At 19:00 on the evening of April 29, 2008, local time, at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, with the referee's whistle, the 2007/2008 German Football Association Cup final between Bayern Munich and Hoffenheim officially began.
Ibisevic gently kicked the ball to Lu Wenbin and ran forward. Lu Wenbin turned half-way and kicked the ball to Eduardo behind him, then also ran towards Bayern Munich's half.
Then, Eduardo, Copado, Salihovic, Gustavo and others began to pass the ball, Hoffenheim's overall formation pressed forward and started the attack.
Hoffenheim originally planned to take advantage of the time at the beginning of the game when Bayern might not pay much attention to Lu Wenbin and the defense was not so tight to launch an attack, create shooting opportunities for Lu Wenbin, and see if they could score a goal at the beginning of the game.
As a result, as soon as Lu Wenbin ran into the 30-meter range of Bayern's goal, he was closely approached by the opponent's No. 16 midfielder Oter.
After running back and forth and sideways for a while, seeing that Ottl was still following him closely, Lu Wenbin realized that he was being closely guarded by Ottl.
Bayern Munich, a Bundesliga giant, sent a special defensive midfielder to closely mark a 17-year-old German second division striker, which shows how much Hitzfeld values Lu Wenbin.
He strategically showed contempt for Hoffenheim at the pre-match press conference, but tactically, Hitzfeld did not show any contempt for Lu Wenbin, who posed the greatest threat to Bayern's goal.
This is also the reason why he can become a famous coach. Hoffenheim’s plan to attack at the beginning of the game failed.
As Oter is able to play as a main player in Bayern Munich, there is no need to explain his defensive ability.
His dedicated close marking made Lu Wenbin feel much greater pressure than when playing against the German 2nd Division or even against Dortmund.
In the 4th minute, Lu Wenbin successfully received Copado's pass at the front of the penalty area.
However, before Lu Wenbin's ball came to a complete stop, he was gently pushed by Ottl beside him, causing his body to tilt.
Although he did not lose his balance and fall to the ground, Lu Wenbin also lost the opportunity to shoot.
Moreover, Oter did not commit any foul, and the referee remained indifferent and did not even show any intention of blowing the whistle, because such minor pushing actions are too common on the football field.
Bayern had taken into account Lu Wenbin's ability to score free kicks before the game and would not easily commit a foul within 30 meters of the goal. They simply used their advantages in height, weight and experience to prevent Lu Wenbin from easily facing the goal and shooting.
By the time Lu Wenbin had stood firm and got the ball again, central defender Van Buiten had already rushed out. Together with Oter, they sandwiched the ball from the front and back, and quickly used their height and long legs to knock Lu Wenbin's ball away.
Facing the double-teaming of Oteri and Van Buyten, Lu Wenbin didn't even have time to shoot or even pass the ball before it was blocked.
Originally, I thought that the opponent was the champion of the Bundesliga and might be arrogant and underestimate the enemy, giving Lu Wenbin a chance.
Now it seems that the difficulties faced by Hoffenheim and Lu Wenbin are much more difficult than expected before the game. Bayern Munich and Hitzfeld were not affected by the one-sided comments in the media that were optimistic about them.
In fact, if Bayern Munich was a team that was so easily proud and underestimated its opponents and led to losses, it would not have such stable results and dominated the Bundesliga for so many years.
Facing Oteri and Bayern's defense head-on, it was indeed very difficult for Lu Wenbin to get a chance to receive the ball and shoot given his height, weight, physique, and dribbling ability.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin can only increase his off-ball running, through changes in rhythm, using unexpected back-and-forth running and sudden changes in direction to create short opportunities to receive the ball.
Defense is passive after all. No matter how focused and serious Oter is in marking Lu Wenbin, and other defenders are always ready to assist in defense, how is it possible to completely mark Lu Wenbin in a 90-minute game
After all, Lu Wenbin's off-ball running was still 13/13, not zero.
Moreover, Lu Wenbin is short in stature, so although he cannot rely on headers, he has an advantage over Otter, Van Buyten, Lucio and others in terms of running flexibility.
Therefore, in the next game, Lu Wenbin began to constantly change his rhythm and move to create opportunities to receive the ball.
Doing this does consume a lot of physical energy, but fortunately Ralph had already started preparing for this game.
The coaching staff was very attentive in the early substitution of Lu Wenbin in the league and the physical reserve of Lu Wenbin in normal training, so that Lu Wenbin would have enough physical strength to last until the end of 90 minutes or even 120 minutes in the final.
Although Lu Wenbin may not be able to play in the next league game after the final, what does it matter if he sacrifices a league game as long as he has a chance to win the German Cup
Lu Wenbin thought so too.
Therefore, in order to get a chance to receive the ball and shoot, Lu Wenbin began to increase the number of off-ball runs without sparing his physical strength, leaving Ottl with no choice but to passively chase after him.
However, although Lu Wenbin increased his off-ball running, he still did not get any decent shooting opportunities until 20 minutes into the game.
On the one hand, Lu Wenbin's sudden change of pace not only made Oter uncomfortable, but even his teammates Eduardo, Salihovic and others could not figure out which direction he would run in the next second. Naturally, the number and accuracy of passing assists were reduced a lot.
On the other hand, Bayern Munich's frontcourt attack is stronger than Hoffenheim's. The offensive group composed of Schweinsteiger, Ribery, Kroos, Sousa and Toni has top offensive power in the whole of Europe, not to mention Germany.
Therefore, not only did the full-backs and defensive midfielders have almost no chance to advance to support the attack, but even Copado, Salihovic, and even Eduardo sometimes had to retreat to the backcourt to participate in the defense, which made Lu Wenbin receive much less passing support than in the previous 2. Bundesliga games.
Fortunately, Hoffenheim used overall defensive support and the players' high morale to successfully defend against Bayern Munich's attack.
Although Bayern almost scored twice, one shot hit the post and one was saved by Haas, but they didn't lose the ball in the end.
However, we can't just passively take the beating like this.
Therefore, Salihovic, Copado, Eduardo and others have been trying hard to find opportunities, trying to pass the ball forward to give Lu Wenbin a chance to shoot.
Although they didn't know why Lu Wenbin's final shot was so abnormally accurate, Hoffenheim's players all knew that as long as Lu Wenbin was given the opportunity to shoot in the penalty area, he would most likely score.
This is also the reason why the entire Hoffenheim team maintains a strong fighting spirit and is able to compete with Bayern Munich.