As the final 23-man World Cup squad was announced, Mark immediately called his agent Raiola to share the good news.
He then posted a picture of himself in a National Team jersey along with the final 23-man roster, captioning it:
"See you in Brazil!"
Soon after he posted on social media, likes and comments surged.
"Awesome!"
"We'll be in Brazil to support you!"
"Love from Wolfsburg!"
Among them, Mark saw the first comment from Wolfsburg's loyal fan, Stahl:
"Our little dancer is going to the World Cup! Go, Mark!"
He smiled, quickly liked the comment, and his phone began to buzz with message notifications.
Congratulatory messages from club teammates and friends poured in.
It's worth mentioning that he also received a message from Hersch!
Although it was just a simple congratulation.
However, this message showed that the girl was following his updates!
This was good news.
If she had no feelings for him at all, she wouldn't pay attention to any of his information.
Therefore, it was clear that she still had a good impression of him.
"Should I invite her to watch the game when I'm sure I'll have a chance to play in the World Cup?"
"But Brazil is too far from Germany, it might be inconvenient to ask her to come all this way. Even if she wanted to come, she might feel awkward.::"
"Why don't I ask Michelle first to see if she has any good ideas?"
Thinking of this, Mark first replied to Hersch with a "Thank you" message, then sent a message to Mi Jie, seeking her advice.
Mi Jie's advice was very simple and direct: "After the World Cup, you can ask her out!"
This advice was very mature.
After all, for Mark, whose professional career was at a critical juncture, the World Cup was the top priority!
Chasing girls would only slow down his football!
Thinking of this, Mark decided to consider romance after the World Cup.
With the announcement of Germany's 23-man squad, major German media outlets analyzed and interpreted the roster.
Besides Klose's inclusion and Gómez's exclusion from the forward line, they were optimistic about the prospects of this German Team's lineup.
This German Team had a very reasonable age structure, primarily featuring a youth storm!
Only five players were over thirty years old.
They were Klose, Mertesacker, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, and Weidenfeller.
The other key players were all in their golden age, from twenty-three or twenty-four to twenty-seven or twenty-eight.
With the golden generation led by Lahm in their prime, and new talents like Müller, Hummels, and Götze having experienced major tournaments, plus young prodigies like Little De and Mark, this German Team was undoubtedly highly anticipated.
However, a luxurious and balanced squad also depended on whether the head coach knew how to use it.
Regarding the team's tactics, it was a significant reason why many doubted Löw's ability to lead the team to challenge for the world cup trophy.
Löw's decision to abandon Germany's traditional big center-forward tactic and instead focus on a "false nine" formation drew much criticism.
Although Germany advanced to the Brazil World Cup with an unbeaten record of 9 wins and 1 draw in the World Cup qualifiers.
However, looking back at Germany's qualification process, we find that while Löw's team had powerful offensive firepower, scoring 36 goals throughout the qualifiers and dominating Europe.
In stark contrast was the German Team's dismal defensive performance.
Germany conceded ten goals in the qualifiers; except for the minnow Faroe Islands, every opponent scored against Germany, with Sweden even scoring 7 goals against Germany!
Furthermore, Germany's over-reliance on Özil and the problem of goals primarily coming from midfield during the qualifiers were gradually exposed.
It's important to note that Germany's top scorer in the qualifiers was Özil, with eight goals!
The fact that an attacking midfielder, renowned worldwide for his passing and vision, carried the German Team's offensive banner alone was enough to highlight the problem!
Of course, the "false nine" tactic inherently relies on midfield goals.
But in Mark's view, Germany's adoption of the "false nine" tactic was a foolish abandonment of its iron-blooded spirit, running off to imitate Spain's tiki-taka football!
It was completely discarding one's unique advantages to learn an advantage that others had already perfected.
Even if it achieved something, it would not compare to the true Spanish tiki-taka!
To use an analogy, Löw copied Guardiola's tactical homework, and in the tactical exam, he would at most score ninety points.
Guardiola himself, however, could score a hundred points!
There was an inherent ten-point difference between the two!
During the match against Cameroon, Mark finally understood why German legends and media believed that Löw's decision not to include Gómez and to implement the "false nine" tactic was a mistake.
Because Löw's "false nine" tactical approach had the drawback of being unable to quickly break stalemates.
It's important to know that Germany's starting lineup was definitely at the level of a major tournament semifinalist.
Yet, even against an opponent like Cameroon, one of the weakest teams participating in the World Cup, they couldn't score in the first half.
Let alone against other world powerhouses!
Especially Götze, as a "false nine," had no back-to-goal or penalty box pivot capabilities, offering little to the team.
Therefore, Klose could be said to be a contingency plan Löw kept for himself.
If it really came down to a clash of titans, and the "false nine" consistently failed to break the deadlock, he would send on Klose, the big center-forward, and shout:
K-God save me!
Of course, from Mark's perspective as a reborn person who had seen the script, the reason Germany ultimately won the world cup trophy was precisely because they abandoned the "false nine" tactical approach in the knockout stage, and then reinstated Klose as a starter, which allowed the team to achieve true balance between offense and defense, leading to their subsequent victory over France, crushing Brazil, and the last-minute winner against Argentina!
But at least for now, Löw was still very confident in his "false nine" tactical approach.
As a member of the team, Mark, of course, could not influence the team's tactical arrangements or lineup.
His mindset was very calm.
Whatever the coach asked him to do, he would do.
As long as he could get playing time in the World Cup, let alone playing as a center-forward, playing as a center-back would be no problem!
With the announcement of the 23-man squad, the number of people in the training camp also decreased.
After bidding farewell to several players, the remaining twenty-three began a new day under Löw's calm address.
And four days later, they would play against Armenia.
After this last warm-up match before the World Cup, they would board a special Lufthansa flight and depart for Brazil.