"Reus cannot continue; the German Team is forced to make a substitution..."
"Eighteen-year-old prodigy Mark Lane steps onto the field, making his second appearance for the German National Team..."
However, with only a few minutes left in the first half, Mark had just touched the ball once and passed it once when the referee blew the whistle, signaling the end of the first half.
But neither the German players on the field nor the German fans in the stands cared about the score.
They only cared about Reus's injury!
Upon returning to the locker room, they learned that Reus, accompanied by the team doctor, had already gone to a local hospital for examination.
If there was any further news, the team would be informed immediately.
However, judging from Reus's pained thumping of the grass and his tears as he left the field, everyone had a good idea of what had happened.
The World Cup was only a week away, yet they had lost a starting left winger, who had just been named the Bundesliga's best player, in an insignificant warm-up match.
This unexpected turn of events cast a somber mood over the entire locker room.
Löw, sensing this, also wore a grave expression:
"No one wanted what happened to Marco (Reus). But the match isn't over yet!"
"For Marco's sake, we must finish this game seriously!"
"In the second half, I want you all to play with aggression on the field, not with your heads down!"
After the halftime talk, the German players returned to the field in the second half, unleashing their full firepower!
Within just fifteen minutes, the German Team scored three goals!
Among them, Mark's performance was particularly eye-catching.
Compared to Reus, his dribbling was more aesthetically pleasing, with exaggerated feints that made it impossible for Armenia's right-back to predict his next move.
In the fifty-third minute, it was Mark who, after dribbling past a player on the left and cutting inside, attracted two defenders before delivering a cross to Götze.
Götze controlled the ball with a touch, surged into the penalty area, and then slotted it into the net!
Watching Mark and Götze embrace in celebration, Löw on the sidelines noticed a detail:
"Hans, do you feel like that kid Mark has gotten faster again?!"
Flick, standing beside him, nodded upon hearing this:
"Yes, he's gotten faster again..."
It's well known that speed is very difficult to improve through training.
Especially for professional track and field athletes, even an improvement of a few tenths of a second is huge.
And on the football field, an improvement of a few tenths of a second means Mark can get to the ball faster than his opponents and make his moves quicker!
"Could it be that he was deliberately hiding his strength in training?"
"Or perhaps, he's never gone all out?!"
Thinking of this, the two exchanged glances, seemingly seeing the shock in each other's eyes.
If Mark knew that his changes had caused such surprise and uncertainty in the head coach and assistant coach on the sidelines, he would surely smile calmly:
"Calm down, I just added a billion points of speed!"
Previously, in the warm-up match against Cameroon, he completed the season task of [National Team Debut] and the match task of [Assist], earning a reward of four potential points.
Plus the ten potential points rewarded for being selected for the [Bundesliga Team of the Year] and being named [Bundesliga Young Player of the Year]...
That's a total of fourteen potential points!
And before the match, Mark had added all fourteen points to his [Speed] attribute, raising it from 72 to 83 in one go!
A total increase of eleven attribute points!
This was the secret behind why Mark was faster on the field!
With the increase in speed, Mark's dribbling was more incisive, his movements were quicker, and he was increasingly approaching the style of peak Ronaldinho.
Elegant and effortless!
A sudden burst of acceleration, followed by a series of highly deceptive shoulder drops and feints, left Armenia's right-back disoriented, then an outside-of-the-foot Flick outwards completed the cut inside.
Dribbling at high speed and cutting inside, he surged to the edge of the big penalty area. Mark observed the goalkeeper's positioning, then swung his leg without hesitation, curling a shot towards the far corner!
With a 'whoosh,' the ball arced beautifully through the air, just clearing the fingertips of Armenia's goalkeeper and nestling into the net behind him!
With a swish, the white net rippled!
The next second, the entire Mewa Arena erupted in thunderous cheers!
"So cool!"
"Dribble, cut inside, curl shot, goal... all in one fluid motion!"
"I feel like he's even stronger than Reus!"
Many German fans in the stands also held their heads in their hands, looking incredulous.
They hadn't expected that after a goalless first half, Germany would return in the second half and dismantle Armenia's defense within just twenty minutes!
And Mark, replacing Reus, displayed explosive individual ability, becoming the brightest star on the field!
Players on the sidelines who had previously faced Mark in the Bundesliga, including Schweinsteiger, Kramer, Ginter, and others, all showed surprised expressions.
Only one thought was common in their minds:
This guy, is Ronaldinho possessing him?!
It's important to know that this kind of fluid dribbling, cutting inside, and shooting, a complete one-man show, had never appeared from Mark in the Bundesliga this season!
Had he gotten stronger, or had the opponents gotten weaker?!
Regardless, this match had already become Mark's personal stage!
It's worth mentioning that when the score reached four-nil, Löw finally brought on "K God" Klose, who had not participated in a single official match since the training camp.
And after Klose came on, the German Team, transforming from a "false nine" formation to a "true striker" formation, saw some changes in its attacking tactics in the final third.
Klose excelled at holding up the ball with his back to goal and pressing the opposing center-backs.
He could largely tie up the opponent's defensive attention, thereby giving the two wingers and the attacking midfielder more space to operate.
This way, the German Team gained another tactical fulcrum in the attacking third.
Seeing Klose enter the game, Mark also changed his previous style of attempting shots after breakthroughs, opting instead to play more intricate passing combinations with Klose.
He simply wanted to tell Löw in his own way how comfortable it was to have a genuine center-forward on the field!
In the eighty-third minute, Mark and Klose played a give-and-go, with the former surging into the left side of the penalty area and crossing the ball to the middle with his left foot.
Klose, making a run in the center, tapped it in, scoring his sixty-ninth goal for the German War Machine!
After scoring, Klose did not perform his signature somersault celebration; he simply pointed to Mark, who had assisted him, and smiled.
Ultimately, the German Team concluded their pre-World Cup warm-up journey with a resounding six-nil victory at the Mewa Arena.
And after the match, bad news also reached the team:
After an MRI scan, it was confirmed that Reus had a torn ligament in his left ankle, requiring at least several months of recovery!
This meant that Reus would definitely miss this Brazil World Cup!
However, after seeing Mark's explosive performance against Armenia today, everyone concerned about the German Team's prospects breathed a sigh of relief.
Although Reus couldn't go to Brazil.
Thankfully, they still had Mark!
...
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