Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

"Ajax's midfield is unstoppable!"

This is the final summary given by Sporting Lisbon's technical team.

It's important to understand that this was the conclusion reached by the technical team of a club's first team regarding a midfielder from a U15 youth team.

This is too outrageous.

After the tactics lesson ended, Deng Kai stayed in the classroom and did not leave.

"Kai, is there anything else? We have a discussion about the first team later, and we need to see if Quaresma is capable of replacing Simão..." Trigra didn't treat Duncan like a human being, well... like an outsider.

This basically means that Simão will definitely transfer after the season ends, and a new club has already been found.

Quaresma will become the next Simão, participating in the Portuguese league early on and becoming a rising star in world football.

"I have a few questions I'd like to ask about Ajax," Deng Kai said.

Trigra nodded, indicating that Deng Kai should ask.

"If we use a combination of marking and double-teaming, can we completely limit Van der Vaart?" Deng Kai asked.

The video analyst next to him gave a direct answer: "It's difficult. Van der Vaart's talent is just too good. His dribbling and ball control are too inspired. He can't stop him."

"If you're really going to stick to him and double-team him, I suggest you target Sneijder. He's very good, but in terms of dribbling talent, he's far inferior to Van der Vaart."

"Focus your attacking routes on the central areas, with your center forward dropping deeper to create space and other forwards making runs and penetrations through the middle, repeatedly attacking to put immense pressure on Ajax's central defense."

"Forcing Sneijder to drop back from midfield to a defensive midfield position to help the team defend. This allows your attacking line to only face Van der Vaart, but the cost is that our strikers have almost no chance of scoring in this attacking mode."

"Even if your passing is excellent, there are too few paths left for you to play through balls to the strikers, and they are too easily disrupted. Besides, you also need to track back appropriately to limit Van der Vaart's attack."

This is easy to understand; with a three-pronged attack reduced to a single-pronged attack, opportunities naturally decrease.

This is sacrificing offense to contain Sneijder.

After thinking for a while, Deng Kai agreed with the proposed solution.

However, he did not believe that the other party's line of thinking was correct.

It's not that the other party overestimated Van der Vaart.

Van der Vaart is indeed an unstoppable player, especially when he plays in the attacking midfield position.

Deng Kai said the video analyst's thinking was flawed because the other party believed that forcing Sneijder into the defensive midfield position would solve the problem.

But actually... Sneijder is almost an undefendable player. Even in the defensive midfield position, his sharp long passes can still provide a huge boost to the team.

If the matches against Van Persie and Robben were a test for Cristiano Ronaldo, then...

Therefore, the duels with Van der Vaart and Sneijder will be a valuable experience for Deng Kai.

This is a necessary step for him to become a midfield maestro.

Deng Kai then left the classroom and found his teammates at the training ground.

This indicates that we need to rehearse some new tactics.

The teammates were used to it.

Different team leaders have different leadership styles.

Some leaders like to have others buy them hamburgers and drinks, and carry their bags and shoes.

Some leaders enjoy special treatment on the field, preferring that even in training matches, others dare not truly defend them.

Deng Kai, the team leader, likes to organize everyone to "play" with him and study various tactics that are "not illegal but crazy".

For example, when vying for a free kick, a group of people gather together, and then suddenly scatter... like a shower of flowers.

For example, everyone squeezes together like a piglet worm, but then suddenly they scatter... like a bursting piglet worm.

For example, a low, sweeping shot when taking a free kick.

Coaches see this kind of training, which does nothing to improve basic skills, as a waste of time, and from the perspective of developing players, these behaviors will not produce positive results.

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But Maxić, out of consideration for Deng Kai, wouldn't stop everyone, claiming it would broaden the players' thinking.

"Ronaldo, Lorenzo, Marcelino, you all need to try repeated sprints in the center forward area... constantly dropping back to support... yes..."

"Veloso, train one-on-one with the team's best dribbler and turn-turner. Utilize your physical advantages to pressure them in various ways. If you can intercept the ball, intercept it; if you can't, just bring them down... The guy training with Veloso will have to work hard. I have a football here signed by Zidane..."

Recently, autographed footballs by Zidane, Ronaldo, and Ferguson have appeared in Lisbon's football collectibles market.

Cristiano Ronaldo suspects this is related to Deng Kai's attendance at last year's Ballon d'Or ceremony and has found evidence in a warehouse in the Chinese community.

There are at least dozens of different autographed footballs there, with the most unsold Guardiola models, which didn't even get plastic wrapping!

……

The day finally arrived: April 20th.

The UEFA Youth League semi-final is about to kick off at the Amsterdam Arena.

The Dutch were lucky to draw a home draw.

Construction of the stadium began in 1993 at a cost of 140 million euros. It was completed two years ago and has more than 50,000 seats.

In the future, on April 25, 2017, the 4th birthday of Johan Cruyff, the Amsterdam Arena will be renamed the Johan Cruyff Arena in honor of this legendary star.

With Ajax losing their title hopes early in the season, fans have had to shift their focus to the Dutch Cup and youth competitions – the UEFA Youth League!

Youth tournaments are not usually enough to attract fans, but who cares when this is the first time in European football history that a youth UEFA Champions League has been held?

Prior to this, youth team matches were mostly used for training and testing the effectiveness of training, and there were very few instances of such a huge competition for honors across Europe.

As a result, the entire Amsterdam Arena was packed to capacity.

Fifty thousand spectators sang the Ajax team song to cheer on the young players.

As the players entered the field, the stands erupted in enthusiastic chants of the players' names, with the loudest being Van der Vaart, followed by Sneijder.

Ajax U15 used their standard formation, 4-2-3-1, in this match.

Sneijder plays as the right midfielder, and Van der Vaart plays as the team's attacking midfielder.

This is roughly in line with Deng Kai's pre-match prediction.

After all, it's the semi-final, and the opposing coach is unlikely to pull any tricks. There's only one Guardiola in the world.

And this is precisely Sporting Lisbon's opportunity.

With the referee's whistle, the match officially began.

In the first five minutes, after a series of exchanges, the players from both sides clearly understood each other's strengths and positions.

Aside from a few star players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Duncan, Van der Vaart, and Sneijder, the abilities of the rest of the players can only be considered average.

This "normal" refers to a level that is quite excellent among peers, not just average.

But normally there are different levels.

The average Ajax player is significantly more skilled than the average Sporting Lisbon player.

They almost reached the "ceiling of mortals".

This also proves that Ajax's youth training level is significantly higher than Sporting Lisbon's.

In some ways, they are even the world's number one youth training base!

Therefore, Ajax naturally became stronger and took the initiative in the subsequent match.

Sporting Lisbon, on the other hand, found themselves on the defensive.

In the sixth minute, Van der Vaart put on a dribbling show in the middle.

With his signature moves—fried balls, Marseille turns, sudden stops and starts, dribbling and pulling the ball—he skillfully maneuvered through a three-man encirclement without losing possession of the ball.

The performance was only interrupted when Semedo had to bring him down.

The referee blows the whistle.

Free kick.

Twenty seconds later, cheers erupted from the Amsterdam Arena.

Rafael van der Vaart scores directly from a free kick!

I've told Semedo that you can foul me to stop me from going forward, but you can't stop me from scoring!

One to zero!

Ajax takes the lead!

As mentioned before, playing against talented players is an essential step for Deng Kai to become a midfield maestro.

But some people are born masters!

I like playing football on the ground: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him.