God of Green

With the end of the international match day, international players from various countries have returned to their teams to start training and prepare for the league.

However, for Alkmaar, Maarten Martens' injury in the World Cup qualifiers was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the team.

Martens was injured while following the Belgian team to participate in the European qualifiers for the World Cup. It is expected that he will need to rest for half a month. He will not only miss the 23rd round of the Eredivisie against PSV Eindhoven, but also miss the two rounds of the UEFA Cup 1/16 finals.

Because the 23rd round of the Eredivisie on February 14 is an away game, and the first round of the UEFA Cup 1/16 final against Poland Lekpsna on February 18 is also an away game.

In addition to Maarten Martens' injury, after discussion with the coaching staff, the team simply gave up the 23rd round of the league against PSV Eindhoven.

Alkmaar is now 13 points ahead of the second place in the Eredivisie standings, with enough room for error.

Therefore, in the 23rd round of the Eredivisie on February 14, 2009, Alkmaar rotated most of its main players, and most of the starting lineup were substitutes. Only a few main players such as goalkeeper Romero, defender Hector Moreno, and forward Jiang Xiaolin continued to start.

The purpose is to save strength in the league and prepare for the UEFA Cup 1/16 finals.

Even several main players did not even make the big list, did not come to the away game, and stayed at home to rest.

This season, Alkmaar's performance is really outstanding, suppressing the three major Eredivisie giants Ajax, Eindhoven, and Feyenoord.

Now facing the game that Alkmaar voluntarily gave up, Eindhoven, who played at home, naturally would not be polite. The main players played out and launched an offensive battle with Alkmaar, which played with most of the substitutes, hoping to win a big victory.

However, the final result of the game was not what Eindhoven wanted.

In the 21st minute, PSV Eindhoven played a wonderful pass and cut cooperation with the cheers of the home fans, and passed the ball into the penalty area. Forward Lasoyu pushed the ball into the dead corner on the right side of the penalty spot.

PSV Eindhoven opened the scoring and scored the first goal of the game. Tens of thousands of PSV Eindhoven fans in the stands burst into warm cheers.

After scoring the first goal, PSV Eindhoven was more motivated and wanted to continue scoring goals to expand the score.

However, before they scored the second goal, Alkmaar scored the equalizer in the 35th minute.

This goal was lost because PSV Eindhoven pressed forward and then counterattacked after being intercepted.

The substitute midfielder Lux used a precise flying tackle in the backcourt to shovel the ball under the feet of the PSV Eindhoven player holding the ball. The shoveled ball fell at the feet of forward Simon Poulsen not far away.

Poulsen first dribbled the ball to avoid the PSV Eindhoven player who was trying to steal the ball, and then kicked the ball to Jiang Xiaolin's feet near the center circle.

At the moment Jiang Xiaolin received the ball, PSV Eindhoven's midfielder Epson, who was not far from Jiang Xiaolin's side, made a flying tackle, trying to disrupt the counterattack when Jiang Xiaolin received the ball and was not yet stable.

But Jiang Xiaolin was a little faster than him. He touched the ball in advance and dribbled forward, then immediately jumped to avoid Epson's flying tackle, and quickly rushed to PSV Eindhoven's half after landing.

At this time, there were only two central defenders who were retreating and defending in front of Jiang Xiaolin.

Jiang Xiaolin's forward speed was naturally faster than the opponent's retreat speed. When he was about 20 meters away from the penalty area line, the two sides were close enough to steal the ball.

So one of the central defenders stopped retreating and tried to steal the ball, and the other defender also slowed down his retreat, ready to cooperate with the first defender to steal the ball.

However, Jiang Xiaolin's grasp of timing was too strong.

The moment the two of them stopped, Jiang Xiaolin kicked the ball out with one foot, and then went around from the outside: the ball was separated.

Jiang Xiaolin used extreme speed and the ball to pass the last two central defenders of PSV Eindhoven.

However, the ball that Jiang Xiaolin just poked out was a bit big, and goalkeeper Isschen immediately rushed out from the penalty area, trying to clear the ball before Jiang Xiaolin caught up with the ball after the ball was separated.

Even if he couldn't use his hands outside the penalty area, as long as he got the ball before Jiang Xiaolin, he could destroy the ball with a big foot.

However, Jiang Xiaolin's speed was faster than he thought.

Jiang Xiaolin, who was full of physique, not only broke free from the opponent's defender's pull when the ball was separated, but also caught up with the ball he had dribbled out one step ahead after exerting his speed to the extreme, poked the ball again towards the baseline, then jumped up to avoid Isschen's flying tackle and chased after the rolling ball.There was no suspense about what happened next.

Although Jiang Xiaolin caught up with the ball at a very small angle, he still easily kicked it into the empty goal before it went out of the baseline.

PSV fullback Jeremy, who tried desperately to clear the ball on the goal line, failed to save the team in the end, and fell into the goal with the ball kicked by Jiang Xiaolin.

In the 35th minute, Jiang Xiaolin scored a goal for Alkmaar by passing four people including the goalkeeper in a quick counterattack, equalizing the score.

The score between the two sides became 1-1.

After the score was tied by Jiang Xiaolin, although PSV wanted to continue to attack and take the lead again, Sergio Romero played well and repeatedly resolved the opponent's attack.

The first half ended with a score of 1-1, and the two sides entered the halftime break.

After a 15-minute break, the two sides changed sides and PSV continued to press forward and bombarded Alkmaar's penalty area and goal.

After attacking for more than 20 minutes, in the 72nd minute, PSV Eindhoven finally lifted the ball into the penalty area through a free kick from the front field, and their midfielder Schmons jumped and headed the ball into the goal, changing the score to 2-1.

After scoring the lead again, PSV Eindhoven did not stop. They still wanted to continue scoring and strive for a big win over Alkmaar.

Even if they can't stop Alkmaar from winning the championship this season, it's good to give the opponent a big defeat.

Now that Alkmaar has rarely rotated most of its main players for the next UEFA Cup game, PSV Eindhoven naturally has to cherish the opportunity to win a big win.

They thought that Alkmaar, who played mostly as substitutes, was easy to bully, and they could win a big win at home, but the Alkmaar substitutes who finally got the chance to start did not want to lose.

They also wanted to perform well and wanted to change from substitutes to main players.

Therefore, Alkmaar, who was one goal behind, not only continued to actively fight for their own goal, but also played a beautiful attack in the 88th minute.

Although most of Alkmaar's starting players are substitutes, they are not amateurs.

Players who can play as substitutes in Alkmaar are not inferior to the main players of the lower-level Dutch teams in terms of ability.

Although the coordination of passing, cutting and running is a bit poor most of the time, sometimes with good luck, some good coordination can still be achieved.

The attack in the 88th minute was the best result of Alkmaar's passing and cutting in the frontcourt in this game.

Alkmaar, Ali, Van der Velden and Simon Poulsen made a continuous pass in the frontcourt, and finally Van der Velden made a wonderful pass with his heel in the penalty area, allowing Jiang Xiaolin, who used speed and off-ball running to get rid of the close defender, to shoot the ball in the gap in the penalty area without stopping, and the ball was pumped into the lower left corner of Eindhoven's goal.

Even the commentator of the Dutch TV station shouted in the commentary booth:

"Gooooooooooooooooooooooooal..."

"The ball went in!"

"It was Jiang Xiaolin who scored again!"

"Jiang Xiaolin scored twice and helped Alkmaar equalize the score!"

"However, the teamwork played a greater role in this attack. Alkmaar, which played with most of the substitutes, played a good pass-run coordination in this attack."

"Especially the heel pass that Van der Velden assisted Jiang Xiaolin at the end, which was absolutely wonderful. It can be listed as one of the most exciting assists of the season. "

"Although Maarten Martens was injured, Van der Velden can still take on the responsibility of organizing the attack for Alkmaar!"

"PSV's plan to take advantage of the opportunity when most of Alkmaar's substitutes played to win a big victory failed."

"The game time is almost over!"

"Perhaps, Jiang Xiaolin's goal is a tie goal in the final stage of the game!"

The commentator hit the nail on the head. As he said, Jiang Xiaolin's goal in the 88th minute was the last goal of both sides in this game.

Although PSV carried out a crazy attack in the last few minutes of the game and created several shooting opportunities.

However, Alkmaar also united as one, even Jiang Xiaolin and Ali retreated to the backcourt to help defend, and finally withstood PSV's attack.

Of course, there is also the reason that Van Gaal kept changing players to delay time and interrupt the opponent's offensive rhythm.

There is also the reason that PSV's players are not good at shooting.

In fact, in the last few minutes, PSV had three shots, but none of them hit the goal frame.

After 3 minutes of stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle for the game.At the whistle of the end of the game, Alkmaar, with most of the substitutes starting, led by Jiang Xiaolin, tied PSV Eindhoven 2-2 away from home and escaped from the Philips Stadium unscathed.

For Alkmaar, this is undoubtedly a very good result.

When Van Gaal rotated most of the main players, he was actually prepared to lose away from home.

Unexpectedly, the team still escaped from the away game unscathed under the leadership of Jiang Xiaolin and got a point.

Therefore, although it was only a draw, the Alkmaar players were still in a good mood after the game, and lined up under the away fans' stands to thank these fans who accompanied the team on the away expedition.

Jiang Xiaolin also received the experience reward for this game when the referee blew the final whistle.

This game did not win, and Jiang Xiaolin, who scored twice, only got 2 goals and 4000 basic experience.

In terms of performance, although Jiang Xiaolin only scored two goals, it was his active fighting throughout the game that suppressed the backcourt players of PSV Eindhoven, making them afraid to fully press forward to assist.

In the final stage, when Jiang Xiaolin retreated outside the penalty area to participate in defense, he also made great contributions to defense with his full-value positioning skills.

Therefore, the system finally rated Jiang Xiaolin's performance as "excellent", with a rating coefficient of 3, so that Jiang Xiaolin finally gained a total experience of 4000*3=12,000.

Combined with the daily training experience of the past few days, Jiang Xiaolin's experience rose to more than 890,000 at level 22.

After the game, Jiang Xiaolin, who almost single-handedly led Alkmaar to retreat from the away game, was unanimously praised by the media and fans.

Jiang Xiaolin's two goals brought his Eredivisie goals this season to a terrifying 42.

In the next Eredivisie game, as long as Jiang Xiaolin scores one more goal, he will tie Coen Dillon's single-season Eredivisie record of 43 goals; and if he scores two goals, Jiang Xiaolin will set a new record.

With such efficiency, how can the media and fans not be enthusiastic?

Of course, some media and fans of other Eredivisie teams also expressed somewhat sourly: Alkmaar has suffered from "Jiang Xiaolin dependence".

But the players and fans of Alkmaar don't care.

Which team doesn't have an offensive core with the most goals?

It's just that Jiang Xiaolin performed more outstandingly, and other teams and fans are just envious and jealous!

Their envy and jealousy are the pride of Alkmaar.

Amid the heated discussions outside, the Alkmaar team returned to their base and conducted two days of daily training in their training base. On February 17, they flew to the western Polish city of Poznan one day in advance.

On February 18, Alkmaar will play against Lekpsna, which is currently at the top of the Polish Super League standings, at the Lesa Stadium in Poznan.

Although the Polish League is only a third-rate league in Europe, far behind the Dutch League, Van Gaal is still not careless. He does not want to be eliminated by an unknown Polish team in the first round of the knockout stage, which would bring shame to his reputation as a world-famous coach.

Moreover, Alkmaar is in such a good situation this season.

Although Alkmaar's top priority this season is to win the Dutch League championship, Van Gaal may not have the ambition to fight for the Dutch Cup and the UEFA Cup and win the double or triple crown.

Otherwise, he would not have rotated in the last league game and sent most of the substitutes to play away games against Eindhoven.

Therefore, the team arrived in Poznan a day in advance for field adaptation training, preparing to face Lekpsna with all their strength the next day.

After arriving early and resting for a day, at 18:00 on the afternoon of February 18, 2009, with the referee's whistle and the deafening cheers of more than 10,000 local fans, the first round of the 2008/2009 UEFA Cup 1/16 final between Lekpsnaz and Alkmaar officially began at Lekpsnaz's home stadium, the Lesa Stadium.