The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 166 Underestimate the price of the opponent

The whistle for the start of the game has not yet sounded, and the Arenal Stadium has become a vast ocean.

The turbulent fans were like the waves of the English Channel, which kept beating on the hearts of everyone at the scene, creating a very deterrent momentum and pressure.

If it is said that Feyenoord was the team that Ajax hated the most in the past, then in the past few years, they must have hated PSV Eindhoven the most, because it was this team that brought them One nightmarish fiasco after another.

"Many people used to say that Eindhoven used to be a huge shadow in Ajax's heart. It was difficult for them to take advantage of Eindhoven, and they even lost face at the Arena. But in the past two years, the situation seems to be reversed, Ajax has become PSV Eindhoven's nightmare."

"Ye Qiu led the Ajax second team to participate in the Dutch Cup, defeated PSV Eindhoven for the first time, and completely defeated PSV Eindhoven who was ambitious to create a double crown. His Ajax Max has never lost against PSV."

"A source revealed that the main reason why Eindhoven's senior management invited Hiddink this time was to overthrow the Ajax dynasty established by Ye Qiu and push Ajax down from the throne. This game is undoubtedly a crucial start.”

The camera keeps turning around the Arenal Stadium, looking at the stands on all sides of the stadium, there are crowds of people, Ajax fans occupy the vast majority of them, they create an momentum that sweeps the audience, and they can't wait to beat the visiting team devour.

"Playing at the Arenal Stadium, PSV players have to be more courageous, otherwise, I am afraid it will be difficult to perform normally!"

The on-site commentator laughed and joked, and as the camera turned, he landed on the coach's seat of the visiting team.

"This is PSV Eindhoven's newly appointed head coach this season, the famous local coach Guus Hiddink, who has just led the South Korean team to the World Cup semi-finals in the World Cup. He is the most powerful head coach in the world today. The hope of PSV fans."

Soon, the camera fell to the front of the home team coach's bench again.

"This is the head coach of Ajax. The 28-year-old Chinese head coach Ye Qiu has been in Ajax for three years. In the first year, he led the Ajax second team to make history. The Dutch Cup champion, although he lost the league title in the second year, the UEFA Cup and Dutch Cup double is equally important."

"But what really made Ye Qiu famous was last season, when Ajax, relying on their tyrannical strength, broke through the two rounds of the group stage in the European Champions Cup and entered the Champions Cup semi-finals invincibly. , and ultimately lost to Real Madrid who won the championship, but Ajax won the league championship and the Dutch Cup in the country, becoming the double champion again."

"Many media believe that Ye Qiu is a talented young coach, young but talented, but Ajax has lost two core midfielders this season. Although the warm-up match before the season was very eye-catching, no one knows. When it comes to the official competition, will Ye Qiu's team continue to maintain the outstanding performance of last season?"

While the on-site commentator was speaking, the referee finally blew the whistle to start the game.

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When Hiddink came to PSV, there was not much time left for him to transfer, but he still introduced two stars Lee Young-pyo and Park Ji-sung from his former South Korean international team.

In this game against Ajax, both players were eligible to start.

The goalkeeper is Watrus, the defense is Lee Young-pyo, Hovland, Faber and Oye, the midfielders are Park Ji-sung, Van Bommel, Vogel and Romedal, and the double forwards are Kezhiman and Hesselin gram.

It was different from Ye Qiu's previous life, because Robben had already been won by Ajax in advance, so PSV did not have a good choice on the left. Hiddink used two South Korean players to play on the left, and the right Romedal has always been PSV's most threatening attacking line.

Ajax's starting lineup is also different from last season. The goalkeeper Van der Sar, the defense is Abidal, Kivu, Lucio and Maicon, and the three midfielders are Arteta. , De Jong and Sneijder, the trident is Robben, Ibrahimovic and van der Vaart.

The most obvious difference is in the midfield, without Gilberto Silva and Sedu Keita, replaced by Arteta and De Jong, many people are more worried about Ajax's midfield, after all The two midfield cores who left have already passed the test of the Eredivisie and the European arena, but the two newly joined players have not yet performed convincingly.

Hiddink's starting tactics still follow the same set that all teams dealt with Ajax last season, tightening the three lines, playing steadily, and waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, and according to media reports, as well as the situation from the pre-season warm-up match of Eindhoven Judging from it, Eindhoven's offense still focuses on advancing from the side.

The double striker is somewhat similar to Liverpool in Houllier's time. A tall and strong center forward acts as a meat shield, responsible for attacking the opponent's defense and creating opportunities for the faster and more flexible Kežman.

But what is unexpected is that Ajax not only took the area that was reclaimed by Eindhoven as it was ordered, showing an aggressive momentum, but also gave Eindhoven A miserable sap.

As soon as the whistle sounded, Ibrahimovic passed the ball to Robben, who knocked back to Kivu at the back, but everyone in the frontcourt of Ajax was already running fast. After rushing forward, Kifu stopped the ball, looked up and took a look, swung his left foot and made a long pass directly.

Seeing Van der Vaart rushing forward on the right, the extremely fast Dutchman threw away the Korean player Lee Young-pyo in an instant. When he was about to catch up again, he saw that Van der Vaart had lifted his foot to unload the ball and rushed to the penalty area quickly.

Hovland kept chasing after him. Van der Vaart tricked Hovland into thinking that he was going to bottom out, and when he quickly blocked it, Van der Vaart suddenly tapped his heel, as if he had eyes behind him. Similarly, the ball was knocked by his heel and hit the front of the penalty area. Sneijder just slapped his horse to catch up, and he shot the ball again.

Waterus made a save, but he couldn't do it. He could only watch the ball hit the net, 1:0!

"Oh my God, the ball went in!!!!" The live commentator was dumbfounded.

Not only him, everyone in the entire Arena was dumbfounded.

At that moment, the stadium seemed to become a dead silence, followed by wild venting and celebration.

"Just started, less than 20 seconds later, no, only 17 seconds, Ajax scored the first goal of PSV Eindhoven, it was a very, very sudden and fast attack, Kivu made a long pass from the backcourt Van der Vaart was found precisely, but the Korean player Lee Young-pyo was not focused enough and missed Van der Vaart."

"It's amazing, a lightning goal, Ajax took the lead like this!"

The Ajax players frantically rushed out of the field to celebrate, and Sneijder even raised his arms high, knelt down under the stadium stands, let his teammates hug him, opened his mouth wide, and kept talking. laughing out loud.

It was the first time for Ajax to break the goal of Eindhoven at the beginning of the game.

Ye Qiu also seemed to be in a good mood on the sidelines, patting his hands lightly, affirming his players' hard work.

But Hiddink's expression was rather gloomy. Even South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who was sitting in the stands of the Arenal Stadium, accompanied by Ajax chairman Van Prager and Dutch government officials, seemed embarrassed, because no one thought that, Players from their country appeared in the Netherlands for the first time, and the impression left was one of mistakes.

But clearly, Hiddink's nightmare is not over yet.

Eindhoven's opening tactic is defensive counterattack. Ajax's offense is very impactful. This is their most powerful weapon in the Europa League last season. Robben, Van der Vaart, Hleb and Van der Mey The wings formed by Germany, coupled with the atypical center Ibrahimovic, and Huntelaar, Ajax's offense is very threatening.

Hiddink does not want to confront Ajax head-on, but prefers to adopt a strategy of stabilizing the defense, grinding away Ajax's spirit, and then slowly plan a counterattack. This is also the strategy that many teams dealt with Ajax last season.

Unexpectedly, Ajax's tactics changed suddenly this season.

The most obvious change is that when Eindhoven retracted the three lines, Ajax did not hesitate to press the defense line directly, but it appeared to be more patient. Control the ball about 30 meters away.

This is a very sensitive area. First of all, he is behind the forward, but in front of the central midfielder. If he wants to defend Arteta, he must either let the forward retreat or let the central midfielder step forward, but if the forward retreats In other words, it is tantamount to releasing a central defender. One of Ajax's two central defenders is good at long passes and the other is good at cutting in. They are both very threatening.

If it is a central midfielder, it is even more dangerous, because no matter who comes forward, Van Bommel or Vogel, Van der Vaart will cut over from the right at the first time, forming a corner with Sneijder, and Arteta also It must be passed to their feet as soon as possible, two-on-one in a local area, Ajax's offense creates threats anytime and anywhere.

But if you don't defend him, it won't work to let Arteta control the ball outside the 30-meter area, because to control the ball in this area, you only need to pass the ball to send the ball into a fatal position, and let Arteta With Jax holding the ball outside his own goal, it was the equivalent of a naked woman lying in front of a whore, ravaging whenever she wanted.

"I really didn't expect that Ajax has now given up the aggressive style of play of the past, and instead adopted a more delicate ball-handling tactic. This is a bit unexpected, and Arteta's activities The range is also very large. Unlike Sneijder, who is more in the 30-meter area, cruising behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic, van der Vaart and Robinson, Arteta is more like a role that connects the past and the future. "

De Jong sits in the midfielder position, allowing Ajax's right back Maicon to boldly step in and participate in the attack. As soon as Maicon presses up, Van der Vaart cuts in and lets the entire right side out. Ajax's When the two sides are playing very active, the center can use the number advantage to put pressure on Eindhoven.

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Hiddink couldn't sit still, so he could only walk out of the coach's bench of the visiting team, stand on the sidelines, and watch the game on the court with his brows furrowed.

There is a saying that is quite true, seeing is better than hearing a hundred times.

He had heard a lot about Ye Qiu and Ajax before, but he got more information from the media, newspapers, and reporters. Many games were watched live on TV, so it was better to be there in person. It's more experience on site.

In less than 10 minutes, Ajax gave him the feeling of amazement.

The speed like the wind, the powerful impact, the goal just now completely suppressed Eindhoven's morale to the bottom.

That goal looked very simple. It was nothing more than a long pass from the backcourt to launch an attack. The player in front used the speed to get the ball and then went into the penalty area. After attracting the attention of the defense, he knocked back. At best, it was Van der Vaart's heel pass. Full of imagination.

But in fact, in this goal, what Hiddink saw was more.

Van der Vaart's speed and technique are very well combined. This Dutch rookie known as the new Cruyff is very good, and he cooperates very well with his partner Sneijder. He knows very well that he can rush forward , Sneijder will follow and press up.

The player Sneijder was firmly nailed to the 30-meter zone by Ye Qiu. This was not a random move. His speed of receiving and delivering the ball was too fast, and almost every kick he received had already been thought out in advance. On the ball, he and Arteta have always maintained the closest distance, maintaining an interaction and echo.

This must be the tacit understanding and tactics that Ye Qiu deliberately created during his daily training. Both players have excellent ball protection ability. Ability makes them a crucial part of Ajax's ball advancement.

But if it's just this link, Ajax's offense is not terrible. It is strong in the middle, and it is easy to defend no matter how strong it is.

Carefully analyzing the routes of the two players, we can find an interesting point. Sneijder's balls are more forward, or to Ibrahimovic, or to the two wingers, but basically they want to pass. Behind, or pass back.

Arteta has very few back passes, about 1 out of 3 is a back pass, but [-] of them are for Sneijder or a forward pass, and the rest are all side kicks. This is a very interesting one. In this phenomenon, the two players have a very clear division of labor and cooperation, and they are closely connected with each other.

With Arteta and Sneijder forming a clear division of labor in the middle of the midfield, the players in the front, back, left and right are actively running without the ball around this area. This makes Ajax, after the opening, Firmly in front of Eindhoven's defense line to get plenty of ball possession opportunities.

On the other hand, Eindhoven, being coordinated by Ajax through passing and receiving, kept pulling, constantly creating loopholes in the defensive system, and soon exposed fatal loopholes.

In the 21st minute, after Arteta got rid of Vogel, he passed to Sneijder. The latter rushed to the left before Van Bommel, and Robben used his speed to grab ahead of Oye. , passed the ball low into the penalty area with his left foot, and passed it just right between the goalkeeper Waterrus and Ibrahimovic.

The Swedish center had already been waiting for an opportunity here. As soon as the ball came, he directly grabbed the point. The ball passed through Waterrus' armpit, 2:0!

All of a sudden, all the Ajax fans rushed out of their seats, cheering for the team's second goal.

Standing in front of the visiting team's dugout, Hiddink was jeered and humiliated by the home fans in the stands, but there was nothing he could do about it because he had to admit one thing.

"We still underestimated him too much!" Hiddink said helplessly to his assistant Pim Verbeke.

Here he was obviously referring to Ye Qiu.

According to Hiddink's previous views on Ye Qiu, no matter how good this person is, he is only 28 years old. Maybe his football concept is very good and advanced, but he will inevitably have some congenital deficiencies. With Gilberto Silva and Seydo Keita as two strong players, the players brought in are not well-known and the prices are not high, so their strength should be weakened.

It has to be said that this is a kind of inertial thinking of many people in Europe, that is, the value of players is reflected in the transfer fee to a certain extent, and they have never believed in the so-called introduction of high-level players at low prices. Especially for an Eredivisie team like Ajax.

With the continuous development of informatization, there will be fewer and fewer so-called late bloomers, or unrecognized talented stars.

Unexpectedly, Ye Qiu lost two strong players, but he introduced Arteta, a skilled player, and then completely adjusted Ajax's entire tactics. In the aggressive tactics of opening and closing, more delicate controls are added.

"We should make some adjustments. It might be a good idea to strengthen the midfield." Pim Verbeck said.

To strengthen the midfield, the only option is to weaken the offense, but in the first half to adjust tactics through substitutions, this will undoubtedly make everyone doubt Hiddink's prestige and tactical quality, because it is equivalent to admitting his starting tactics Total failure.

"Just wait and see!" Hiddink obviously hoped to stabilize the situation through adjustments on the court.

But at this moment, after receiving the pass from Maicon, van der Vaart dribbled the ball inside to actively cooperate with Sneijder for a two-for-one cooperation. Lan, volleying with his right foot, once again pierced the goal guarded by Waterrus.

For half an hour, Eindhoven's defense only lasted for half an hour, and Ajax scored 3 goals. This immediately made the Ajax fans in the stands go crazy with joy. What I saw was that Ajax beat PSV Eindhoven and poured 3 goals in a row.

"3:0, this game lost suspense early!"

Even the on-site commentator was disappointed with Eindhoven's new season debut without regret and helplessness.

It is indeed a disappointing thing that the fight between dragons and tigers that everyone expected turned into a one-sided massacre in the end, but it is obvious that the Ajax players are not satisfied, and the killing continues.

(End of this chapter)