When Hoffenheim easily defeated Cottbus with a score of 3:0 away, many people did not expect their first league game to get such a result. And when the last game of this round of Bundesliga ended, people were surprised to find that Hoffenheim actually ranked first in the league!

If they hadn't set the Bundesliga transfer fee record this summer, many people wouldn't have heard of the name of this new Bundesliga team. The media originally planned to introduce Hoffenheim according to the general promotion team, but they would not waste space and pages on a promotion team. In fact, now, many Germans don't know where Hoffenheim is.

They have heard of this name, but they don't know where the team comes from.

A fan left a message under the article on the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Hoffenheim: "I don't even know where Hoffenheim is yet." This is definitely not an example, because many people will agree with the fan's message.

Therefore, in the TV program after the league, a host took out a very, very detailed map of Germany and showed it to the audience.

"I'm holding a very detailed map of Germany. I originally planned to find 'Hoffenheim' on this map. But..." He spread his hands, "I didn't find it."

Indeed, even if you give you a very detailed map of Germany, you can't find the place Hoffenheim. Because Hoffenheim is just a district of Sinsheim, the German media are used to calling it "village". This is similar to the relationship between Schalke and Gelsenkirchen, but the two are incomparable in terms of city size: the entire Sinsheim only has 35,368 residents, and this number is only one-nineth of Gelsenkirchen. This is the smallest population of all European cities participating in the top leagues.

Cottbus, who was away from their first round of the league, is the smallest of the Bundesliga teams - of course, this was the data before Hoffenheim upgraded - but the population is three times larger than Sinsheim. Hoffenheim is only a small part of Sinsheim, with only 3,300 residents. If Hoffenheim's population alone can't even fill the team's previous home court - Dietma Hope Stadium with 5,500 performances.

But such a team that could not be found on the map gave everyone a big surprise in the first round of the league.

They defeated Cottbus 3-0 and ranked first in the league.

What is even more commendable is that this score is not a lucky draw. If you watch the whole game, you may even think that 3:0 is not fair enough for Hoffenheim - they should have scored more goals. This is what surprised others the most: this team does not look like a new team at all, they are full of a momentum of moving forward, making people mistakenly think that they are the team for the championship.

This game made Hoffenheim the first team to win the first Bundesliga game since Wolfsburg in the 1997-98 season. Both Mainz and Kotbus failed to win the first game. At the same time, Hoffenheim is also the 50th team to participate in the Bundesliga.

In an interview after the game, Cottbus' head coach Plashnika helplessly stated that his team did not play at the real level, and his movements were too slow and made many mistakes. "They scored too early, which caught us off guard..." He also praised Hoffenheim's performance, thinking that they performed well and victory was taken for granted. The disappointment of the Slovenians is easy to understand. As a team that has participated in the Bundesliga for three consecutive seasons, Cottbus obviously has more reason to look forward to home victory.

You should know that they are actually relegation teams, and being able to score points from relegation opponents is very beneficial to the prospect of relegation. Now that the opponent has taken three points from his own relegation team, Cotbus's relegation path has been uneven since the beginning of the season... Rangnick believed that the team performed like a whole and the ending was wonderful. After experiencing the tense atmosphere in the first ten minutes of the game, Ibisevic's goal opened up the situation for the team.

Speaking of Ibisevic's goal, he has to mention the two most expensive signings this summer.

"I know there are many people who are incredible about how much we spend on two Ligue 1 players, but I think today's game is a good demonstration of why we are willing to spend 40 million to buy two Ligue 1 players, and in the next season, we will also prove to you how cheap these 40 million are."

"I am very, very satisfied with Chu and Ibisevic's performance. They have proved their value. Chu no longer needs to prove anything because he is the European champion. But he still works very hard. This is a player full of enterprising spirit and fighting spirit. Such a player is qualified to succeed. And having such a player is also the luck of our team."

Rangnick's evaluation of Chu Zhongtian was quite high, which surprised many Chinese media. They always felt that Chu Zhongtian's transfer to join Hoffenheim was the most failed choice in his career, but now it seems that at least Hoffenheim's head coach doesn't think so.

What embarrassed German reporters was that Chu Zhongtian's performance in this game was indeed excellent. They could already guess that the series of actions Chu Zhongtian's instigation of Ibisevic's first goal could bring him a collection of post-match TV highlights.

Before, many German media couldn't wait to label Chu Zhongtian as the "most expensive parallel goods" and just waited to see Chu Zhongtian's joke. Unexpectedly, Chu Zhongtian didn't make them laugh, but their glasses shattered all over the floor.

But they also have an excuse: "Even if he performs well, he will not be comparable to Beckenbauer and Summer!" If it were Chinese, it would probably be "he doesn't even deserve to carry shoes to Beckenbauer and Summer!"

※※When the TV show host was still looking for Hoffenheim on the map, the head coaches of both sides were interviewed by reporters at the press conference. When the reporters were in a complicated mood, Chu Zhongtian studied the technical statistics after the game ended.

He noticed that although the team achieved a very clean victory, the ball possession rate was lower than that of Cottbus.

This is a situation he rarely foresees. In the past, when he was at Metz, Metz won almost always have the advantage in possession of the ball, or even far superior. Metz's football emphasizes ball control, and Fernandez emphasized that it would be unsafe if the football was not charged under his feet.

But in Hoffenheim, the situation seems to be a little different. Rangnick never emphasized the importance of ball control, of course he has never belittled the importance of ball control... But this game is very telling. Judging from his player's feelings, he doesn't feel that his possession rate on the court is lower than that of the opponent, but the actual statistics are like this. Hoffenheim is four percentage points lower than Cottbus's possession. In fact, it is not much different, but Chu Zhongtian's feeling is that Hoffenheim's possession is much higher than Cottbus.

What causes such an illusion?

Chu Zhongtian was thinking about this question. Why is the actual ball possession rate obviously not as good as the opponent, but it feels like another thing? He felt that his team had the advantage, but Cottbus had no decent chance.

At this moment, someone came up and patted his shoulder: "Hi, Chu! What are you thinking?"

Chu Zhongtian raised his head and saw that it was Eduardo. The cheerful Brazilian grinned at him. He had a bit of buck teeth, which was also one of the reasons why he was called "Roman II".

"I was wondering why we actually have less ball possession than the opponent, but it feels like we have more ball possession?"

Eduard was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that Chu Zhongtian was actually considering such a problem.

For him, the game ends when it is over. He will never think about the game that just ended, nor will he watch the post-match statistics. He doesn't even care about football anymore. He just wants to have fun and relax himself. What are professional players? Professional players are a group that lives in football as a professional life. Football is a job for them. Since it is work, there are work hours and time to get off work. Usually, training and competitions are going to work. After training and competitions are over, the time is naturally after get off work. Have you ever seen someone who is happy working overtime every day?

Well, he saw a... Eduardo raised his hands and made a surrender statement: "Your question...go to ask others. I don't want to be full of games and football after the game. I said, don't you feel tired, Chu?"

Chu Zhongtian smiled and said, "I like football, I don't feel tired."

Eduardo was stunned again.

Then he shrugged: "Forget it, I'll go find someone else..." and then turned around and left.

As soon as he left, Tebel sat next to Chu Zhongtian again.

"You do this and they will feel that you can't play with them, Chu." The former first captain and the current third captain spoke.

Chu Zhongtian looked at him.

"If possible, try to play with everyone. Of course, try to drink as little as possible." Tebel said.

Chu Zhongtian knew that Teber was worried that he would not be able to integrate into the team and would have a gap with his teammates. However, everyone has their own way of dealing with things, and Chu Zhongtian also has his own style. But he still thanks Teber for his kindness.

After Teber left, Demba Ba came. The Senegalese striker was as dark as a piece of coal. When he stood in front of him, he suddenly thought that a black shadow had come.

"Hi, Chu." Demba.ba opened his mouth and greeted Chu Zhongtian. His big white teeth were very conspicuous. He spoke in French.

"Hello, Ba." Chu Zhongtian also responded to him in French.

"Ah, there are not many people who speak so fluently French here." Demba was very happy to hear the familiar language. "I am here to express my gratitude to you. You assisted me in the game and scored a goal."

"That's what I should do, there's nothing to thank for, Ba."

"Then I want to thank you too. In addition, the pass you gave me before was great! How did you think of it?" Demba Ba refers to Hoffenheim's first goal. Chu Zhongtian passed the ball to Demba Ba, and then Demba Ba passed the ball to Ibisevic.

"Me?" Chu Zhongtian thought for a while and explained to Demba.ba: "At that time, Eduardo attracted the opponent's midfielder, so I thought I could insert it, and the opponent could only transfer people from the back line to defend me. As long as I receive the ball, the opponent will come out with a defender, and then we have a room to use. So..." He spread his hands, and there is no need to say what comes afterwards.

Demba Ba gave him a thumbs up: "To be honest, I really didn't expect it before. I just ran from the general to the ribs as I was used to, but my ball was passed by..." Then he looked around, leaned down, and whispered in Chu Zhongtian's ear, "I'll tell you quietly, don't tell others, especially Saiyad, I'm afraid he will get angry after hearing this...I think it's more appropriate for you to be a core than him..."

After saying that, Demba Ba straightened up and looked at the direction where Salihovic was. He waved his hand to say goodbye to Chu Zhongtian: "I have to go take a shower. Goodbye, Chu. It's a great pleasure to work with you."

Chu Zhongtian smiled and waved to him. He was amused by the black African man. "Goodbye, Ba. I will pass the ball to you if I have the chance in the future."

Demba Ba was very happy and pointed his hands at Chu Zhongtian, "A word is certain, I'll wait for you to assist me!"

After Demba Ba left, Ibisevic came. He was wearing only a pair of shorts, naked upper body, and his muscles were very strong, and he looked full of strength.

"Hey, Chu. Do a pretty job! You must have made the media that talked to you before stunned!" Ibisevic gave Chu Zhongtian a thumbs up.

"I want to congratulate you, Ibi. I scored two goals, and I did this in the first game, which is great!" Chu Zhongtian also gave Ibisek a thumbs up and exclaimed.

As the two players the club has introduced in a lot of money this summer, they are under a lot of pressure, but they don’t show it much. But this pressure will not really disappear just because they pretend to be nothing. The outstanding performance in this game has reduced the pressure on both of them.

The two of them looked at each other and understood what each other meant.

"Don't you go with your Bosnian fellow countryman, Ibi?" Chu Zhongtian noticed that Salihovic was with some other people and was saying something.

Ibisevic shook his head: "No need to go, I can't always follow him, I'm not his follower."

"You are like my follower." Chu Zhongtian and Ibisevic both laughed.

"Think about it carefully, it seems that it is true." Ibissevic smiled, leaned against the locker, and sighed, "You transferred from Metz to Hoffenheim, and I followed you too. But I am not your follower, Chu. I am... Well, what do you mean, I am the follower of the champion..."

When Chu Zhongtian heard what he said, he was a little surprised and turned his head to look at him.

Ibisekic continued to lean against the closet and looked at the players in the locker room.

"Actually, I didn't have much ambitions in the past. I just wanted to make money from football to make myself live a good life. However, after playing for two seasons at Metz, my idea changed... I really like the champions, the French Cup, the League Cup, the Super Cup... I like them all. After seeing the big scenes alone, I suddenly didn't want to go back to the small days of the past. Well, in general, I think Hoffenheim has a very rich boss, a coach of good quality, and a group of excellent teammates. In addition, you should be able to attack the champion. No matter what the championship is, this is not a team that needs to be relegated. So I came here, I think there is a future with you. Hahaha!"

Ibisevic laughed as he spoke, and his laughter attracted the attention of other teammates in the locker room. However, they only cast doubtful eyes at him, seeing him just sitting next to Chu Zhongtian and laughing. They thought that both of them must have talked about the past that only they understood, so they didn't take it seriously and quickly turned their eyes back.

After laughing, Ibisevic said to Chu Zhongtian: "Today's game has strengthened my idea. I heard you said something to this team when you first came to this team?"

Chu Zhongtian remembered what he said, and he nodded.

Ibisevic stretched out his hand to him: "Let us create a big scene together."

Chu Zhongtian slapped his palm.

※※※Rangnick ended the press conference and returned to the locker room. His players had changed their clothes and were ready to leave.

"Good job, guys." He gave a very short speech in the locker room.

"But remember, this is just the beginning!"

※※※For German football, this is just the beginning.

A week later, Hoffenheim defeated Monchengladbach who came to challenge 1-0 at home.

In the 31st minute, Patrick Paauwe made a mistake in the midfield and was intercepted by Chu Zhongtian, who had been following him. After the ball was cut, Chu Zhongtian passed the ball to Eduardo. After Eduardo got the ball, he immediately sent a straight pass. Ibisek successfully counterattacked and dunked away the chasing Swo (sebasian_svard), and then pushed the ball to christopher_hermeroth against the goalkeeper from Borussia Mönchengladbach 15 meters away from the middle to push the shot into the lower right corner.

This is the only goal in the entire game.

With Ibisekic's third goal in two games, Hoffenheim won a two-game losing streak while giving the relegation team two consecutive losses.

Two rounds of league games have passed, and they are still at the top of the league standings... Those who swear that Hoffenheim will return to the second division next season are silent at this time.

Defending champion Bayern Munich began two consecutive draws in the new season, Schalke 04 wins and one draw, Wolfsburg 1 wins and one draw, Stuttgart 1 wins and one loss, Hamburg 1 draw, Dortmund 1 wins and one draw, Leverkusen 2 losses, Hertha Berlin 1 wins and one draw... At the Karl-Benz Stadium, more than 10,000 Hoffenheim fans gave huge cheers, and this voice is centered around Mannheim in southern Germany as the center.

It was as if a stone was thrown into the stagnant pool, causing layers of ripples.
Chapter completed!