Chapter 751: The End of the First Half!

"FUCK! NO!"

Instead of going peacefully to the locker room, Nassim Boujellab gasped dramatically in the middle of the pitch, picking up the ball from the ground before showing it to the referee as if he was trying to make a point here.

"Ref! Can you see that I am about to launch a counter?! How could you stop at that moment?! Is that a deliberate attempt to help Dortmund or what?!" The boy didn’t even realize how harsh his complaint sounded now.

The referee’s face turned dark instantly, not liking what Nassim was implying right now. Fortunately, before the Moroccan winger tried to push his luck further, Omar Mascarell noticed the situation here and pulled the winger back to face the referee directly.

"You know he didn’t mean that. A young player; you should tolerate him more." The captain negotiated quickly. "You also cannot deny that the timing is shady here. The moment we are about to counter, you blow the whistle. Look, even our coach is furious right now." He pointed at the sideline.

True enough, there, Frohling had to be held back by Waldoch and the other staff as his mouth went soapy from complaining a lot here. A thick vein still popped on his neck, and his face was so red as if he was trying to hold back all the anger inside him and failed miserably.

The referee’s face was so ugly at this point, and instead of debating with the players in front of him, the man went directly to handle the coach first. After all, he still had to support his assistant, who seemed to be so confused right now, not knowing why Schalke’s head coach was spitting directly at his face.

When the attention was not on them, Omar Mascarell dragged Nassim Boujellab away immediately, being followed by the rest of the players on the pitch.

At this point, all the Dortmund players were already back in their own locker room, and while some people were still annoyed with the referee’s terrible timing in stopping the game, this little break was something that everyone needed, and they didn’t want to prolong it too much for a useless complaint that would never change anything.

Fortunately, Frohling also knew it, so when he saw his players were back in the locker room, the man followed all along. Of course, before he went back, the man still didn’t forget to put pressure on the referee first.

"Just wait, you Bastard! Don’t think that you can keep doing this! Disgusting!"

The voice echoed throughout the locker room, and everyone was sure that even those in Dortmund’s room would be able to hear that. What surprised them, though, was that once the man was back, his expression was normal again, as if he hadn’t just unleashed hell on the referee outside.

"What?" He asked; his tone was flat.

"N—No, Boss! You are just that awesome!" Nassim Boujellab blurted out something stupid here, making everyone wince and glare at him unconsciously.

Normally, the coach would never allow someone to say something like that in front of the team. The guys were even getting ready to face his fury here, some starting to cover their ears.

However, much to their shock, instead of being angry, Frohling laughed boisterously, patting Nassim on his shoulder.

"Brat! You have done a great job for me in the first half! I mean, one assist already?! Are you kidding me?!" The laughter was boisterous, making some of the guys drop their jaws instantly. "Come on! I expect more from you tonight! The game is still far from over, so show your magic later!"

"Sure, Boss!" Nassim answered with a similar grin reflected on his face. He didn’t pay any attention to his surroundings, not noticing the bewilderment on everyone’s faces.

Yeah, no one really expected that their cold-hearted boss would be able to joke around like that. In their impression, the man would always frown, scowl, or even shout at them, with anger being so obvious.

However, for those who came from the second team like Higo, Morita, and the rest of them, this was not something weird. After all, the coach was always approachable, even advising and guiding the players gently when they did something wrong.

Well, it couldn’t be helped. In the second team, everything went quite smoothly, with them crushing all the opponents in that division. However, the situation in the first team was completely opposite, so it was no wonder that the man had never been seen to be happy with his players.

"We have a slow start today, but we managed to hold on quite well. Also, good job, Higo! You don’t need to think too much about that goal; it is unavoidable." The coach turned to Higo for a moment. It seemed that he also noticed the boy’s distraught state earlier.

"Yeah, sorry, Sensei. It will not happen again." Higo nodded solemnly.

Frohling nodded in satisfaction. It was always good to have a player like Higo, low-key without causing too many problems for the team. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but sigh, wondering, ’If only all of them were as easy to handle as him...’

Unfortunately, that was just a hopeful thought, so he shook his head quickly, moving on to the next topic.

"You guys have done amazing in not getting baited by their patient build-up, but some adjustments still have to be made. Weston, especially you. That is not the level of performance that you should have." The man pointed directly at Weston McKennie.

The American midfielder just sighed helplessly in return. He wanted to say something, but in the end, all words stuck in his throat. Unfortunately, the coach was right. If only he could see his rating so far, Weston wouldn’t be shocked to see that he was the lowest one today.

After this, the coach started to point out parts that could be fixed, and the rest of the team nodded along while listening to the instructions. At this point, all the toxic thoughts about not treating this lockdown competition seriously had already gone away. Once the team picked up momentum, there was no way anyone would dare to slack off.

Seeing this, Higo was also quite satisfied, nodding secretly on the back. ’Yeah, this is how a team should be, moving forward together. At least, I can believe that we can still win today’s game. Of course, that is only if I could stop Haaland from roaming freely in the box...’