Football: The immortal legend on the green field

"Hello? Is this Kong Xiangbin? What's going on? I've been calling for a long time but the line is always busy. It should be evening in China now, right? Why is the line still busy? What? It's all my fault... right?" Li Yan looked at Cheng Guo beside him and smiled.

"Still in western Liaoning, what? Dai Zhao refuses to be interviewed, he wants to cut ties with football? Got it, so, it's night there now! Try again tomorrow, if it doesn't work, go back first, and do an in-depth investigation of Shen Bin in Jinling. There are many stories here! Like the old coach Ge Jiaxiang! Xuanwu District Mayor Li Zhenyu, they all extended their warm hands when Shen Bin was helpless. Their noble qualities are worth remembering by the people, especially the story of Uncle Wang, a five-guarantee household, which is particularly touching...

Okay, nothing else, I'm hanging up, international call! Yeah, remember, I'll bring you a signed photo of a star when I come back."

Cheng Guo looked at Li Yan and hung up the phone happily, "You look so happy. I haven't seen you like this for a long time."

Li Yan was lying on the bed in the hotel, stretching himself. "That's right! I've been reporting on the domestic league for three years, and I've never written such a sensational news report. The phone in our office has been ringing red with requests for more copies! Everyone in the office is working overtime, you know? Any report I send back about those two little guys will be as popular as gold and diamonds!"

Li Yan said excitedly, with a wonderful glow on his face. He stared at the ceiling intently, as if he had really seen his future life path turn from here.

While the whole country was still going crazy about the two Chinese overseas players who suddenly appeared, the two parties involved had already started a new day of training.

What depressed several young players on the team was that the extreme and stubborn Neeskens was back.

After a day's rest, Haarlem faced the challenge of Willem II.

The opponent was ranked fourth in the second division last season, just one step away from entering the first division, but it was not scary because last season's top scorer in the second division, Krosh, was injured in the first game of the new season. Krosh had just undergone elbow surgery and would miss half of the season until after the winter break.

William II without Krosh is literally a toothless tiger. They look intimidating but lack the attackers to defeat the enemy. Even if they have a complete set of strong midfielders in the team, they still need to solve the scoring problem.

Apart from Krosh, the only reliable attacker of William II is Coleman. As an out-of-date Dutch genius who is famous for wasting his talent, Coleman still has a certain ability to score goals.

He scored two goals in the first three league games, which is a terrifying goal efficiency, but he wasted more opportunities.

After Neeskens came back, Haarlem returned to their old tactics, an all-out attack and defense positional battle.

Maybe it was because of the rotation of five young players, Shen Bin, Deng Zhuoxiang, Gular, Tiote and Sterling, or maybe it was Neeskens' unique paranoia.

After the game started, William II immediately took the initiative on the field.

Their midfield quartet, led by Zlatko, put in an outstanding performance, but Neeskens struggled a bit. Even with five players including Shen Bin on the field, it might not be easy to suppress the opponent. Willem II might be Haarlem's least favorite opponent at this stage.

There is almost no highlight in their game, the only thing they are good at is torturing opponents on the defensive end.

Shen Bin and his five players are young and strong, and most of them are fast players. Naturally, they can use more running to get rid of the muscular jungle. However, the midfield composed of Genes, Haney, Luck and Fansico cannot do this.

William II's iron-clad defense successfully exhausted the patience of the veteran players of Haarlem Athletic, and their passing success rate continued to decline.

In the first half, William II took advantage of several passing errors in the Haarlem Athletic midfield and launched several successful defensive counterattacks, which worked. They led 2:0 in the first half.

In the second half, Neeskens replaced Shen Bin, Deng Zhuoxiang and Gular in an attempt to equalize the score.

More than a hundred fans of Haarlem Athletic who drove a hundred kilometers to Tilburg gave the three young men a warm cheer.

Before going on the pitch, Shen Bin said to Neeskens: "Coleman is on the pitch and he has already wasted two sure-shot chances. We don't need to focus our defensive energy on William II's front three-man attack group. The focus of defense should be on disrupting the coordination of their midfield four. As long as we can disrupt their passing, they will be a toothless tiger."

Neeskens' face changed. "If you want to hold your head high in front of the boss, you don't have to play in the next game."

Neeskens is not an idiot, he understood everything. This was an indirect criticism of the unreasonableness of his substitution. If he followed Shen Bin's statement, he should have replaced Tigana, who has outstanding intercepting ability, instead of Deng Zhuoxiang, who has excellent footwork, or Gular, who only relies on speed.

Shen Bin didn't care about Neeskens' intimidation, as if to prove that he was not a fake or a waste. Deng Zhuoxiang and Gular struggled after they came on the court. Both Deng Zhuoxiang and Gular could not play to their strengths in front of the strong and flexible William II midfielders. Even Shen Bin himself found it difficult to pass a threatening ball under the pressure from the opponent. The scene only maintained a delicate balance, and Haarlem Athletic did not gain any advantage.

Hankaus, who has become the exclusive commentator for Haarlem Athletic, said: "Shen Bin is still under 18 years old after all. Without the help of his teammates, he seemed at a loss in front of the powerful midfield of William II. Jeans only knew to pass the ball back after receiving it, and had no organizational ability. Gular was under the close supervision of the opponent and did not give him any space to start. Deng Zhuoxiang fell down at the first touch. He was only in front of the experienced Guy Milburn, which reminded people that he was a child."

Just when Shen Bin was having trouble figuring out how to break through the opponent's defense, a simple two-on-one defense by Li Dongguo and Shen Bin tore through William II's iron defense.

In the 80th minute of the second half, Shen Bin dribbled the ball to the front of William II's penalty area. He observed the situation on the field with his peripheral vision and found that all the passing routes were blocked by the opponent. No, they missed Li Dongguo.

William II studied this currently popular team before the game. They thought that Haarlem was very similar to themselves. The reason why they were able to defeat the opponent was that Haarlem had several talented young people in the midfield. As long as they could restrict Shen Bin, Deng Zhuoxiang, Gular and Tiote, the game would be half successful.

William II's players on the field faithfully carried out the coach's tactical intentions and completed them well, with quite good results.

The coaching staff of William II judged that Li Dongguo was unremarkable. His height of 186 cm was considered tall for Asian players, but it was no advantage for the Netherlands, where the average person is taller. A team cannot have comprehensive defense, otherwise the goal of the Italian national team, which is the best defensive team, would be frequently breached.

Therefore, their defensive strategy was to keep an eye on Shen Bin, Deng Zhuoxiang, Gular and Sterling. Fortunately, Sterling did not have a chance to play in this game, which made their defense easier.

The defense against other players of Haarlem Athletic was much more relaxed, and it was the relaxation against Li Dongguo that left Shen Bin with an opportunity.

Shen Bin's tactics were very primitive. He passed the ball to Li Dongguo at close range and then ran forward. Before a defensive player of William II was about to approach, Li Dongguo passed the ball to Shen Bin who had run out of space and then cut into the penalty area. Shen Bin received the ball and looked at Gular who had quickly followed up on the other side. The defender who was marking Li Dongguo hesitated for a moment and chose to give up following Li Dongguo and pounced on Shen Bin, blocking Shen Bin's passing line to Gular.

Shen Bin raised his left foot and kicked the ball. Just when his foot was about to touch the ball, his ankle shook and the ball hit the outside of his foot. The first reaction of several players from both teams around him was that Shen Bin had missed the ball. Everyone's eyes followed the trajectory of the ball, and the ball flew smoothly towards Li Dongguo who was advancing.

This no-look pass not only fooled all the players including the opponent's goalkeeper, but also fooled more than 20,000 fans in the stadium.

"Oh……"

"boom……"

All the fans in the stadium stood up from their seats after the exclamations.

"Shen Bin passed the ball to Li Dongguo, Li Dongguo passed it back, a beautiful one-two, Shen Bin... Oh God, he didn't pass the ball to Gular who was cutting in, but unexpectedly passed it to Li Dongguo, his eyes deceived everyone, the goalkeeper was moving in the direction of Gular, Li Dongguo shot...

GOOOOOOOOOO…!

The goal was scored by Korean Lee Dong-gook, who pulled one back for away team Haarlem.

The Korean commentator at the scene also passionately spread the news of the attack to thousands of households in the Republic of Korea, "We should not rush to judge Lee Dong-gook, it is unfair. As a rising star of Korea, he did not perform well in the earlier games, which is entirely the fault of Coach Martins.

He has always been prejudiced against players from the Republic of Korea and has always put Li Jun in a secondary position without truly understanding Li Jun's strength. I think Li Jun deserves a starting position more than Howard. Although Mr. Neeskens has used Li Dongguo many times, he always separates him from Shen Jun. Li Dongguo did not get support from the midfield, which was the main reason why he did not perform to his due level.

Did you see the goal just now? I strongly recommend recruiting him to the national team. There are only four days left before the last match of the 06 World Cup Asian Zone Group Stage in Germany. We have already appeared in advance, and coach Bonfrere can definitely recruit him to the team.

We have Kim Doo-hyun and Pu Ji-sung in the midfield and the experienced Ahn Jung-hwan up front, so he can get more support than he gets here..."

But he forgot how the star player who played for PSV Eindhoven was fooled by Shen Bin just ten days ago.

When Lee Dong-gook was celebrating, the coach of Willem II yelled wildly at the players on the field. Then he felt that it was not safe enough and replaced Coleman, who had no sense of presence on the field, with a defensive midfielder.

In the next game, coach William II is very experienced. 70% of the credit for the goal just now should be attributed to Shen Bin, and it is not as good as the Korean commentator said.

He still let Li Dongguo go as easy as usual, and defended Shen Bin even more fiercely.

Shen Bin is always followed closely by one person, while another person roams nearby, ready to fill in at any time.

In the last ten minutes or so, Shen Bin had almost no chance to receive the ball. The few players of Haarlem Athletic who could pass the ball were also tightly guarded. Even if there were a few passes, they were intercepted by the opponent. Haarlem Athletic's attack became more difficult than before.

To make matters worse, in the second minute of injury time, Willem II's pressing caused the Haarlem defender to make a pass error, and their forward once again scored the ball into the goal guarded by Sasa. Willem II defended the honor of the strong team in the Dutch Eredivisie at home, giving Haarlem one draw and three losses in the league, completely putting it in the position of the leader of the losing squad.

“We didn’t find the rhythm of the game tonight, mainly because the young players in the team are not used to such a dense schedule, and the old players can’t take on the heavy responsibility, which is very bad. However, the young players I insisted on bringing in still created many opportunities in the second half.

Our young players need to understand more about football when they play on the field. It is not that they cannot choose other ways to help the team when the pass is not smooth. This is the help brought by experience. I hope that young players know that when you are restricted by the opponent, you should think more and use your brain more to play football. When you are suppressed in what you are good at, you still have many ways to help the team win. "

Neeskens led the team to one draw and two losses in three games, but he was still able to smile throughout the post-match press conference.

Shen Bin sat next to Neeskens and complained secretly. It was as if he hadn't said anything. Who wouldn't know this? It's easy to raise questions, but what people want is solutions to problems. The old man is so good at Tai Chi that even Zhang Sanfeng wouldn't be his opponent!

However, after the final whistle of the game, assistant coach Martins' expression looked a little gloomy.

When the press conference was over and Neeskens and Martins walked into the corridor leading to the locker room, Neeskens noticed something was wrong with Martins.

"Albert, just say what you mean." Neeskens doesn't like to beat around the bush.

"John," Martins said in a low voice, "Have you ever thought about trading Shen Bin?"

When Albert Martins's voice fell, Neeskens's protruding ears trembled, as if he didn't believe what he heard. He looked at Martins with wide eyes, making sure that he was serious, and then asked back: "Why do you have such an idea?"

"I know it's too early to tell, but I know how much damage an unstable youngster can do to a team.

You are a person who holds on to your ideals and never gives up, and Shen Bin is also a very opinionated and uncompromising player. He is different from other young people. In our midfield, except for Shen Bin, Deng Zhuoxiang, Gular, Tiote and Sterling, only Jeans has game experience. The others are not worthy of being used. To put it bluntly, they are not even qualified for rotation. They are just decorations in the team.

The four main players in the back line look pretty good in the second division, but if they want to impact the Eredivisie, their strength can only be used as substitutes. The striker is only Howard. Li Dongguo has some potential, but we can't put hope on him now. He is not yet able to bear such a heavy responsibility. "Martins' eyes flashed with memories of the past," Cantona's immaturity and low emotional intelligence destroyed Manchester United in 1995, so Aimé Jacquet abandoned him in 98 to win the world championship.

If you can't stop Shen Bin, it's better to let him go. This will not only not delay Shen Bin's future, but also use Shen Bin's high transfer fee to exchange for half of the upgraded lineup. If you don't act immediately, I feel that sooner or later he will ruin our chance of upgrading."