Chapter 1005: Half Time Break

Once Higo entered the locker room, he found that the atmosphere was quite strange here.

Players arrived one by one as well, and yet none of them spoke loudly. They just whispered lowly to each other, not showing any ripple of emotion in their tone.

No anger or dejection could be seen here, nor any excessive joy that would usually appear when the team was on a great run.

Everything was just... Flat fine. Yeah, that should be the best description for this situation.

The boy himself didn’t think too much about it. After all, the team had done well in the first half, but really not that excellent.

Putting aside the team’s frontline that always failed to find the back of the net, the defense that he led was also quite problematic so far.

They let one or two Dortmund players slip into the heart of the team’s territory so many times, and honestly, if not for Higo’s performance, the team would’ve been down by one or two goals at this point.

However, that didn’t mean they played terribly, as the guys managed to hold on against the immense pressure coming from the opponent.

They all also realized that even though the team came with great momentum, at the end of the day, Dortmund still had better players on paper, so a draw result in the first half was... Fine.

That was why the air here was quite dead, as if the guys just went back from their office work or something like that.

Higo himself couldn’t care less about it. He took off his boots and gloves immediately, letting his hands and feet have room to breathe before he had to fight in the middle of the cold again.

His skin also gradually turned brighter, gaining its natural color once again after he had to fight against the freezing cold temperature outside.

For a moment, he shut his eyes tightly, letting only the hum of the air conditioner inside the room be the noise that kept his brain alive.

Unfortunately, this little peaceful moment had to be broken, as the head coach suddenly came with Waldoch to start the meeting.

"Okay, the first half is over. I cannot say that I am disappointed, since the whole game is exactly like what we want it to be. However, some things have to be discussed first here."

Some of the guys who played just so-so exactly like what the coach wanted just took a glance with disinterest gaze, while the others straightened their back instantly once they felt like their name would be mentioned in this case.

"First thing first, offense!" Frohling’s gaze swept through the room for a second before landing on Morita, who was busy brushing off all the dirt on his boots.

"A big shootout for Morita, who was the biggest creator today! 8 key passes, including 3 attempted assists in the first half; I can say that he is one of the best players on the pitch today."

The others applauded politely, while Morita himself just showed a faint smile without putting any excessive expression on his face.

"Still, that doesn’t mean that our offense works well, because the final product is always lacking." Then, his gaze was sharper than ever, piercing through Hoppe and Fabian like a surgeon opening their heart.

"You two!"

Those two flinched.

"How could you be so bad on the frontline?!" Frohling exclaimed in exasperation. "You have given so many chances, for God’s sake! Three for Hoppe, and one for Fabian! And yet, none of them gives us even a single goal!"

Those two were so flustered, finding that this was indeed a ridiculous situation.

"Um... Their goalkeeper is playing great?" Fabian tried to defend himself, but his voice came out so weak after escaping his mouth.

Frohling just felt the corner of his lips twitch when he heard that. For the first time, he realized how the other coaches felt when they were facing his team, when they couldn’t even get a single point when Higo was between the posts.

In the end, he just made some adjustments to the team without changing too much, afraid that it would only make things worse in the second half.

The away team was also in the same boat, having a headache thinking of how to break through their opponent’s thick wall.

However, unlike Schalke, Dortmund was still ambitious enough, not feeling satisfied with the draw in the first half.

Edin Terzic was racking his brain while eyeing all of his players one by one before he finally reached one conclusion, intending to put a new player on the pitch once the second half started.

Meanwhile, in the DAZN Studio, both Daniel Herzog and Michael Ballack also worked hard in this moment, analyzing how the first half went and what the two head coaches would do to change the situation later.

"I don’t know about Torsten Frohling, since he really has a limited resource right now," Ballack stated while fixing the tie that threatened to choke him breathless. "However, for Edin Terzic, the most logical choice will be Jude Bellingham right now."

Daniel Herzog also nodded as he read data regarding this statement.

"So far, under Terzic’s leadership, Bellingham has been used for at least half of the game as the substitute, coming to make a big difference on the pitch."

"This works well in some games, when his mobility and destructive runs managed to be another focal point in Dortmund’s attack."

"You also cannot forget that in their last encounter, Bellingham basically locked Morita down for almost the whole game, you know?" Ballack added.

"While, yes, Morita was still able to send an assist that day, besides that, Bellingham had an upper hand throughout the whole game, so putting him on the pitch will help the team a lot in dealing with Morita’s craziness in the midfield."

"However, there is no way Torsten Frohling wouldn’t anticipate it." Herzog chimed in once again. "So, it will be interesting to see what kind of an adjustment Schalke make in the second half?"