God of Greenery

After having lunch at the hotel and taking a nap, at 14:30 in the afternoon, the Alkmaar team took a bus to enter Groningen's home stadium, the Euroborg Stadium, through a special passage in the stadium.

After changing the training clothes in the visiting team's locker room, everyone entered the stadium, and the players of the home team Groningen each occupied half of the stadium and began to do warm-up before the game and adapt to the stadium.

This was Jiang Xiaolin's first time standing on the field of the Eredivisie club as a player, which made him quite upset.

You know, he has never stood on a professional court as a player before.

I watched two Alkmaar games at home before, but that was in the stands, not in the stadium, so it didn't count.

As for the youth team games, they are all played on the training ground, not the real arena.

The same is true for amateur teams. The home stadium of Pulmes is only rented on the match day. The ownership does not belong to Pulmes at all, and the seats are limited. Jiang Xiaolin has never experienced the feeling of being stared at by tens of thousands of spectators.

It's different now.

The Euroborg Stadium can accommodate more than 22000 people. Because Groningen has performed well in recent seasons, the attendance rate has basically remained at around 15000.

Groningen's performance this season is also good, currently ranked sixth in the standings, and in the European qualifying area, its performance is much better than that of Alkmaar.

Therefore, the enthusiasm of the fans to watch the game at home is relatively high.

Although there were still several ten minutes before the game, Jiang Xiaolin saw at least a few thousand home fans entering the stadium ahead of time.

Of course, there is no shortage of visiting team fans.

He saw a group of organized Alkmaar fans wearing Alkmaar jerseys, about 300 people, isolated and protected by stadium security in a corner to avoid conflicts with the home fans, but flags, banners, slogans showed that their identities.

After the team's six-game losing streak, they rushed more than 200 kilometers away to support the team, and they entered the stadium 10 minutes earlier. This is truly a die-hard fan.

If the team suffers another defeat, Jiang Xiaolin will feel ashamed of these fans, even if the previous six-game losing streak has nothing to do with him.

After warming up for more than ten minutes, Jiang Xiaolin suddenly heard someone shouting "Xiaolin, Jiang Xiaolin" in Chinese.

His heart suddenly moved, he looked up and followed the sound for a while, and saw two five-star red flags waving in a corner.

It turned out that it was Peng Zhijie, Song Zhicheng and other Chinese compatriots in Chinatown, and more than a dozen young fans that Jiang Xiaolin didn't know. They were probably the group of foreign students who left a message on yesterday's blog.

There are more than 40 people in total.

It seems that after Jiang Xiaolin was promoted to the first team, his compatriots were really stimulated. More than 40 people came to Groningen so far to watch him play.

The key is that he hasn't started yet, and it's unknown whether he can come off the bench.

In this situation, more than 40 people came to support him away, which is much more than the number of compatriots who watched his home games in the youth team.

Sure enough, the Eredivisie can attract people, after all, only a small number of people are willing to watch the youth team games.

Only by playing in the top league can you really stand out.

Although he was excited, Jiang Xiaolin, who was warming up with his teammates, did not dare to go out and say hello to his compatriots. He could only look in that direction and wave his hands, but it also attracted cheers from his compatriots.

Jiang Xiaolin was even more looking forward to being a substitute today, so that Song Zhicheng and others would not be in vain for running so far to support him.

Then, proceed to warm up in earnest.

Alkmaar and Groningen each occupied half of the stadium and warmed up for about half an hour. The game was about to start. Everyone returned to the locker room to change into the game uniforms, and then listened to Van Gaal's pre-match training.

Van Gaal clapped his palms, drawing everyone's attention to him, and said:
"Presumably, everyone is aware of our current situation."

"Last season, we were No.2 in the Eredivisie. Last season, we were No.3 in the Eredivisie, and we were only 1 points away from No.3."

"It can be said that in the first two seasons we were strong contenders for the Eredivisie championship, and we were almost able to win the Eredivisie championship."

"Originally, this season, I intended to lead everyone to participate in the Eredivisie championship again, but I didn't expect so many injuries in the first half of the season, and we played so poorly."

"Now, in the second half of the season, our situation is even worse. Since the winter break, we have suffered a six-game losing streak and have not even scored a point."

"This is a dilemma that I have never encountered in my coaching experience, and I think you don't want to either."

"You are all professional players and adults. You all have to know that although the team's performance is not good, you can transfer, but with your current state and performance, even if you want to transfer to other teams, Is there a team? Even if you can transfer, can you get the ideal treatment?"

"Today's game is an away game. It must be difficult, but we have no way out."

"I hope that in today's game, everyone will show all your energy to play this game well for me and get the first victory in the second half of the season."

"I hope you will not be ashamed of those hundreds of Alkmaar fans who drove hundreds of kilometers to support you."

……

After Van Gaal's speech was over, Captain Yarriens also stood up and said a few words in an attempt to boost morale.

But Jiang Xiaolin quietly observed the expressions of his teammates in the locker room, and found that most of them were expressionless and indifferent.

It is estimated that Van Gaal has some similar lectures before the games in recent games, but everyone has become numb and no one can listen to them.

Facing the current six-game losing streak, and this game is an away game against a team ranked higher than themselves, it is no wonder that the players have no confidence.

The coach is also very helpless.

After the lecture, Van Gaal left the locker room with the assistant coach, Jiang Xiaolin and other substitute players, sat down on the bench beside the court, and waited for the game to start.

Jiang Xiaolin saw that, except for some corner seats, the seats in the entire stadium were basically filled by Groningen fans.

The number of spectators present today is estimated to be around 16000. Most of the fans wore uniform Groningen jerseys, and under the leadership of the leader of the fan organization, they continued to sing team songs and shout slogans to support the home team and create pressure for the visiting team.

When all the fans shouted slogans together, Jiang Xiaolin really felt a little palpitation.

This is a different feeling from watching Alkmaar's game in the home stands.

At that time, he was one of the fans of the home team. Although he lost the game, he was surrounded by his own people after all, and he felt safe psychologically.

But now that they are the visiting team, more than 16000 fans regard them as enemies, which really makes people feel a little stressed.