December 19th.

A special day, forty years ago, the curtain call of the magnificent scene of mankind, the end of the Apollo moon landing program, but the end here is not really the end, the end here represents the beginning of a new era.

Now, forty years later, although most people don't know what the past is meant to be remembered, they know that it is a big day in Jena.

In the third round of the German Cup, Jena's match against Hannover 96 began.

The whole city of Jena seemed to be in full swing, and everyone rushed to the Ernst Abbe Stadium after dinner, and at 8 o'clock in the evening, everyone kept this time in mind, lest they miss the slightest time to watch the game.

So as early as 7 o'clock, the stadium was basically full.

Flags began to dance in the stands at the Ernst Abbe Stadium, and the excited fans raised their scarves and began to sing Jena's anthem.

The game hadn't even started, and the stadium was already full of jubilation.

It's just that the silence in the locker room corresponds to the outside, except for the tactical review that Haike started, basically few people spoke, although many people recovered their confidence before the game due to Ye Xin's return, but they still couldn't help but be a little nervous when it came to this moment.

One step further is higher in the sky, and the quarter-finals mean Jena will be Germany's quarter-final team, and although the German Cup is not taken seriously by some Bundesliga teams, it is a historic event for Jena.

Haike could see the nervousness of the players, so he didn't say much, and after a simple tactical review, he just nodded and asked.

"Are you all ready?"

"Ready"

"Then let's go"

The entry of the Jena players immediately caused a huge sensation among the fans, and the cheers in the sky made it impossible to hear any other sounds, even the host of the scene, Bob, had to roar at the top of his voice, but he himself estimated that no one would listen to him introduce the players, everyone was crazy, and when Ye Xin was the last to come out of the players' tunnel.

The environment that had just made Bob feel noisy was nothing more than a whisper compared to what it is now, and the Ernst Abbe Stadium seemed to explode at this moment, but the cheers that seemed scattered just now were neat.

"Ye Xin! Ye Xin! Ye Xin! ”

"Ye Xin! Ye Xin! Ye Xin! ”

Ye Xin, who was startled by the huge cheers, suddenly looked up, only to see everyone in the stands shouting their names frantically, the current Ye Xin is no longer the Ye Xin who only cared about playing football back then, he still has his own response to the enthusiastic cheers of the fans.

He raised his hand and waved at the big guy, but he didn't expect this to ignite the enthusiasm of the fans, this kind of interaction with the fans on the field is rare here in Ye Xin.

"Hey, Ye, seriously, I'm really going to be jealous of you" Nils, who was standing in front of Ye Xin, turned around.

"What? What did you say? Although there were only more than 12,000 fans in the stands, the sound they made completely overshadowed any noise on the field, so Ye Xin only saw Nils turn around and move his mouth a few times, and he couldn't hear what Nils was saying at all.

"I said, I'm going to be jealous of you!!"

"Forehead ......"

……

The sound of the scene really startled the Jena players, but after they recovered, they no longer had any tension in their hearts, and the shouts of the fans were the motivation for them to move forward like crazy, and this was Ernst Abbe.

Their home field, their lair.

On the other hand, Hannover 96, the whole team was frightened by this terrifying home atmosphere, although their home AWD arena has 50,000 places, which is several times the size of Jena, but their fans are definitely not so crazy, before the game starts, they start to go crazy, and then they still shout?

It's just that the players see the madness of the fans, and their manager Slomka sees something deeper.

Jena is now forming their own football tradition, albeit just a prototype, but Slomka is sure that as long as Jena continues to do so, they will have their own culture and traditions.

Culture and traditions?

Those who don't know may be full of doubts about this kind of mysterious question, but Slomka's 20 years of coaching has taught him that these two things are the foundation of a strong team, and although football is gradually entering the era of golden yuan football in this era, they are still the most important cornerstone.

A team without culture and tradition can't last for many years just by relying on money, and those strong teams that are burning money now all want to get this kind of thing after burning money.

A team with its own culture and traditions, no matter how ups and downs the team's career goes, as long as these two things exist, then no matter how bad the team's results are, the fans will not give up on their team, and the team will be able to climb out of the abyss sooner or later and achieve its glory again.

Unexpectedly, a dark horse that climbed out of the third division could have such a prototype in just two years, which made Slomka have to be amazed.

The Hannover 96 experience is actually an elongated history of Jena, Slomka remembers that when he first worked at Hannover 96, although he was only the coach of the youth team, he also witnessed the beginning and fall of Hannover 96.

The same team in the Bundesliga, Hannover 96 was even more legendary than Jena now, they not only eliminated Dortmund, but even eliminated Werder Bremen and Borussia Mönchengladbach, two giants who were in the wind and rain at that time, and finally won the German Cup.

It's just that the glory lasted only a few years, and due to the problems of the player's form and transfer problems, Hannover 96 slipped all the way to the third division due to repeated failures.

Fortunately, in the past few years, Hannover 96 has also accumulated a large number of fans, forming its own unique fan culture and team tradition, at the moment of falling off the altar, the team has not been defeated, year after year of accumulation and training of young players, and finally Hannover stood up again.

From the Bundesliga in '98 to the Bundesliga in 2002, they regained their glory.

And now, they are about to face a dark horse like themselves, and at this moment, Slomka suddenly felt a little emotional in his heart.

What a vibrant team, almost like Hannover back then.

It's just that......

How far can you go?