Chapter 44 Cracks

Sometimes, Ye Qiu feels that coaching a football match is like making a movie.

The head coach is the director, the players are the actors, and the tactics are the script of the movie.

Before a movie starts shooting, the script must be written first, and then everyone shoots according to the script, so there is a comparison.

Of course, the director can also modify the script during the shooting process, but no director can suddenly overturn the style of the script after the shooting begins, turning the original comedy into a horror movie, or turning the original love movie into an action movie. That is definitely impossible, because everyone knows what the movie shot in this way will look like.

The same is true for a game!

The head coach draws up the tactics before the game, gives the next tone for the game, determines how to play, and then conducts targeted training and tactical arrangements according to this tone, and instills the corresponding tactical requirements into the players.

In this case, once you get to the game, even if you find that your team's tactics are completely suppressed, you have no way, unless you completely overturn all the arrangements and preparations for the past period of time, but that will inevitably pay a painful price and take huge risks.

So, generally speaking, unless it is really desperate, no one is willing to do this kind of thing.

The most obvious is Liverpool's Istanbul miracle. If there was no 0:3 in the first half, no accidental injury to Finnan in the first half, and if the Reds were not forced into a desperate situation by AC Milan, would Benítez have made such a counterattack?

Perhaps, the answer is not necessarily!

Because all head coaches know very well that completely overturning the pre-match arrangement and starting tactics may cause the entire team to completely collapse, become a mess, and be at the mercy of others.

Van Marwijk has always been known for his steadiness. He saw his team's goal broken by the opponent less than 1 minute after the start of the first half. He also saw his team's offense hit the iron wall of Ajax II again and again. He didn't want to change, but he had to consider some risks.

Although he had given enough contingency measures for all the changes that Ajax II could make before the game, and even arranged for Ajax II's massive attack after the opening, he did not expect that Ye Qiu would arrange Van der Vaart on the right side, which he had never played before, and also arranged such an offensive strategy accordingly.

This surprised him, but he could do nothing about it.

With Van der Vaart's surprise after the opening, and his always being at the forefront, the left-wing attack that Van Marwijk had focused on before the game was suppressed by Ajax II, especially Zonza, who had little offensive investment, and the left-wing attack never improved. In addition, Feyenoord's wing was not very strong, which eventually forced Feyenoord's attack to go more to the middle.

However, the middle is the area where Ajax II's defense is heavily concentrated, and Feyenoord's attack simply failed to carve a gap in this area, which has to be said to be a very depressing thing.

In Feyenoord's starting tactic for this game, Cruz, Carew and Thomason were all very active. Van Marwijk did not give them too many restrictions and allowed them to constantly switch positions on the court in order to disrupt Ajax II's defense.

However, because the attack was too close to the middle, the three people's activity area was limited and overlapped a lot.

"The more we press forward, the more solid their defense will be. We should consider retreating and pulling them out to play!" Mario Bean suggested. He and Van Marwijk had focused on studying Ajax II's defense before the game.

Whether facing PSV Eindhoven, Utrecht or Heerenveen, Ajax II's defense is stronger when facing strong opponents. The more you press forward and the more pressure you put on them, the more united they are and the more they are.

At least, they all have to admit that Ajax II's defense is very good in terms of spatial control in local areas.

After hearing this, Van Marwijk immediately issued an adjustment order, "Let Kalou move to the right, Bosvelt should support him more, Thomason and Cruz should run more in the middle to create opportunities, and Zonza on the left... keep an eye on Van der Vaart and participate in the attack more!"

The left side was originally the offensive area that Van Marwijk focused on, but after Van der Vaart scored a goal at the beginning, even the head coach Van Marwijk was left with a shadow, not to mention the players.

When Van der Vaart was active and able to play a sharp counterattack, it was unrealistic to let Zonza participate more in the attack. The risk was too great. If he was scored again, it would be the end of him.

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With Feyenoord's adjustment, the pressure on Ajax II was relieved.

The feeling of being suppressed was very uncomfortable, but if Ye Qiu had to choose, he would rather be suppressed.

"Keep the formation tight, don't move forward easily, and don't leave your position casually!" Ye Qiu kept reminding on the sidelines.

For Ajax II, facing such a strong opponent, just one mistake could lead to the team's doom, so he dared not be careless for a moment and kept an eye on the game situation at all times.

Time passed by, and Feyenoord's retreat failed to pull the players of Ajax II out of their own 30-meter area. Instead, their retreat seemed to give the players of Ajax II a chance to rest for free.

In Cruyff's words, "Now the tactics of Ajax II are, I don't care how you play, anyway, I will defend to the end, if you have the ability, you can break my defense, otherwise, nothing will happen!"

"Haha, this is a bit like playing rogue, but it is indeed very useful!" The host also followed up with a joke.

Cruyff did not refute, "Ajax II's strength is far behind the opponent. If they follow the opponent and expand the defensive area, their ability to control space will inevitably decline, which will easily lead to players being in a one-on-one situation. Feyenoord's players are fully capable of using their strength to overwhelm Ajax II's players."

"So, Ye Qiu's choice is not a bad one. I can't beat him alone, so I will keep fighting in a group. No matter how many people rush in, I will beat you up with a group of people!"

But Cruyff also reminded: "Such tactics are not necessarily effective. It's still early. They are all young players from the second team. How long they can hold on is unknown! "

"You mean, the biggest enemy of Ajax II is themselves?"

"Yes, that's right. If they can maintain this state until the end of the game without making too many mistakes, they will have a chance to keep the score of 1:0 until the end, because we should also see that Feyenoord has no good way to deal with such defense, but if they make mistakes and are caught by Feyenoord, then I don't know!"

The biggest difference between the youth team and the adult team is in terms of tactical literacy, willpower and execution.

This is why Cruyff said that the biggest enemy of Ajax II is itself.

The entire Philips Stadium is almost full of the voices of Ajax fans. They all shouted very loudly and looked very excited, because the team they supported took the lead from the beginning, and it was an incredible lead, which was enough to make them all happy.

In the eyes of all the Ajax fans at the scene, defense is what Ajax II is best at. It is because of their unbreakable defense that they have come to this day and have the opportunity to enter this stadium, so they are full of confidence.

But the problem is that this is the Dutch Cup final!

This is the first game that Ajax II has experienced, facing the finals that are broadcast live all over the Netherlands and even all over Europe!

At the same time, this is also the first game for this group of young guys to play a crucial final in a large stadium surrounded by the shouts of tens of thousands of fans, which is completely different from the nature of all the previous games.

At the beginning of the game, the players first launched a rush and sneaked to score a goal. After that, Feyenoord pressed forward frantically. Ajax II was under tremendous pressure from top to bottom, and this pressure made them not care to think too much.

But once Feyenoord began to retreat and could not find an effective way to break through the defensive formation of Ajax II for a long time, it was difficult to create threatening shots, and immediately some players became a little slack in their psychology.

When the game reached the 37th minute, Feyenoord passed the ball back and forth and once again passed the ball to Thomason, who played as a front midfielder. This time, the latter pulled to a relatively backward position to receive the ball and left the central defender's defensive area.

Ye Qiu's impression of Thomason was more about his time in AC Milan. Many people said that he was an opportunist. Although he was a substitute, he performed well, and his ball-playing ability and awareness were excellent.

Now, he knows Thomason better and knows that he was a front midfielder. The reason why Cruz and Kalu were able to perform well this season is inseparable from Thomason behind them, and Thomason's back-up attack is also very threatening, but the Dane's speed is not fast, and he runs more by awareness.

When Thomason retreated and left the central defender's defense area to get the ball, Heitinga and Van Duyn both made the same choice, that is, rushing out of their positions. They both wanted to go forward to block Thomason as soon as possible.

Ye Qiu was startled when he saw the two central defenders rushing out of their defense zone at the same time. Fortunately, this time Feyenoord did not realize the loophole behind the central defender. Thomason hurriedly passed the ball back and missed an opportunity.

"Still too young!" Ricklink also noticed this problem.

Any head coach is the most helpless when players make mistakes on the court, similar to the one just now, because players are not robots. They will make some unexpected mistakes anytime and anywhere, which may be nervous, stressful, emotional, and many factors will affect them.

Ye Qiu walked to the sidelines and reminded Heitinga and Van Duyn not to rush at the same time.

But just as Ye Qiu's reminder was still ringing in his ears, Feyenoord organized another wave of attacks.

Thomason still retreated from the front, deliberately avoiding De Jong, and Kantman quickly passed the ball to his feet.

This time, Thomason took the ball closer than last time. As soon as he took the ball, Ye Qiu instinctively sensed that something was wrong. When he saw Heitinga and Van Duin, he did not hesitate. , when he rushed out of his own defense zone at the same time, he knew that Feyenoord had found a flaw in Ajax's second team.

Or it can be said that they deliberately created loopholes!

Heitinga and Van Duyen attacked at the same time, Thomasson knocked back, Countryman passed into the gap behind him, Cruz used his body to press Kivu, and rushed into the space exposed after Heitinga and Van Duyin left. He went into the hole and volleyed hard. The ball went straight to the lower left corner of the goal!

Although Stekelenberg made a flying save, he was still unable to prevent the ball from entering the net, 1:1!

All the Ajax fans in the audience were silent. Instead, the Feyenoord fans rushed out of their seats with excitement, celebrating and singing. After falling behind for more than half an hour, they finally broke through Ajax. The defense of Jax's second team scored and tied the score.

Ye Qiu was so angry that he walked back and forth in front of the coaching bench. Everyone could see how ugly his face was.

He tried every means to steal a goal, but in the end he made a mistake and gave it to someone else. He really didn't know how to describe his feelings, or maybe, this is football!

"I said that the biggest enemy of the Ajax second team is actually themselves. It is difficult for us to ask a youth team to be able to make no mistakes for 90 minutes like the adult team, because among them Some are not professional players yet, and some are only 16 years old. How can we hold them to the standards of professional players? "

Cruyff was also very disappointed with the goal, but he was understanding because he was a spectator.

"Feyenoord is a very experienced team. If you make a mistake, they will not fail to see it. Their players will have a tacit understanding to launch an offensive based on your mistake. This is Feyenoord. The biggest winning bargaining chip in this game is the most effective weapon brought by experience!”

"The Ajax second team is still too young. I just noticed that Ye Qiu reminded him on the sidelines, but in such a short period of time, he made consecutive mistakes. This is indeed very inappropriate. The players' mentality may have begun to relax, because They rarely take the lead at the beginning, and many of them are still unable to adapt to the atmosphere of how to play after taking the lead. "

"John, I have to remind you that the Ajax second team performed very well in the league and often took the lead!" the host laughed and criticized.

Cruyff shook his head, "The youth team game is completely different from the Dutch Cup final. Judging from the situation just now, the Ajax second team has not learned how to play after taking the lead, or in other words, taking the lead prematurely. Cracks appeared in their originally impenetrable iron wall.”

"So, the key now is to see how Ye Qiu adjusts. We must hold on in the first half and not concede any more goals!"

Sure enough, after the team was equalized, Ye Qiu suppressed the anger in his heart, walked to the sidelines, shouted loudly at the players, and kept reminding them that they must pay attention to keeping the three lines compact and maintaining the overall operation. The coordination was so good that Ye Qiu directly called back De Jong and Sneijder.

After the restart, Feyenoord, who had equalized the score, once again pressed forward. They obviously hoped to use this momentum to kill the Ajax second team in one go, and directly defeat this weak but very powerful team in one go. Devour the tenacious opponent completely.

However, the Ajax second team directly defended within the 30-meter area.

Facts have once again proven that when Feyenoord presses forward and tries to break through the defense of Ajax's second team from the center, they often hit the iron plate directly, because in the densely populated area In the defensive zone, the Ajax second team was able to use the meticulousness of the overall formation to launch a methodical defense.

On the contrary, Feyenoord's offense has always been difficult to launch and create a threat.

In this case, Feyenoord failed to score again in the last 6 minutes. The Ajax second team always maintained a defensive posture and dragged the 1:1 score to the end of the first half. .

But at this time, the advantage and morale that the Ajax second team had finally built up after the start of the game were severely weakened by Feyenoord's goal. Even the Ajax fans in the stands They all also began to worry about gains and losses.

After all, Ajax's second team is a youth team, while Feyenoord is an experienced professional team. There is an obvious gap in strength between the two sides.

"The current situation is very bad for the Ajax second team!" Judging from Cruyff's tone, he seemed to be pessimistic about the prospects of the Ajax second team.

"We led for half an hour in the first half, but were equalized at the last moment, and even almost reversed. This had a great impact on the morale of the team, and they are a young team. We have reason to believe that in the second half, Faye Nord will further create opportunities based on the series of loopholes exposed by Ajax's second team in the first half. This requires Ye Qiu to fill these loopholes during the halftime break. Otherwise, they will fail in the second half. It’s difficult to survive Feyenoord’s attack.”

The host listened and felt that it made sense, "Yes, that's right, and we should also see that Feyenoord's morale was so high after they equalized the score, and it seemed that they had reversed the score in one fell swoop, even beyond the imagination. , so they are likely to further strengthen their offensive in the second half.”

"At least, we can see that Van Marwijk should be satisfied with the result of equalizing the score in the first half!" The live TV broadcast showed Feyenoord coach Van Marwijk smiling and welcoming his players. He looked very happy.

On the contrary, everyone in the Ajax II team looked depressed as they walked towards the player tunnel.

The two sworn enemies actually bumped into each other at the entrance of the player tunnel by coincidence.