Chapter 225

The punishment given by the Football Association was completely within Van Gaal's expectations. After he scolded the referee at the post-match press conference, he expected that he would definitely be punished like this.

However, he did not regret it, because if the head coach did not speak out after encountering such unfair treatment, then the referee might blow the home whistle more biased next time he went to the away game.

You still have to speak out when you should, so that the referee knows that your team is not a soft persimmon that you can deliberately pinch at will. If you get angry, you will become a nationally famous "black whistle".

When the reporter went to interview Van Gaal, Van Gaal said that he accepted the punishment of the Football Association, but he would never take back his evaluation of the blindness of the referee team in that game, and he would never apologize.

The public opinion outside is far from dissipating, but Alkmaar has already started training on May 10.

As assistant coach Junker said, Van Gaal can confront the referee because he has the obligation to speak out for the unfair treatment of his players.

But the players cannot get themselves trapped.

The first task for the players is to train hard, and then defeat the opponents in the game to qualify for the UEFA Cup next season.

The second round of the game will be on May 11. Naturally, there will be no intense training on May 10, but tactical arrangements will be the main focus.

Van Gaal cannot command the game on the sidelines on the second day. Officials from the Football Association will supervise him, isolate him in the stands, and even confiscate his mobile phone, so that Van Gaal cannot indirectly command the team.

Therefore, in the game the day before, Van Gaal needs to consider all possible situations, and then explain to Junker in advance how to adjust in which situation.

On May 11, 2008, the day of the game, in the evening, there were crowds of people outside the AFAS Stadium, the home stadium of Alkmaar.

The AFAS Stadium can only accommodate more than 17,000 people, but more than 30,000 Alkmaar fans came to the scene for this game.

In addition to the fact that the away fans of Nijmegen took away nearly 2,000 tickets, nearly 20,000 fans of Alkmaar were unable to enter the stadium and could only watch the live broadcast on the big screen in the square outside the stadium.

This is Alkmaar's last home game of the season, the last game of the season, and the final that will determine the qualification for the European Cup next season.

In addition to what happened in the first round, the fans of Alkmaar were very angry and very united.

So many fans came to support the team and wanted to see Alkmaar defeat Nijmegen and qualify for the UEFA Cup as soon as possible.

Before the game started, Van Gaal was taken away from the locker room by the Football Association staff.

After the last game, everyone knew that Junker was difficult to adapt to changes and could only execute according to the tactics that Van Gaal had given in advance.

Alkmaar will play this most important final with almost no head coach.

However, in the stands and in the square outside the stadium, when reporters randomly interviewed Alkmaar fans and asked them what they thought of the result of the game, all Alkmaar fans expressed strong confidence, without exception.

"Alkmaar will win!"

"We have Jiang, we can definitely turn the tables!"

"Even if Van Gaal is suspended, the final winner must be us!"

"As long as Jiang is there, we can win!"

It seems that the fans even put Jiang Xiaolin in a more important position than Van Gaal.

In the commentary booth, the commentator and guests were also explaining to the audience before the game:

"Today's game will definitely be difficult for Alkmaar."

"On the one hand, they are behind in the score, and they are behind by two goals. Nijmegen will definitely play a defensive counterattack."

"On the other hand, Alkmaar's head coach Van Gaal was suspended and could not appear in the command area. Alkmaar will be commanded by assistant coach Junker."

"However, after the test of the last game, Junker obviously does not have the ability to command a team alone. It depends on whether Van Gaal's pre-match arrangements can be fully utilized. "However, the most advantageous thing for Alkmaar is that they have a super striker - Jiang!" "As of the last game, Jiang has scored 23 goals in 12 official Eredivisie games, including the play-offs. This efficiency is simply appalling." "If the goals in the play-offs are counted, Jiang is already the second in the Eredivisie scorer list, only behind Ajax's Huntelaar." "Huntrar scored 33 goals including the play-offs, but it took 33 games to complete it." "One goal per gameHuntelaar's goal efficiency was already high enough to stand out from the crowd. Unexpectedly, Jiang, a pure rookie, scored 23 goals in 12 games, and his average goal efficiency was almost twice that of Huntelaar. "

"If Jiang doesn't leave the Eredivisie this summer, I don't know what kind of goal storm Jiang will set off in the Eredivisie next season! I'm looking forward to it! ”

As time approaches, all the fans with tickets have entered the stadium and the game is about to start.

After the side selection ceremony was completed, before the game started, Jiang Xiaolin clicked on the team halo to check the overall on-site status of his team in this game.

This is related to how much strength his teammates can play in this game.

The system shows that Alkmaar's overall on-site status in this game is 92%, which is not bad.

After all, this is a home game, and Jiang Xiaolin's amazing long-range shot in the last game during the injury time should have boosted the morale of the players. Now everyone is rushing to reverse and win.

Therefore, it is already good to be able to play more than 90% of the on-site status.

Jiang Xiaolin did not use attribute points to increase the team halo to 100%.

After all, that requires 10 attribute points, and only It can be used in one game, but it is also very painful to use it.

Jiang Xiaolin felt that with the team's 92% on-the-spot state, even if they were currently two goals behind, they would be enough to win the two-round final.

At 19:00 in the evening, with the cheers of all the Alkmaar fans, and with the referee's whistle, the second round of the 2007/2008 Eredivisie UEFA Cup play-off final Alkmaar VS Nijmegen officially began at Alkmaar's home AFAS Stadium.

Nijmegen took the lead in the game.

However, from the beginning of the game, Nijmegen did not seem to want to attack. They passed the ball all the way back, and even passed the ball to the goalkeeper under the pressure of Jiang Xiaolin and Hamdaoyi.

Nijmegen set up a defensive counterattack from the beginning of the game. In fact, this is understandable. After all, Nijmegen has a two-goal lead, and now it is still away from home, the environment itself is at a disadvantage, so they naturally cannot choose to play against Alkmaar away from home. Now they have a two-goal lead, and playing defensive counterattacks has another advantage, which is to limit Jiang Xiaolin's activity space as much as possible. Jiang Xiaolin's counterattack speed is too fast, his physical fitness is very good, and his off-ball running is also very cunning. One or two people can't defend him at all. Therefore, being able to pile up more defenders in the backcourt can greatly limit Jiang Xiaolin's running and shooting space. For Nijmegen, the biggest threat to Alkmaar in this game must be Jiang Xiaolin. As long as they can limit Jiang Xiaolin's activity If they can limit the space for movement and prevent Jiang Xiaolin from getting too many gaps and shooting opportunities, then they really have a chance to win the two-round final and qualify for the League Cup next season.

In the framework of defensive counterattack, Nijmegen lost the ball quickly, and Alkmaar began to hold the ball and press Nijmegen.

Nijmegen's forwards all retreated to the front of their own penalty area to help defend.

But Nijmegen's defense is really good.

It is said that Nijmegen did not have a holiday in the previous two days, and used both days for training. Today's match day was also rushed to Alkmaar in the morning, not in advance.

It seems that Nijmegen did a special defense exercise in the past two days for the away game against Alkmaar.

It doesn't matter in the midfield, basically the ball is at the feet of Alkmaar players.

But once the attack hits the 30-meter area of ​​Nijmegen's goal, it's like being stuck in a quagmire.

Basically everyone who gets the ball will face the pressure of two or three Nijmegen players around.

Moreover, the Nijmegen players also played very well, and they grasped the timing of stealing, intercepting and tackling very well.

Except for the back pass, no one could make a good breakthrough, and everyone could only try to tear open the opponent's defense line with teamwork.

In the 3rd minute, Jiang Xiaolin ran out of a short gap in the penalty area, and Moussa Dembeles, who was holding the ball, also saw Jiang Xiaolin's running position and this gap.

As a result, his pass was intercepted by Nijmegen defender Elabi with a flying tackle.

In the 7th minute, Jiang Xiaolin ran out of another gap, and Maarten Martens, who was holding the ball, wanted to pass the ball to him, but before he could pass the ball out, he was kicked away from the side by the opponent.

Although the opponent had a lot of defenders and someone was specifically guarding Jiang Xiaolin, Jiang Xiaolin's full-value off-ball running and starting speed made it possible to run out of the gap.

The problem is that this is football, a team sport. It's useless for Jiang Xiaolin to run out of the gap by himself. Someone has to pass the ball to him!But with Nijmegen retreating and defending, it was very difficult for Jiang Xiaolin to get the ball from his teammates.

Either his teammates couldn't see Jiang Xiaolin's running position, or the ball couldn't be passed to him.

Ten minutes into the game, Jiang Xiaolin hadn't shot a goal yet.

Unable to get the ball from his teammates, Jiang Xiaolin naturally tried to retreat, then get the ball and break through, but it was also very difficult.

Although he had a good body, fast speed, and fried meatballs were maxed out, his breakthrough method was too simple after all.

He was the focus of Nijmegen's defense, and his breakthrough method was simple. Even if he could break through one or two people, he would soon be supplemented by other players of the opponent, and he couldn't drive straight into the penalty area and shoot.