Super Wingstorm

August 21, 2003, Thursday, 3:00 PM sharp.

North Spakenburg, Ethelmerzus Club, Vismaat Stadium.

The town had only a few thousand residents, but its football culture was incredibly strong. Two semi-professional teams from the third division were based in the northern part of town, sharing six standard-sized training grounds and each possessing their own professional stadium that could hold over a thousand spectators.

Whether it was the training grounds or the stadiums, the quality of the turf was high, and the daily maintenance was impeccable. Yang Yang couldn’t help but marvel at it. Training grounds and stadiums of this caliber were rare back home, but from his experience playing all over the country for the past few months, they were extremely common in the Netherlands.

The strength of the football culture was also reflected in the fans. Even on a weekday, the area around the stadium was still packed with people.

Vismaat Stadium had only two stands and could only seat a few hundred fans. While seated tickets were normally sold, there were no barriers around the pitch, allowing all fans to come and watch from the sidelines.

For this match against the Ajax Second Team, the fans had surrounded the pitch, packing the area solid.

There was only one reason: the person leading the team to this match was Marco van Basten.

Ethelmerzus Club’s head coach was a man named Philippe Dehan, also around forty years old. He appeared to be a die-hard fan of Van Basten. As soon as the Ajax Second Team arrived at Vismaat Stadium, he immediately brought his players over to welcome them and ask Van Basten for an autograph and a photo.

But the friendly pre-match atmosphere did not carry onto the pitch.

As a third-division team, the Dutch Cup was one of the few competitions where the home team could attract media attention. This was especially true for this match, which was Van Basten’s debut as a coach, drawing many journalists from the Netherlands and even across Europe.

Playing at home, and as an adult team facing a youth squad of players under twenty-one, they had every advantage in terms of time and place. As for the human element, their desire to win and fighting spirit were in no way inferior to the Ajax Second Team’s.

From the start of the match, the Ajax Second Team repeatedly hit a wall against Ethelmerzus’s defense.

Yang Yang watched from the bench, feeling quite emotional.

The Netherlands’ youth development system was incredibly strong, and more importantly, it was widespread, reaching even small towns of just three to five thousand people. Even though the home team was only a semi-professional third-division club, their players had received professional youth training from a young age. Their tactical discipline and team awareness were very strong, their individual skills were solid, and they were still highly competitive.

The Ajax Second Team was at a disadvantage in terms of physicality and strength, especially Ryan Babel in the center-forward position. At only sixteen, he was physically outmatched and had struggled to hold his ground in the center of the attack since the beginning, unable to threaten the opposing center-backs and goal.

With the center-forward unable to hold up the ball, the effectiveness of the Ajax Second Team’s offense was greatly diminished.

Playing on the left wing for this match was Robin Muller van Mopes, a right-footed left-winger. Van Basten’s intention was that when Babel couldn’t gain an advantage in the middle, the left flank would stretch the play, and Van Mopes would cut inside from the left into the box to create a threat whenever he had the chance.

Tasked with supplying ammunition for the two forwards were the midfielder Kroen and the right-winger Demuer.

And the key focus was on the right-winger, Demuer.

The lightning-fast Belgian winger had joined Ajax at a young age and had progressed through all the age groups, playing as a teammate to Babel. He was also highly regarded by everyone at the club and had even participated in the first team’s training camp this summer.

But in this match, he didn’t seem to be getting any change out of the twenty-one-year-old Pierre Tash.

Yang Yang sat on the bench, his eyes fixed on the pitch, focusing on every move on the right flank.

Pierre Tash had good defensive awareness, always positioning himself at a forty-five-degree angle to Demuer. It was clear he was an experienced defender. Moreover, he was specifically guarding against Demuer’s outside runs, which was highly disadvantageous for the Ajax right-winger.

The home team’s left-back was left-footed, giving him an advantage when defending against Demuer on the right wing. On several occasions, he prevented Demuer from creating any threat down the right, either by thwarting his crosses or forcing him into low-quality deliveries.

Gradually, after a few clashes, it became obvious that Demuer was coming off worse, and he grew visibly frustrated.

As an observer, however, Yang Yang saw a potential solution.

Faced with Pierre Tash’s defensive strategy, it wasn’t that Demuer had no options. For example, he could choose to cut inside.

But Demuer was right-footed and weak with his left, a fact the opposition had quickly figured out after the match began.

Yang Yang couldn’t help but recall what Van Gaal had once told him: he absolutely had to train his left foot, preferably until it was as agile as his right. This would give him more options on the pitch.

At this very moment, Demuer’s predicament was a perfect illustration of that point for Yang Yang.

For the past few months, Yang Yang had been consistently training his left foot. Juggling went without saying, but he had also been practicing his passing and ball control. The consecutive feints and drag-backs in [Ronaldo’s Rush] placed high demands on the left foot.

And the Pendulum Move could be executed to the left or right. As long as he trained his left foot well, Yang Yang’s tactical options on the field would be much more varied.

At the very least, he wouldn’t end up in a predicament like Demuer’s.

...

...

The center-forward was neutralized and the right flank was silent, but the Ajax Second Team’s overall strength still gave them the upper hand.

In the thirty-eighth minute of the first half, Danish midfielder Kroen stepped up. With a sharp through ball, he precisely tore open the home team’s defensive line and sent the ball into the penalty area. Van Mopes, who had made a diagonal run into the box from the left, calmly slotted it home with his right foot, opening the scoring for the Ajax Second Team.

This goal significantly relieved the pressure on the Ajax Second Team.

The home team tried to mount a comeback, but the backline, led by Vermaelen and Lindegren, held firm. Vermaelen, in particular, even performed a heroic one-on-one save during a counter-attack, earning thunderous applause.

Yang Yang applauded from the sidelines. He trained against Vermaelen every day, so of course, he was well aware of the Belgian center-back’s ability.

After missing several good scoring opportunities, the Ajax Second Team ultimately ended the first half with a one-nil lead.

After switching sides for the second half, Van Basten continued with the same strategy from the first half, still focusing the attack on the right flank and down the middle.

Perhaps at Van Basten’s instruction, Demuer began to consciously try to cut inside a few times in the second half, but he made mistakes each time. His left foot really wasn’t very good, and with his path down the right flank blocked, his threat on the pitch was greatly diminished.

The same was true for Babel.

The Ajax Second Team’s biggest rising star was anxious to prove himself, but he was being tightly marked by the home team and still hadn’t managed to make an impact.

In the fifty-fifth minute, Van Basten finally couldn’t resist making a substitution.

Fred Benson, a nineteen-year-old forward from Ghana, came on for Van Mopes, who had scored in the first half.

Although the dark-skinned Fred Benson was Ghanaian, he had come to the Netherlands as a child. He was developed at the famous youth club Sporke before joining the Ajax Youth Academy in 1999. At fifteen, he was already playing in the U17/U18 age group and consistently rose through the ranks, playing above his age level until he reached the second team.

He was a typical African player: not tall, but extremely fast, with solid footwork and decent dribbling ability. In terms of physical strength, he was also among the best in his age group.

After bringing him on, Van Basten moved Fred Benson to the front line, while Ryan Babel shifted to the left wing. Clearly, he hoped to use Benson to occupy the opponent’s defense and free up Babel.

This proved that even though Van Mopes had just scored in the first half, his status and role within the team and in the eyes of the coaching staff were still no match for Ryan Babel’s. The latter was the one universally acknowledged as a genius at Ajax.

The substitution had some effect. Babel was clearly more active on the left flank than he had been in the middle and had more space to work with. However, the home team continued to mark him tightly, not daring to let up for a second.

As for the center, the nineteen-year-old Benson didn’t have much of a physical advantage against the ferocious adults on the opposing team.

On the right flank, Demuer was only able to get a cross in occasionally, but he rarely created any real threat.

Soon, the home team re-stabilized their defense, and the Ajax Second Team’s attack was once again stifled.

...

...

Although they had a one-goal lead, Van Basten was still very dissatisfied with the situation on the pitch.

Theoretically, winning one-nil in his coaching debut, which was also the first match of the new season, should have been good enough. But that was a standard for others; Van Basten held himself to a higher one.

Moreover, he knew perfectly well that the Ajax Second Team was fully capable of scoring more goals. The prerequisite was breaking the current stalemate on the field.

If they could just break through in one area, the floodgates would open.

At this thought, Van Basten couldn’t help but turn and glance at the bench. The first person to enter his line of sight was Yang Yang.

He remembered he had personally promised yesterday to give Yang Yang thirty minutes of playing time. And now...

Van Basten turned his head back and looked at the scoreboard, which showed fifty-eight minutes. ’That’s about right,’ he calculated. ’I wonder if this miracle kid, who’s always full of surprises, can give me another one today?’

Thinking of this, the corners of Van Basten’s mouth lifted in a slight, expectant smile. He turned his head again and pointed toward Yang Yang.

"Yang, you’ve got three minutes to warm up. Quick."

With that one sentence from Van Basten, the eyes of the coaches on the coaching bench and the players on the substitutes’ bench all focused on Yang Yang, their gazes filled with envy.

Hearing this, Yang Yang felt a surge of excitement. ’Looks like Van Basten remembered his promise.’

’Thirty minutes. Not too long, not too short. It’s enough for me to show what I can do.’

After taking a deep breath, Yang Yang immediately stood up from his seat and stripped off the training bib he was wearing over his jersey, revealing the number twenty-one—his jersey number for the second team this season.

It was a high number, but there was nothing to be done about it. When he joined the team, all the lower numbers had already been snatched up by his teammates, and he was in no position to fight them for one. As for his favorite number nine jersey, it had long since been claimed.