[{"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-90":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},483776,734,"Chapter 90 43: Topping the Table! Not for Sale! He's Klopp's Treasure! When You're Slaughtered by Bayern","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-90",90,"\u003Cp>\"Wang Shuo has now scored in three consecutive Bundesliga matches!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's hard to imagine that he's not even eighteen years old yet.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Wang Shuo opened the scoring, the match opened up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The trailing home team immediately made two substitutions to further bolster their attack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They even took off the other of their two defensive midfielders in the 4-2-3-1 formation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The price for this gamble was paid in the 84th minute when Hainauer made a late run forward. His long shot from near the top of the arc pierced Karlsruhe's goal once again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, Mainz defeated Karlsruhe 2-0 away from home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scoreline suggested a convincing victory, but the match itself was a perilous affair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, Mainz paid the price of an injury to Van der Heyden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after this round of matches, it was all worth it!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the first two rounds of the Bundesliga, only two teams had maintained a perfect record with two consecutive wins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And surprisingly, both were newly promoted teams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz and Hoffenheim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But in the third round, Hoffenheim suffered a disastrous 2-5 away defeat to Bruno Labbadia's Bayer Leverkusen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the German media put it, the Pharmacy brought Hoffenheim crashing back down to earth in this round.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, after the first three rounds, the only team with a three-game winning streak was Klopp's Mainz.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This came as a surprise to the entire German football scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Who could have imagined that this small team, with almost no financial investment, would climb to the top of the table after just three rounds?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This immediately garnered intense attention from the German media.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When analyzing Mainz's three-game winning streak to start the season, two individuals were impossible to ignore.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Head coach Klopp, needless to say.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His iconic tactical style was considered one-of-a-kind in Germany.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the German media and fans were already very familiar with him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the other was a fresh face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The under-18 Chinese starlet, Wang Shuo!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This season's Bundesliga was star-studded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was Luca Tony from Italy, Ribery from France, Pizarro from Peru, the Brazilian genius Diego, Croatia's Olic, Portuguese international Almeida, and even former European Cup sensation Volosin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention the recently emerging talents like Griffith, Dzeko, and Demba Ba.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that's not even counting Germany's homegrown stars like Gomez, Helmes, Kuranyi, Kiesling, Klose, and Podolski.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which one of them wasn't a star renowned throughout the European football scene?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet, after three rounds of the new Bundesliga season, the top two players on the goal-scoring chart were both relatively unknown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In first place was the Bosnian center-forward for Hoffenheim, Ibisevic, with four goals in the first three rounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The 24-year-old Ibisevic was nicknamed \"Super Ibi\" by the Hoffenheim fans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then there was Wang Shuo from China, with three goals in the first three rounds, who wasn't even eighteen years old.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What was most astonishing was that, in addition to their goals, both Ibisevic and Wang Shuo also had two assists each.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This sent shockwaves through the entire German football scene!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>'Are all the young players this fierce nowadays?'\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hoffenheim's excellent performance, however, had been somewhat anticipated by the public.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, backed by a wealthy owner, Hoffenheim had invested heavily over the summer, bringing in formidable players like defensive midfielder Gustavo, fullback Beck, and former national team goalkeeper Hildebrand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Mainz had invested almost nothing over the summer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How on earth did this small team, nicknamed [Arsch] by German fans, manage to sit at the top of the table?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In stark contrast to the dark horse Mainz at the top, traditional powerhouse Bayern Munich was sitting in just eighth place after three matches.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a disappointing home draw against Hamburg in the first round, they were held to a 1-1 away draw by Dom's Dortmund in the second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, Bayern bounced back in the third round, thrashing Hertha Berlin 4-1 at home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ribery was out with an injury and had yet to make an appearance this season.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Goals from Tony, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, and Klose helped Bayern secure the victory at home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bayern thrashed Hertha Berlin 4-1, Bayer Leverkusen thrashed Hoffenheim 5-2, and Hamburg defeated Bielefeld 4-2 away...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the exception of Wolfsburg, who now had two draws and one loss, all the pre-season favorites made a strong comeback this round.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the third round of the Bundesliga, the league went on hiatus for a two-week international break in September.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mainz didn't have many senior internationals, but a few players were called up, and some youth team players also had to return to their home countries for their respective competitions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Wang Shuo's performance in Germany was outstanding and had caused a huge stir back in China, he wasn't called up to any national team squad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp, meanwhile, continued to train and prepare with the players who were not on international duty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because in the fourth round, Mainz would be hosting Bayern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This would be Mainz's second major test of the season!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"From February 2001 until now, I've led Mainz in 274 official matches and faced Bayern seven times.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During a break in training, Klopp shared his thoughts on facing Bayern with Wang Shuo, Subotic, Foyelner, and a few others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The embarrassing part is, out of those seven matches, I've lost six and drawn one. I've never beaten Bayern!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In those seven matches, Mainz scored 11 goals and conceded 24.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We were held scoreless only once, and that was in the 2006-07 season, round 17, a disastrous 4-0 defeat at home to Bayern.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We were relegated that season.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Klopp scanned the players before him, his eyes filled with fierce determination!\u003C\u002Fp>",930,"2026-05-30T11:12:32.550Z","2026-06-01T04:31:05.348Z",1,"novelbin.me","a7cbc06e2e4f9aee41523df0d3ee4c0956d496452d4e6d96ed1b2bffa27443e1","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-91","the-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-chapter-89",400,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-god-of-football-starts-with-passive-skills-cover.jpg"]