[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills":3,"chapter-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-175":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","The God of Football Starts With Passive Skills",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},484011,734,"Chapter 175 - 55: Devil’s Footwork! Tricking Neuer! That Saucy Stop! He Saves Mainz Again","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-175",175,"\u003Cp>But Wang Shuo was already long gone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he watched in despair, Wang Shuo kicked the ball into the unguarded net.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"YEAH!!!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After tapping the ball into the empty net, Wang Shuo leaped into the air in excitement, pumping his right fist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire Bruch Road Stadium erupted in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over 20,000 Mainz fans roared Wang Shuo’s name like a tidal wave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Shuo excitedly ran off the pitch to the sideline, raising his arms high to soak in the cheers from the stands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His teammates swarmed him from behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In the 88th minute, the substitute Wang Shuo breaches Schalke 04’s goal with a spectacular individual effort!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Another spectacular Swing Pass!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We’re seeing Ronaldo’s signature move, and to see it executed by Wang Shuo like that... it’s truly spectacular!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And look at that slick first touch! You could call it a work of art. It’s simply incredible.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"To receive a long ball and bring it under control so perfectly—it’s a testament to Wang Shuo’s technical foundation.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Neuer charged out, only to be humiliated by the Swing Pass!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But for a young goalkeeper, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Neuer still needs to become more mature and composed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What should have been a calm, controlled action became a frantic, stumbling mess.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It was completely uncalled for.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Of course, what we should really be remembering is this spectacular goal from Wang Shuo!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"He has saved Mainz yet again!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, thanks to a goal from substitute Wang Shuo, Mainz defeated Schalke 04 1-0 and advanced to the DFB-Pokal semi-finals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other three teams to advance to the DFB-Pokal semi-finals were Bayer Leverkusen, Hamburg, and Bayern Munich.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz’s opponent in the semi-finals would be Pharmacy Leverkusen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other matchup was Bayern Munich against Hamburg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This undoubtedly made this season’s DFB-Pokal packed with excitement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp and Labbadia were both renowned young managers in Germany, and both had been in the 2nd Bundesliga just last season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz and Bayer Leverkusen were two of the most eye-catching teams in the Bundesliga this season, and their styles of play were also very similar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pharmacy’s overall strength was a significant cut above Mainz’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Mainz had made a habit of upsetting stronger opponents this season, so it was hardly a surprise anymore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, it was still anyone’s game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Mainz had one major weakness: they had never won a major trophy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s right, not the Bundesliga, not the 2nd Bundesliga, not the German Third Division, not even the DFB-Pokal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In their entire history, Mainz had never won any of them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a club with a century of history, Mainz’s situation was extremely unusual.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other matchup, of course, was Germany’s famous North-South derby.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Southern King, Bayern, traveling to face the Northern King, Hamburg—it was guaranteed to be the most anticipated match for German football fans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially since Hamburg had been performing quite well this season, with their points total on par with Bayern’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals concluded, the German media was unanimous in putting Wang Shuo on the front-page headlines.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In particular, the photo of him rounding Neuer in their one-on-one became widely circulated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For one, the photo itself was stunning, perfectly capturing the expressions of both players at that exact moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For another, Neuer’s style of play was highly controversial in Germany.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By comparison, Germans still preferred the style of Adler, the \"Little Eagle.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Bayern’s Hennes had always been a die-hard Neuer fan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was adamant that in the future of the German Football Scene, the one to take Kahn’s place would undoubtedly be Neuer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that Neuer would one day join Bayern!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This gave Wang Shuo a secret thrill.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’He had just made a fool of the future Bayern goalkeeper.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’It was just like when Ronaldo showed up Kahn in the 2002 World Cup.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The German media lavished high praise on Wang Shuo’s performance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But they still maintained that Wang Shuo’s individual flash of brilliance couldn’t mask Mainz’s overall slump.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As the season wears on, the effects of the Klopp Syndrome on Mainz will only grow stronger!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>「Gelsenkirchen, Germany.」\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Luten’s office, one could see the magnificent Veltins Arena in the distance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at this moment, the Dutch head coach of Schalke 04 stood before the window, his back a picture of dejection.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Schalke 04 was eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by Mainz, he and his team had returned to Gelsenkirchen only to be cornered by furious fans, who gave them a vicious tongue-lashing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The club’s management had also called him in to discuss his assessment of the team’s current situation and his plans to address it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The implication was clear: both the management and the fans were deeply dissatisfied with the team’s performance this season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Last season, Schalke 04 had finished 3rd in the Bundesliga, securing a spot in the Champions League qualifiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, finishing 3rd in the Bundesliga meant they had to go through the third qualifying round for the Champions League.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luten’s team was thrashed 4-0 away from home by La Liga’s Atletico Madrid in a humiliating defeat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time, he had been able to brush it off, using the excuse that he had only just taken charge of the team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then, when they played in the UEFA Cup, they failed to even advance from the group stage—finishing dead last—which left everyone at Schalke 04 extremely displeased.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Luten felt he had been wronged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’In the group stage, they had drawn Premier League’s Manchester City, Ligue 1’s Paris Saint-Germain, La Liga’s Santander Athletic, and Eredivisie’s Twente.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’All five teams were evenly matched. It was normal for any of them to win or lose against the others.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now, 22 matches into the Bundesliga season, Schalke 04 was sitting in 9th place, and on top of that, they had just been eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by Mainz. Luten’s situation at Schalke 04 could only be described as a quagmire.\u003C\u002Fp>",985,"2026-05-30T11:12:32.829Z","2026-06-01T04:31:05.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","c868a489b95308fc0264f71bf9e7edcc655497062cf5cc32d506272dd93bee4d","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-176","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-174",400,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-cover.jpg"]