Chapter 147 The winning goal

Van Marwijk didn't like Ye Qiu at all. He didn't just dislike him, he even hated him.

Because of Ye Qiu's appearance, he led Ajax to take away many honors that should have belonged to him, such as the Dutch Cup.

Although he was reluctant to say more, there was always an idea in his mind that Ye Qiu's appearance was the main reason why he was left empty-handed coaching Feyenoord for two or three consecutive years. Germany's leadership position has always been in a very unstable and embarrassing situation that makes people unable to rest assured.

The first game of the season was supposed to be a great opportunity. At that time, Ajax defender Heitinga was sent off with a red card early, but Feyenoord did not seize the opportunity at all. Malvik made a series of decisions that he later deeply regretted.

In that game, after losing to Ajax at home, Van Marwijk once asked himself, where did he lose? Why did he still lose after taking such a favorable advantage?

The answer he got was that he lacked the courage to take risks!

Therefore, when he met Ajax again for the second time, Van Marwijk knew very clearly that he had just played a tough game with Manchester United at Old Trafford and had to travel a long way back and forth. Kekes must be in a state of extreme fatigue, so in this game at Arena Stadium, Van Marwijk proactively played against the away team.

As he expected, Ajax looked very tired and out of shape. Even if Ye Qiu arranged a rotation, they would have to fight on two fronts for a long time, especially in the Champions League where they had to face the pressure of a powerful opponent like Manchester United. , it is difficult for Ajax to maintain an excellent competitive state in every game.

Players are human beings, not machines. They will get tired and tired.

Ye Qiu is a flexible person. When things are going well for him, he dares to go out and fight with all his might. When times are going against him, he can pretend to be a grandson and retreat to defend and counterattack. Therefore, in this game at Arena Stadium, he simply retreated. Go to your own half, give up control of the game, and concentrate on defending your own goal and preventing counterattacks.

Feyenoord also has a straightforward style, and suddenly fell into a dense positional battle. Especially when Ajax firmly cut off the passing route in their midfield, it was difficult for Feyenoord to create an absolute scoring opportunities.

Ye Qiu sat at ease in the coaching bench of the home team at the Arena Stadium. Although the situation seemed to be dominated by Feyenoord, there was no threat and he was not worried at all. Van Marwijk was also waiting patiently and did not proceed. Adjustment, because he believes that under a long attack, Ajax will definitely reveal flaws.

"While everyone is singing praises for the Ajax team that beat Manchester United without any temper at Old Trafford, we have to accept that they are at the Arena, at home. They played an extremely conservative defensive counterattack at the gate. Ye Qiu is indeed a very pragmatic head coach. He is more concerned about how to win the game. "

"I still remember that St. Cruyff spoke highly of Ye Qiu's Ajax in his recent Champions League column. He believed that Ajax was like their head coach, able to play an invincible offense. , and you can also lay down your body to organize an unbreakable defense.”

"Cruyff's comment on Ye Qiu is that he is a pragmatist with a bit of adventurism, and he also feels that such a person is more likely to survive in European football, because only adventurous people are gamblers. Although Ye Qiu sometimes takes risks, it must be after he sees through his opponent's trump card."

"I just don't know, has he seen through Van Marwijk's trump card in this game?"

No one could answer the on-site commentator's doubts. Ye Qiu was always sitting in the home team's coaching bench. Everyone could see that Ibrahimovic was in poor condition and wasted several opportunities in a row. The lack of physical fitness reduced a lot, but he just didn't make substitutions.

The Ajax fans in the stands were on pins and needles because they couldn't understand what Ye Qiu was thinking or what his plans were. They could only let Ye Qiu control him. Their emotions led their thoughts to follow Ye Qiu.

From the first half to the second half, Ajax's situation did not change at all. Ibrahimovic was still entangled and competing with Feyenoord's two central defenders on the court.

Fortunately, although the offense was lackluster, Ajax's defense was well organized.

In this game, Ye Qiu asked De Jong, Lucio, Kolo Toure and Heitinga to form the defense line, plus the main midfielder Gilberto Silva, Yaya Toure and Si Ned, Ajax's defense was very well organized and Feyenoord did not get very good scoring opportunities.

Seeing that the situation on the field was still very tense, Van Marwijk finally decided to make adjustments. He asked Swedish forward Elmander to warm up, hoping that he could come on to form an attack line with Thomason and Carew. Further increase the pressure on Ajax's defense and strive to score away goals.

But just when Van Marwijk asked Helmand to warm up, Ajax took the lead in making substitutions, and Ye Qiu replaced two players in one go. One was Robben on the left. Hleb and striker Huntelaar replaced Ibrahimovic.

For some reason, when seeing Ye Qiu's two substitutions, Van Marwijk instinctively felt something was wrong. He felt that this seemed to be a conscious substitution by Ye Qiu, as if it was premeditated, but what did Ye Qiu want to do?

A few minutes later, when Van Marwijk returned to the visiting team's coaching seat and saw Kivu's precise long pass across most of the field and behind Feyenoord's defense, he stood up from his seat involuntarily and aimed his eyes at his right back Van Goebbels and Ajax's left winger Robben.

Speed, at this moment, completely determined the outcome of this contest.

Robben easily passed Van Goebbels on the left, and rushed diagonally from the left to the back of Feyenoord's defense. He wanted to catch the ball in an offside position, but Feyenoord's defense also retreated quickly. Van Marwijk could not change his mentality of seeking stability and attached great importance to defense.

Robben saw that he had lost his chance and had to pull to the left after receiving the ball.

Van Goebbels will soon reach his position, blocking Robben from the penalty area. He was startled by Robben's sudden start. The Dutch winger's speed was so fast that he had no time to react and block.

After two years of training in the Eredivisie and two seasons of European competitions, Robben is now very confident in his speed and ability. Even when facing a right-back like Gary Neville, he dares to break through one-on-one, not to mention that he is facing Van Goebbels this time?

Robben was seen dribbling the ball on the left, and he smiled at Van Goebbels after Huntelaar in the middle of Ajax and Van der Meyde on the right, as well as Yaya Toure and Sneijder who came in from behind.

Van Goebbels felt uncomfortable with this smile and felt a little cold, as if the scythe from the god of death cut his body. Although his attention was focused on Robben, his eyes were always fixed on the Dutch winger, as if he wanted to keep an eye on Robben's every move.

Robben has a strong sense of rhythm, and his pace and stride when dribbling are very reasonable. This is closely related to his father's professional training since he was a child. He has a very good grasp of every touch of the ball, especially after coming to Ajax, Ye Qiu asked Mullensting and Moniz to strengthen him accordingly, and his strength is improving rapidly now.

Van Goebbels is also very experienced. He had a deep understanding of Robben's technical characteristics before the game. He knew very well that the Dutch winger was best at changing speed and direction, so he was very cautious after Robben came on the court.

Is it useful?

Everyone who plays right back in the Eredivisie knows clearly that Robben is best at a sudden fake move, then cutting inside or going down the bottom, but why can't anyone keep an eye on him?

The reason is very simple, just like Van Goebbels is doing now, he is staring at Robben's dribbling, calculating and estimating the distance between the two sides in his mind, but the most important thing is Robben's pace.

All actions on the court are based on one premise, that is, the center of gravity is stable. Each player has his own pace, which includes the frequency and length of the step. If you are familiar with a player's pace, you can judge his pace in advance, that is, where the next foothold is.

Imagine if you can judge the opponent's foothold in advance and use it to block and steal in advance, can the opponent still dodge?

Many people are wondering, what is speed change?

Sudden stop is just the most common type of speed change. The real sharp speed change is to control and adjust your pace anytime and anywhere.

When the opponent judges your next step and defends in advance, you suddenly make a change. He has no way to deal with you and can only watch you do what you want.

Just like Van Goebbels now, he watched a lot of Robben's videos before the game and was familiar with Robben's dribbling rhythm and pace. When he thought Robben was going to dribble inside suddenly, he made a blocking action in advance. According to his action, he would forcibly interrupt Robben's dribbling action when Robben's footsteps were not firm. The latter would definitely fall to the ground and the ball would be his!

But just when he thought he had won, Robben suddenly dunked half a step ahead, and the whole person went from cutting inside to going down the bottom. He kicked the ball forward with his left foot, and suddenly exerted his highest explosive power, rushing past Van Goebbels' side and rushing straight to the bottom line.

At this moment, Van Goebbels only had helplessness in his mind, because he could foresee that if he did not predict in advance, Robben would cut inside and pass him anyway.

At this moment, he really understood why so many people said that once Robben successfully controlled the ball, the only way to stop him from breaking through was to foul, because he could change his pace at any time and place, and then change his rhythm, making you completely lose your center of gravity and lose the ability to stop him.

In addition to fouling, what other ways are there to stop him?

Robben didn't know that Van Goebbels had thought so much at this moment. As soon as he broke through, he swung his left foot and made a quick cross. Huntelaar, who responded in the middle, shook off Van Onderen and rushed to hit Robben's cross into Feyenoord's goal with his head before everyone else.

Van Onderen, the veteran who had been tortured by Ibrahimovic and exhausted, was unable to stop the Dutch center forward from steadily grasping the fatal blow in the penalty area in the face of Huntelaar who was full of energy.

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!"

"At the critical moment, the 18-year-old center forward Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored the winning goal for Ajax!"

"A very, very crucial goal. This young player fully demonstrated his calmness and composure in front of the goal!"

After Huntelaar scored the goal, he opened his arms excitedly, slid out of Feyenoord's penalty area, rushed to the bottom of the Ajax chairman's stand, and celebrated Ajax's goal with Robben here.

"Huntrar's goal should be thanked to his teammate Robben. It was this player's sharp individual breakthrough on the left that created a scoring opportunity for Ajax, and Huntelaar also calmly seized this excellent opportunity."

When the TV live camera swept over, everyone found that even Ajax's chairman Van Praag jumped up from his seat in the stands and gave warm applause and cheers for the team's goal.

The scene turned into a sea of ​​joy, and all Ajax fans were happy for the team's goal.

Van Marwijk sat depressed in the visiting team coaching seat. He finally guessed Ye Qiu's calculations.

In this game, Ye Qiu first used Ibrahimovic to wear down the morale and physical fitness of Feyenoord's two central defenders, and used Hleb to paralyze Van Goebbels. When the two sides were almost worn out, he suddenly replaced Robben and Huntelaar, who had more physical fitness, to open Feyenoord's defense in one fell swoop.

Efficiency, the reason why Ye Qiu dared to take such a risk was because he had full confidence in his team's scoring efficiency.

"Is he looking down on us in terms of strength?" Van Marwijk was more angry, but helpless.

This goal not only broke Feyenoord's defense, but also their morale.

In the end, Ajax defeated its arch-rival Feyenoord 1:0 at home with Huntelaar's goal.

In the same round, PSV Eindhoven unexpectedly lost to Waalwijk 1:2 away, which allowed Ajax to successfully expand its lead to 5 points.

After the game, almost all media gave high praise to Huntelaar's goal at the critical moment. The player's first touch on the field for the first time led to Ajax's key goal, which immediately made Huntelaar the darling of Amsterdam and a hero in the hearts of fans.

A week later, Ajax welcomed Grafschap at home.

Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Huntelaar and Keita, Ajax relied on the key goals of these four players to beat Graafschap 4:0 away and successfully maintain a 5-point lead.

PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord also defeated their opponents 4:1 successively, continuing to put pressure on Ajax.

In the middle of the week, Ajax welcomed Boavista at the Arena Stadium.

This time in Amsterdam, Boavista failed to continue the situation in Portugal. Boavista at the Arena Stadium was completely beaten by Ajax from the beginning of the game, especially Sneijder, who has been in good form recently. He assisted Lucio to score a header just 13 minutes into the game.

Then Ibrahimovic turned and passed the ball diagonally behind him in the 18th minute. Robben shook off Bosingwa on the left, and then inserted into the penalty area to form a single knife, and shot through Boavista's goal, 2:0!

After that, the Portuguese team began to play steadily and tried to stabilize the rhythm, but Ajax was obviously not going to give Boavista more opportunities. Robben had long been resentful of Bosingwa and wanted to teach this guy a lesson. So in this game, Robben was very active on the left and broke through Bosingwa continuously.

The team was behind, and the situation was unfavorable. Bosingwa was very anxious. In less than 20 minutes, he committed two consecutive obvious fouls. The referee was very careful and gave him a yellow card and sent him off with a red card.

So far, the game situation was completely dominated by Ajax.

In the 43rd minute, Van der Vaart cut in from the right and shot a curved ball, which once again penetrated Boavista's goal, helping Ajax to take a 3:0 lead in the first half.

At the beginning of the second half, Boavista tried to counterattack and successfully knocked on Van der Sar's goal in the 52nd minute.

But soon, Ajax regrouped and in the 64th minute, Huntelaar, who has been in excellent form recently, scored again, 4:1.

After that, Ajax consciously slowed down the pace, especially when they were physically weak, Boavista's counterattack improved, but in the 78th minute, Ajax counterattacked after stealing the ball, Keita assisted Van der Vaart to shoot in the penalty area, scored twice, 5:1!

After this game, the situation in the entire Group A was completely reversed.

Manchester United and Bayern Munich finally played 0:0 at Old Trafford. In this way, Bayern Munich had 2 wins and 3 draws and 9 points, and Ajax also had 2 wins and 3 draws, also 9 points. The two teams had the same points, but Ajax relied on this round of home victory over Boavista 5:1, and the advantage of goal difference ranked first in the group.

Manchester United has 1 win, 4 draws and 7 points, ranking second in the group, while Boavista ranks last in the group.

After this round of matches, the group situation has become clear. Ajax will challenge Bayern Munich away, and as long as they draw, they can qualify from the group. Bayern Munich lags behind Ajax and Manchester United in goal difference, so they must win at home to qualify from the group.

As for Manchester United, as long as they beat Boavista away, no matter who wins or loses between Ajax and Bayern Munich, or even draws, the Red Devils can qualify from the group.

It can be said that the situation in Group A has become completely chaotic and complicated, and without exception, the last round is the key battle to qualify from the group.