Although the Telekom Cup had only two matches, they were scheduled very close together.
According to the schedule, after advancing to the next round, they would travel to face their next opponent—Dortmund—tomorrow, August 6.
In the match against Hamburg, Dortmund had narrowly beaten Hamburg 1–0 through Lewandowski's goal and advanced smoothly to the final, becoming Werder Bremen's opponent.
With time pressing, after defeating Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen could only catch a flight without stopping for Dortmund, where their next opponent was based.
By the time they got off the plane and took the bus to their reserved hotel, it was already two thirty in the morning.
There were only seventeen hours left until kickoff.
"Quick, quick, quick! Everyone, get back to your rooms and sleep! Assemble for training at ten thirty tomorrow morning!"
The coaches chased all the players back to their rooms. There was not much time left for them to rest.
If they did not sleep well tonight, they might not even have the strength to run once they got onto the pitch tomorrow.
"What kind of messed-up schedule is this? The matches are so close together, there isn't even time to rest!"
After settling the players in, Coach Rolf could not help complaining.
"The Telekom Cup has always been like this, but it really is unfair to us!"
Host side Dortmund could wait at home, fresh and rested, while Werder Bremen had to travel across more than half of Germany. That would create enormous difficulties for Werder Bremen, while their opponent had no such problem.
Still, as supporting characters invited to keep the crown prince company, they were lucky enough just to be participating. They could not expect too much.
"All right, everyone, go get some rest. Keep yourselves in good shape—we still have a match tomorrow!"
Schaaf clapped his hands and sent everyone away.
As for himself, he opened his computer and reviewed the daytime match between Hamburg and Dortmund.
As the team's Head Coach, if he did not conduct some targeted analysis of the next opponent before the match, he would be rather unqualified.
Dortmund's squad had changed somewhat for the new season. They had brought in several players, while some had also left.
Dortmund's biggest signing of the summer was Reus, Borussia Mönchengladbach's promising young star, for 17.1 million euros, brought in to replace Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa, who had been bought by Manchester United.
They had also spent 5.5 million euros to take Stuttgart striker Sippel.
Sippel had been bought by Klopp as a backup. Their reserve striker Barrios had been sold to Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande for 8.5 million euros.
Although Barrios had once performed well at Dortmund, once the Pole Lewandowski established himself in the side and secured the starting spot, Barrios had not had many opportunities to play.
If Barrios had been willing to serve as a substitute, it would have been fine.
But he was unwilling to be a substitute, and his temper was not particularly good. With most of his potential already tapped, keeping him in the squad posed no small threat to the dressing room.
Therefore, when the wealthy Chinese Super League club came poaching, Klopp did not hesitate to sell him for cash.
Overall, Dortmund's squad strength had not suffered much this summer.
Although they had lost starting midfielder Shinji Kagawa, newcomer Reus had greater potential. Once he gelled with the team, he might even contribute more than Shinji Kagawa had in the future.
Unlike Bayern, Dortmund were a passionate young guard. Their style was open and aggressive, full of impact, and they had unleashed a youth storm across the Bundesliga Field.
Last season, it was precisely with that youth storm that they had beaten Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich three times, claiming both the league and cup titles and leaving Bayern utterly helpless.
Against opponents who relied on pressing and energetic running, Werder Bremen could no longer use the tactics they had employed against Bayern.
Allowing young players like Dortmund's to besiege their own goal was extremely dangerous. Once they went wild, even Giant Clubs could not stop them!
So what tactics should they use against them?
Schaaf rubbed his temples and thought hard.
Perhaps because they had defeated mighty Bayern, many of the team's young players were extremely excited.
Although they had gone to bed early as instructed by the coaches, they could not fall asleep for a long time.
By the time they finally fell asleep, they had no idea what time it was.
At ten thirty the next morning, it was time for the team to assemble for training.
But fewer than half the players came down on time, and most of those who did were veterans. The young players had practically all been wiped out.
"I'll go get them!"
Seeing that the Head Coach's expression was none too pleasant, assistant coach Hennebach volunteered.
"How about we let them sleep a little longer and start training first?"
The fitness coach objected, believing that waking the young players now would leave them short on rest and greatly affect that evening's match.
But Coach Schaaf nodded at Hennebach and told him to fetch them.
"I would rather lose this match than fail to teach these young men one thing: in my team, people who do not follow the rules are not welcome!"
He had already delayed the team's assembly time and given them plenty of time to rest.
It was these players themselves who had failed to adjust their mindsets, resulting in them oversleeping.
Of course, he also bore responsibility. He had not guided the players' mental states in advance, soothed the young players' emotions, or shared his experience with them.
But now, he could not sit by and ignore players breaking the rules. That would undermine his authority as Head Coach and might even give the young players the wrong impression:
It seemed that failing to follow the team's rules was no big deal, since they would not be punished anyway.
If they truly developed such an attitude, it would not only affect the team's future tactical arrangements, but could even affect these young players' careers.
No team would like players who were undisciplined and unwilling to obey team rules.
Lin Quan and De Bruyne exchanged a glance, gaining a deeper understanding of their coach.
When Coach Schaaf needed to be reasonable and understanding, he would not give anyone a sour face. But when it came to work, he also had an iron-fisted, cold side and an exceptionally strong sense of principle.
Sure enough, anyone who could remain in a team's Head Coach position for so long was definitely no simple figure!
Since not all the players were present, the morning training was very simple.
Lin Quan had been practicing free kicks with De Bruyne lately. One practiced powerful strikes, while the other practiced curling shots with the outside of his foot.
De Bruyne's free kicks had always been very good, but they lacked a little variation in front of goal.
As a result, when facing experienced goalkeepers, his shots were easily saved.
So he planned to add some variation to his free kicks, something like the Knuckleball Cristiano Ronaldo often used.
He wanted the ball to suddenly dip halfway through its flight, catching the opponent off guard.
Mastering that was not easy. Besides sufficient power, he also needed to control the angle of his strike and the part of the ball he hit.
After a Knuckleball was struck, the football had to be kept from spinning as much as possible. That way, the ball would encounter far greater air resistance than a spinning ball.
When a player struck the ball with force, he gave it an extremely high initial velocity. And when the initial velocity exceeded the final velocity, the Magnus effect became very apparent.
When the football reached the highest point of its flight, it would not descend like a normal parabola. Instead, it would suddenly drop as if riding an elevator.
That was the principle behind the Knuckleball!
This conclusion was reached later by La Gazzetta dello Sport after hiring professional sports science and mechanics experts to conduct precise calculations.
According to the experts' formula, to produce a Knuckleball effect, the football's initial velocity had to exceed 100 kilometers per hour, placing tremendous demands on the taker's strength.
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