Volume 1 Chapter 148 Winning Goal
Van Marwijk didn't like Ye Qiu at all, not just didn't like it, but even hated it.
Because of Ye Qiu's appearance, he led Ajax to take away a lot of honors that should have belonged to him, such as the Dutch Cup.
For a long time, although he was reluctant to say more, there was always an idea in his heart that Ye Qiu's appearance was the main reason why he coached Feyenoord empty-handed for two or three consecutive years, which made his position in Feyenoord always in a very unstable and embarrassing situation.
The opening game of the season should have been a great opportunity, as Ajax defender Heitinga was sent off early, but Feyenoord did not take it at all, and Van Marwijk made a series of decisions that he later regretted.
In that game, after losing at home to Ajax, Van Marwijk once asked himself, where did he lose? Why would you lose after occupying such a favorable advantage?
The answer he got was a lack of courage to take risks!
Therefore, when he met Ajax again for the second time, Van Marwijk clearly knew that he had just played a hard-fought game with Manchester United at Old Trafford, and it was a long journey back and forth, and Ajax must be in a state of extreme fatigue, so in this game at the Arena Stadium, Van Marwijk was proactive and anti-guest.
Indeed, as he expected, Ajax looked very tired and out of shape, even if Ye Qiu arranged rotation, he could fight on two fronts for a long time, especially in the Champions League and face the pressure of a strong opponent like Manchester United in a row, it is difficult for Ajax to maintain excellent competitive condition in every game.
Players are people, not machines, and they get tired and tired.
Ye Qiu is a person who can bend and stretch, when it is good, he dares to open his teeth and claws to press out to play, and when it is unfavorable, he can also pretend to be a grandson and retract to play defensive counterattack, so in this game at Arena Stadium, he simply retracted back to his own half, gave up the control of the game, and concentrated on his goal defense and counterattack.
Feyenoord also belong to the straight-up style, suddenly locked in a dense positional battle, especially when Ajax is firmly cut off from their midfield, and Feyenoord struggles to create absolute scoring chances.
Ye Qiu sat in the coach's box of the home team at the Arena Stadium with peace of mind, although the situation seemed to be Feyenoord taking the initiative, but there was no threat, he was not worried at all, and Van Marwijk was also waiting patiently and did not make adjustments, because he believed that under the long-term attack, Ajax would definitely show flaws.
"When everyone is singing the praises of the Ajax team that played Manchester United at Old Trafford without a temper, we have to accept that they are playing an unusually conservative defensive counterattack at the Arena Stadium, and Ye Qiu is indeed a very pragmatic manager, he is more concerned about how to win the game."
"I still remember that Santa Cruyff spoke highly of Ye Qiu's Ajax in his recent Champions League column, and he believed that Ajax was like their manager, capable of playing an invincible attack and putting down his body to organize an unbreakable defence."
Cruyff's comment on Ye Qiu is a pragmatist with a bit of adventurism, and he also feels that such a person is easier to survive in European football, because only adventurists are gamblers, and although Ye Qiu is sometimes very risky, it must be the stud after he saw through the opponent's hole cards.
"I just don't know, has he seen through Van Marwijk's hole cards in this game?"
No one could answer the doubts of the on-site commentators, Ye Qiu always sat in the coach's seat of the home team, and everyone could see that Ibrahimovic was not in good shape, wasted several opportunities in a row, and his running was reduced a lot due to lack of physical fitness, but he just didn't make substitutions.
The Ajax fans in the stands can be said to be sitting on pins and needles, because they can't figure out what Ye Qiu is thinking in his heart, and they can't figure out what Ye Qiu's plans are, they can only let Ye Qiu control their emotions, pull their thoughts, and follow Ye Qiu.
From the first half to the second half, the situation of Ajax did not turn around in the slightest, and Ibrahimovic was still entangled and competing with Feyenoord's two central defenders on the pitch.
Thankfully, the attack was lacking, but Ajax's defence was well organised.
In this game, Ye Qiu let De Jong, Lucio, Colo? Toure and Heitinga form the backline, plus Gilberto, the main player in midfield? Silva, Yaya? Toure and Sneijder, Ajax's defence was well organised and Feyenoord didn't get too good to score.
Seeing that the situation on the field was still very stiff, Van Marwijk finally decided to make adjustments, he asked Swedish striker Elmand to warm up, hoping that he could come on the field to form an attacking line with Tomasson and Kalou, further increase the pressure on the Ajax defence, and strive to score away goals.
But when Van Marwijk asked Elmand 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 side who replaced Hleb, and the other was striker Huntelaar who replaced Ibrahimovic.
I don't know what Lu Dao is for, as soon as he saw Ye Qiu's two substitutions, Van Marwijk instinctively felt that something was wrong, he felt that this seemed to be Ye Qiu's conscious substitution, as if it had been premeditated, but what did Ye Qiu want to do?
A few minutes later, when Van Marwijk, who was back in the visitors' box, saw Kifu's pinpoint long ball that had crossed most of the pitch and landed behind the Feyenoord defence, he involuntarily got up from his seat and looked at his right-back Van Goebbels and Ajax's left-winger Arjen Robben.
Speed, in this moment, completely determines the outcome of this contest.
Robben easily crossed Van Goebbels on the left side, and slipped diagonally from the left side behind the Feyenoord defense, anti-offside to catch the ball, but Feyenoord's defense also retreated quickly, Van Marwijk never changed 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 would soon be in his position, between Robben and the box, and he was taken aback by Robben's sudden activation, the Dutch winger was so fast that he didn't have time to react and block.
After two years of training in the Eredivisie and two seasons of European competition, Robben is now confident in his speed and ability, even against Gary? A right-back like Neville, he dares to break through one-on-one, let alone face Van Goebbels this time?
Just see Robben dribbling the ball on the left, waiting for Huntelaar in the middle of Ajax and Van der Meyde on the right, plus Yaya on the back? It was only after Toure and Sneijder had pressed on him that he smiled at Van Goebbels.
Van Goebbels felt uncomfortable with this smile, a little chilled, as if a scythe from death had cut through his body, although his attention was focused on Robben, his eyes were always on the Dutch winger, as if he wanted to watch Robben's every move.
Robben's sense of rhythm is very strong, and the pace and stride distance when dribbling and dribbling are also very reasonable, which is closely related to his father's professional training for him since he was a child, and his every touch is very good, especially after coming to Ajax, Ye Qiu asked Muhrensteen and Moniz to strengthen him accordingly, and his strength is now improving rapidly.
Van Goebbels is also very experienced, he had a deep understanding of Robben's technical characteristics before the game, and he knew very well that the Dutch winger was best at changing speed and direction, so he was very careful to guard after Robben came on the field.
Does it work?
All those who play at right-back in the Eredivisie know very well that what Robben is best at is a sudden feint, and then cut inside or go down, but no one can keep an eye on him?
The reason is very simple, just like Van Goebbels is now, he stares at Robben's dribbling, mentally calculating and measuring the distance between them, but the most important thing is Robben's pace.
All actions on the court are based on a premise, that is, the center of gravity is steady, each player has his own pace, which includes cadence and stride, familiar with a player's pace, you can judge in advance his step, that is, where the next foothold is.
Just imagine, if you can judge the opponent's foothold in advance, and use this to block and steal in advance, will the opponent still be able to hide?
Many people are wondering, what is the meaning of variable speed and direction?
Emergency stop is just one of the most common types of shifting, and the really sharp shifting is to control and be able to adjust your pace anytime and anywhere.
When the opponent judges your next move and defends it in advance, you suddenly make a change, and he has nothing to do with you, but can only watch you do what he wants.
Just like Van Goebbels now, he watched a lot of Robben's videos before the game, and was familiar with Robben's rhythm and pace of dribbling, when he thought that Robben was going to suddenly dribble and cut inward, he made a blocking action in advance, and according to his action, he will forcibly interrupt Robben's dribbling action when Robben's step point is not solid, the latter must have fallen to the ground, and the ball was his!
But just when he thought he was winning, Robben suddenly buckled half a step in advance, and the whole person changed from cutting inside to going down, kicking the ball forward with his left foot, and suddenly urging Gu to bring out his highest explosive power, and suddenly rushed past Van Goebbels's side and went straight to the bottom line.
Van Goebbels was at this moment, and there was nothing left in his mind that he could predict that if he didn't make a prediction in advance, Robben would take advantage of the situation and pass him as such.
At this moment, he really understood why so many people said that once Robben successfully controlled the ball and wanted to stop him from breaking through, the only way was to foul, because he could change his pace anytime and anywhere, and then change his rhythm, so that you completely lose your center of gravity and lose the ability to stop him.
What else can be done to stop him other than foul play?
Robben didn't know that Van Goebbels thought so much at this moment, as soon as he formed a breakthrough, he directly picked up his left foot, that is, a quick cross, Huntelaar in the middle shook off Van Ondelen, grabbed everyone in front of everyone, and smashed Robben's cross into Feyenoord's goal with his head.
The veteran Van Ondelen, who had already been tormented by Ibrahimovic, was powerless to prevent the Dutch centre-forward from steadily grasping the fatal blow in the penalty area against the energetic Huntelaar.
“GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!”
"At the critical moment, the 18-year-old center striker Klaas? Yang? Huntelaar scored the winning goal for Ajax! ”
'A very, very crucial goal, the youngster showed his composure and composure in front of goal!'
After seeing Huntelaar's goal, he excitedly opened his arms, slid out of Feyenoord's penalty area, and rushed to the bottom of the Ajax chairman's stand, where he celebrated Ajax's goal with Robben.
'Huntelaar's goal should be credited to his team-mate Arjen Robben, who had a sharp individual break down the left that created a scoring opportunity for Ajax, and Huntelaar calmly capitalised on the perfect opportunity.
The live TV cameras swept over, and everyone noticed that even Ajax's chairman, Van Praag, jumped up from his seat in the stands and responded with loud applause and cheers for the team's goal.
The scene simply turned into a sea of joy and all the Ajax fans were delighted with the team's goal.
Van Marwijk sat depressedly in the away team's coach's box, and he finally guessed Ye Qiu's calculations.
Ye Qiu's game was to first use Ibrahimovic to grind out the morale and physical fitness of Feyenoord's two central defenders, and use Hleb to paralyze Van Goebbels, and when the two sides were about the same, he suddenly replaced Robben and the more physical Huntelaar 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 despising us in terms of strength?" Van Marwijk was more angry, but helpless.
The goal not only broke down Feyenoord's defence, but also demoralized them.
In the end, Ajax defeated their arch-rivals Feyenoord 1-0 on their home turf thanks to a goal from Huntelaar.
In the same round, PSV Eindhoven suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat to Waalwijk, which allowed Ajax to extend their lead to five points.
After the game, almost all the media spoke highly of Huntelaar's goal at a crucial moment, and the player's first touch on the pitch caused Ajax's crucial goal, which immediately made Huntelaar the darling of Amsterdam and a hero in the hearts of fans.
A week later, Ajax hosted Graafschap at home.
Sneijder, Van der Vaart, Huntelaar and Keita, Ajax managed to maintain a five-point lead with a 4-0 win away to Graafschap thanks to the crucial goals of these four players.
PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord also beat their opponents 4-1 to keep the pressure on Ajax.
In midweek, Ajax welcomed Boavista at the Arena Stadium.
This time in Amsterdam, Boavista could not continue to insist on his situation in Portugal, and Boavista at the Arena Stadium was completely overwhelmed by Ajax from the beginning of the game, especially Sneijder, who has been in good form recently, and assisted Lucio's header in just 13 minutes of the game.
Then Ibrahimovic turned around in the 18th minute and passed diagonally, 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 try to stabilize the rhythm in a steady and steady way, but Ajax was obviously not ready to give Boavista more chances, Robben had long held a grudge against Bosingva, and wanted to teach this guy a hard lesson, so in this game, Robben was very active on the left side, and continued to break through to play Bosingwa.
With the team behind and the situation unfavourable, Bosingwa was very anxious, and in less than 20 minutes, two clear fouls in a row, the referee clearly gave him a yellow card and sent him off.
At this point, the game situation was completely dominated by Ajax.
In the 43rd minute, Van der Vaart cut inside on the right and curled a shot that once again penetrated Boavista's goal to give Ajax a 3-0 lead in the first half.
At the start of the second half, Boavista tried to counter-attack and managed to knock on Van der Sar's goal in the 52nd minute.
But soon, the rejuvenated Ajax came on as a substitute in the 64th minute, and Huntelaar, who has been in excellent form recently, scored again, 4-1.
After that, Ajax consciously slowed down the tempo, especially in the case of lack of physical fitness, Boavista's counterattack improved, but in the 78th minute, Ajax broke the ball after a counterattack, Keita assisted Van der Vaart to shoot in the penalty area, scoring twice, 5:1!
At the end of this game, the situation of the entire Group A was completely reversed.
Manchester United and Bayern Munich at Old Trafford finally played 0:0, as a result, Bayern Munich 2 wins, 3 draws and 9 points, Ajax is also 2 wins and 3 draws, the same 9 points, the two teams are on the same point, but Ajax with this round of home 5:1 home defeat Boavista, goal difference advantage, ranked first in the group.
Manchester United are second in the group with seven points from one win and four draws, while Boavista are bottom of the group.
After this round of fixtures, the group situation is clear, with Ajax away to Bayern Munich and a draw to qualify for the group, Bayern Munich must win at home to qualify from the group because they are behind Ajax and Manchester United on goal difference.
Manchester United, on the other hand, will be able to qualify from the group as long as they beat Boavista away, regardless of who wins or loses Ajax and Bayern Munich, or even a draw.
It can be said that the situation in Group A has become completely chaotic and complicated, and without exception, the last round is a crucial battle for the group to qualify.