God of Green

After Jiang Xiaolin understood and adapted to the different rhythms of the League Cup and the Dutch Eredivisie, he showed the Tottenham players his terrifying efficiency of scoring 23 goals in the previous 8 games.

Less than 5 minutes into the second half, Jiang Xiaolin suddenly made a fake shot and a real pass at the front of the penalty area, causing the Tottenham defenders to block his shooting route nervously. Jiang Xiaolin made a fake move and then made a wonderful pass to the penalty spot two or three meters to the left of the penalty spot in the penalty area.

Left midfielder Simon Poulsen rushed in from the wing and volleyed the ball before the Tottenham full-back cleared the ball, and volleyed the ball towards the Tottenham goal.

If Gomez hadn't performed well this time and made a save in the first time, saving the ball from the bottom line, Alkmaar might have reversed the score and taken a 2-1 lead.

In the subsequent corner kick, neither side got the first point, and the ball fell into the penalty area, causing chaos, and even players from both sides fell to the ground.

However, due to the sensitivity of the penalty area, the referee did not blow the whistle, and the ball was finally kicked out of the penalty area by the Tottenham defender.

Although this wave of attack did not score, it still made Tottenham players, coaches and fans nervous.

This scene, like the last few minutes of the first half, made Tottenham people feel much more threatened than the first half of the first half.

Seeing Jiang Xiaolin's increasingly relaxed performance after scoring, many Tottenham people had a premonition that this game might be a little difficult.

In fact, the subsequent games let them know that this game against the second-tier Eredivisie was not difficult, but quite difficult.

Not long after the last wave of attacks, in the 52nd minute, Alkmaar launched another attack from the wing, with striker Hamdaoyi changing positions and pulling to the side, dribbling the ball to the bottom line and making a pass.

Jiang Xiaolin made a first move on the small penalty area line and almost headed the ball.

If Jiang Xiaolin had headed the ball, with his header skills, it would have flown into the goal at such a close distance.

Fortunately, the two central defenders Jonathan Woodgate and Ledley King beside Jiang Xiaolin pulled together, so that Jiang Xiaolin could not jump as high as he could, and finally failed to head the ball. The ball rubbed his scalp and flew to the back point, and was finally kicked out of the penalty area by the Tottenham defender.

Led by Jiang Xiaolin, Alkmaar launched a long-term oppressive attack on Tottenham after the start of the second half.

It was not until the 57th minute that Tottenham Hotspur launched their first threatening counterattack in the second half, when Gareth Bale used his speed and skills to break through two Alkmaar players on the wing, and then made a cross from the bottom.

Pavlyuchenko rushed into the penalty area and almost succeeded in grabbing the ball. Fortunately, goalkeeper Romero acted decisively. With his height and the advantage of being able to catch the ball with his hands, he jumped up and punched the ball out of the penalty area over Pavlyuchenko's head. Then, the Alkmaar player who returned to defend controlled the ball, which resolved the counterattack crisis of Tottenham.

Then, Alkmaar pressed Tottenham again.

When the offense becomes more frequent, even if there is no goal, there will be more free kick opportunities.

Of course, not every free kick is suitable for shooting.

But sometimes, the football field changes rapidly. Even if Tottenham players know that Jiang Xiaolin's free kick skills are at the pinnacle and they cannot easily give him the opportunity of a free kick in front of the penalty area, they will involuntarily commit fouls for defense.

As the core organizer of Alkmaar, Maarten Martens is naturally very skilled.

Although his individual skills such as deep-fried meatballs and crotch dribbling are not as exquisite as Jiang Xiaolin's full-value skills, he has more breakthrough skills than Jiang Xiaolin, which sometimes dazzles his opponents. In panic, he can't help but commit fouls, and he has no time to consider whether this foul will give Alkmaar a great shooting opportunity.

In the 64th minute, Maarten Martens used a sudden dribbling to win Alkmaar a free kick opportunity with an excellent distance on the left side of the front of the penalty area.

At that time, the ball was held by David Mendes who inserted from the back row. He went to the front court to help his teammates pass the ball.

When he received the ball from the right side of the winger Stein Schars, Maarten Martens in the middle of the front suddenly shook off Tottenham midfielder Didier Zokora who was guarding him, and ran to the left to open up a gap.

Seeing this, David Mendes did not hesitate and passed the ball directly with a low pass to Martens' feet.

As the core of Alkmaar's organization, Martens is naturally the target of Spurs' key defense. They will not miss Jiang Xiaolin and him.

Therefore, although he suddenly moved sideways to get a chance to receive the ball, Didier, who was thrown away by him,·Zokora had already turned and rushed over, trying to block his route into the penalty area with the ball.

In addition, Aaron Lennon, the Tottenham right winger who was helping nearby, saw Martens receiving the ball and ran over to join Zokora in robbing Martens.

As long as Martens stopped the ball for a moment, not only would his way to the penalty area be blocked, but he might also be robbed by two opponents.

He did not have the full-value dribbling skills that Jiang Xiaolin had, and could not guarantee that the ball under his feet would not be poked away by his opponent.

Therefore, facing the ball passed by Mendes, Martens first made a false move to receive the ball, relaxing the vigilance of Zokora and Lennon, making them think that they could catch up and stop him, and did not make a dangerous flying tackle.

As a result, at the moment the ball reached his feet, Martens raised his foot to let the ball pass, without stopping the ball at all.

Then he immediately turned around and chased after the ball.

This turn of the ball was beyond the expectations of Lennon and Zokora, and it was impossible for the two to stop Martens.

Even a flying tackle could not reach him.

Lennon was not a professional defensive player, so he subconsciously slowed down and handed the task of intercepting and defending Martens to other teammates.

But Zokora did not give up. He turned around immediately and chased after Martens with gritted teeth.

Martens caught up with the ball, adjusted his pace while dribbling forward, but could not move forward at full speed.

Because the defender Kluka in the Tottenham penalty area stood up and blocked Martens' way forward, making him unable to move forward at full speed.

However, at the moment when the two sides approached, Martens used his skilled technique to step on two bicycles in a row, shaking the nervous Kluka away a little, and then Martens took the ball into the penalty area and wanted to catch up to complete the shot or pass the ball horizontally.

At this moment, Didier Zokora, who had already caught up, didn't know what was in his mind, and directly reached out and pushed Maarten Martens!

Martens, who had just finished cycling, was actually a little unstable, but he didn't expect Zokora behind him to push him directly, and with great force.

Martens immediately lost his balance and fell to the ground, and the ball was naturally intercepted by Kluka.

But the referee's whistle sounded, and the referee penalized Didier Zokora for pushing from behind.

Zokora rushed to the referee less than half a meter away as a conditioned reflex and yelled: "I didn't foul, this is just normal physical contact."

His saliva sprayed on the referee's face.

This immediately annoyed the referee. Originally, he only penalized Zokora for pushing and didn't want to give a card, because Zokora's foul was not bad.

As a result, the foul was not bad, but he rushed to the referee and scolded the referee afterwards, which made the referee feel that his law enforcement dignity and status were challenged.

So, the referee stretched out his hand to block Zokora's approach, and at the same time stretched out his hand to take out a yellow card, showed it to Zokora, and gave him a yellow card.

Zokora was shocked and panicked because he was called for a foul and gave the opponent a free kick with a great position and huge threat. Now he was even more furious when the referee showed him a yellow card.

Zokora subconsciously approached the referee again and questioned him again. Fortunately, his Tottenham teammates next to him quickly stopped him and pulled him away.

Otherwise, if Zokora continued to confront the referee, if he was shown another yellow card, two yellows turned into one red, and he was directly sent off, then Tottenham would lose.

You know, although Zokora plays in the attacking midfielder position, he is actually an all-around midfielder with good offense and defense, and his role in defense is also very large.

Therefore, his teammates quickly pulled him away.

Although the mistake gave Alkmaar a free kick, Jiang Xiaolin was not 100% sure of scoring from free kicks.

In this game, Jiang Xiaolin also took a free kick in the first half, but he didn't score.

After Zokora was comforted and pulled away by his teammates, Jiang Xiaolin also came up and gently clapped his hands with Martens to express his appreciation for him.

The free kick created by Martens was indeed in a very good position and distance, just a little to the left of the top of the penalty area, facing the left goal post, and about 23 or 24 meters away from the goal.

For Jiang Xiaolin, who is right-footed, this position is very comfortable whether it is near or far corner, and the distance is just right. With Jiang Xiaolin's full arc, shooting, and long-range skills, this free kick will definitely be very threatening.

Therefore, Jiang Xiaolin clapped his hands with Martens in advance, which meant celebrating in advance.

Jiang Xiaolin was very confident about this ball. Not 100%, but he has 80% chance of hitting the ball into the dead corner and making it impossible for goalkeeper Gomez to save it.

Tottenham players also know Jiang Xiaolin's free kicks.Threat, when Jiang Xiaolin placed the ball, goalkeeper Gomez was also directing his teammates to form a human wall, so that the tallest teammates would block the near corner shooting route.

Then, Gomez stood a little bit in the middle of the goal to prevent Jiang Xiaolin from shooting at the far corner.

When both sides were almost ready, the referee blew the whistle for the penalty kick.

Jiang Xiaolin first looked up to confirm the position of goalkeeper Gomez, took a deep breath, exhaled for a long time, and then started to run up and prepare to shoot at the near corner.

As a result, just when Jiang Xiaolin ran up a few steps, stood on his left foot, and was ready to kick the ball with his right foot to shoot a curved ball to the upper left corner of the goal, he lowered his head to confirm the position of goalkeeper Gomez for the last time before shooting, but suddenly found that goalkeeper Gomez was moving to the left through the gap between people.

Gomez rushed to the near corner in advance.

He guessed Jiang Xiaolin's idea of ​​shooting at the near corner.

Jiang Xiaolin was shocked. This was the first time he saw a goalkeeper move so early.

If he kicked the ball out as planned, Gomez, who had predicted accurately and moved in advance, would definitely save the ball.

There was no way. Jiang Xiaolin, who had already swung his thigh, could only adjust the part that touched the ball awkwardly. He didn't hit the arc and directly kicked the ball to the far goal.

The ball flew into the air, but it didn't fly very high. It was a low-altitude low ball.

Because it was a temporary change in the kicking method and route, Jiang Xiaolin didn't play the ball with power. It was just an ordinary shot.

The ball neither hit an arc nor was it higher than the wall. Fortunately, the wall itself did not completely block the goal, but left a small gap at the far goal.

The ball flew past the ribs of Tom Huddlestone, the defensive midfielder standing at the far right end of the wall, and flew towards the goal.

Huddlestone jumped up to head the high arc ball, but after jumping up, he found that Jiang Xiaolin hit a low ball, and was immediately shocked, but he could no longer move his body to block Jiang Xiaolin's ball in the air.

The ball flew past his body and flew to the far end of Tottenham's goal.

Huddlestone hoped that his teammate and goalkeeper Gomez, who was guarding the far end before, did not move, so this ball was not a big threat.

However, when Huddlestone half turned in the air and looked at the goal awkwardly with his peripheral vision, he despairingly found that Gomez had already stood at the left end of the goal, frozen on the goal line, and did not move.

Gomez was also quite desperate.

He knew that Jiang Xiaolin's free kick skills were very good, both in arc and shooting, they were the top in football, and the threat was very great.

In addition, the position and distance of this ball were very good, so he could only make predictions and moves in advance. Otherwise, it would be almost impossible to save the ball after Jiang Xiaolin kicked it out according to the ball path.

Therefore, after guessing that Jiang Xiaolin would hit the near corner, Gomez moved before Jiang Xiaolin kicked the ball, preparing to move to the near end and save the ball Jiang Xiaolin hit towards the near corner.

Unexpectedly, he moved a little early and was discovered by Jiang Xiaolin.

Jiang Xiaolin's foot flexibility is also amazing. He actually forced to change the kicking position and route during the shooting process and kicked the ball to the far corner.

Although the consequences of Jiang Xiaolin's forced change of the ball contact position and shooting method are insufficient power, slow speed, and unsharp angle.

Although the ball flew to the far end, the ball path was not sharp. It was neither the upper corner nor the lower corner, and there was no arc. It was an ordinary low ball shot, and it was about one meter away from the goal post.

If he had not moved just now, this ball would actually be easy to save.

But there is no if in the world.

Gomez, who had moved to the near end in advance, found that Jiang Xiaolin's shot was heading for the far end and the ball was not very threatening. He judged that Jiang Xiaolin had temporarily changed the position of the kick, but he still couldn't turn around and rush back.

It's not that he didn't want to do it, but he couldn't do it. His body didn't allow Gomez to do this action that went against the laws of physics.