God of Greenery

Amidst the heated discussions around the world, Van Gaal gave Jiang Xiaolin a day off to play with his mother and cousin alone.

Jiang Xiaolin was already able to drive by himself. He took his mother and cousin to Amsterdam's Chinatown and met his former boss, Song Zhicheng.

Back then, if Song Zhicheng hadn't extended a helping hand, what would have happened to Jiang Xiaolin in the Netherlands? It's really hard to say!
Even in his later football career, it was Song Zhicheng who sent him to the D-level amateur team Pulmes based on his personal relationship, and that was the start of his football career.

Without Pulmes' experience, Jiang Xiaolin himself would not be sure whether he would be possessed by the God of Greenery System.

Therefore, Jiang Xiaolin's gratitude to Song Zhicheng was sincere, and Jiang Liantao also thanked Song Zhicheng excitedly.

Of course, Jiang Xiaolin's move to visit Song Zhicheng's restaurant with his mother and cousin naturally caused a sensation in Chinatown.

Jiang Xiaolin just received the European Golden Boy Award last night, and he scored a shot with a speed of over 100 km/h in the game. Everyone watched the live broadcast.

Hearing that Jiang Xiaolin brought his mother and cousin to Chinatown to thank Song Zhicheng, everyone flocked to Song Zhicheng's restaurant and looked into the restaurant, the whole Chinatown was almost blocked.

There are also many Dutch teenagers in Amsterdam, who also flocked into Chinatown excitedly, wanting to take a look at Jiang Xiaolin, a 17-year-old top scorer in the Eredivisie.

If the local police station hadn't received the alarm and quickly sent people to maintain order, the door of Song Zhicheng's restaurant might have been crushed.

In the end, Jiang Xiaolin was escorted away by a police car.

After returning to Alkmaar, Jiang Xiaolin resumed training with the team. Jiang Liantao and Jiang Xueling were accompanied by a female employee sent by the club and a girl from Chinatown contacted by Song Zhicheng in Alkmaar and surrounding areas. travel.

The two of them will stay in the Netherlands until the winter break, and then return to China with Jiang Xiaolin.

With no financial pressure and Jiang Xiaolin not short of money, Jiang Liantao and Jiang Xueling's traveling and vacationing in Europe is still very good.

On December 12, UEFA held the UEFA Champions League/UEFA Cup knockout draw ceremony.

The quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League produced several powerful dialogues, such as Chelsea VS Juventus, Real Madrid VS Liverpool, Inter Milan VS Manchester United, etc., which attracted a lot of attention.

Jiang Xiaolin won the European Golden Boy Award, scored a free kick at 118 km/h, and scored goals in a long-distance attack by five players, all of which were overshadowed by the news of the UEFA Champions League draw.

As for the draw ceremony of the UEFA Cup, no one paid attention to it except the local media of the participating teams.

this is the truth.

No matter how much noise Jiang Xiaolin made in the Eredivisie and the UEFA Cup, in most people's minds, it is still not as attractive as the Champions League.

Without proving himself in the Champions League, no matter how many goals Jiang Xiaolin scored in the Eredivisie and the UEFA Cup, he could not be called a top superstar.

Even with Huaguo's huge population and market behind it, it won't work.

Of course, for the fans and fans of Alkmaar Club and Jiang Xiaolin, the draw ceremony of the UEFA Cup knockout round still made them very happy.

Jiang Xiaolin scored twice in the last round of the group stage to lead Alkmaar to a 2-0 victory over Udinese, and the benefits of rising to No.1 in the standings are also reflected.

Entering the UEFA Cup knockout round, in addition to the 8 groups in the group stage, three teams in each group qualifying, a total of 24 teams qualifying for the UEFA Cup group stage, and the 8 groups eliminated in the UEFA Champions League group stage third.

Therefore, the knockout round of the UEFA Cup is 32 teams, and the first round of knockout round is the 1/16 final.

And Alkmaar's opponent in the 1/16 finals turned out to be Lekpusna from the Polish Super League.

This is undoubtedly a super squid. Compared with the five major leagues, the Eredivisie, the Portuguese Super League, and the well-known teams such as Dynamo Kiev, Zenit St. Petersburg, Olympiakos, etc., the strength is much worse.

Although Lekpusna is now at the top of the Polish Super League standings, the Polish League itself is UEFA's second-tier league. Even if it is at the top, it is very different from the top of the Eredivisie.

When the lottery results came out, even Lake Pusner's players and coaches thought they were unlucky and felt that it was impossible to move forward.

According to coach Lekpusner in an interview, they only need to play two games with AZ Alkmaar, try their best to show their football style, and watch the performance of Jiang Xiaolin, the newly promoted winner of the European Golden Boy Award. That's it.

The media in the Netherlands and Alkmaar generally believed that Alkmaar had no problem beating Lake Pusner and advancing to the quarter-finals.

This is not arrogance, but the strength difference between the two sides is too far.

The difference between the top of the Eredivisie and the top of the wave is really too big.

Of course, any accident can happen on the football field.

For example, in the European Cup in 2004, who would have thought that the Greek team would win the championship in the end?

Therefore, the media and fans can take it for granted that Alkmaar will win, but the Alkmaar team cannot think so.

It's just that the knockout round is going to be in the second half of the season, so Van Gaal didn't mention it.When he is going to wait before the 1/16 finals, he just needs to remind the players.

Alkmaar's strength is definitely stronger than that of Lekpusner. As long as he takes it seriously and does not underestimate the enemy, there will be no surprises.

On December 12th, Alkmaar sat at home and ushered in the 19th round of the Eredivisie against Utrecht.

Utrecht is a traditional strong team in Dutch football, ranking in the second echelon team under the three giants of Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord.

Although it is not as good as the three giants, but occasionally they can win the championship, challenge the status of the three giants, make mistakes, enter the European war and so on.

However, Utrecht's performance this season is mediocre, and currently only ranks 10th in the Eredivisie standings, ranking in the middle.

Therefore, facing the top Alkmaar in the away game, Utrecht did not overreach Alkmaar, but took the initiative to retreat and played a defensive counterattack.

However, as a traditional strong team in the Eredivisie, Utrecht did not completely shrink their defense. They are a team that truly implements the Eredivisie's total defense concept.

In this game, Utrecht did not completely shrink to defend within 30 meters of the goal, but from the midfield, the two forwards launched a counterattack, and the midfielder ran back and forth outside the penalty area to counterattack. To the back line to firmly hold the penalty area, so that Alkmaar's offense is not very smooth.

Of course, with strong overall strength and Jiang Xiaolin's performance, Alkmaar scored the first goal.

However, the rare goal this time was not scored by Jiang Xiaolin, nor even assisted by him.

However, it could be regarded as an attack initiated by Jiang Xiaolin.

In the 14th minute, Jiang Xiaolin dribbled horizontally with the ball outside the penalty area. Using his full passing skills without a shooting angle, he suddenly made a pass and passed the ball to the head of Hamdoy in the penalty area.

Although Hamdoy was unable to head the goal under the pull of the opponent's defender, he still spotted a header and ferried the ball to the corner of the small penalty area at the back point.

The full-back Moussa Dembele, who cut in from the wing and inserted into the penalty area, rushed to the point where the ball landed, volleyed without stopping the ball, and the ball flew into the goal in an instant.

Although the goalkeeper Misidni made a save, Dembele's shot was too fast. Misidni didn't even touch the shadow in the end, and watched the ball fly into the net.

After scoring a goal to take the lead, Alkmaar can sit firmly on the Diaoyutai and slowly deal with Utrecht.

With only one goal behind, Utrecht still wanted to score an equalizer.

Therefore, under the premise of a solid defense, Utrecht occasionally played a good counterattack.

In the 22nd minute, Utrecht's full-back Strat suddenly stepped in from the wing. First, he waded the ball with speed and passed Alkmaar's full-back Steyn Schals, who was going to intercept him, and then advanced. After more than ten meters, he cooperated with his teammates to hit the wall, passed the full-back Yaliens, and made a pass from the bottom.

Utrecht striker Udalu followed up in the middle, grabbed the first point and shook his head to attack the goal. It was really within the range of the goal frame, with good strength and angle.

But Sergio Romero made a world-class save, a flying sideways save from Udalu's header from inside the penalty area.

Utrecht missed the goal.

They did not grab the first point in the subsequent corner kick, and were cleared by Ragnar Klavan who pushed out of the penalty area.

The game continued, with Alkmaar continuing to attack and Utrecht defending.

However, Utrecht is not passively beaten, and their total defense is still doing quite well.

The pressing from the midfield made Alkmaar's offense not very smooth.

It was not until the 42nd minute of the first half that Jiang Xiaolin scored his first goal of the game.

This is Jiang Xiaolin retreating to the outside of the penalty area, running to the wing and finishing changing positions with the winger to get the ball. Then he played a one-two with his teammates, dribbling the ball horizontally to the corner of the penalty area and shooting a long-range arc. A shot into the far corner succeeded.

Jiang Xiaolin scored Alkmaar's second ball to help the team lead Utrecht 2-0, and the AFAS stadium was filled with fans chanting Jiang Xiaolin's name again.

Then, a few minutes later, the referee blew the whistle to end the first half, and the two sides entered the break with a score of 2-0, with Alkmaar leading by two goals at home.

After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and fought again.

The triumphant progress of the league and UEFA Cup may indeed make Alkmaar's players a little underestimated.

At the beginning of the second half, Utrecht used the kick-off to pass the ball back two feet, leading Alkmaar's formation out, and then suddenly launched a fast attack.

This caught Alkmaar off guard.

In the end, Utrecht's striker Yun Dagen dribbled the ball into the penalty area, and he was about to shoot, which was a huge threat.

Defender Hector Moreno, who was defending Yundagen closely, had no time to think about it, and only relying on the idea of ​​not letting the opponent shoot, he subconsciously gave Yundagen a flying shovel from the side.

As a result, the ball was not shoveled, but Yun Dagen was shoveled to the ground instead.Moreover, Moreno's spikes also kicked on Yun Dagen's ankle, which kept Yun Dagen from getting up for a long time.

The referee stepped forward to check Yun Dagen's injury, then awarded a penalty kick without hesitation, and gave Moreno a red card, sending him off directly.

Although Moreno put his hands together and told the referee that he was not a malicious foul, he failed to make the referee withdraw his order and could only leave the field in frustration.

Subsequently, Utrecht's midfielder Kairovi made it overnight and scored the penalty kick into Alkmaar's goal. The score between the two sides became 2-1. Utrecht was only one goal behind Alkmaar.

Moreover, Alkmaar was sent off by a red card, and there was one less person to fight.

Van Gaal had to quickly replace Hamdoy with substitute central defender Moisander to keep the defense intact.

The football field can be described as a radish and a pit. After fighting with one less player, Alkmaar has dropped a notch in terms of offense and defense.

Especially in Jiang Xiaolin's offense, without Hamdoy's movement and pulling, Utrecht can concentrate on using its defensive power on Jiang Xiaolin alone.

Even with Jiang Xiaolin's skills and strength, it is difficult for one person to challenge Utrecht's entire defense line.

In addition, in terms of defense, because Moisander is a substitute, no matter his personal strength or the tacit understanding with his teammates, he is not as good as Hector Moreno who has just been sent off by a red card.

Therefore, the back line is often tight, making the midfielders Dembele, Schals, Martens and others have to return to defense from time to time, which can give Jiang Xiaolin even less offensive help.

Even Jiang Xiaolin couldn't often stage a long-distance attack with five people in a row like in the previous game.It's like Jiang Xiaolin's occasional shot at a speed of over 100 km/h, which can be met but not sought after.

But in this game, Jiang Xiaolin obviously did not encounter such a good thing.

In the 67th minute, Jiang Xiaolin once counterattacked a long-range shot from outside the penalty area. Unfortunately, the distance was too far, and he failed to hit a violent shot with a speed of more than 100 km/h. The ball goes out.

Alkmaar's side was affected both offensively and defensively because they played one less player, while Utrecht strengthened their offense because they played one more player.

After all, they are only one goal behind now.

Although their striker's shooting skills are not as good as Jiang Xiaolin's, they can still occasionally score into the goal frame and score goals after shooting more times.