Become A Football Legend

As if Lukas was listening to the commentary, he made his move.

Ekitike played the kick-off to Koch in defense who sent it back to Trapp in goal. Trapp passed to Collins who in turn passed to Kristensen on the right-hand side, near the halfway line.

Jamie Gittens was already tightly marking Kristensen before the ball got to him, though, managing to poke the ball away from his feet. He heard a call from the middle of the pitch, glanced to see Can, and played the pass towards him. As Can hesitated for a second to go meet the ball, deciding to wait for it instead, one man slid into the ball's path, intercepting the pass — it was Lukas.

He got up immediately after winning the ball and burst forward. Can and Nmecha gave chase, but he started a few steps away from them and they weren't getting to him even though he was with the ball.

Anton, one of the Dortmund center backs, stepped up to mark Lukas just at the edge of the penalty arc. Lukas saw him coming and feigned a shot with his right foot. Anton took the bait and tried to block the shot, but Lukas used his studs to roll the ball to his left and, in one swift motion, played a through pass to Ansgar who was making his run into the box from the left.

"Lukas with the interception, wonderful. He has taken off, see the speed on this young man. Will he take a shot from there? We know he can. No, he fakes Anton. Plays Knauff through! Knauff one-on-one with Kobel — can he finish? No! Kobel with a wonderful save and the ball is out for a corner kick. What a play by Lukas, he's showing signs already," Wolff-Christoph exclaimed.

Ansgar had tried to go through the legs of Kobel but failed as Kobel was quick to close the gap between his legs. The resulting corner taken by Lukas was promptly cleared out of the danger zone.

After that early scare, the match settled in favor of Dortmund as they saw more of the ball. They just couldn't seem to put it in the back of the net, though.

Their first big chance came in the 7th minute. Ryerson had just received the ball from Brandt down the right flank. He twisted and turned to get away from Theate and Brown before sending a wonderful looping cross into the box. Guirassy leaped as high as he could and headed the ball down toward the goal. Trapp was beaten, but the goal post came to his rescue. Lukas, who was back defending, was able to clear the ball to safety after it hit the post.

In the 14th minute, Lukas received the ball from Kristensen at the right hand side of the midfield. He looked at the Dortmund defense and saw how high up the pitch they were — Bensebaini, the left back was trying to tackle him at the halfway line — and he decided to exploit that.

With a deft touch to the left he avoided the tackle and played a pass to Ekitike in the middle. Immediately the ball left his feet, he was already looking down the line, timing his run to stay on side. Ekitike saw what Lukas wanted and played a pass into the open space behind the back line on the right hand side, and Lukas had acres of space to run into.

Lukas gave chase, catching the ball a few feet to the right of the penalty box. He glanced into the box, saw Ekitike and Knauff making a run, and curved a ground pass into the danger area.

Ekitike met the ball calmly, side-footing it into the net and ran off to celebrate at the other end of the field.

"GOALL! Frankfurt takes the lead. Great passes from Ekitike to Lukas and from Lukas back to Ekitike. Are we witnessing a partnership in the making?"

Lukas pumped his fist to the crowd on his side of the pitch while Ekitike, at the opposite end, turned and pointed towards him.

The game resumed soon after the celebrations and the home fans were visibly hungry for another goal as the noise level in the stadium seemed to turn up a notch.

Dortmund pushed even harder for an equalizer. They hadn't been in this position for a long time. Since 2017, they hadn't lost three Bundesliga matches in a row but that was something that would happen that day if they did not respond.

And respond, they did.

It happened in the 39th minute. Lukas passed the ball to Ansgar, he tried to dribble Ryerson, but lost the ball and Dortmund launched a counterattack.

Ryerson played a long pass down to Brandt. Brandt beat Theate down at the right flank and pulled it into the middle for Pascal Groß just beside the penalty arc.

Groß hit the ball first time with his laces. The shot deflected off Skhiri and changed its direction, catching Trapp off guard as it went the opposite way from where he dived.

"Dortmund levels the score! Huge deflection from Skhiri. There was nothing Trapp could do about it."

The Dortmund players ran to celebrate with Groß at the away end of the pitch. The away fans now in full scream. The goal had given them back their voice.

Lukas watched the Dortmund players celebrate, and thought to himself, "I should have closed Groß down earlier." He could tell his mistake already. When he noticed that Groß unmarked, it was already too late as the ball had already been sent his way.

Ekitike, once again, took the kick off. This time, he played a short pass to Lukas. Lukas sent the ball to the left to Ansgar, who sent it back towards Brown. Brown, with a lobbed pass, returned the ball to Ansgar who was running down the line.

Ansgar, under pressure from Ryerson, played a pass to Lukas who had come to help. Lukas skipped past Ryerson, who then tried to grab his shirt but only got a handful of wind.

Can stuck out his foot as Lukas got to the Borussia Dortmund final third. Lukas evaded it with a La Croqueta, pushing the ball out of his reach as he jumped over Can's foot.

As Lukas tried to advance the play with a pass to Ekitike whom he saw making a run, "BAM," Schlotterbeck, way out of his usual position, slammed into him. His shoulder slammed into Lukas's abdomen and he fell to the floor writhing in pain.

"Ohhh that's a nasty challenge from Schlotterbeck, Lukas seems to be in pain. The referee shows a yellow card to the German defender for foul play. Lukas seems to be okay now thankfully. It seems he just needs a minute to catch his breath."

The referee gave a free kick after confirming that Lukas didn't need extra attention from the medical staff.

Lukas got up and took a look at where the foul had occurred and the distance to the goal. It was about six feet outside the penalty area, just a bit to the left — perfect for a left-footed strike.

He looked at Schlotterbeck who was now part of the wall being set up by Kobel, and just stared at him, his face emotionless.

"It seems Schlotterbeck tried to get into Lukas's head with that tackle and he might have succeeded. Lukas will need to stay calm and not make any rash decisions," the commentator said.

Götze and Brown who had helped pull Lukas up were now consoling him as they saw him stare at Schlotterbeck. "It's alright, Luke, he's trying to get into your head. Don't let him." Mario said as he placed one hand on Lukas's shoulder and another over his mouth.

"How about I take the free kick this time?" Brown asked, scared that Lukas's emotion might get the best of him.

"Let me take it. I promise it's fine," Lukas said as he gently shook his head, his eyes now looking at the ball which was placed at the spot of the foul.

Brown and Götze both backed off the ball, there was going to be no dummy runs to fool the defense. It was obvious that Lukas would be taking the free kick.

"Chaibi isn't playing, is Lukas the team's set-piece taker now?" A female fan asked her partner beside her.

"There's gotta be a reason the players and the coaches are letting him take the free kick. They're the ones who watch him train every day, so let's believe in their judgement," the man responded.

"It seems the young man has been given the go-ahead order from the coach to take the free kick. What exactly do they see in training that made them place so much responsibility on the kid. He has played almost every position, except Trapp's, in this game so far. He sets the ball down. Kobel is screaming at the wall. It seems Gittens will be the one with the ugly task of lying under the wall."

"FWEEE!" the referee's whistle blew.

Lukas took one look at the ball, another at the goal, and started his run up.