Mario Götze

At this time, Götze was not the same as the player who scored the World Cup final goal, exhausting his lifetime of luck. 

He was the attacking core of Borussia Dortmund, capable of playing in various positions- attacking midfielder, winger, central midfielder, forward, and even shadow striker. 

With him around, Borussia Dortmund's front-line attack had assurance, whether it was assisting teammates or taking matters into his own hands to finish the game. 

During this period, many referred to him as the third-best player under Messi and Ronaldo, enjoying endless glory!

Five minutes later, Götze came on as a substitute, replacing Kehl.

His entrance immediately activated Borussia Dortmund's front-line attack, especially for striker Lewandowski. Their combination put immense pressure on Werder Bremen's defense. 

With the addition of Reus, the offensive firepower of these three players reached another level. 

It was extremely difficult to defend against all three of them simultaneously.

In the 81st minute, after Reus broke through, he passed the ball to Götze on the left. He evaded two defensive players and scored with a low shot to the near post. 

This unexpected goal excited Götze, who ran to the corner flag, indicating for the crowd to applaud. 

The Borussia Dortmund fans immediately applauded and cheered for their midfield talisman, offering whole-hearted support, unlike their reluctant reception for Lin when he broke the record.

Watching Götze celebrate, Lin stood with his hands on his hips, considering his strategy.

It was hard to accept the lost match, especially after a defeat in the opening game of the Bundesliga. 

Even though the opponents were strong, they had defeated them before, and high difficulty didn't mean it was impossible.

However, it was very challenging for him to score with increased defensive efforts from the opponents.

He was closely marked by Kehl, and surrounded by other Borussia Dortmund players. Every time he got the ball, he would face immediate double-teaming. In this situation, passing to Lin was the only good option.

He desperately wanted to break through, but the opposition wouldn't give him the chance. As soon as he tried to accelerate, they would commit a foul, disrupting his rhythm.

Lin was feeling very helpless!

Wait, fouls? Lin glanced at de Bruyne and came up with an idea.

After Borussia Dortmund's celebration, the match resumed quickly. 

As they were trailing, Werder Bremen increased their offensive force, with Lin becoming more active in running and requesting the ball.

The ball quickly found its way to De Bruyne. As the team's front-line organizing core, he had the authority to distribute and direct the ball. 

Normally, Lin would have been his top passing choice. 

But with the opposition's increased focus on defending Lin, De Bruyne hesitated. The last few attempts had resulted in either Lin losing the ball or being fouled. 

He was afraid to continue passing to Lin. However, Lin reached out for the ball.

De Bruyne's pass was perfect! Seeing the pass, Lin accelerated and received the ball ahead of the defenders.

Borussia Dortmund's players closely marked him. However, instead of passing this time, he dribbled in the direction of the defensive players. 

A defender tried to tackle him, but instead of getting the ball, he tripped Lin. 

The referee blew the whistle. Seeing this, Lin didn't waste any time getting up and quickly approached de Bruyne to discuss tactics.

"How should I take this free kick? Do you need me to make a move?" 

De Bruyne, thinking about his missed opportunity from before, was surprised to get another chance so quickly. So, he decided to follow the same method while being more confident this time.

"No, let's change it. It seems the opposition has prepared for our previous tactic. Look, the Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper is guarding the far post, probably wary of my last shot."

De Bruyne looked up and saw Weidenfeller positioned towards the far post. It seemed like he was still concerned about his earlier free-kick.

After discussing the tactics with Lin, he pretended to take the free kick and then moved back to start his run-up.

Weidenfeller chose to ignore Lin, given he had never taken a free-kick. He was more focused on De Bruyne, who had nearly scored from a similar position earlier. 

As a result, Lin's tactics caught everyone off guard. 

When Lin ran up, instead of actually taking a shot, he pretended to and encouraged De Bruyne to come forward and strike the ball. 

The Borussia Dortmund wall was caught off guard and failed to jump in time, watching the ball fly over their heads.

Weidenfeller was caught off guard too, as he was expecting Lin to aim for the near post, but instead, De Bruyne aimed for the far corner. 

 Weidenfeller quickly moved his feet and made a diving save, but his fingers didn't touch the ball.

Just when he thought the ball was going to go in, there was a loud bang as the ball hit the crossbar and bounced out!

On the stands, the Dortmund fans saw their goalkeeper miss the ball, thinking they were about to concede a goal, but then they saw the ball bounce off the crossbar.

This made them all sigh in relief, feeling like they had narrowly avoided a disaster.

Lin saw the trajectory of the ball and thought he had scored, but to his surprise, it hit the crossbar. He was quite speechless.

However, De Bruyne hadn't been practicing "chip shots" for long, so his level of execution was already quite good.

So, Lin gave him a thumbs up, praising his shot. De Bruyne nodded expressionlessly but was a bit annoyed inside because if the shot had been a bit lower, it wouldn't have wasted the chance Lin had created.

Getting such an excellent opportunity for a free-kick in the front field wasn't that easy to come by!

The fact proved that De Bruyne had overestimated.

Two minutes later, almost in the same position, Lin, dribbling the ball, was fouled again by the defending player, and the referee awarded a free-kick again.

Again, it was De Bruyne and Lin standing at the spot.

"Um, are you doing this on purpose?"

De Bruyne quickly thought about it. After passing the ball to Lin, he clearly had better options, but he insisted on breaking through the most densely defended center of the Dortmund defense, as if he actively wanted to draw a foul for a free-kick.

This made De Bruyne certain that Lin wanted to get fouled for a free-kick.

"Well, kind of. If I could break through a bit more, it would be a penalty kick. But the opponent's defense is too strong to get through!" De Bruyne was speechless. Normally, someone would choose to avoid the densely defended area, but Lin did the opposite.

How confident was he in his dribbling ability? Wasn't he afraid of being tackled by the opponent?

"How should I kick the ball, the same as before?"

De Bruyne was still regretting the missed chance from before when another opportunity came so soon.

So, he aimed for the same kick style as before, but learned from the previous experience, this time he had better control over the ball.

"No, a different kick. The opposition may be prepared for our previous tactics. Look, the Dortmund goalkeeper is positioned for you at the far corner!" De Bruyne looked up and indeed saw Dortmund's goalkeeper, Weidenfeller, positioned at the far corner of the goal, seemingly wary of the last free-kick.

After discussing tactics with Lin, the former pretended to take the free-kick and then moved back to give himself enough space for the run-up.

Weidenfeller completely ignored Lin. This guy had never taken a free-kick before, so who knew if he would take it?

So, he focused on De Bruyne instead. After all, he had almost scored with his last free-kick and had also scored a free-kick in the last Telekom Cup final, killing Dortmund.

Anyone would think that De Bruyne posed a greater threat.

After observing the wall and the goalkeeper's positions, Lin started his run-up.

Because he had been covering for De Bruyne earlier, no one fell for it; they thought he was doing the same thing.

But what they didn't expect was that this time, after running up, Lin didn't chip the ball but took a direct shot, and the ball flew over the wall, catching everyone by surprise as it sailed over their heads.

Weidenfeller was equally surprised that Lin was taking the kick. After seeing the ball's trajectory, he quickly started moving.

But by then, it was too late.

The ball glided through the air beautifully, heading directly for the top left corner of the goal, and went into the net.

In the 88th minute, Lin scored directly from a free-kick, breaching Dortmund's goal for the second time.

The score on the field became 2-2, and both teams were back on the same starting line again!

On both sides of the coaching bench, after seeing this goal, Schaaf and Klopp almost stood up at the same time.

Their reactions were quite different; Schaaf looked pleasantly surprised, while Klopp looked shocked.

"I didn't expect Lin to have this up his sleeve. It looks like we have another candidate to take free-kicks for our team in the future!" Schaaf said gleefully to his assistant coaches. 

He was getting more and more curious: How many secrets did this kid still have? What kind of surprises could he still bring?

On the other side, Klopp's face turned very unpleasant.

The first time his own player fouled Lin just outside the penalty area, he didn't think much of it. 

But when it happened again in almost the same position, he realized something was off. It didn't seem like a coincidence to him that the same player was fouled twice in the same place.

Before he could even remind his teammates, the opposing team used the resulting free kick to score a goal. 

This left Klopp feeling speechless. He realized that their opponent's number ten not only had great skill but was also a psychology master.

This move completely outmaneuvered the players of Borussia Dortmund and even outsmarted him too!