The Godfather of Football

Ye Qiu has always felt that Lucio, as a central defender, has a lot of tactical value to be explored.

Generally speaking, any team's ball advancement is either on the wing or in the middle. Because the wing is relatively weak in defense and has a larger space, the wing is generally an important means of ball advancement.

For example, Figo, Overmars, Giggs and other excellent wing breakthrough players are important means of ball advancement. When designing tactics, teams with this type of players often create more one-on-one opportunities for them on the wing, thereby maximizing their tactical value.

So what about the middle? Why doesn't anyone go to the middle?

If you go to the wing, you still have to find ways to transfer the ball from the wing to the middle when you get to the front court. Why not go directly from the middle? Isn't it more convenient?

The middle is often the area where the opponent's defense is most densely concentrated. It is easy to fall into a siege when advancing in the middle. But once a player has the ability to forcefully break through the dense area in the middle, the tactical value of this player will be huge.

After AC Milan introduced Kaka, they entrusted the Brazilian with important tasks in the first season. After that, Ancelotti did not hesitate to let Kaka stay outside the team's offensive and defensive system, just to give full play to Kaka's ability to forcefully break through the dense area in the middle, because as long as Kaka breaks through, he can directly cause a threat.

Kaka's success is not so much the success of his personal ability as the success of his tactical value!

The value of breaking through the middle is best reflected in Kaka, and more importantly, Kaka is a front midfielder.

For the front midfielder, as long as he can push the ball forward 10 meters, he will enter the most threatening area of ​​his own attack.

Perhaps, from the perspective of tactical value, Lucio, a central defender who also has the ability to advance in the middle, is not as good as Kaka, who plays as a front midfielder, but his value to any team in enriching tactical means and enriching ball advancement means is equally huge.

However, because he is a central defender, his tactical value often represents an increase in the cost of defensive risk. Therefore, Ye Qiu has always focused on the defense line, the cooperation and tacit understanding between the three Brazilian players Gilberto Silva, Lucio, and Maicon, as well as Kolo Toure and Heitinga, who are also the focus of Ye Qiu's consideration.

Tactics are always relative, and there is no absolutely safe and secure defense. Therefore, what Ye Qiu considers is to maximize Lucio's advantage in dribbling in the middle and minimize the defensive risks brought by the Brazilian central defender's advancement. As long as this is achieved, he dares to liberate Lucio in a big way.

The Brazilian central defender has never disappointed Ye Qiu. Although he is the one who makes the most mistakes on the Ajax defense line, he is also the defender who brings the most surprises to the team in many cases, just like this time.

Liverpool's attempts to attack Litmanen on the left failed many times. Maicon reminded the former Ajax senior again and again that he was already 30 years old, not young, with many injuries, and not in the same state as before. Liverpool's left-wing attack failed again and again, and the Red Army's attack direction was forced to shift to the right.

Gerrard became Houllier's key attack weapon.

In the 59th minute, Gerrard cooperated with McAllister on the right, avoided Abidal's ball, and passed it low to the front of the penalty area, trying to find Heskey.

Heskey firmly stuck to his position. He was always fighting with Lucio. The Brazilian's physical fitness was too good. Although he was not much worse, it was really a headache, so he could only stand in position again and again.

But this time, the Brazilian chose to go around.

My God!

Heskey stared at the Brazilian who went around in front of him in amazement. It was hard for him to understand how such a tall and strong guy could have such flexibility and explosive power to go around in front.

Because Gerrard passed the ball horizontally, he went around the front to defend. After intercepting the ball, Lucio did not hesitate at all. After all, he was a Brazilian player with excellent skills. He raised his head and looked ahead. It was very wide. The group of Liverpool players who were originally rushing forward suddenly braked and prepared to return to defense.

Is it too late?

There is a saying on the football field that will never be wrong, that is, people will never be faster than the ball!

Lucio advanced more than ten meters and saw Robben and Van der Meyde were already in place.

This is a major feature of Ajax's offense. At the moment of attack and defense, the two wingers can always get close to the opponent's defense line in the shortest time, and at this time, they need someone to pass the ball to them from behind.

Lucio swung his right foot and kicked a lob with force.

The ball drew an arc, flew up from Lucio's side quickly, and after reaching the top, it fell quickly, landing on the left side outside Liverpool's penalty area. Ye Qiu called this offensive routine a diagonal attack.

Robben was like a gust of wind, dodging the tall but clumsy Babel. This is also a very interesting part of Liverpool's defense. They are all tall guys with excellent frontal defense ability, but they are huge weaknesses in turning around and defending behind.

Therefore, Houllier's defense can only choose to shrink back to avoid being hit from behind as much as possible.

But once someone hits you from behind, sorry, it's almost a sure thing.

The hearts of the Red Army fans in the entire Anfield Stadium jumped into their throats, and Houllier pressed his chest hard. It was obvious that they all knew that Ajax's most threatening counterattack was coming. .

Robben was very fast, sprinting forward at lightning speed, while not forgetting to look around. Van der Meyde slowed down a little deliberately, while Ibrahimovic was rushing forward with all his strength. The Swede's explosive power was It's not great, but it's not slow when the speed rises. Coupled with his tall and strong body, the impact is very terrifying.

Stopping the ball, buckling it, making an emergency stop, Robben stopped the ball firmly at his feet on the left.

At this time, Henkoz had already chased back into the penalty area. He came out to intercept Robben. Hyypia followed Ibrahimovic closely, and the Swede leaned to the left, as if he was looking for the front spot. Forcing Hyypia to follow him to the left, giving up a large space on the right.

Robben faced Henczyk, stopped suddenly, and suddenly accelerated. This continuous change of speed left Henczyk helpless. Facing the cross from Robben who followed him, he could only raise his foot symbolically, but did not No way.

This cross was very high and landed at the back point.

When Hyypia realized this, he wanted to go to the back point, but it was too late. He could only remind his teammates loudly, "Back point!"

Ziege and Van der Meyde were racing at speed, but the latter was obviously faster than Ziege, so he took the lead and got stuck in front of Ziege with his body. Facing Robben's pass, the two jumped high at the same time. rise.

Everyone watched this scene, which happened in the blink of an eye, but made everyone's heart beat faster.

Ye Qiu even clenched his fists on the sidelines. This was one of the offensive routines he focused on creating. Attack diagonally and find the opponent's weak spot after getting the ball. This is equivalent to handing over part of the power to organize the offense to the two wingers. In this kind of Even if there is no effective counterattack, the effect is still very obvious.

But just when Ye Qiu was expecting Van der Meyde to smash the ball into the Liverpool goal, he saw the ball flying high over the crossbar and out of the baseline. It looked like Ziege had made the first clearance.

Phew~~

All the Liverpool fans in the audience felt like they were in danger. Ajax's quick counterattack was too fast and sharp.

Whether it's Robben on the left or Van der Meyde on the right, both are very fast. Robben's speed is even a bit like Liverpool's Michael Owen, and Ibrahimovic is even more eye-catching. Liang, at least the performance of this tall Swedish guy is much better than that of Heskey, and his ability to hold and play the ball is nothing to say.

But just when the Liverpool fans thought they had escaped, Van der Meyde raised his hands high, slapped his right hand with his left hand, ran towards the referee, pointed at Sieg, "Hey, referee Sir, he handballed, he handballed on purpose!”

"Handball, I obviously saw that he hit the ball with his hands!" Ibrahimovic was the closest, regardless of whether he could see it clearly or not. Anyway, he wanted to support his teammates at this time.

"I don't have a handball!" Sieg immediately came to defend him!

"I saw clearly that he knocked the ball out with his head, not his hands!" Liverpool players also came over to support their teammates.

This is a situation that often happens on the court. Both sides are arguing and exerting pressure on the referee, but they maintain a certain limit, at least they will not give people the feeling of rushing or threatening the referee.

The referee kept using his hands to calm down and stop moving forward, then ran towards the linesman, and soon walked back to the court, first separating the Ajax and Liverpool players, and then towards Liverpool Ziege showed a yellow card, which then turned into a red card, because he had already received a yellow card in the first half, and finally pointed to the penalty spot.

"Intentional handball, yellow card and penalty kick!" the on-site commentator explained the referee's move.

The Liverpool players seemed a little dissatisfied with the referee's decision, but the referee seemed very determined and kept shaking his head. The Red Army fans at the scene didn't care, and they just booed and cursed.

"Judging from the slow motion, Ziger was indeed behind Van der Meyde at that time, and his hands were also out of his body. It is difficult to explain that this was because he had no intention of shooting the ball. It can only be said that Ziger was unable to grab Van der Meyde. A deliberate handball, trying to find a loophole for the referee."

Slow motion explains this foul from many different angles, all of which clearly show that this is indeed an intentional handball. However, sometimes, the naked eye cannot keep up with the changes in the game, so there are still many The fans and players all felt that they were wronged.

On the contrary, Ziege, who received the ruby ​​truce card, turned around and walked out of the stadium without further entanglement. He did not even say hello to head coach Houllier and went directly into the players' tunnel. He must be fully aware of his actions. of.

"Ajax got a penalty kick in the 74th minute of the second half. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Ajax. They should seize this opportunity. Let's see who they take. Take this penalty!"

Ajax's chief penalty taker is Van der Vaart, but this player is not playing now. When he was in the second team, Sneijder also took good penalty kicks, but now he is in the first team, and the young Sneijder Ned lags behind Ibrahimovic in the penalty kick right.

The Swede was Ye Qiuqin's designated penalty kicker, but his performance was not very satisfactory. This had something to do with his character.

"Do you want to change one?" Bobby Hams came to Ye Qiu's side and asked.

This penalty kick was hard-won. If it went in, it would be Ajax's most valuable away goal and could bring a victory. But if it didn't go in, it would be a heavy blow to the team's morale.

Ibrahimovic's psychological quality has always been emotional. First, he is relatively young, and second, this is related to his personality, so he is prone to trouble at critical moments, but Ye Qiu knows better that if Ibrahimovic's penalty kick right is denied at this time, it will inevitably have a huge impact on the Swede.

With Ibrahimovic's sensitive and fragile emotions, he is expected to rebel against Ajax and escape from here.

"Let him take the penalty!" Ye Qiu gritted his teeth.

The ball didn't go in, and there is still a chance to score again, but he finally dealt with Ibrahimovic and made this kid obedient and obedient. He can't fail because of a penalty kick, right?

Seeing Ibrahimovic looking over inquiringly, Ye Qiu nodded and made a soothing gesture towards him.

"Your greatest stupidity is your lack of patience, and it is easy for your emotions to control your thoughts!"

After getting Ye Qiu's nod, Ibrahimovic walked to the penalty spot with the ball in his arms. He couldn't help but think of Ye Qiu's reminder and the words Ye Qiu said when he scolded him at the police station that day.

He didn't understand many things, and he just didn't say many words, but this doesn't mean he is an idiot or a fool.

From childhood to adulthood, he has been accustomed to living a self-centered life, because only in this way can he protect himself, not be bullied, and be able to get to where he is today, all because of his character.

In Ibrahimovic's life till now, there are two people who have made him think about changing for them.

One is Haas Borg, but this man who he once regarded as a father has always been using, deceiving and cheating him, which made him feel an unprecedented betrayal. So, when he saw Haas Borg still wanted to show him favor as in the past, he swung his fist in anger.

The other is Ye Qiu.

Although they have only been together for more than half a year, Ye Qiu gave him a feeling that this person knows him very well and trusts him very much, but he always keeps a distance with him that makes him feel very comfortable and harmonious. This is the best way to get along with Ibrahimovic, who has never known how to trust and understand others since childhood.

But at the same time, Ye Qiu made very high demands on him, which not only did not make Ibrahimovic rebel, but made Ibrahimovic feel that this was a product of trust, and he was ambitious and knew that gains and efforts are often proportional, so he did not oppose Ye Qiu's high demands at all.

Sometimes, getting along with people does not necessarily mean being close to each other!

Taking a deep breath, Ibrahimovic raised his head and looked at the night sky above Liverpool's Anfield Stadium. He closed his eyes and heard the roar of the fans floating in Anfield Stadium.

He felt as if he was in the vast ocean, but he was not afraid at all. His mood gradually calmed down. Looking at Liverpool's goalkeeper Westerveld, Ibrahimovic exhaled gently.

With a whistle, Ibrahimovic rushed forward quickly. His legs were long and his steps were big. After approaching the ball, he made a powerful and powerful shot with his right foot.

The ball went directly into Westerveld's goal at a speed that was difficult to distinguish with the naked eye. The latter rushed in the wrong direction and chose Ibrahimovic's left side, because the Swede was right-footed, but Ibrahimovic hit the right side this time, which was the most difficult half-high ball to save.

"The ball is in!" The commentator shouted very cleanly at the moment the ball went into the goal.

"With a penalty kick from Swedish teenager Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ajax finally broke the deadlock in the 75th minute of the second half, 1:0!"

"This is not an interesting game. Both sides are most concerned about defense. Ajax, playing away, adopted a defensive counterattack strategy, which even made people want to get a draw. Liverpool also put defense first in the first half and most of the time. This is also Houllier's typical defensive thinking."

"This is a dull game, but we have reason to believe that with Ibrahimovic's goal, the situation of the game was broken, and both sides should make adjustments and changes."

Sure enough, after Ibrahimovic scored, Liverpool took the lead in making adjustments.

Houlier learned from his mistakes this time and replaced Michael Owen with Fowler, wanting to strengthen the ability to seize opportunities in the penalty area, and then replaced Litmanen on the left with Smicer to strengthen the organization and passing ability of the midfield.

This is obviously an arrangement for Ajax's defensive counterattack.

But as soon as Houllier made an adjustment, Ye Qiu also followed suit.

Van der Vaart replaced Van der Meyde, who was a little exhausted, and Yaya Toure replaced Sneijder. Although Ajax made positional substitutions, they changed their previous defensive strategy and boldly adopted a high-position defensive tactic of pressing forward to further strengthen the pressing and oppression in the midfield.

This made Houllier so angry that he vomited blood, because he had hoped that Ajax would press forward to play high defense and take advantage of Owen's speed to counterattack, but Ye Qiu chose to defend to the end. However, when he replaced Owen with Fowler, who was not fast but had a keen sense of smell in front of the goal, Ye Qiu pressed forward in a big way.

Just imagine, with Fowler far away from the penalty area and Heskey who had no speed advantage at all, how could Liverpool attack?