Chapter 80: The Battle of the Second and Third Places

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Hoffenheim's luck seemed to have turned upward, as they halted the slide with a clean 3-0 win over Bochum in the 27th round of the league. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoThere is also good news from the German Football Association.

The DFB's disciplinary committee did not impose any bans on Pogatts and Fabricio, who were five minutes late for the drug test, not a single game, but only a fine of 75,000 euros for Hoffenheim.

This incident made the media very dissatisfied, and they seized on the relationship between Hope and the senior management of the Football Association to make a big fuss. It is disgraceful for the German Football Association to believe that Hope is using his personal relationship to seek improper benefits for his club.

Hope has a very good relationship with many people in the German sports community, because he invests not only in football, but also in ice hockey, handball, golf and other sports, and Hoffenheim is just one part of his huge sports empire. Beckenbauer, the former president of Bayern Munich, is his golf buddy, and the former national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann also has a good relationship with him. Zwanzig and Hope have a close personal relationship, and when Hope's team was scandalized by many media as an upstart team like Chelsea, and Hopby was made Germany's Abramowicz, it was the president of the German Football Association who stood up to support Hope. In addition, the founder of Hoffenheim women's football team is named Ralph. Zwanzig, this man is Hill. Zwanzig's son, and Hoffenheim Women are also part of Hoffenheim FC...... But no matter how noisy the media is, Hoffenheim FC has not responded to these doubts and criticisms, and they are indeed getting cheap now, so don't sell them anymore. Rangnick only issued a statement saying that the team would learn from this lesson and accept the punishment of the German Football Association.

The DFB explained the reasons for the punishment in its decision: "The evidence shows that this incident is not a typical doping problem, but simply a violation of the DFB's anti-doping regulations, which is due to a management error on Hoffenheim." "This penalty means that the incident is not serious, Hoffenheim will not be penalized for it, no one will be banned, and Hoffenheim has nothing to lose except to send some money.

You have to know that the German media can have been hyping up what two players have been banned for a year before the decision came out, and Hoffenheim was penalized for such a result. Now that the real results are in, they are undoubtedly like being slapped in the face.

In this regard, the German "Bild" said with a little irony: "Only a fine of 75,000 euros? For Dietma. For Mr. Hope, that money may not be enough for him to go to Florida for a lap......"

"To say that the punishment is a fine for the richest people, I don't think it's a punishment at all, I just think it's appeasement...... If you can get away with it because you have money, what do the little clubs think? Where is the dignity of German football? ”

The German media is still hyping up the incident, but the German Football Association and Hoffenheim FC have tacitly agreed not to continue to talk about the drug test incident.

Hoffenheim's goal is still to play well and try to win their first professional league title in the club's history – they finished second in the Bundesliga last season and did not win the title.

The German Football Association does not want to say anything more on this matter, and if you say too much, you will lose. The media hyped up for a while, ignoring them, and naturally diverted interest.

β€»β€»β€»On April 18, Hoffenheim took on Karlsruhe away. This time, there was no media talk before the game, saying that Hoffenheim are not doing well at the moment and Karlsruhe should be able to win. Although Karlsruhe is also a relegation team.

They said this before the last round, and they were slapped in the face by Hoffenheim. No one expected Hoffenheim to win against Bochum, which vowed to be relegated, so easily.

Although they don't talk about the competition anymore, they focus on the drug testing incident. Pogatts, one of the parties who was five minutes late for the drug test, was in the starting line-up, while centre-back Fabricio was also on the bench.

The German media have argued that the two men should be banned, and there have even been tabloids that Rangnick should ban Pogatts and Fabricio for a year so that he and his team can earn respect...... Of course, the unbounded remarks were slammed by the local Sinsheim newspaper Rhine-Neckar, who thought the journalist was having a brain problem. As the local media that has been covering Hoffenheim, the Rhein-Neckar newspaper has kept a low profile in the drug testing incident, and apart from mentioning the incident, it has not been as hyped as other media outlets, especially those in Munich, and they have left more space to report on the team's preparations, training and games, as well as all kinds of lace.

Despite the pre-match media reports that Hoffenheim and the DFB had some discord, Hoffenheim still withstood the pressure to beat Karlsruhe 3-0 away.

Karlsruhe are currently second from bottom and are among the teams that need to score points in the final rounds in order to avoid relegation.

After the start of the game, the home team was full of momentum, because they needed to be relegated, so they were full of motivation and fighting spirit.

There was a dangerous shot in the opening five minutes.

Rangnick was unhappy with the team's defense off the field, as is the case with young teams, who tend to slump when they are in adversity, and when things are going well, they are prone to complacency.

It's hard to say what the team's previous series of poor performances had anything to do with the curse, but Rangnick thinks it has something to do with the team's complacency. This complacency is not obvious or reflected in certain things, but it is subtly affecting the mentality of the players. There is a technical statistic that shows the change in the mentality of the team - in terms of running distance, the average distance traveled by Hoffenheim players per game in the first half of the season was 12 kilometres, and now it is only 10 kilometres.

The lack of movement shows that the players are not paying enough attention during the game, and many times they choose to walk on the field, which is not as active as in the first half of the season.

There are only a few people who can still run actively as always, and captain Chu Zhongtian is one of them, and he runs an average distance of more than 12 kilometers per game. But football is not a one-man sport, and no matter how well he plays alone, he can't improve the performance of the whole team.

But against Bochum, the team regained that energy and ran aggressively throughout the game, so it was normal for them to win the game 3-0.

The same was true of this game, although Karlsruhe took the initiative at the beginning, but soon those advantages were evaporated as the Hoffenheim players were actively running.

In the 28th minute, the front of the Chu Zhongtian penalty area suddenly split sides, Obasi burst into the penalty area unguarded and received the ball, and then faced the goalkeeper who attacked and blocked the angle, he hit the goal vigorously, and the football was from Karlsruhe goalkeeper Marcus. Miller's (markus_miller) head went into the top corner of the goal, 1:0!

Karlsruhe came close to equalising five minutes later, though, when Australian international Kennedy (joshua_kennedy) played a clever pass to his striker partner Freis (sebastian_freis), who was deflected wide of goalkeeper Haas.

Although the goal was not scored, it was a huge morale boost for the home team, and they realized that Hoffenheim's defence had many holes to exploit.

Karlsruhe, who had to fight for their survival next, launched a frantic counter-attack, with several dangerous shots that sent Hoffenheim fans into a cold sweat.

But Hoffenheim's chances often come in the middle of a frantic counter-attack.

Chu Zhongtian calmly observed the situation, even when his goal was in turmoil. In the forty-fourth minute, such an opportunity was finally seized by him.

In the 44th minute, he launched a long pass from the backfield, Ibisevic's header was ferried to Salihovic, who was following him, and then turned and ran inside, Salihovic took the ball to the side, and then crossed, Ibisevic leaned on the opponent's central defender Delpic (dimo_drpic) in the middle, and then half-turned and swept, and the football drilled between the legs of goalkeeper Miller, 2:0!

"Ibisevic scored his 25th goal of the season! Helmers, who are second in the scorer list, are still eight goals away from him, and it looks like Ibisevic has almost won the Golden Boot this season! ”

The 2-0 lead in the first half made the second half even better, and the atmosphere in the dressing room was relaxed at half-time. Falling behind by two goals puts Karlsruhe under a lot of pressure.

Just three minutes into the second half, Hoffenheim doubled the scoreline. In the 48th minute, the home team's 20-year-old young defender Cherozzi (stefano_celozzi) won the game in Demba. Ba and Ibisevic let go of the ball and conceded in midfield. Demba. After breaking the ball, it was passed to Salihovic, who crossed again, this time by Obasi, who scored with a header, 3:0!

At this point, the suspense of this game has been lost.

The same goes for the final result of the competition.

Hoffenheim made it two wins in a row after losing 1-0 to Hamburg and won both games with a score of 3-0.

This was a huge morale boost for the team.

In the locker room after the game, everyone ate together to replenish their energy, talked and laughed, and joked again, and the harmonious atmosphere returned to the team.

Curses or something, no one mentions it anymore, not even Demba. Ba also thought it was just a joke.

Although Hoffenheim have won two in a row, their standings remain unchanged and they are still second in the league. VfL Wolfsburg also won in the same league round, beating Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 at home. It was their 11th win in a row, and Wolfsburg were not expected to win the title at the start of the season, but they took advantage of Bayern Munich's inconsistent second-half performances to quietly rise to the top of the league.

Especially in the last round of the league, Wolfsburg defeated Bayern Munich 5:1 at home, which made the whole team full of fighting spirit and confidence.

Hoffenheim also saw Bayern as their biggest target in the first half of the season, but Bayern has now been replaced by Wolfsburg. Looks like Hoffenheim is going to reorient the muzzle.

After 28 league games, Hoffenheim is second in the league with 61 points, while Wolfsburg is only one point away from 62 points, while Hertha Berlin is third with 60 points, Bayern Munich is fourth with 58 points, Stuttgart is fifth with 57 points and Hamburg is sixth with 55 points.

The top six are all close in points, and although there are still six rounds to go before the end of the league, the race for the league title has already begun.

Hoffenheim will face a strong opponent at home, Hertha Berlin, who is currently ranked third, while Bayern Munich will have to fight against Schalke 04, Hamburg will challenge Dortmund, who are ranked seventh with 52 points, these three games are strong conversations, while Stuttgart, who is third in the league, and Wolfsburg, who are first in the league, are relatively weak, Stuttgart is at home to Eintracht Frankfurt, and Wolfsburg is away to challenge Cottage, and they should not have a problem winning their respective opponents. In this way, the wins and losses of the first few games are very important.

The most eye-catching of this round of the league is naturally Hoffenheim's home game against Hertha Berlin, which is a contest between second and third in the league, if Hoffenheim win, it will open the gap to Hertha Berlin, and if they lose, Hertha Berlin will replace Hoffenheim in the second place in the league. Similarly, if Hertha Berlin loses, Stuttgart and Bayern Munich will be watching from behind...... Hoffenheim had a smooth first half of the season, losing just three games, the last of which was to Hertha Berlin, and after that game Hoffenheim went on a ten-game unbeaten run. Knowing that they were "doubled" by Bremen at home.

Prior to the defeat to Hertha Berlin, Hoffenheim had won a staggering five-game winning streak, a result that was impressive enough for a promoted horse. But the team lost to Hertha Berlin in a state of extreme self-aggrandizement.

For the team's head coach, Rangnick, the defeat to Hertha Berlin was a good thing, as it poured cold water on the team and reminded them that they were all just promoted horses.

It was because of their defeat to Hertha Berlin that they were able to draw against the mighty Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.

Rangnick was proud to say that this is a team that can learn a lot from every defeat and find strength in that failure to move on.

However, this does not mean that his team can allow defeat at the crucial moment of the title race.

Before the game, the head coaches of both sides talked about Chu Zhongtian. Rangnick said that Chu Zhongtian is the core of the team, and he is very satisfied with Chu Zhongtian's performance and role in the team since this season, which is more than one time he has praised Chu Zhongtian in public, but the team did not express jealousy and dissatisfaction with Chu Zhongtian's "special treatment", because everyone knows that he is worthy. He deserves these praises, he deserves these praises, he deserves the praise of the media. Everyone knows that under these accolades is the responsibility and pressure of being the captain and the heart of the team. Everything has to be paid to be rewarded, and how rich the reward is, how much hard work must be paid first.

The head coach of Hertha Berlin also talked about Chu Zhongtian, although he also praised Chu Zhongtian's performance, but he talked more about how to deal with Chu Zhongtian.

"We already have a way to deal with him, but I'm sorry I can't announce it here."

In fact, everyone knows what that means - just look at the first half of the season.

In that game, Hertha Berlin used a foul strategy, constantly violating Chu Zhongtian with rough movements and fouls, so that he could not control the ball well, and once he lost the ball without protection, the opponent could directly face the back line, so Chu Zhongtian seemed to shrink back and perform poorly when attacking.

Hertha Berlin will obviously do the same in this game.

In the past, when I was in Ligue 1, many teams were thinking about how to deal with Chu Zhongtian, and they tried many methods, but none of them seemed to be once and for all, as long as Coach Metz was smart enough, these tactics could often only be complacent.

Will Hertha Berlin's foul tactics follow in their footsteps?

It's really hard to say.

However, Hertha Berlin are confident of an away win at Hoffenheim.

Hertha Berlin's defensive midfielder Kachar (gojko_kacar) said of Chu Zhongtian with some disdain: "He mostly hides behind, from where anyone can calmly organize attacks. If he dares to come up and face me, I will give him a taste of Serbian football! ”

The young Serbian midfielder moved to Hertha Berlin from the domestic league during the winter break last season and spent €3 million to play the rest of the game and score a goal. Now it is the main defender of Hertha Berlin.

Attacking and defending, he was better defensively, and at Hertha Berlin, manager Favre also used him as an interceptor.

If you don't plan to use foul tactics, I'm afraid that this old man will become a weapon to keep an eye on Chu Zhongtian.

Chu Zhongtian did not scold back for such a blatant provocation by Kachar, he said in an interview with Chinese media: "Everyone has the right to express their own opinions, and I have nothing to say about this." Anyway, football is not played with the mouth, and we will talk about it when it comes to the game. ”

Chu Zhongtian said that the cloud was light and light, but in fact, he still had some impression of this person. The last time the two sides met, Kachar was among those who kept fouling him.

It seems that the success of defending himself this time gave him a sense of accomplishment...... In that case, let's try it this time.

It's useless to talk about football in your mouth, no matter how beautiful it is, and you can fight psychological warfare with me? It's useless for the media all over Munich to fight psychological warfare with me, let alone you twenty-two-year-old guy...... Chu Zhongtian in training shot the football into the goal guarded by Hildebrand in a five-on-five small field confrontation, and the fans applauded and cheered on the sidelines.

"Chu's state is just right, it seems that we have a better chance of winning this game!" The fans were talking excitedly.

(To be continued)