Super Wingstorm

Soccer is a game of eleven players. The most important thing isn’t skill or tactics, but getting those eleven players to work together as one.

Aligning the mindset and strategy of every player is the most crucial part of pre-match preparation.

The problem with playing two matches a week, however, is that teams simply don’t have enough time to prepare.

There are usually only three or four days between games. After an intense professional match, players often need two days to recover. Then comes a single day of individual training and preparation before the next match arrives, leaving no time at all for specific, targeted drills.

This is precisely why tactical meetings are so essential.

The head coach uses this opportunity to do more than just deeply dissect the opposition, analyze their strengths and weaknesses, and predict how the game might unfold. He must also communicate his own ideas and strategies for the match, ensuring the players know exactly what to do regardless of what happens on the pitch.

But that’s just the ideal scenario. In a real match, when facing the opponent’s pressure and defense, players might interpret situations differently and make different choices. This often leads to a lack of strategic unity on the field, which can only be resolved through continuous practice and building sufficient chemistry with one another.

Yang Yang had only joined Ajax this summer. The B-team’s head coach, Van Basten, had used him in a relatively simple role as a charging winger on the right flank. As a result, he was still completely unfamiliar with the first team’s tactics.

He felt especially lost when it came to the set plays Ronald Koeman mentioned, like player positioning and team coordination. He could only try to force himself to memorize everything and then figure it out through observation during matches and training.

Fortunately, he was only a substitute for now.

Still, he could clearly feel his own lack of tactical understanding. The first-team players understood many of the concepts Ronald Koeman mentioned instantly, but Yang Yang was left completely bewildered.

’Looks like I really need to strengthen my knowledge in this area.’

During the meeting, Ronald Koeman made a special point to remind Wesley Sonck that Van der Heyden’s right foot was quite capable. This was a detail the scouting department had overlooked in their two previous pre-match reports. However, Yang Yang had privately mentioned it to Luther Carroll, who confirmed it and immediately told the head coach.

After reminding Sonck, Ronald Koeman nodded in Yang Yang’s direction. Although he didn’t call him out by name, it was a clear acknowledgment of Yang Yang’s contribution, as if to say, ’I see the effort you’re putting in.’

After the tactical lesson, the coaching staff had everyone go to the gym for a light strength training session.

Lunch was served at the scheduled time, and afterward, everyone returned to their rooms to rest.

Yang Yang, of course, took another nice ’nap.’ After training for two hours in the Super Training, he was woken up by Sneijder.

The most important task in the afternoon was preparing for the match.

Everyone had to meticulously prepare their gear for the game, from their jersey, socks, and cleats, down to their personal items.

It was then that Yang Yang received his own jersey: number ninety-nine.

Since he had just been called up to the first team mid-season, he didn’t have a dedicated jersey number. He could only take a temporary high number. His best friend, Vermaelen, for instance, got number thirty-three—a number anyone would recognize as belonging to a deep substitute.

Yang Yang’s favorite was the number nine jersey, worn by his idols Ronaldo and Van Basten. But that number currently belonged to Ibrahimovic. Even if Yang Yang managed to usurp the Swedish Striker, he’d still be far down the waiting list for it.

As a second choice, the number twenty-one jersey that Yang Yang had worn on the B-team now belonged to the substitute Goalkeeper, Stekelenburg.

Ajax’s three goalkeepers wore numbers one, twenty-one, and thirty-one.

Demuer’s temporary first-team number was thirty-seven, and Babel’s was thirty-nine. Yang Yang had agonized over his number before deciding to just go big and pick ninety-nine.

It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The main reason was that Vermaelen wore thirty-three, and ninety-nine was exactly three times that number; he couldn’t wait to go back and tease him about it. Plus, ninety-nine was two nines, representing his two idols, Ronaldo and Van Basten.

And just like that, the highest jersey number at Ajax came into Yang Yang’s possession.

As for his cleats, socks, and shin guards, Yang Yang just used the standard training equipment provided by the Ajax Club. It was all supplied by their sponsor, Adidas, for both the first team and the youth squads.

One of the bigger differences was that the club also provided a Fiat sedan for some regular starters and key players, courtesy of the sponsor. Yang Yang, however, hadn’t reached that level yet.

Ibrahimovic and Maxwell each had one, though the Swedish Striker basically left his at the club. He only ever drove his Porsche 911, dutifully maintaining his flashy, manly-man image.

As he organized his gear and prepared for the match, Yang Yang gradually sensed a shift in the atmosphere among his teammates.

With a crucial match imminent, everyone was on edge, as if facing a formidable foe.

Even Ibrahimovic, usually the most rambunctious of the group, had become quiet and reserved.

A single match worth tens of millions of Euros. Who would dare to be careless?

...

...

As evening fell, fans began to file into the Jan Breydel Stadium in the West Suburb of Bruges.

The stadium, with a capacity of just twenty-nine thousand, was soon packed by the surging tide of people.

The visiting Ajax wanted to secure three points away from home to guarantee their advancement from the group stage. But didn’t the home team, Bruges, also want to defeat their opponent and fight for their slim chance at advancing—or at least for a spot in the UEFA Cup knockout stage as the third-place team?

Fervent fans soon filled the stands on all four sides of the stadium.

Like the Ajax head coach, Bruges’s Norwegian manager, Trend Solled, was also a former professional player. He had been coaching Bruges since 2000 with consistently good results. Last season, he even helped the club win its first league title in five years. This season, he was ambitious to make a mark in the European Arena.

That ambition was reflected in the fervor of the Belgium fans in the stands.

This was Yang Yang’s first time playing in a stadium filled with tens of thousands of people. Along with his excitement, he also felt a little nervous.

He stood on the pitch and gazed around. The stands were packed with people, all of them cheering for Bruges. It was as if they wanted to swallow him whole with the sheer volume of their shouts, and it filled him with a sense of awe.

But awe was not the same as fear.

Yang Yang took a deep breath, clearing his mind of extraneous thoughts, and jogged toward his team’s side of the pitch for warm-ups.

"How’s it feel?" Ibrahimovic asked with a grin.

He might seem carefree most of the time, but at crucial moments, he could be surprisingly thoughtful.

Yang Yang grinned. "It’s complicated."

"That’s normal. It’s always like that for your first match. But once you get used to it, you’ll grow to love this feeling."

"What feeling is that?"

"The feeling of breaking through their defense and scoring a goal in a packed stadium, right in front of everyone, and making them all shut up." As he spoke, Ibrahimovic gesticulated wildly with his hands, as if he’d already scored.

Yang Yang definitely couldn’t comprehend the way this flashy man’s mind worked, but he believed everyone had their own way of dealing with the emotions and pressure. Perhaps this was Ibrahimovic’s.

"Don’t feel the pressure, buddy. You’ve still got me up front, right? I’m here. No matter what kind of ball you send—high, low, near, or far—I’ll get to it. Don’t you worry!" the Swedish Striker said with a loud laugh.

He had said the same thing to Yang Yang during the talent day event. Yang Yang hadn’t believed him then, but the Swedish Striker had actually delivered on his promise. Saying it again now was clearly his way of helping Yang Yang de-stress.

...

...

Since this was the final round of the group stage, Ajax’s away match against Bruges and AC Milan’s home match against Celta Vigo were being played simultaneously.

Just as Ronald Koeman submitted his starting lineup, far away in Milan, Italy, head coach Ancelotti was also finalizing his. That lineup was quickly delivered into the Ajax manager’s hands.

The moment Koeman saw AC Milan’s starting lineup, he erupted in anger, furiously cursing Ancelotti.

Before the match, Ancelotti had stated in a media interview that even though they had to travel to Japan for the Toyota Cup over the weekend, AC Milan would still give it their all, telling Ajax not to worry about the Red-Black Army throwing the match.

But those words were still ringing in his ears, and now Ancelotti had fielded what was almost entirely a reserve squad.

The goalkeeper, Abbiati, was a substitute. The back line—Kakaraz, Lauersen, Costacurta, and Simec—was made up entirely of substitutes. The veteran Costacurta had just returned from injury. In the midfield, aside from the regular starter Siedorf, there was Redondo, who had been injured for years but was somehow playing, and Broch.

Kaka and Sergio were the two attacking midfielders, with Bolero as the lone striker.

Looking at the starting eleven, besides Kaka and Siedorf, there wasn’t a single regular player. How could Ronald Koeman not be furious?

But there was nothing he could do. AC Milan had already secured first place in the group and had nothing to play for in this match. The Toyota Cup on the weekend, however, was a must-win for them. It was only to be expected that they would take it easy here.

"For fuck’s sake! What is this bullshit?" Ronald Koeman cursed angrily.

For this match, he stuck with a 4-3-3 formation. The goalkeeper was Robbent. The back line, from left to right, consisted of Maxwell, Escude, Heitinga, and Talabesi. The holding midfielder was De Jong, with Van der Vaart and Sneijder in the center. Up front, Mitja was on the left wing, Ibrahimovic was in the center, and Wesley Sonck was on the right.

These eleven players were arguably the most competitive players Ajax had, and the best attacking lineup Ronald Koeman could field. The return of Talabesi on the right side, in particular, greatly alleviated the crisis Ajax had been facing in both attack and defense on that flank.

The only remaining question was Talabesi’s form.

What was certain, however, was that Bruges would adopt a defensive, counter-attacking strategy. Therefore, the biggest test for Ajax in this match would be their offense.

If their attack could break through Bruges’s defensive line, the match would be more than half won.