.

So now his stamina reserves haven't reached the red line yet.

If Schalke 04 thought that he was already unable to run and could only take a walk on the field, he wouldn't mind giving Schalke 04 fans a big gift package.

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