Thursday, 21 August 2003, 15 p.m. sharp.

North of Sparkenburg, Ethel Merzu Club, Vyshmat Stadium.

The town has only a few thousand inhabitants, but the football ethos is thriving, with two semi-professional teams from the third division clustered in the north of the town, sharing six standard-sized training grounds, each with a professional stadium that can accommodate more than 1,000 spectators.

Whether it is a training ground or a football field, the quality of the turf is very high, and the daily maintenance is also in place, so that Yang Yang can't help but admire it, this level of training ground and football field are rare in China, but from his experience of playing everywhere in the past few months, it is extremely common in the Netherlands.

The football ethos is also reflected in the fans, even on weekdays, there is still a crowd around the stadium.

The Vissmart Stadium has only two stands and can only accommodate a few hundred fans, and tickets are usually sold to the public, but there is no obstruction around the stadium, allowing all fans to come to the stadium and gather around the stadium to watch the game.

In this match against Ajax II, the fans were all around the stadium.

For no other reason, it was Marco van Basten who led the team this time.

Ethel Merzuse's manager, Philippe Dehan, is also in his 40s, but he seems to be an avid fan of Van Basten, and as soon as the Ajax II team arrived at the Vismatic Stadium, he immediately brought his players up to welcome him and asked Van Basten for autographs and photos.

But the friendly atmosphere before the game did not carry over to the stadium.

As a third-tier team, the Dutch Cup is one of the few competitions where the home team can attract media attention, especially this one, which was the first game of Van Basten's management, which attracted many Dutch and European media reporters.

Playing at home, it is the senior team facing a group of young soldiers under the age of 21, regardless of the time and place, they have the advantage, and their desire to win and fighting spirit are by no means inferior to the Ajax II team.

From the beginning of the game, Ethel Merzus's defense caused the Ajax II team to hit a wall frequently.

Yang Yang sat on the bench and watched the game, and he was also very emotional.

The youth training strength of the Netherlands is very strong, and more importantly, the popularity is very wide, and even penetrates into this kind of town with only three or five thousand people, don't look at the home team is only a third-level semi-professional team, but because the players have received professional youth training since childhood, the tactical literacy and team awareness are very strong, and the individual ability is also good, and it is still very competitive.

The Ajax second team suffered from the physical and strength confrontation, especially the Babel in the middle of the front, who was only 16 years old, and his body suffered very much, and it was difficult to stand in the middle of the front field from the beginning to intimidate the opponent's central defenders and goals.

The center forward could not stand, and the offensive effect of the Ajax second team was greatly reduced.

On the left side of the game was Robin Muller Van Mopes, a right-footed left winger, and Van Basten's intention was to let the left side pull when Babel couldn't take advantage of the middle, while Van Mopes cut inside from the left and cut in the middle to take advantage of the opportunity to create a threat in the box.

In charge of feeding the two players were Crohn in midfield, and De Mur on the right.

The focus is on Demur on the right.

The fast-paced Belgian winger joined Ajax early on and has worked his way up the ranks of all ages, team-mates with Babel, and has been featured in the first-team training camp this summer.

But he didn't seem to be able to take advantage of 21-year-old Pierre Tasch in this match.

Yang Yang sat on the bench, but his eyes always fell on the court, focusing on his every move on the right side.

Pierre Tasch has a good defensive awareness, always facing De Mur at 45 degrees, which is obviously an experienced defender, and he is also focused on De Moor's outside line, which is very bad for Ajax's right winger.

The home side's left-footed left wing-back had an advantage on Demul's right flank, which on several occasions prevented Demul from threatening on the right, either with frustrated crosses or low-quality passes.

Gradually, after several rounds of confrontations, Demur suffered a significant loss, and his mood became impatient.

As a bystander, Yang Yang saw some clues.

Demur is not out of the question of a defensive strategy like Pierre Tasch, for example, he can choose to cut inside.

But Demur is a right-footed player, not a left-footed player, which was suddenly tested by the opponent after the opening.

Yang Yang couldn't help but think of what Van Gaal once told him, the left foot must be practiced, and it is best to be able to practice to be as flexible as the right foot, which can give him more options on the court.

At this moment, Demur's situation is a good confirmation for Yang Yang.

In the past few months, Yang Yang has been paying attention to training his left foot, not to mention juggling the ball, passing and ball control are also practiced, and the continuous change of direction in [Ronaldo's assault] has high requirements for the left foot.

And the pendulum can be left or right, as long as the left foot is practiced, Yang Yang's coping strategies on the court will be much richer.

At the very least, he won't put himself in a predicament like Demur's now.

…………

…………

The center forward was restrained, and the right side was dumb, but the overall strength of the Ajax second team still dominated.

In the 38th minute of the first half, Danish midfielder Krohn stepped up and used a sharp through ball to tear apart the home team's defense with precision, sending the ball into the penalty area, and Van Mopes, who was diagonally inserted into the box from the left, calmly hit the right foot to open the scoring for Ajax II.

The goal greatly relieved the pressure on the Ajax II team.

The home team also wanted to fight back at one point, but the backline led by Vermaelen and Lindgren was very solid, especially Vermaelen, who also staged a one-handed savior in a counterattack by the opponent, which won full applause.

Yang Yang also applauded on the sidelines, he practiced with Vermaelen every day, and of course knew the strength of the Belgian central defender.

After missing a couple of good scoring chances, Ajax II ended the first half with a 1-0 lead.

After the rematch in the second half, Van Basten still continued the first-half strategy, focusing on playing on the right and in the middle.

I don't know if it was at the request of Van Basten, De Moore consciously wanted to cut inside a few times at the beginning of the second half, but there were mistakes, his left-footed ability was really not good, and the threat on the field was greatly reduced when the right side was blocked.

The same happened to Babbel.

The biggest talent of the Ajax II squad was desperate to prove himself, but was closely watched by the home side and never showed his way.

In the 55th minute, Van Basten finally couldn't help but make a substitution.

Fred Benson, a 19-year-old striker from Ghana, replaced Van Mopes, who scored a goal in the first half.

Although the dark-skinned Fred Benson is a Ghanaian, he came to the Netherlands from a young age, was trained at the famous youth club Spourg, entered the Ajax academy in 19999, and entered the age group of 178 at the age of 15, and climbed all the way up the ranks until he entered the second team.

This is a typical African player, not very tall, but very fast, solid on his feet, with a certain ability to break through, and he is one of the best among his peers in terms of physical confrontation.

Van Basten replaced him with Fred Benson up front, while Ryan Babel was pulled into the left winger position, apparently hoping to use Benson to carry the opposition defence and free Babbel.

It turns out that even if Van Mopes scored a goal in the first half, he was still inferior to Ryan Babel, who is recognized as a talent by all at Ajax, both in terms of the coaching staff and his role in the team.

This substitution had a certain effect, Babel was obviously more active on the left flank than in the middle, and he had more space, but the home team still defended him strictly and did not dare to relax in the slightest.

As for the midfield, nineteen-year-old Benson doesn't have much of a physical advantage against wolf-like adults.

Demul on the right was only occasionally able to get the ball on the ball, but struggled to create a strong threat.

Soon, the home side regained their defence and Ajax II's attack was once again limited.

…………

…………

Despite having a one-goal lead in hand, Van Basten was unhappy with the situation on the pitch.

Theoretically, the first game in charge of the coach is the first game of the new season, and it is good to be able to win the opponent 1-0, but that is relative to others, for himself, Van Basten has higher requirements.

What's more, he is also very aware that Ajax II are more capable of producing more goals, provided that they break the current deadlock on the field.

As long as it breaks a little, it can bloom in full bloom.

Thinking of this, Van Basten couldn't help but turn around and glance at the bench, and the first person who came into his sight was Yang Yang.

He still remembers that yesterday he personally promised to give Yang Yang thirty minutes of game time, and now he ......

Van Basten turned his head and looked at the scoreboard again, the time shown on it was fifty-eight minutes, and it was almost the same, I wonder if this amazing boy who always surprises people can surprise himself again today?

Thinking of this, the corners of Van Basten's mouth raised, and he still had some expectations, turned his head again, and pointed at Yang Yang from afar.

"Yang, give you three minutes to warm up, hurry up."

With Van Basten's words, the coach in the coach's bench, the players on the bench, everyone's eyes were focused on Yang Yang, and their eyes were full of envy.

Yang Yang was also excited after hearing this, and it seemed that Van Basten still remembered his promise.

Thirty minutes, no more, no less, enough for your own performance.

After Yang Yang took a deep breath, he immediately stood up from his seat and took off the training uniform that was covering the outside, revealing the jersey inside, No. 21, which was his jersey number in the second team this season.

It's very backward, but there is no way, when he joined the team, those top numbers have been snatched up by his teammates, and he can't compete with them, as for his favorite No. 9 jersey, it has long been famous.