Football: The immortal legend on the green field

After a day of rest, Shen Bin will face Haarlem's first game, where they will challenge the league leader Utrecht away.

The Utrecht team is really interesting. It seems that they have a special affinity with Haarlem. The two teams were their first opponents this season. That game was a game in which Shen Bin shined. When the opponent was leading 3:0 in the first half, Shen Bin led the team to make a comeback in the second half, but they were eventually overtaken 3:4.

However, after 19 rounds of the league, Utrecht ranked first in the league with 15 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss.

Unlike Haarlem, which has been in the second division for six consecutive seasons, Utrecht was relegated to the second division for the first time in nearly 20 years last season. Not only do they want to return to the top league in glory, they also announced that the team's goal is to win the Dutch second division championship this season and gain something in the FA Cup.

Not only will the two teams meet again today, they will also return to Amsterdam two days later for the third round of this season, because the two teams were drawn together by the Dutch Football Association in the FA Cup round of 16.

Because of this reason, the Dutch Football Association was criticized by fans of other top-level teams. Among the 16 teams in the FA Cup round of 16, there were only three teams from lower-level leagues. The probability of the two teams being drawn together was very small, but even so, the situation still happened.

As a team that aims to win the championship, if they really have the ability to win the championship, they should beat their biggest competitor on the road to the championship.

Ali Han's advice to Neeskens was to give up this game and try to beat Utrecht at home two days later, because they were already 7 points behind their opponent in the league. If the opponent did not make big mistakes, it would be difficult to have a chance to overtake them. Based on Utrecht's strength in the Dutch second division, the probability of this happening was too small.

There were more fans of Haarlem Athletic who went to watch the away game this time, because the students would not return to school to start their courses for the new semester for another half month.

The fans were expecting a big victory because Haarlem's performance in the second half of the last match gave them confidence. The funny thing was that Shen Bin and the newly arrived Junior turned into garbage brothers, with a total of 8 coordination errors in the first half.

Shen Bin was also severely humiliated by Utrecht's old international player Vanenberg because of physical issues.

Furious, Neeskens yelled at Shen Bin on the sidelines: "Boy, you can fail to pass the threatening ball, but you can't always make mistakes in passing!"

Shen Bin did not confront Neeskens as he did before, and this game was indeed the worst performance in his career.

This was caused by many reasons. First of all, he was busy with trivial matters and had to return to the Netherlands for too short a time. He arrived in Amsterdam the day before yesterday and played today. He hasn't even adjusted to the jet lag yet. He couldn't concentrate after coming on the court and was dazed. Also, most of the midfield and backcourt partners today were replaced by new players. The two Italians on the central defenders were indeed much better at defending than the old defenders, but the first thing they did after getting the ball was to keep the ball as far away from the penalty area as possible. This can't be blamed on them at all, because most of the time there was only one passing point in front of them.

In this game, Neeskens replaced the fast horse Sterling on the left side with the newly transferred Brazilian Junior, Shinji Kagawa was used in the middle, and only Gular was left on the right. The forward line was Lee Dong-gook and Howard.

After some twists and turns, Neeskens returned to the old Route 442.

The three midfielders are good at attacking but not at defending. As soon as they find that the ball is returned to Haarlem Athletic, the three will start running in the frontcourt. None of them comes back to cooperate with Shen Bin to do the supporting work.

Under the opponent's tight defense, Shen Bin could only kick the ball quickly and pass it to his teammates in the frontcourt as soon as he got the ball.

Gular was also given special attention, so Shen Bin had only two choices: either pass the ball long and send it directly to the forward line, allowing Howard and Li Dongguo to fight with the opponent for a half chance, or pass it to Shinji Kagawa and Junior.

For Kagawa, who is only 16 years old, he is too young. His footwork skills are not worse than Deng Zhuoxiang, but there is an obvious gap between 16 and 17 years old. His confrontation ability is too weak. In the Japanese K-League, he can still thrive because they learn the Brazilian style there, which is less confrontational. Suddenly joining the more confrontational European league, he obviously felt uncomfortable. In the entire first half, he became a rolling gourd and fell down at the slightest touch.

When this kid first fell to the ground, he could still make an apology gesture to Shen Bin who passed the ball to him. But after two or three times, he couldn't do it anymore. It was obvious that he had become autistic due to being beaten.

Shen Bin secretly complained, "This kid won't be ruined because of a game!"

So Shen Bin had to choose to cooperate with Junior for most of the time in the first half. However, I don’t know if it was because of their incompatibility or what, the two of them were always passing the ball at different points. The Brazilian’s imaginative movements always left Shen Bin helpless. Such a player’s movements could make Shen Bin feel at a loss and could easily deceive the opponent’s defensive players. The only threatening attack in the first half was created by him.

Shen Bin's football philosophy is still based on control, and it is difficult for him to form a tacit understanding with players who gamble on probability.

At the end of the first half, Haarlem was trailing Utrecht 0:1.

During the half-time break, Neeskens praised Junior, but he was dissatisfied with Junior's failure to return to defense when he lost the ball.

Junior never felt that defending was his job, so he didn't listen to Neeskens' advice.

In the second half, Deng Zhuoxiang replaced the ground gourd Shinji Kagawa and continued to use the Brazilian to guard the left.

Having Deng Zhuoxiang come on as a substitute in the second half seemed to be the best solution Neeskens could think of.

Haarlem's midfield operation ability has improved and the defensive pressure has been reduced. However, Shen Bin still hasn't found the feeling of the game. Because Tiote was not there, he felt that he needed to take on the defensive responsibility, so he only sent two threatening balls in the second half.

This performance was far from the average of 6.37 threatening balls per game in the first half of the season. In addition, Junior lost too many passes that he should have received, allowing Utrecht to have a lot of defensive counterattack opportunities.

Shen Bin deserves Neeskens's praise because the midfield was suppressed by the opponent and the team needed to defend, so he focused mainly on defense and left the offense to the front five.

In the 87th minute of the second half, Junior's careless dribbling was intercepted by the opponent and counterattacked, and Haarlem Athletic lost the ball again.

Trailing 0:2, Hallam Athletic had no way to turn the tide and the remaining time was basically garbage time.

After the winter break, Haarlem suffered a black start in the league, and the points gap with their opponents widened to 10 points. When the final whistle blew, they were booed by the audience.

Whether it was Utrecht fans or Haarlem fans, the target of their booing was surprisingly the same.

"Except for Junior, I didn't see anyone else fighting hard for this game." After the game, Neeskens angrily criticized other players in front of the media, "We can't have such performances again!"

Shen Bin knew that he was not in good shape, but he had a different view. He also fought hard. Throughout the game, his passing success rate ranked first among the 26 players on the field of the two teams. He also ranked first in interceptions, steals, and running distance. Isn't this fighting hard? It would be better to ask what the hard-working person in Neeskens's words did.

Did he create the team's only two scoring opportunities in the first and second half?

Don’t you see that he wasted more opportunities?

Fortunately, Neeskens did not target Shen Bin, because he knew who the easy target was.

Shinji Kagawa and Lee Dong-guk were Neeskens' main targets.