109 Lose to Kahn

In the 14th round of the league, Kaiserslautern took the home court and slaughtered the visiting Rostock 4:0, and then ushered in two weeks of national team training and game day.

On November 18, Kaiserslautern was a visit to Borussia Mönchengladbach to challenge this Bundesliga team led by Tiger Effenberg, but Borussia Mönchengladbach's situation is relatively bad. He is currently on the verge of relegation zone, and Tiger Effenberg cannot help, after all, he only has one person.

After 90 minutes of the game, Kaiserslautern defeated his opponent 3:1 away.

Three days later, Kaiserslautern defeated his newly promoted brother Wolfsburg 3-0 away. Although international players such as Peron and Denilson returned to the main lineup, their performance was average. The reason why Kaiserslautern was able to win was more because of Larson's outbreak. The Swedes won three goals in this game.

By the way, Flins, who started the game with Deco, played the most outstanding game after joining Kaiserslautern. Not only did he contribute two assists, he also performed well on the defensive end. He was named second only to Larson, the player who performed a hat trick by the kicker.

Flins also showed his confidence through this game and won the praise of fans.

A week later, Kaiserslautern, who had enough time to rest, took the lead at home. The team sent all their main players to play and defeated the visiting Hamburg 4-0 at home, winning a key game.

It kicked off almost at the same time. Bayern Munich challenged Leverkusen away. With two equalizations, Kirsten's hat-trick made Bayern Munich finally hate the Hubran Stadium, and the gap between the green Hollywood and Kaiserslautern also widened to 4 points.

Kaiserslautern ranked first in the league with 15 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in 17 league rounds, winning the league half-time championship, while Bayern Munich ranked second with 42 points, while Leverkusen ranked third, who only scored 35 points in the half-time.

In this way, the most popular teams in the Bundesliga this season are located in Kaiserslautern and Bayern Munich, especially Kaiserslautern. This newly promoted team this season has performed very steadily in the Bundesliga, without the indifference or panic of the newly promoted team.

However, many authoritative media are worried about Kaiserslautern's second half. After all, there are precedents of many newly promoted teams that prove that they performed well in the first half because their opponents ignored them and lacked experience in dealing with them. However, after half a season, they have figured out how to deal with Kaiserslautern.

"The second half is the key to really determining the success or failure of Kaiserslautern this season!"

As if to confirm this, four days after the 17th round of the league, the German Cup was eliminating the quarterfinals of 16. Kaiserslautern lost 2-1 away to Bayern Munich. Trapatoni's team struggled to win the Bundesliga Red Devils with two goals from Elber, and qualified to advance to the next round, eliminating Kaiserslautern out of the German Cup.

The visiting dressing room of the Olympic Stadium is better than the home team dressing room of the Fritz Walter Stadium, with more upscale decoration and more complete facilities. In a word of charm, even their seats are softer than the seats of the Fritz Walter Stadium.

After the game, Yang Cheng took the players back to the locker room from the court in shame. No one spoke during the whole process and everyone was sulking.

In this game, Kaiserslautern took the absolute initiative, with a ball possession rate of 43:57. Kaiserslautern was higher than Bayern, with a number of shots of 7:16. Kaiserslautern even scored 6 shots, Bayern had only 3 times, but Kaiserslautern scored 1 goal, but Bayern scored 2.

There was no controversial penalty in the whole game. It can be said that Kaiserslautern lost in this game and had nothing to say.

With one goal in the first place, but Bayern scored two goals in a row, Yang Cheng undoubtedly suffered the most painful lesson since his coaching career.

Originally, he was confident in this game. He felt that he would definitely fail again after he had a starting lineup with full attack power away. However, the Italians did choose to be conservative, but arranged a targeted counterattack, followed by director Elber's reversal.

Young, aggressive, make mistakes, lack of experience... Yang Cheng can find a lot of excuses for this game, but he doesn't!

"We lost!" Yang Cheng broke the silence in the locker room.

The players were all a little surprised because they never gave up. Even in the game that lost to Dortmund, Yang Cheng was still sure that his team should win, but now he actually admitted to losing!

"If you lose, you lose. I don't know, and I don't want to make excuses for myself. We really lost!" Yang Cheng admitted generously because he has never been a person who can't afford to lose.

Those who can't afford to lose will never be an excellent head coach in their entire lives!

"This is the case with football matches. If someone wins, there will be people who lose. This is normal. We cannot always be winners, because there is no team that will win forever, so we will lose. There is nothing to be ashamed of!"

Yang Cheng stood in the middle of the locker room, and all the players' eyes were focused on him.

"The game is over. What we need to do now is not to continue to regret and feel guilty about the loss of this game, but should stand outside the game and look at the process of this game again with a neutral attitude. Why do we lose? Where did we lose?"

The players all lowered their heads. Since Yang Cheng coached this team, they seem to have lost very few goals. Whether in the Bundesliga second or the Cup of Winners, they have been used to winning, but now they have lost a key knockout match and were eliminated from the German Cup by Bayern Munich. This is the first time for them, and the blow is inevitably a little bigger.

"Although I lost this game, I am still very pleased. At least we adhered to our tactical philosophy. We are always thinking about attacking. We actively want to reverse the game. Unfortunately, the opponent's defense is too solid, and we have to reflect on whether our offensive methods are too single?"

Speaking of this, as the team's number one scorer, Fanny lowered his head in shame because he seemed to be staring in this game and completely lost his shot. Especially under the interference of his opponent, he almost did nothing. His only four shots were saved by Kahn as if he was helpless, the other two were too weak, and the other one was wrong.

The same is true for everyone else in the team!

It has to be admitted that Kahn showed his patron saint level strength in this critical battle. He resolved at least four chances of scoring in Kaiserslautern. His performance can be described as almost perfect. His outstanding performance greatly boosted the fighting spirit of Bayern players and defeated the morale of Kaiserslautern players.

Kahn used his hands, his fighting spirit and performance to prove that goalkeepers can also become the core of the team!

Yang Cheng had nothing to say when he lost to such a person.

"Three days later, the 18th round of the league is, and you all should know better than me. We have to face Bayern Munich at home!" Yang Cheng thought of the two games at the beginning of the season.

I don't know if it was a coincidence. The League Cup final and the first round of the league were 3 days apart, and the German Cup final 16 knockout match was 3 days apart from the 18th round of the Bundesliga. Kaiserslautern and Bayern Munich were entangled all season.

At the beginning of the season, Kaiserslautern defeated Bayern Munich and won the League Cup championship with his victory in the League Cup final. Then he defeated Bayern 2-0 away. Now the situation seems to have reversed. Bayern reversed Kaiserslautern 2-1. Can they also defeat Kaiserslautern in one go?

Yang Cheng looked at the players in front of him, all of them were holding their heads, looking listless, and had not yet come out of the game's defeat. However, as the team's head coach, he certainly could not continue to let the team continue like this.

"I'll give you a choice now, and you will decide how we should play against Bayern in three days?" Yang Cheng gritted his teeth, "There are still 3 days left. We will decide the roster the night before the game and the game tactics, but this time the situation is different from the past."

Yang Cheng seemed very determined, "This time, the team's tactics is decided, and the person who decides the team's starting lineup is not me, but you. Let you tell me, how should we play in this game three days later, should we continue to attack? Or should we shrink and defend? Should we strive for a draw and avoid failure? Or should we take the initiative to attack and defeat Bayern, and the shame of Yixue's defeat in this game?"

"I will wait for you to make a decision. Three days later, pre-war preparations will be held. Tell me the answer. If you decide to retreat, then I will let you back. If you decide to take the initiative, I will accompany you to fight for a fucking battle!"

Yang Cheng kept nodding, "You think about it carefully, let me know if you have the answer!" After that, he turned around and left the locker room. As the head coach, he would also attend the post-match press conference.

After finally winning Kaiserslautern, Trapatoni looked in a good mood. At least he wouldn't rant any more. He answered media questions and was very polite and gentle.

As a loser, although he was a little embarrassed, he didn't seem to care at all.

"There is no doubt that Kaiserslautern is an excellent team, especially the team's offensive ability is definitely the top in the Bundesliga, and their ability to create opportunities is outstanding in Europe!" The white-haired Italian first smiled and praised Kaiserslautern, but everyone knew that it would not be so simple.

Sure enough, he quickly changed his voice, "But I'm glad we found a way to restrain Kaiserslautern. At 1:0, my players did not lose confidence in the game. We still insisted on our tactics and finally got results and reversed Kaiserslautern. This was very, very difficult."

Trapatoni showed a nouveau riche smile, "At least, we should be the first team to reverse Kaiserslautern, in the past two seasons!"

The reporters below nodded in the same direction after thinking for a while.

The most well-known feature of Kaiserslautern coached by Yang Cheng is the integrity and offensive football. Another point is its tenacious fighting spirit, so this team has almost never been reversed, and even the games where people scored 2 goals are pitifully few, but now it has been reversed and defeated by Bayern.

Trapatoni mentioned this matter at this time, obviously not to show off, but to further attack Yang Cheng.

"May I ask, Mr. Trapatoni, you said you have found a way to restrain Kaiserslautern. Does that mean that you are sure to win the league three days later?" A reporter raised his hand and asked.

Trapatoni was in a good mood and smiled brightly. He nodded and said, "I am very confident that although everything is possible on the football field, I believe that as long as we can maintain the form and performance of this game, we can completely defeat Kaiserslautern away and then reverse Kaiserslautern in the league to win the championship!"

This season, Bayern fans have long complained about Bayern's long-term subordination under Kaiserslautern. If Trapatoni cannot reverse Kaiserslautern to win the championship, even if he is re-elected, he will definitely be drowned by Bayern fans because he is not even as good as a team of promoted teams.

Afterwards, the media asked Trapatoni several questions in succession. The Italian obviously would not miss the opportunity to attack Yang Cheng and Kaiserslautern. He tried every means to shift the topic to the attack on Kaiserslautern.

In order to ignite the atmosphere of the press conference, the media immediately shifted their focus to Yang Cheng.

"Hello, Mr. Yang Cheng, what do you think of this game?"

Yang Cheng suddenly remembered a very famous saying from Ferguson in later generations and sneered slightly, "We are not lucky. Bayern has a god-like Kahn, but we are also lucky, because Bayern has only one Kahn!"

The media were immediately amused by Yang Cheng's witty remarks and they all rushed to record them one by one.

"Are you suggesting that the signings for Kaiserslautern's loss in this game was Kahn's outstanding performance?"

Yang Cheng shrugged, "This is only one of the reasons, but not all!"

"Then what do you think is the main reason for Kaiserslautern's loss in this key game? Who should be responsible for it?" The media further ignited the fire.

Yang Cheng has a good personality now. At least this time he did not go crazy for the media's fanning flames. He just sneered, "No one should be responsible for this failure, or it should be said that if someone must be responsible for this failure, the first thing that is to bear is that as the head coach, I will bear all the responsibilities!"

As soon as Yang Cheng said this, all the reporters were upset, which was equivalent to taking all the responsibility for losing the game on himself.

Many reporters looked at the young Chinese coach sitting in the middle of the press conference, with a hint of respect in his eyes. At least he dared to take on all the responsibilities after his failure, rather than shifting the responsibility to others.

Trapatoni also glanced at the young head coach beside him for the first time. He was a qualified head coach himself, so he knew very well that if he was a smart person, he could completely shift the blame to some poor-performing players, but Yang Cheng did not do so.

Should he be said to be a fool? Or is he loyal?

Trapatoni smiled a little confused and bitterly, but at least, his eyes were less cold and more appreciative and recognition when he looked at Yang Cheng.

"Then how do you think your players are performing?" Perhaps it was stimulated by the words just now, and the media's problems are not as sharp as before.

"Very good, they're going to play with all their abilities, and I'm happy with their performance."

At this moment, Glannak in the distance raised his hand high, stood up after being named.

"Hello, Mr. Yang Cheng, in this game, Kaiserslautern still adheres to his tactical philosophy and deals with Bayern with proactive offensive football. It has indeed forced Bayern to adopt a more conservative Italian defensive counterattack tactic to deal with it. We all regretted losing the game, but I wonder if it will affect Kaiserslautern's next tactical thinking? Will Kaiserslautern continue to adhere to his offensive football philosophy in the future? Or will he become more conservative for the sake of his results?"

Yang Cheng nodded to Gran Nak. Everyone in the audience knew that the two were close and were accustomed to it.

"I lost the game, I don't think it's because there is a problem with the tactical concept. I think it's because we didn't do well in some aspects, it's our own problem, not the tactics, because I always believe that the tactics themselves have no deviations, so I can be sure that Kaiserslautern's tactical thinking will not change!"

Gran Nacker took the initiative to applaud. He admired Yang Cheng's persistence in offensive football.

At first, there was only Gran Nak, but gradually, more and more people applauded, and eventually it turned out that the reporters all applauded, obviously all affirming Yang Cheng's insistence.

There are few head coaches in the Bundesliga that insist on offensive football. In addition to Yang Cheng of Kaiserslautern, Stuttgart's Loeve's offense has been affected this season due to Elber's departure, and his tactics have begun to focus on balance. This is also the case with other teams such as Bochum.

It can be said that in this season's Bundesliga, Kaiserslautern's offensive football is an alternative landscape, and after the early season running-in, the offensive football of this team has become more and more exciting. What is commendable is that this team has excellent performance and ranks as the leader in the league standings.

Yang Cheng's coaching ability is no longer doubted if he can lead the newly promoted team of Kaiserslautern with offensive football and achieve today's results. What he really needs to worry about is whether the team he leads can continue to implement his philosophy unswervingly, and whether Kaiserslautern can continue to maintain his current momentum.

"Can you reveal your tactics for the next game? Are you sure you want to continue to strengthen the offense?" a reporter asked tentatively.

But Yang Cheng replied without thinking, "Of course, we will not give up our pursuit of offensive football!"

Now there is no problem with anything he says in front of the media. If he plays offensive football in the game three days later, he will fulfill his promise. If he plays a more balanced or even a conservative defensive counterattack, he will deliberately shoot smoke bombs.

He has handed over the power of the decision to the players, so he is willing to wait for them for 3 days to let them make a decision!

This is not only to make them decide, but also hope that they can get out of the shadow of defeat through these three-day decisions and regain their confidence and fighting spirit to defeat Bayern!
Chapter completed!