After the fifth round of the Bundesliga match with Dortmund, Hoffenheim continued its winning streak in the league, winning all five games and accumulating 15 points to top the Bundesliga standings.
Bayern Munich unexpectedly lost 2-5 to Werder Bremen in a fierce offensive battle at the Allianz Arena, without getting a single point and losing 3 goal difference, dropping to eighth place in the rankings.
Second place is Schalke 04 with 11 points, followed by Hamburg with 10 points and Wolfsburg with 9 points.
Hoffenheim's strong performance in the league naturally aroused envy and jealousy from the media and fans who support other teams.
Coupled with the home defeat in the first round of the UEFA Cup qualifiers, Hoffenheim was labeled as "good at domestic wars but a layman in foreign wars", as if Hoffenheim had been eliminated by Udinese in the UEFA Cup.
In fact, the two sides still have a second round of the game to play!
However, after losing the first round at home, no one believed that Hoffenheim could turn the tables away from home in Italy, a country that excels in defense.
Only the local TV station and newspapers in Sinsheim, as well as Hoffenheim fans, continued to strongly support the team.
Fan groups are even organizing hardcore fans to travel to Italy, more than 700 kilometers away, to cheer for the team so as not to let the team fight alone away from home.
Even though it was a Wednesday and most people had to go to work, there were still many die-hard fans who signed up. They didn't care even if they had to take leave or even skip work.
The behavior of these die-hard fans who even abandon their jobs in order to support the team is indeed something that normal people cannot understand.
But it is the existence of these die-hard fans that constitute the indispensable passion element of football.
If there weren't these passionate and loyal fans, the stands would be silent during every game, and everyone would clap calmly like white-collar gentlemen only when a goal was scored. What would be the point of football then
The media's ridicule and contempt filled Hoffenheim's team with resentment and anger.
The fans' support and practical actions filled everyone with warmth and fighting spirit.
Everyone was holding their breath, wanting to defeat Udinese away from home to complete a comeback, create a miracle to slap the media in the face, and repay the fans for their support.
Of course, everyone is not blindly optimistic or fantasizing, but because of the changes shown by Lu Wenbin in the game against Dortmund and the amazing progress he showed in training afterwards, his teammates and coaches feel that they really have a chance to complete a comeback away from home.
After the match with Dortmund, Lu Wenbin received a reward of 20,000 experience points for scoring 2 goals and 20,000 experience points for the team's win, for a total of 40,000 experience points. His experience points rose to level 13, 228212/200,000, exceeding the upgrade line.
Then, the system automatically upgraded, and Lu Wenbin's level experience became level 14 28212/500,000, and he received 10 skill points as a reward.
An injury tendency of 6 points is already considered a normal attribute for athletes. As long as you pay attention, you won't get injured in normal fights.
Moreover, Lu Wenbin is currently more concerned about the second round of the UEFA Cup against Udinese.
Having lost the first round, and at home, Hoffenheim must beat Udinese away in the second round to advance and retain their hopes of winning the UEFA Cup and the Treble.
Moreover, it cannot be a small victory of 1-0.
If the score is 1-0, Hoffenheim will still be eliminated due to fewer away goals.
In short, the more goals Hoffenheim scores away from home, the better. It would be best if they score more than Udinese's two away goals. Then the initiative will return to Hoffenheim: because Udinese no longer has the chance to expand their away goal tally.
Under such circumstances, Lu Wenbin naturally had to find ways to improve the attributes of his skills.
Even if he gets injured in away games because his injury tendency has not been reduced, Lu Wenbin still has to try his best to score goals.
Therefore, after obtaining the skill point reward, Lu Wenbin used 9 skill points to increase his off-ball running from 16/16 to 19/19, which is close to the full value, by adding one potential value for every 2 skill points and one current ability value for every 1 skill point.
This kind of off-ball running attribute is definitely the best in world football.
Therefore, on the second day after the match with Dortmund, Hoffenheim did not take a holiday but continued training. The off-ball running attributes demonstrated by Lu Wenbin surprised everyone in the team.
If Lu Wenbin's off-ball running attributes were just at the level of an ordinary top league forward before, and he might be trapped by the opponent's chain defense, zone defense, and man-to-man defense, then the current Lu Wenbin is even more slippery than a loach.
During the game, it is impossible for the opponent to really keep focusing on Lu Wenbin's position to defend.
After all, they also have to observe where the ball is, where Lu Wenbin's teammates are, observe the changes in the passing routes between Lu Wenbin and his teammates, and so on.
Therefore, when Lu Wenbin's off-ball running attribute increased to 19/19, everyone found that Lu Wenbin's ability to exploit loopholes suddenly improved a lot.
As long as the defensive player is not paying attention, Lu Wenbin will run to the effective passing route and be in an open position.
In a 30-minute team training match on the afternoon of September 22, Lu Wenbin scored an astonishing 4 goals in just 30 minutes.
You have to know that this is a professional team, not a high school team. Even in a low-intensity team training match, no one usually scores so many goals so quickly.
Moreover, Lu Wenbin was on the substitute team. The one who passed the ball to him was a substitute player, and the one who defended him was the main defender and the main goalkeeper.
Being able to score 4 goals in 30 minutes, it is no wonder that all the coaches and teammates of the team are full of confidence for the second round away game against Udinese, and are not as pessimistic as commented by the outside media.
They believe that with Lu Wenbin's strong legs, Hoffenheim has hope of turning the tables.
With such a strong belief in a comeback, on September 23, the entire Hoffenheim team flew south one day in advance and arrived in Udine in northern Italy.
In addition to the team, Hoffenheim also had more than 2,000 die-hard fans who either flew or drove to Italy, ready to cheer for Hoffenheim on the spot during the game the next day.
The number of fans traveling to away games has exceeded the number of registered club members in Hoffenheim village. Many of them are new fans attracted by Hoffenheim as their performance improved last season and this season.
Of course, there are also many personal fans of Lu Wenbin among them.
Everyone came to the away game to cheer for Hoffenheim with the mentality of supporting the team to the end.
The fans will not know that Lu Wenbin has been upgraded, nor will they see the changes in Lu Wenbin like Lu Wenbin’s teammates and coaches do.
When the outside world was judging that Hoffenheim was bound to lose, and even some fans themselves thought that the team was bound to lose, they still made the long journey to Italy, more than 700 kilometers away, to cheer for their team. This further demonstrated the fans' love and loyalty to the team, which was even more valuable.