On July 29, Werder Bremen traveled away to face their final warm-up opponent of the month, Paderborn from the 2. Bundesliga.
For this match, Head Coach Schaaf made no changes to the starting lineup in midfield and attack, instead focusing on rearranging the defense.
Paderborn had finished fifth in the 2. Bundesliga last season, not far from the promotion places.
Their club chairman was therefore full of ambition and wanted to realize the dream of reaching the Bundesliga.
To that end, they had invested heavily in transfers this season, bringing in quite a few powerful players.
In terms of overall strength, they were even somewhat stronger than Cottbus, Werder Bremen's previous warm-up opponent.
Both Werder Bremen and Paderborn were teams stronger in attack than defense, and the match was a full-on collision of sparks.
In the 13th minute of the first half, home side Paderborn took the lead.
Just five minutes later, Werder Bremen equalized with a goal from a counterattack.
In the 28th minute, Werder Bremen scored directly from a free kick in the attacking half to make it 2:1.
During first-half stoppage time, Werder Bremen had a golden opportunity, but De Bruyne's shot struck the post and bounced away.
After the halftime break, the two sides switched ends and resumed play.
In the 53rd minute, Lin Quan, who had come on as a substitute, dribbled into the opposition penalty area and was tripped by a defender. The referee awarded a penalty.
With captain Fritz, the team's first-choice penalty taker, being rested, Schaaf had Lin Quan take the penalty himself.
Taking penalties tested a player's mental strength, and he wanted to use this opportunity to observe Lin Quan's ability to handle pressure and his mentality.
With eight years of Messi's professional career experience, Lin Quan had long since become accustomed to taking penalties.
He stood at the penalty spot, studied the goalkeeper's positioning, and began his run-up.
As he approached the ball, he suddenly used a change of rhythm to feint past the goalkeeper. As the goalkeeper instinctively made his save, Lin Quan struck the ball.
When Schaaf saw that Lin Quan had contacted the ball with his toe, he shot to his feet.
This kid had some nerve. He actually dared to take a penalty that way!
The ball floated high into the air, slow but with a towering arc.
It sailed over the head of the goalkeeper, who had made his save and just fallen to the ground, and steadily flew into the net.
Lin Quan scored with a Panenka penalty, changing the score to 3:1.
"This kid's mentality is absurdly good, isn't it? Most players would take the safest possible option, but him? He actually used a Panenka..."
Seeing the ball go in, Schaaf finally let out a breath of relief.
After sitting back down, he could not help complaining to the colleagues beside him.
"Hmm, tell me, is it possible that a Panenka is what this kid considers the safest option?"
Hennebach's words left everyone speechless...
Neither side managed to change the score over the following dozens of minutes.
In the end, the 3:1 scoreline held until the final whistle, and Werder Bremen secured their third consecutive warm-up victory.
Lin Quan, who had appeared in all three matches, also earned a tidy three Points.
Unfortunately, the team had no more warm-up matches before the second phase of training ended.
That meant he would have no matches to play for the next half month or so, which left him feeling rather melancholy.
The day when he could buy top-tier talent still seemed so far away!
While Lin Quan was worrying about having no matches to play, officials at the German Football Association headquarters were discussing invitation slots for this season's German Telekom Cup with sponsor T-Home.
The German Telekom Cup had been founded in 2009, and its predecessor was the German League Cup.
The tournament was sponsored by the well-known telecommunications company T-Home and was held once a year.
Four teams participated each time, including the fixed invitations for the previous season's Bundesliga champions and runners-up.
One team each would also be invited from the mid-table sides and relegation-battling sides.
Since there were relatively few participating teams, the format was very simple.
The German Telekom Cup began with a random draw for two semifinals. The winners advanced to the final, while the two losers played a third-place match, making four matches in total.
As a result, the prize money was not high. Even the champions received only 300,000 euros.
However, being able to play such high-level matches before the season began made it easier to assess whether each team's transfers had been successful, so it still held a certain appeal for invited teams.
To avoid disrupting the teams' preparations, the Telekom Cup schedule was very short, with all four matches arranged over two days.
The length of each match was also restricted, with both halves lasting only thirty minutes.
If the score was still level after sixty minutes, the match went straight to a Penalty Shootout.
Because of this unusual format, the Telekom Cup had always produced frequent upsets.
Even a Giant Club like Bayern Munich often stumbled. Since the German Telekom Cup was founded, the Bundesliga giants had somehow failed to win the title even once.
This season, the first three invited teams for the Telekom Cup had already been decided: last season's Bundesliga champions Dortmund and runners-up Bayern Munich.
The relegation-battling team selected was Hamburg, who had narrowly survived last season by a single point.
Those three teams were easy to choose, but which mid-table team should be selected?
The German Football Association and the sponsor did not quite agree on that issue.
The German Football Association's view was that there were eighteen teams in the Bundesliga, so mid-table teams should naturally mean ninth or tenth place.
Those two teams were ninth-place Werder Bremen and tenth-place Nuremberg.
However, the sponsor felt that the cities where those two teams were located were too small and not conducive to publicity and promotion, so it wanted to select Stuttgart from a major city.
Stuttgart was Germany's sixth-largest city, with a larger population and greater commercial value.
Holding Telekom Cup matches there would give the sponsor stronger advertising impact.
The two sides argued without reaching an agreement, with the German Football Association insisting that the rules could not be broken.
Football was a national sport in Germany with enormous commercial value, so there was no shortage of sponsors.
The only reason they had partnered with T-Home was that it was a domestic company and their past cooperation had been pleasant, which was why they had chosen it.
If T-Home became complacent because of that and started meddling in the association's work, the German Football Association would not mind changing sponsors. Volkswagen, for example, would be quite suitable.
Upon hearing this, T-Home immediately backed down and stated that it respected the association's choice.
Seeing the other side compromise, the German Football Association also gave it some face. Between Werder Bremen and Nuremberg, it selected Bremen, whose city was slightly larger.
Very soon, the German Football Association's invitation was delivered to Schaaf, the club's Head Coach.
Seeing the invitation, Schaaf hesitated.
Should he accept it or not?
Accepting the invitation gave them a chance to win the 300,000-euro prize and claim a share of ticket sales revenue.
But it would disrupt the team's training plans.
Moreover, playing two matches in two consecutive days would also be a test for the players.
The veteran players might be fine, but for young players, especially those who had never played in the Bundesliga, it would be an enormous challenge.
In particular, they were highly likely to face strong teams like Bayern Munich and Dortmund.
If they carelessly suffered a humiliating thrashing, the confidence built through their three consecutive wins would probably be wiped out completely.
So, rather than making the decision himself, he gathered the coaching staff and also called in Lin Quan and De Bruyne, the two young players who had performed best, to ask for their opinions.
The moment he heard there were more matches to play, and against the Bundesliga champions and runners-up no less, Lin Quan's eyes lit up.
This was a match worth two Points!
Go. They absolutely had to go!
Before you continue