Football: Salary System - Chapter 164: Snow Fills the Sky as He Shoots Down the Foals! (Patreon)

"I'll start with three problems from the first half..."

Favre's expression in the dressing room was as calm as ever.

Dortmund's enormous lead in the league meant that even the worst possible outcome today would not be truly disastrous.

"First, shot selection. Take fewer long-range shots in the second half. Sommer is in excellent form today. We need to get the ball closer to goal before shooting, even if it means making one extra pass.

"Second, put in more crosses and create chaos inside the box..."

The players listened quietly.

Zayn had no idea how many of them were actually taking it in.

He certainly was not.

Like Reus, who was never especially good at firing up his teammates, Favre was not a passionate, chest-thumping type of coach either.

Whether Dortmund were ahead or behind, listening to the veteran Swiss coach in the dressing room always made Zayn feel as though a university professor were explaining a tactical problem at the board.

No wonder the German media had once nicknamed him "the nerd."

Zayn was usually fascinated by tactics, but even he could not fully concentrate on the lecture right now.

Since his rebirth, he had never experienced the feeling of losing consecutive matches.

He had barely experienced losing at all. Only twice.

Zayn glanced toward the window.

A thin layer of white already covered the Westfalenstadion.

Fine, dense snowflakes struck the glass and melted into tiny trails of water.

Zayn had noticed from the moment the first flakes began to fall.

What occupied his thoughts now was the new trait he had obtained after becoming the Bundesliga's most valuable player.

[Trait: Treading on Snow Without a Trace]

[Effect: On snowy days or when snow is present on the pitch, your Shooting and Passing abilities are greatly enhanced.]

Zayn had no idea how much snow it would take to activate the trait.

"Zayn."

"Hmm?"

"Are you listening?"

"Of course, boss," Zayn replied without changing expression. "Fewer long-range shots. More crosses."

Favre did not expose him. He simply nodded and continued explaining the requirements for the other positions.

...

The fifteen-minute halftime interval passed in the blink of an eye.

When Zayn emerged from the tunnel again, a cold wind drove snowflakes straight into his face.

The snowfall had grown heavier.

"Welcome back to the Westfalenstadion for the second half of the standout fixture on Bundesliga Matchday Seventeen, the Prussian Derby!"

"The Black and Yellows currently trail the Foals 1-0 at home!"

"And there's more bad news for Dortmund. The snow is getting heavier, and a slippery pitch is never friendly to a technical side."

"Not necessarily, Lothar. Westfalenstadion had undersoil heating installed during the 2012 renovation. Unless the snowfall becomes absurdly heavy, it shouldn't affect the ball too much."

The teams changed ends and play resumed.

Gladbach's players looked noticeably more fired up than they had in the first half.

Hecking had clearly given them an effective halftime speech. The Foals came charging back onto the pitch and refused to yield an inch.

Dortmund could no longer reproduce the siege they had mounted late in the first half.

Both teams traded attacks, and the match settled into a tense stalemate.

In the forty-eighth minute, Gladbach created the first dangerous chance.

Thorgan Hazard received Neuhaus's diagonal pass on the left. Faced with Piszczek, he changed direction twice in quick succession and forced his way past the veteran.

Piszczek relied on his experience, however. He turned and recovered quickly, shepherding Hazard toward the byline.

Hazard stopped carrying the ball and immediately swept a cross across goal.

Bürki had stayed fully alert and positioned himself perfectly. He took two steps forward, went to ground, and smothered the ball securely.

He wasted no time after getting back to his feet and rolled it out to Witsel.

The Belgian turned and moved the ball on to Reus.

Dortmund's captain looked up and saw that Gladbach's two defensive lines had already recovered into shape. There was no opening at all for a through ball toward Zayn.

Reus could only switch the play to the right.

Sancho received the ball with Wendt in front of him and threw in two consecutive stepovers, but he could not create an angle. He was forced to lay it back to Achraf.

The Moroccan glanced toward the penalty area and delivered a cross from a forty-five-degree angle.

The delivery had pace, but it dropped too close to the goalkeeper. Sommer rose comfortably and claimed it.

"Dortmund still can't get through Sommer's hands."

Hellmann had barely finished speaking when Sommer launched Gladbach's counterattack with a throw of his own.

The visitors advanced quickly into Dortmund's half.

Pléa made a diagonal run off Toprak's shoulder and fired a low shot from the right side of the penalty area.

Weigl arrived just in time.

He threw himself in front of the ball and blocked it with his body, sending it behind for a corner.

"A crucial block from Weigl. He's done a respectable job today as an emergency center back," Matthäus said approvingly.

Favre, however, paced back and forth along the touchline.

Two quick Gladbach counterattacks had fully exposed the vulnerability of his improvised defense.

But there was simply no one on the bench capable of fixing it.

After weighing his options, the Swiss coach decided to gamble on attack.

In the fifty-third minute, Dortmund made the first substitution.

Piszczek off. Götze on.

"Favre has played his first card. Götze is coming on on the left, while Guerreiro drops to left back. The Portuguese international is famously stronger going forward than defensively. Götze will probably drift inside after drawing his marker, leaving the entire left flank to Guerreiro. There's no doubt about it. Dortmund are going all-in on attack," Hellmann quickly explained.

Matthäus shook his head. "But that also puts even more pressure on Dortmund's back line. If they concede another goal, this substitution becomes very questionable."

One minute later, the former Golden Boy, who had spent half a season trying to rediscover his form, showed a flash of his old inspiration.

Götze combined with Zayn in a one-two near the front line, then drove diagonally toward the middle with the ball.

Zakaria, tracking back, had no choice but to bring him down with a decisive tactical foul before he could enter the penalty area.

Dortmund won a direct free kick in an excellent position.

"Very dangerous. Just outside the box, slightly left of center. A right-footed player can shoot directly from here."

The snow continued to fall.

Reus began his run-up and struck the ball.

It curled beautifully toward the top-left corner.

Bang!

Another post!

Chaos erupted inside the penalty area.

Delaney reacted first and stabbed a foot at the rebound.

But the ball caught the tip of his boot and flew bizarrely over the top of the crossbar.

"My God! Delaney puts the rebound over! Dortmund miss another huge opportunity!"

"There's no doubt Reus, just like Zayn, has been affected by Sommer. He's trying too hard to find the perfect corner."

"Come on, Lothar. Who wouldn't be affected by him? Just look at the saves he's made today. You could cut together a top-five saves compilation from this match alone!"

Groans rose one after another around the Westfalenstadion.

"Luck just isn't with us today!"

"That's two shots off the post. I've never hated the goals at the Westfalenstadion this much!"

"What did Sommer eat today?"

The supporters' complaints were carried away by the cold wind, then swallowed by the increasingly heavy snow.

It really was coming down harder now.

The undersoil heating prevented the turf itself from freezing, but the snowfall had become so intense that the edges of the pitch were gradually disappearing beneath a layer of white.

"Conditions are deteriorating. The melting snow on the surface is beginning to slow the ball. That means a higher chance of mistakes from both teams."

Waiting in the attacking third for Gladbach to take a goal kick, Zayn suddenly sensed something.

He held out a hand and caught a snowflake.

Cold spread across his palm.

A moment later, a strange warmth surged through his body.

[Trait: Treading on Snow Without a Trace]

Triggered!

Gladbach took the goal kick and play continued.

In the sixty-seventh minute, the visitors were building an attack through midfield.

Neuhaus received a return pass from Zakaria, turned, and tried to thread a through ball toward Pléa.

Delaney, still frustrated by the chance he had just missed, had already been watching that passing lane. He stayed tight behind Pléa, then stretched out his right leg and poked the ball away before the striker could bring it fully under control.

Götze, who had tracked back to help, immediately nudged the loose ball out to the right.

Gladbach had to transition from attack to defense.

Sancho collected the ball on the right and did not hesitate. He accelerated immediately and drove forward down the flank.

Wendt dropped off in front of him.

Sancho repeatedly changed pace but could not shake the fullback. When Zakaria began closing in as well, he had no choice but to lay the ball back to Achraf.

Zakaria had been dragged wide by Sancho, leaving space open in the right half-space.

Instead of forcing his way down the outside as he normally did, Achraf carried the ball diagonally into that gap.

The move caught Gladbach's defense by surprise.

Danger.

The central defenders were occupied with Zayn and Reus and did not dare abandon them to close down Achraf.

Zayn and Reus exchanged a glance.

The captain immediately dropped toward Achraf to offer himself for a pass, while Zayn backed into the penalty area and created space for the next combination.

Achraf, however, wanted to do it himself.

No one had stepped out to him. All he could see was the huge patch of open grass ahead.

Sommer might look like he had cheats enabled today, but Achraf trusted his own shooting too.

Zayn noticed that the Moroccan had not even lifted his head and immediately had a bad feeling.

This kid definitely zoned out in the dressing room. He didn't hear Favre tell us to stop taking so many long-range shots.

Sure enough, after carrying the ball another couple of steps, Achraf adjusted his stride, swung his right leg, and smashed his instep through it.

A skidding low drive.

The ball tore across the slick grass at tremendous speed.

But it was too central.

Sommer did not even need to make the save.

Strobl, the makeshift center back, instinctively stuck out his right leg.

The ball struck the tip of his boot with a dull thud and ballooned high into the air.

It dropped inside the penalty area directly in front of Zayn.

The complaint that had been running through his mind vanished instantly as he locked onto the ball's flight.

His back was to goal, with Gladbach center back Beyer behind him.

The ball fell from high above, carrying snowflakes with it as the wind howled around them.

Zayn stared at it and made no further adjustment.

He drove off his left leg, launched himself into the air, leaned backward, and whipped his right leg upward.

"Zayn! He's going for the bicycle kick!"

The blond teenager hung upside down amid the swirling snow and connected cleanly with his right foot.

Cold Ruhr winds swept the Yellow Wall.

Flying snow filled the sky as he struck down the Foals.

Bang!

The ball came off his boot with vicious spin, drawing a white line through the snow before crashing into the net.

This time, Sommer could not even complete his dive.

A goalkeeper renowned for elite reflexes had no chance to react to the thunderbolt Zayn had conjured from nowhere.

"GOAL!"

"An unbelievable bicycle kick in the snow!"

"Sixty-seventh minute! Zayn Ryder has just scored the most beautiful Bundesliga goal of the season!"

1-1!

Zayn sprang off the ground and sprinted toward the stands beneath the Yellow Wall. With one hand, he ripped off his shirt and exposed his powerful upper body.

The snow struck his burning skin and melted instantly into water.

The Westfalenstadion lost its mind.

"Zayn!"

"Zayn!"

"Zayn!"

The roar of the crowd merged with the wind and snow until the entire stadium seemed to vibrate.

Gladbach's players looked at one another, momentarily speechless.

The match resumed after Zayn received a yellow card for removing his shirt.

But Dortmund's attack had been completely ignited by that snowy bicycle kick.

The Foals, meanwhile, visibly wilted.

Hecking screamed himself hoarse on the touchline, but he could not restore the sharpness his players had shown at the start of the match.

The snow fell harder and harder.

Every time Zayn touched the ball, he could feel that strange warmth beneath his feet.

In the seventy-sixth minute, Dortmund put together a series of passes in the attacking third.

Guerreiro received the ball on the left and played it inside to Götze.

Götze sent it first time toward Reus, who had dropped deeper.

Reus also released it in one touch, sliding a diagonal pass into the right half-space.

Sancho received it but did not try to force his way forward. Instead, he laid the ball back to the overlapping Achraf.

This time Achraf behaved himself. No long-range shot.

He rolled the ball square toward the middle.

Zayn took two steps out of the penalty area to meet it.

Beyer pressed tightly into his back, while Zakaria closed from the side.

This time, Zayn chose to force the shot.

He drew his right leg back, shifted his weight onto his left, and locked his ankle.

Bang!

No attempt to finesse the angle. He used the weapon he trusted most and simply blasted it.

The ball tore through the narrow gap between Beyer and Zakaria, spraying snow from the turf behind it.

Sommer, fully focused, threw his entire body across goal.

But against a strike like this, his reach was the one weakness he could not overcome.

This time, he was the one who came up just short.

"Zayn Ryder! Two goals!"

"Dortmund have turned it around!"

2-1!

Sommer lay on the turf and pounded the ground in frustration.

Having learned his lesson from the yellow card, Zayn did not take off his shirt again. Instead, he dropped into his trademark knee slide across the snow, leaving a long trail behind him.

His teammates swarmed him and buried him in the thick snow near the edge of the pitch.

Gladbach's morale visibly collapsed, as though the Foals' hooves had frozen solid in the Westfalenstadion blizzard.

Dortmund took complete control.

In the eighty-third minute, the Black and Yellows produced another flowing passing move in the attacking third.

Zayn received the ball at the top of the penalty arc and drew two center backs and a defensive midfielder toward him.

With the outside of his left foot, he gently nudged the ball into the open space on the left.

The pass was perfectly weighted.

The former Golden Boy burst forward through the half-space, ran beyond every defender, took the ball in stride, and calmly side-footed a right-footed finish toward the far corner.

Sommer could do nothing.

After an almost superhuman performance, he had now been beaten for the third time.

3-1!

The Foals failed to create another meaningful attack in the time that remained.

Hecking sent on two attackers in succession, but Gladbach could not even produce a decent shot.

"Full time! Borussia Dortmund come from behind to beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 at the Westfalenstadion!"

"Zayn's bicycle kick in the second half completely changed the match. Then he blasted Dortmund into the lead before assisting Götze to seal the victory. One man orchestrated the entire comeback!"

"Lothar, your prediction was right in one sense. The match wasn't decided by either defense. It was decided by this blond kid!"

"What an unbelievable individual performance!"

"With this victory, Dortmund finish the first seventeen rounds with 46 points! They've surpassed the club record of 43 points from the first half of the 2010-11 season. Across Bundesliga history, only Guardiola's Bayern in 2013-14, with 47 points, have done better!"

"Hellmann, I'll say the same thing I always do. With Zayn here, those records aren't what matters."

"What matters is that after Gladbach lost this top-of-the-table clash, the gap between them and Dortmund has grown to thirteen points.

"Before this round, Bayern were level on points with Gladbach but sat second on goal difference. Even if Bayern win their match, they'll only cut Dortmund's lead to ten points."

"And no team in Bundesliga history has ever held a ten-point lead at the halfway stage and then failed to win the title!"

"There may not be much suspense left in this Bundesliga season."