Chapter 166 The cost of underestimating your opponent

Before the whistle for the start of the game sounded, Arenal Stadium had already turned into a vast ocean.

The enthusiastic fans were like the waves of the English Channel, constantly beating on the hearts of everyone present, creating a very intimidating momentum and pressure.

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

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

"Since Ye Qiu led the Ajax second team to participate in the Dutch Cup and defeated PSV for the first time, completely defeating PSV, which was ambitious to create a double championship, his Ajax We've never lost to PSV."

"Some sources revealed that the main purpose of PSV senior management inviting Hiddink this time was to overthrow the Ajax dynasty established by Ye Qiu and push Ajax off the throne. This game is undoubtedly a crucial start.”

The camera kept whirling around the Arena Stadium. Looking at the stands on all sides of the stadium, the seats were crowded and packed. Ajax fans accounted for the vast majority. They created an momentum that swept the entire stadium. They simply wished they could beat the away team. Devour.

"Playing at Arena Stadium, PSV players have to be more courageous, otherwise, it may be difficult for them to perform normally!"

The on-site commentator laughed and joked, and as the camera turned, it landed on the visiting team's coaching bench.

"This is PSV's newly hired head coach this season, the famous local coach Hiddink. He just led the South Korean team to the World Cup miraculously to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup. He is the most popular head coach in world football today, and he is also the most popular head coach in world football. The hope of PSV fans.”

Soon, the camera fell in front of the home team's coaching bench again.

"This is the head coach of Ajax. The Chinese head coach Ye Qiu, who is only 28 years old this year, has stayed at Ajax for three years. In the first year, he led the Ajax second team to create history and win the The Dutch Cup champion lost the league title the next year, but the double crown of the UEFA Cup champion and the Dutch Cup champion is also very important.”

"But what really made Ye Qiu famous was last season. Ajax relied on their strong strength to break through two rounds of the group stage in the European Champions Cup and reach the semi-finals of the Champions League invincibly. , ultimately lost to the championship-winning Real Madrid, but Ajax won the domestic league championship and the Dutch Cup, 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 midfield players this season. Although the performance in the pre-season warm-up match was very eye-catching, no one knows. When it comes to the official game, can Ye Qiu’s team continue to maintain its excellent performance from last season?”

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

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When Hiddink came to Eindhoven, 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 Korean national team.

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

The goalkeeper is Watrous, the defense is Lee Young-pyo, Hovland, Faber and Oyer, the midfielders are Park Ji-sung, Van Bommel, Vogel and Romedal, and the forwards are Kežman and Hesselin. gram.

It is different from Ye Qiu's previous life, because Robben has been taken by Ajax in advance, so PSV does not have a good choice on the left. Hiddink uses two Korean players to play on the left, and the right Romedal on the road has always been PSV's most threatening offensive line.

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

The most obvious difference is that in the midfield, Gilberto Silva and Seydou Keita are gone, replaced by Arteta and De Jong. Many people are worried about Ajax's midfield. After all, The two core midfielders who left have already passed the test of the Eredivisie and European competitions, but the two newly joined players have not yet performed convincingly.

Hiddink's starting tactics still follow the same tactics used by all teams to deal with Ajax last season, tightening the three lines, playing steadily, waiting for opportunities to counterattack, and according to media reports and the situation from the pre-season warm-up match in Eindhoven It seems that PSV's offense still focuses on advancing from the wing.

The two forwards are somewhat similar to Liverpool during Houllier's time. A tall and strong center serves as a human shield, responsible for attacking the opponent's defense and creating opportunities for the faster and more flexible Kežman.

But what people didn't expect was that Ajax not only took over the area that was given up by PSV after recycling it, showing an aggressive momentum, but also gave PSV from the beginning. A painful sap.

As soon as the whistle sounded, Ibrahimovic passed the ball to Robben, who knocked back to Kifu at the back, but everyone in the Ajax midfield and frontcourt was already moving quickly. Rushing forward, Kifu stopped the ball, looked up, picked up his left foot and made a long pass.

I saw Van der Vaart rushing forward quickly on the right. The extremely fast Dutchman got rid of the Korean player Lee Young-pyo in an instant. The latter was a newcomer and was startled by Van der Vaart's sudden impact. He reacted and thought, When he was about to catch up again, he saw that Van der Vaart had already raised his foot to remove the ball and quickly rushed towards the penalty area.

Hovland kept chasing behind him. Van der Vaart made a fake move, fooling Hovland into thinking he was going to hit the bottom. When he quickly blocked it, Van der Vaart suddenly knocked his heel. It was as if he had eyes behind him. Likewise, the ball was knocked by his heel and hit the edge of the penalty area. Sneijder was just in time to catch up with the ball and hit the ball directly with a heavy shot.

Watrous made a save, but was beyond his reach. He could only watch the ball go into the net, 1:0!

"Oh my God, the ball went in!!!" The commentator on the scene was stunned.

Not only him, but everyone in the entire Arenal Stadium was stunned.

At that moment, the stadium seemed to turn into a dead silence, followed by crazy venting and celebration.

"Just after the game started, less than 20 seconds passed. No, it was only 17 seconds. Ajax took the lead in breaking through PSV's goal. This was a very, very sudden and fast attack. Kivu made a long pass from the backcourt. He found Van der Vaart accurately, but South Korean player Lee Young-pyo was not focused enough and missed Van der Vaart.”

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

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

It was the first time for Ajax to score against PSV just after the opening game.

Ye Qiu seemed to be in a good mood on the sidelines. He clapped his hands gently and praised his players for their hard work.

But Hiddink's expression was bleak. Even South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, who was sitting in the stands of Arenal Stadium and accompanied by Ajax Chairman Van Praag and Dutch government officials, looked very embarrassed because no one had expected that. Players from their country appeared on the Dutch court for the first time, and the impression left on people was that they made mistakes.

But it's clear that Hiddink's nightmare is not over yet.

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

Hiddink does not want to have a head-on confrontation with Ajax, but rather wants to adopt a strategy of stabilizing defense, wearing down Ajax's energy, and then slowly plotting a counterattack. This was also the strategy used by many teams to deal with Ajax last season.

What I didn't expect was that Ajax's tactics suddenly changed this season.

The most obvious change is that when PSV retracted three lines, Ajax pressed the defense directly up without hesitation, but it appeared to be more patient. Arteta scored in the PSV goal 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 you want to defend Arteta, you must either let the forward retreat or let the central midfielder come forward. But if you let the forward retreat If this is the case, it is equivalent to releasing a central defender. One of Ajax's two central defenders is good at long passes and the other is good at inserting behind. They are both threatening.

If the central midfielder comes forward, it will be even more dangerous, because no matter who Van Bommel or Vogel comes forward, Van der Vaart will cut over from the right immediately, forming a corner with Sneijder, and Arteta will also The ball 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 guard him, it won't work if you let Arteta control the ball outside the 30-meter area, because controlling the ball in this area only requires one pass to send the ball into a fatal position. When Jax controls the ball outside his own goal, it's like a naked woman lying in front of a prostitute, to be ravaged whenever she wants.

"I really didn't expect that Ajax would give up the impactful play of the past and adopt a more delicate ball-control strategy. This is somewhat unexpected, and Arteta's activities The range is also very large. Unlike Sneijder, who is more in the 30-meter area and cruises behind Ibrahimovic, Van der Vaart and Robben, Arteta is more like a role that connects the past and the future. "

De Jong sat in the defensive midfield position, allowing Ajax's right back Maicon to boldly step in and participate in the attack. As soon as Maicon pressed forward, Van der Vaart cut inside, freeing up the entire right wing, and Ajax's With the two wings playing very well, the center was able to use the numerical advantage to put pressure on PSV.

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Hiddink couldn't sit still and could only walk out of the visiting team's coaching bench and stand on the sidelines, watching the game on the court with a frown.

There is a saying that is right: hearing it a hundred times is better than seeing it once.

He had heard a lot about Ye Qiu and Ajax before, but that was mostly from the media, newspapers, and reporters. Many games were also seen on live TV, which was not as good as being there in person.

In less than ten minutes, Ajax gave him a feeling of amazement.

With the speed of the wind and the powerful impact, the goal just now completely suppressed the morale of PSV Eindhoven 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 rushed into the penalty area, attracting the attention of the defense and knocking it back. At best, it was Van der Vaart's heel pass full of imagination.

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

Van der Vaart's speed and technology are very well combined. This Dutch rookie, who is known as the new Cruyff, is very outstanding, and he cooperates very well with his partner Sneijder. He knows very well that if he rushes forward, Sneijder will follow.

Sneijder was firmly pinned to the 30-meter area by Ye Qiu. This was not a casual move. His speed of receiving and passing the ball was too fast. Almost every time he received the ball, he had already thought about how to pass the ball in advance. He and Arteta were one in front and one behind, always maintaining the closest distance, maintaining a kind of interaction and response.

This must be the tacit understanding and tactics that Ye Qiu deliberately created during training on weekdays. The two players have excellent ball protection ability. The ball is rarely lost at their feet. They have strong ability to get rid of it. In addition, their ability to pass the ball makes them a crucial link in Ajax's ball advancement.

But if it is just this link, Ajax's offense is not terrible. Strong breakthroughs in the middle are easy to defend no matter how strong their ability is.

A careful analysis of the two players' passing routes can find an interesting point. Sneijder's passing is more forward, or to Ibrahimovic, or to the two wingers, but basically they want to pass behind them, or pass back.

Arteta rarely passes the ball back, about 1 out of 10 times, but 3 of them are to Sneijder or forward, and the rest are all to the side. This is a very interesting phenomenon. The two players have a very clear division of labor and cooperation, and they are very compact and closely connected.

Arteta and Sneijder formed a clearly divided ball control area in the middle of the midfield, and the players in front, behind, left and right all actively ran without the ball around this area, which enabled Ajax to get plenty of ball control opportunities in front of PSV's defense after the opening.

On the other hand, PSV was constantly pulled by Ajax through passing and receiving the ball, constantly creating loopholes in the defense system, and soon exposed fatal loopholes.

In the 21st minute, Arteta got rid of Vogel and passed the ball to Sneijder, who passed it to the left before Van Bommel. Robben used his speed to pass the ball to the penalty area with his left foot before Oye, and passed it to the middle of goalkeeper Watrous and Ibrahimovic.

The Swedish center forward had been waiting for the opportunity here for a long time. When the ball came, he directly rushed to the point, and the ball passed through Watrous's armpit, 2:0!

For a moment, all Ajax fans rushed out of their seats and cheered for the team's second goal.

Hiddink stood in front of the visiting team's coaching bench, accepting the ridicule and humiliation from the home team fans in the stands, but he had no choice because he had to admit one thing.

"We still underestimated him!" Hiddink said helplessly to his assistant Pim Verbeek.

The "he" here obviously refers to Ye Qiu.

According to Hiddink's previous opinion of Ye Qiu, no matter how outstanding this person is, he is only 28 years old. Maybe his football philosophy is very good and advanced, but it is inevitable that there will be some congenital deficiencies. In addition, two tigers, Gilberto Silva and Seydou Keita, left this summer, and the players introduced are not well-known and the price is not high, so the strength should be weakened.

It has to be said that this is an inertial thinking of many people in Europe, that is, the value of players is reflected in the transfer fee to a certain extent. They have never believed in the so-called introduction of high-level players at a low price, especially for Dutch teams like Ajax.

With the continuous development of informatization, the so-called late bloomers, or talented stars who are not appreciated, will become fewer and fewer.

But what was unexpected was that Ye Qiu lost two tigers, but introduced Arteta, a technical player, and then completely adjusted the entire tactics of Ajax. Now Ajax has begun to add more delicate control to the past big-open and impact tactics.

"We should make some adjustments. Strengthening the midfield might be a good idea," said Pim Verbeek.

The only option to strengthen the midfield is to weaken the offense, but adjusting the tactics by substitutions in the first half will undoubtedly make everyone doubt Hiddink's prestige and tactical quality, because it is equivalent to admitting that his starting tactics have completely failed.

"Wait and see!" Hiddink obviously hopes to stabilize the situation through adjustments on the court.

But at this time, after receiving the pass from Maicon, Van der Vaart dribbled inside to actively cooperate with Sneijder in a two-on-one match, and then passed the ball behind him. Ibrahimovic suppressed Hovland with his body and shot with his right foot, once again penetrating the goal guarded by Watrous.

In half an hour, PSV's defense only lasted half an hour before Ajax scored 3 goals. This immediately made the Ajax fans in the stands couldn't help but go crazy. What they saw was Ajax beating PSV and scoring 3 goals in a row.

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

Even the commentator on the scene was disappointed with PSV's first show of the new season.

Originally, the dragon-tiger fight that everyone expected turned into a one-sided massacre in the end. This is indeed a very disappointing thing, but it is obvious that the Ajax players are not satisfied yet, and the killing continues.