Chapter 854: Time to Face Dortmund Again!

"Borussia Dortmund! The second-best team in the country! Our fucking noisy neighbor!" Frohling slapped the whiteboard in the meeting room to get everyone’s attention. "We managed to humiliate them last season, a few months ago, on their home ground! However, things will be different right now! More difficult! So, get ready for everything!"

The players nodded solemnly, knowing that they couldn’t lose the next game at all. No, the stakes were too high, and they were not sure whether they could afford it or not.

After all, with the COVID-19 restriction was loosened, they were finally able to meet their hooligan supporters, and while it was good since their presence could fuel their spirit, in the next game, it could be backfired against them.

After all, the sentiment that all of Gelsenkirchen had toward anyone from Dortmund was never good, and losing against them would be like a slap in the town’s face. Even though it wouldn’t be their first ever defeat against Dortmund, the hostility they always received after the defeat was definitely unbearable.

Yeah, hostility.

Most of the time, Schalke fans were quite understanding, not even being bothered by the series of bad results that the team got. As long as they were afloat in the league, being far from the relegation zone, they could accept some loses, and even five loses in a row that happened last season.

However, only against Dortmund did things get escalated five to ten-fold. Everyone seemed to lose their mind, treating this as a do-or-die game.

The same could be said for the people in Dortmund, as winning meant that they had the bragging rights for a full year, and losing meant that they would curse their whole team for no one knew how long, until the grudge in their heart got healed by time, which could be quite long no matter how good the team’s performance after that.

This was the game with the title of ’The Best Team in the North Rhine-Westphalia’, and losing the game would make their lives miserable. So, yeah, no one dared to treat this game as something normal.

"First of all, the intelligence about this team is basically the same as last season," Frohling spoke once again while the screen started to change, showing the opponent’s formation this year.

"Besides Lukasz Piczcek on the right side, who is being replaced by Thomas Meunier this year, they don’t have any change in their formation. Haaland is still on top, supported by Julian Brandt, Thorgan Hazard, Jadon Sancho, and Marco Reus on the back. You know how dangerous they are, right?"

Some of the guys gulped when they saw the list of names on the screen. Yeah, compared to Schalke, Dortmund’s lineup was definitely way more luxurious.

They were the perfect combination of old veterans who still had the fuel inside them and new blood who were eager to prove that they were the best, and this combination made them one of the most terrifying offensive teams to face in the world right now.

Hell, just this year, so far, they managed to score 15 goals in their first 4 games, averaging almost 4 goals per game. This was just slightly better than Bayern Munich, who bagged 14 goals so far, including two against Schalke in the first game of the season.

Not only that, their young Norwegian striker, Erling Haaland, also shone brightly in that period. So far, he has scored 5 goals, including a hat-trick against SC Freiburg in the last game before facing Schalke.

Honestly, the only thing that tarnished their good result so far was the final score of their second game of the season, where they got outwitted by FC Augsburg in the away game and ended up losing by 2-0.

This put them in fourth place so far, still behind Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, and VfL Wolfsburg. However, Dortmund wasn’t really that worried, knowing that they were still better than the three of them there.

’Speaking of Haaland, though...’ Higo’s face turned solemn as he remembered that crazy blonde guy from Norway. ’How in the hell did he manage to fool my clairvoyant at that time?’

Yeah, even though Higo had already forgotten about this before, since no one, not even Lewandowski, managed to achieve the same feat as Haaland, once they were about to face Dortmund again, the memory of their last encounter emerged in his head.

At that time, any image flashing in his head suddenly became chaotic when it came to Haaland, as if his head couldn’t comprehend what the boy would do. This resulted in him conceding one goal, which the boy considered good enough since the opponent was too unpredictable.

Still, the mystery was lingering here, as he still couldn’t figure out what Haaland had that could prevent his ability from working. Hell, even Kumiko herself was so clueless, not knowing what was going on here.

"The data is too small. Only Haaland and that guy from Niigata managed to do that, and honestly, it is hard to find the common ground between those two, since that guy didn’t continue his football career back home. I could only analyze Haaland here, but without any comparison, I don’t have any conclusion so far."

At least, that was what Kumiko said when Higo asked her about it. Well, not that the boy could blame her for not being able to find anything, but it would be a lie if he said that he wasn’t worried about facing Haaland again.

This state also got noticed by everyone else on the team. They couldn’t help but feel strange about it, since this was the first time they saw Higo being so nervous about a game. Before, even when they were about to play against Bayern Munich, they still could see the boy’s optimism, and yet, things seemed to be different here.

"Oh, don’t be so tense, Higo! That’s just a game!" Sead Kolasinac patted his shoulder reassuringly.

"Yeah! Even though the derby will be a bit overwhelming, don’t think too much about anything else! Just try to play your best game!" Omar Mascarell added.

It seemed that they thought Higo would be nervous since this was going to be his first game against Dortmund with supporters on the stand. The boy himself just smiled weakly, not correcting their assumption. Still, inwardly, he couldn’t help but clench his fist, finding determination to face this challenge.

’Oh, well, it doesn’t matter how good Haaland is! My job is to stop him, so even if I have to die, I will never let him score! Come on!’