After Lin Quan left the field, De Bruyne stepped up to the penalty spot.
The team's first-choice penalty taker had originally been captain Fritz, but Fritz knew that De Bruyne and Lin Quan were close friends, so he voluntarily gave De Bruyne the chance.
Under normal circumstances, De Bruyne would likely have declined.
But not today.
His friend had worked so hard to create this opportunity. He absolutely could not waste it!
He was not scoring this goal for himself, but for Lin Quan, who had been forced off through injury.
Standing at the penalty spot, De Bruyne took a deep breath.
After studying the goalkeeper's position, he began his run-up.
He chose the far corner. The goalkeeper guessed the right direction, but his dive was just a little too slow, and he failed to reach the ball.
De Bruyne converted in one strike, changing the score to 3-3!
In the 59th minute of regulation time, Werder Bremen had equalized.
With one minute remaining in the match, plus stoppage time, there were less than five minutes left in total.
If neither side could change the score, they would head into a Penalty Shootout!
Neither team seemed willing to accept a draw, so after play resumed, both sides launched attacks without hesitation.
Dortmund's players had run themselves ragged all match, and many of them had reached the limits of their stamina. They were gritting their teeth and holding on.
But because they had lost a player to a red card, their attacking numbers had dropped, making it difficult to break through in a settled attack.
Werder Bremen was not in much better shape. They had played matches on two consecutive days, traveled extensively beforehand, and failed to get enough rest. Their fitness had been inferior to Dortmund's from the start.
As a result, neither side's attacks had quite enough bite.
The sixty minutes of regulation time quickly came to an end. Since the winner had yet to be decided, the match still hung in the balance.
The referee therefore added two minutes of stoppage time, which was rather short.
For both teams, it might only be enough time to launch one attack each.
In the first minute of stoppage time, Dortmund worked the ball to the edge of Werder Bremen's penalty area.
Reus had originally intended to dribble through and shoot himself, but then he saw Lewandowski calling for the ball in the box.
Trusting his teammate, he immediately passed it over.
Werder Bremen's defenders read the intention behind the pass. Sokratis Papastathopoulos, the substitute center-back, anticipated it early and stretched out a foot, poking the ball away to a teammate before Lewandowski could receive it.
After Serey got the ball, he immediately passed it to winger Elia. Upon receiving it down the flank, Elia sprinted forward at full speed, charging into Dortmund's half.
As he carried the ball past the halfway line, the referee checked his watch. There were only a few dozen seconds left. This might be the final attack of the match.
Elia knew time was running out too, so he did not dare slow down, charging relentlessly along the sideline.
The opposition's defense on that flank was relatively thin, giving him enough space and time to advance the attack near their byline.
Once his teammates rushed into the box, he would send in a cross. Whether it succeeded or failed would depend on that one ball.
Like Lin Quan, Elia was running low on energy. By the time he reached the edge of the opposition's final third, he was already panting heavily.
And Dortmund's fullback Kirch had rushed over, ready to stop him.
So he had no time to take the ball all the way to the byline. He could only sweep it sideways into the middle.
At the edge of his vision, he seemed to see a teammate in a green shirt rushing forward.
Although he was not sure whether the pass would reach him, at this moment, he could only choose to trust his teammate!
De Bruyne was sprinting desperately. With his stamina nearing its limit, he could feel as though his legs were filled with lead, every step excruciatingly difficult.
But he did not want to give up this attacking opportunity.
With the opposition goal in sight, he gritted his teeth again and charged forward with everything he had, reaching his teammate's pass before the defender could.
Dortmund's defenders immediately rushed over. They had learned from Hummels's earlier foul in the penalty area.
Before De Bruyne could carry the ball into the box, they fouled him outside the area to stop his advance.
It was a tactical foul. The referee showed a yellow card without hesitation, then paused briefly before awarding Werder Bremen a free kick in the attacking third.
He had seemingly intended to blow the final whistle right away, but when he saw Werder Bremen's number six climb back to his feet and carry the ball to the spot of the foul, he softened and gave them one last free-kick opportunity—a reward, perhaps, for his refusal to give up.
"Do you want me to take it?"
Fritz walked over to De Bruyne and asked.
He could tell that De Bruyne did not have much energy left.
Taking a free kick under such circumstances would likely make it hard for him to perform at his usual level.
"No need. Thanks, Captain. I'll take it myself!"
De Bruyne declined his captain's kindness. He knew this was the team's final attack, so he was in no hurry to take the kick.
Only after the opposition had formed their wall and the referee stepped back and blew his whistle to signal that he could take it did he slowly retreat.
As he backed away, he closed his eyes and considered how he should strike the ball.
Suddenly, he remembered the theoretical knowledge Lin Quan had told him when they had practiced the Knuckleball.
It had seemed difficult to understand and execute at the time, but now, standing on the pitch, that knowledge seemed to come alive. It no longer felt so hard to grasp.
So De Bruyne made his decision. He would attempt the most difficult kind of Knuckleball.
On the bench, Lin Quan had gotten off the stretcher and was receiving a massage from the team doctor with an ice pack on him. When he saw how far De Bruyne had stepped back, his heart skipped a beat.
Is this guy trying to take a Knuckleball?
He's already out of energy. Can he still hit a Knuckleball at over 100 kilometers per hour now?
Lin Quan was doubtful. De Bruyne's choice seemed a little too stubborn!
He had not been this kind of person before...
Could it be because of me?
Uh...
Is this guy trying to avenge me?
The idea is good, but there's an eighty percent chance this won't go in... Holy shit!!!!
Lin Quan had just been about to say that De Bruyne's shot would not go in when De Bruyne unleashed an exceptionally high-quality Knuckleball.
The ball sailed over the wall and rose high into the air.
Dortmund goalkeeper Langerak judged that it would fly over the goal, so he did not jump to make a save. He did not think the shot posed any threat.
But just as the ball was about to clear the crossbar and fly into the stands, it suddenly began to drop, bizarrely dipping beneath the bar and into the goal.
Dortmund's goalkeeper was utterly stunned!
What the hell was that ball?!
That could go in?!
It was not just him. All twenty-two players on the pitch, De Bruyne included, froze when they saw the result.
The difference was that after Dortmund's players came to their senses, they all hung their heads in dejection, seemingly unable to accept such a cruel outcome.
They had fought for the entire match, only to watch helplessly as their opponents won the title at their own home ground and snatched away the trophy!
As for Werder Bremen's players, once they recovered from their shock, they charged at De Bruyne like madmen.
Lin Quan also leaped up from the bench, abandoning even his ice pack as he rushed onto the pitch alongside the other substitutes.
The referee had no intention of adding any more time. The two minutes of stoppage time had long since expired, so after the restart, he immediately blew the final whistle.
The champions of the 2012 Telekom Cup were the Parrot Legion—Werder Bremen!
The criticism had nearly made me shut down, so today I posted all the chapters before the Bundesliga matches. Tomorrow, I'll begin updating the Bundesliga matches directly.
Before you continue