Chapter 636: The Revierderby!

"So, what is going on with Frohling-sensei?" Higo couldn’t help but ask in a voice barely a whisper in one of the team’s training sessions. "He is not mad about the draw result a few days ago, right?"

It was two days since their game against Fortuna Dusseldorf II, and now, they were already back in the city preparing for the next fixture next Sunday. However, the moment Higo entered the training ground, he could feel the oppressive aura in the air, and the boy couldn’t help but gulp quite nervously, not wanting to get near the source of it.

Unfortunately, the so-called source was none other than the head coach himself, so he had to grit his teeth and brave himself to get closer to the tiger’s den. The fortunate part was that he didn’t have to do it alone, as the other players had already started the training.

Still, no one dared to utter a single word, let alone let out a joke here. They all could see the big frown on Frohling’s face, and the man was unusually quiet during the training session. No one wanted to test their luck by poking the bear, so they just spent the session in dead silence.

Fortunately, the first day after the away game didn’t give them that much of a training schedule. They just warmed up their body again after having to play and take a full day’s rest continuously, and the real training would only start the next day.

It wasn’t until the coach himself left that the oppressive aura disappeared, and some of the boys couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh. That was also when Higo asked that question, wondering if the coach still thought about the unfortunate draw against Dusseldorf a few days ago.

To his surprise, though, the rest of the team shook their head simultaneously. It was clear that they knew what was going on here, and somehow, Higo felt like he was being left out by his teammates.

"You haven’t really watched our schedule, haven’t you?" Fabian asked helplessly, noticing the slight ugliness on Higo’s face.

"Eh?" Higo blinked, getting distracted from his own thought. "Is it related to our next opponent?" He asked, wondering what kind of opponent could make the coach worry. After all, they had done a great job so far, and there should be no team that could make them tremble in fear in this division.

"Well, you can say so." Jonas Hofmann, the team captain, nodded solemnly. His expression was somber as if he was getting ready for a war, and Higo couldn’t help but gulp when he saw that. "The next game will be the biggest one in the season. We are going to fight against Ludenscheid-Nord at home, so losing is not an option here!"

Ah... That was it. Ludenscheid-Nord was what the fanatic in Gelsenkirchen called Borussia Dortmund, their rival just 30 km from the city. That was not a nice nickname, as it was intended to insult Dortmund’s identity.

Higo finally found out why the atmosphere was so heavy right now. Before joining this team, he had already done a little bit of research, and the boy knew that there was a deep rivalry between Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund in the so-called Revierderby.

Well, deep rivalry was a light word to describe it. They loathed each other, always coming at each other with the intention to kill. It wasn’t just because they were the two biggest teams in this region. No, their hatred of each other could be traced back to the time right after World War 2—yeah, that long ago—and honestly, Higo himself still didn’t understand how such a simple game could be this big, even regarded as a do-or-die game.

He even asked Kumiko to explain this matter to him, and the girl just said, "It is a long history, but you have to understand one thing here. They could accept so many bad things about their club, but losing against Dortmund is not an option. So, make sure that when the game comes, you don’t suffer against them!"

This alone was enough to alarm Higo. After all, Kumiko had never urged him to win something, just giving encouragement to try his best or not put too much pressure. This just showed how big a Schalke-Dortmund game was for this city.

Even though the game next Sunday would only be the second team, that didn’t dismiss people’s enthusiasm about it. Hell, even if it was just a U-15 game, they would still come and support the club passionately, as their biggest obsession was to dominate Dortmund in every category possible.

That was why some of the local boys here were so solemn, being driven by a great sense of responsibility to win this game.

However, that wasn’t the only reason why the coach was so gloomy today. Once everyone gathered around, he stood in front of them to deliver the bomb that could explode the whole team in a very bad way.

"Bad news from the first team: Wagner wants to have Morita, Fabian, and Hofmann join the first team for their next game."

David Wagner was the first team’s head coach, and while Frohling just said it plainly, the content was enough to make every single one of the boys drop their jaws in shock.

"Say, what?!" Calvin Breckelmann, the team’s second-captain, shrieked in disbelief. "Those are two of our captains and our best player so far! The boss knows what the game meant for this city; why would he try to sabotage us like this?!"

The others were also in disbelief, and even the three players whose names were called didn’t feel happy about this promotion. They knew they were good enough to join the main team, but to be dragged before the most important game of the season like this definitely didn’t bode well for the team.

"Oh, I can tell you that he knows exactly what this Revierderby means for this city." The coach growled in anger. "He is just petty and doesn’t want us to win since his team has already lost in this derby two weeks ago. He doesn’t want the people here to think that the second team is better, so he wants to suppress us this way."

This got a silence for a full minute from the players before hell finally broke loose on the pitch.