At 13:00 on May 11, 2008, in the 33rd round of the 2007/2008 German Bundesliga, the penultimate round of the entire season, Hoffenheim played away against Offenbach, who had just been beaten 7-1 by Borussia Mönchengladbach.
In this game, Lu Wenbin, who had just resumed training, did not get the chance to start and could only sit on the bench and watch his teammates' performance.
Hoffenbach had already successfully secured their place in the league in the last round, but now they have no hope of promotion and no worries about relegation. There aren't many home fans in the stands, so it should be a very easy match to play against.
However, perhaps because Hoffenheim does not have an urgent need to win the championship like Lu Wenbin, the players of Hoffenheim, who have been promoted to the first division in advance, are a little slack.
Throughout the first half, Hoffenheim did not score a single goal and even created very few shooting opportunities, which were all wasted by substitute forwards Paljic, Demba Ba and Weiss.
Of course, Hoffenheim did not score any goals, and the two sides entered the second half with a score of 0-0.
In the second half, what Lu Wenbin was most worried about happened: Offenbacher scored a lucky deflected goal in the 68th minute.
Offenbach's shot hit Hoffenheim defender Komper and was deflected. Goalkeeper Haas could only watch helplessly as the ball flew into the net in the opposite direction of his save.
Hoffenheim fell behind 0-1 to Hoffenheim away from home.
Lu Wenbin stood up from the bench, holding his head in his hands, looking anxious and eager to come on as a substitute immediately.
Ralph looked at Lu Wenbin and made a decision in his heart.
In fact, he also wanted to win.
After all, the German Second Division championship is also a championship. Why give up in advance when there is a chance to fight for the championship
What's more, this also involves the bonus promised by the boss. There are only two games left, so we have to fight no matter what.
Since the team doctor said that Lu Wenbin's injury has healed, it should be fine for him to only come on as a substitute for a dozen minutes in this game. The rest depends on luck.
So Ralph said to Lu Wenbin: "Lu, go warm up!"
Lu Wenbin was delighted and nodded vigorously. He took off his coat and started warming up on the sidelines.
The situation on the field remained unchanged, Hoffenheim was still trailing 0-1 to Hoffenheim.
In the 75th minute, Ralph called back Lu Wenbin and asked the fourth official to make a substitution. No. 90 Lu Wenbin replaced No. 17 Weiss.
Weiss walked off the court unwillingly, shook hands lightly with Lu Wenbin as a routine, and returned to sit on the bench: Weiss was one of the few teammates who did not have a good relationship with Lu Wenbin.
Lu Wenbin didn't care about him.
As soon as Weiss left the court, Lu Wenbin rushed forward and shouted to his teammates as he ran: "Everyone cheer up, run, and try to win the game!"
Lu Wenbin's leadership aura really had a huge effect. As soon as he came on the court and just yelled, the spirit of his teammates changed, which amazed Ralph and the assistant coach on the sidelines.
Of course, Lu Wenbin's words also made the players of the opponent team Hoffenheim quite annoyed.
Everyone was thinking, "It's been 75 minutes, and you're shouting about winning right from the start. Are you going to turn the tables on us in the last 10 minutes? Do you still take us seriously?"
Therefore, the players of Hoffenheim also became excited and vowed to stop the arrogant Lu Wenbin from scoring.
What’s more, Offenbach actually achieved this goal.
Although Lu Wenbin's off-ball running and shooting attributes have far exceeded the level of the second-tier league, he had just been injured and had only undergone low-intensity recovery training before, so his on-the-spot condition in this game was relatively poor.
Not long after coming on the pitch, Lu Wenbin received a pass from Copado in the penalty area.
However, his turning shot was blocked by the Hoffenheim defender next to him and went wide of the goal post.
A few minutes later, his shot flew into the blind corner of the goal, but was weakly caught by the goalkeeper in time.
With the entire team concentrating on delivering ammunition to Lu Wenbin, he had two chances to shoot within 10 minutes of coming on the pitch, but failed to score a single goal.
This is quite rare for Lu Wenbin, and he became a little anxious.
At this time, Salihovic ran to Lu Wenbin and whispered to him: "Lu, don't be anxious! Next time if you have another chance, why not pass it to Demba Ba?"
Lu Wenbin frowned. He didn't have a good relationship with Demba Ba. Demba Ba was squeezed out of the main lineup by Lu Wenbin and he never had a good face towards Lu Wenbin.
However, for the sake of victory and the championship, Lu Wenbin decided to put aside the rift with Demba Ba. He didn't feel good on the ball today, so he might as well pass the ball to Demba Ba.
If Demba Ba can score a goal to equalize the score or even reverse the game to win, Lu Wenbin wouldn't mind cooperating with him.
So, Lu Wenbin nodded slightly and agreed to the captain's suggestion.
As time passed, the players of Offenbach became more and more delighted.
Since Lu Wenbin joined the Bundesliga, he has performed brilliantly and has now become the top star in the Bundesliga. They were able to mark Lu Wenbin and prevent him from scoring for more than ten minutes, which was a great sense of achievement.
However, Lu Wenbin did not give up. As long as the final whistle did not blow, he would not allow himself to slack off.
Finally, in the 89th minute, Lu Wenbin created a gap in the penalty area through continuous running, and Salihovic passed the ball in time.
Lu Wenbin took advantage of the situation and raised his leg to shoot, which attracted three highly nervous Hoffenheim defenders to rush over and block Lu Wenbin's shooting path.
However, Lu Wenbin's shot was just a fake move.
After attracting three opposing defenders and successfully drawing the goalkeeper to his side, Lu Wenbin shook his ankle and passed the ball to Demba Ba on the other side of the penalty area.
Demba Ba didn't expect Lu Wenbin to pass the ball to him, and was stunned for a moment.
However, his foot still pushed the ball passed by Lu Wenbin into the net as if it was a conditioned reflex.
In the 89th minute, Hoffenheim finally equalized the score through Demba Ba's goal, but the assist came from Lu Wenbin, who did not have a good relationship with Demba Ba.
After the goal, Lu Wenbin and Demba Ba looked at each other, then looked away expressionlessly.
Lu Wenbin just clapped his hands and turned to walk towards his own half, and on the way he high-fived Salihovic who was running over to celebrate.
Demba Ba was also celebrating on the other side with Parjić, Copado and others, without even looking at Lu Wenbin.
It seems as if this ball was not scored by two people together.