Football: The immortal legend on the green field

In the media area, among the thirty or forty reporters, almost half were from China and South Korea. The starting eleven of the two teams lined up in two rows in the aisle and walked out of the aisle one after another, led by three referees.

When Shen Bin, wearing the captain's armband, and Van Bommel appeared first, the whole stadium was filled with "buzzing...". Some Chinese reporters jumped up excitedly, while the Korean reporters nearby looked at them with contempt, "What's there to be excited about? It's just a Dutch second-tier team. It seems that the South Korea-phobia promoted by Chinese colleagues is not without reason. Even their neighbors can get excited?"

The on-site announcer began to introduce the appearance lists of both teams to the audience, and the decibel level in the stadium suddenly more than doubled.

When the PSV Eindhoven players were called out, each name caused a thunderous roar of cheers.

The away team was given a chaotic shout - don't think this is their dissatisfaction with the away team, they don't care who the away team's opponent is, these shouts are still for the home team. If it was Ajax or Feyenoord, at least there would be huge boos, but Haarlem FC didn't even qualify to be booed.

The fans' cheers soon died down, and the players from both teams stood in their respective formations. Kežman and Huntelaar stood in the center circle, waiting for the kick-off.

The referee blew the whistle, followed by huge cheers from the fans. Amid the cheers, Kežman kicked the ball to Huntelaar and ran forward quickly. Huntelaar then passed the ball back to captain Van Bommel.

After the opening, most of the players of Haarlem gathered in the midfield and backcourt, using the numerical advantage and active fighting in the midfield and backcourt to create trouble for Eindhoven's offense.

Shen Bin began to shout at his teammates to run and intercept. At the beginning, Haarlem's defense was tight, but PSV Eindhoven was no longer based on ground cooperation like in the previous game. They tried to find loopholes in Haarlem's defense through running and passing between players. Instead, they played aggressively and directly passed the ball into the penalty area and handed it to center forward Kezman whenever they had the chance.

This style of play poses the least threat to the opponent, because the forward has his back to the goal most of the time. As long as the two wingers are locked down and the opponent's wing players are not allowed to pass high-quality threatening balls from the bottom, it will be difficult for the forward to pose a threat by directly attacking the goal.

However, he did not take the difference in player strength into full consideration, as PSV adopted a very offensive 442 formation, and their attack achieved a significant victory in the first eleven minutes of the game.

Van Bommel dribbled the ball in the middle, Shen Bin stepped forward to interfere, and Van Bommel made a long diagonal pass to the left. Huntelaar and Guraid were entangled with each other, but this gave Puzhixing on the side a chance. Puzhixing received the ball and took the ball to the bottom. Veteran Gomez stepped forward to block him. Puzhixing made a sudden stop and dodged a move, then raised his foot and made a cross at the ribs.

Facing this high ball, Berna Canu and Kežman jumped at the same time, but the inexperienced Berna Canu was squeezed behind by the experienced Kežman before he jumped. Kežman, who had seized the advantageous position, shook his head in the air! Haarlem goalkeeper Sasa had no way to deal with this close-range header, and he watched the ball go into the net!

The ball went in!

PSV Eindhoven scored a goal just 11 minutes into the game and dealt a heavy blow to Haarlem!

Thirty thousand fans cheered in unison, the sound shook the earth. After scoring the goal, Kežman opened his arms and ran to the corner flag, hugging his teammates.

Gerrard was not as excited as the other players. He just stood up and clapped a few times, then sat back down, as if scoring a goal was a matter of course. Martins on the other side bit his lower lip and stared at the field expressionlessly.

In fact, Gerrard's situation is not as relaxed as it appears. Ever since Hiddink was poached by Chelsea and he took over PSV Eindhoven, there have been different voices within the PSV Eindhoven management, because he has never been a head coach. Especially in the first round of the FA Cup, they were tied by Haarlem of the Dutch Second Division, which caused such a big disturbance, and doubts gradually began to prevail.

While Martins was studying PSV Eindhoven, Girard was also not idle. He watched the video of the first-round match between the two sides over and over again. He found that Haarlem's central defense was extremely tight. The Chinese man who gave the entire PSV Eindhoven a slap in the face with one pass and one shot had extremely accurate judgment on defensive positioning and was always able to seize a favorable position first.

Another defensive midfielder, Tiote, has a large range of activities, runs actively, is strong, and has strong intercepting ability. His ability as a defensive midfielder is similar to that of Yaya Toure. In terms of comprehensive ability, he even surpasses Koke, a Dutch international on his team.

With this understanding, the problem of offense was easy to solve. Since the middle road didn't work, he naturally focused the offense on the flanks. He found that the defensive players on both sides of Haarlem Athletic were much less capable, especially Bruno Sterling on the left, whose defense was too rough, which was exactly the weakness he exploited.

Therefore, when arranging tactics, striker Huntelaar was asked to break through from the left as much as possible. In order to strengthen this point, the Puzhi star with strong breakthrough ability was promoted to the starting lineup.

Although Martins pushed the "sieve" Bruno Sterling on the left to the forward line, the veteran Gomez's slow turning speed was fully exposed in front of the attacking star.

Conceding a goal too early ruined all of Martins' plans, but he still didn't make any adjustments to the situation, but just sat quietly in his seat.

Li Yan looked at the jubilant Koreans and smiled bitterly in his heart.

After all, it is a Dutch second division team, and there is still a huge gap between them and the European quasi-giants. The Koreans' lead is comprehensive. The fourth place in the Japan-Korea World Cup has greatly boosted the confidence of the Korean players. While Chinese fans are feeling complacent about Shen Bin's ability to play in the Dutch second division, the Korean has already become a main player in the Dutch super team PSV Eindhoven.

Hundreds of fans of Haarlem Athletic were stunned, but the team was not. After all, it was a team with many young players. Losing the ball too early was both a bad thing and a good thing. At least it let them know that they still had time to catch up. As long as they didn't lose their spirit and fighting spirit, they could easily equalize the score in the remaining 83 minutes... Of course, the gap between the teams must be considered first...

The comprehensive suppression of Haarlem in the first ten minutes of the game made the PSV players begin to relax. Instead, the lagging Haarlem fought more fiercely. Koke, the Dutch international who effectively froze Shen Bin for most of the time in the previous game, gradually fell into a disadvantage in the contest with Shen Bin during this period. Tiote's stranglehold on Van Bommel also destroyed his organization many times.

Eindhoven's mistakes also increased, giving Haarlem several counterattack opportunities. Gerrard had already seen the signs of danger, especially Shen Bin's several passes after getting rid of Koke, which gave Haarlem offensive opportunities. When Deng Zhuoxiang received Shen Bin's wonderful pass and hit the post with a long shot that bounced out of the bottom line, Gerrard could no longer sit still. He stood up and walked to the sidelines, shouting to the players on the field: "Koke, stay close to the opponent's number 6, everyone else keep in formation, and cheer up!"

The players of PSV Eindhoven also came to their senses and gradually took the initiative on the field again.

Although the field seemed one-sided and PSV had the upper hand, Haarlem did not concede any more goals. The few counterattacks they made were more threatening to the goal than PSV. This dangerous balance continued until the end of the first half.