super storm

Chapter 32

Noordwijk is a seaside city located more than 40 kilometers southwest of Amsterdam.

There is a beautiful beach on the North Sea, and it is far away from the hustle and bustle of the big city. The scenery is beautiful, and it is definitely a good place for summer vacation.

Van Gaal liked the leisure here, so he bought a piece of land in the resort area and built an exquisite residence. Since then, except for vacationing in Portugal in winter, he has lived here most of the time.

Especially in the past six months, after returning to the Netherlands from Barcelona, ​​he only lived in Almere for a while.

Every night, the sea breeze blowing from the North Sea in the west blows over the balcony, bringing a little bit of coolness. Lying on the beach chair, overlooking the quiet and magnificent night sky, the laughter of tourists comes from the distant beach from time to time, making him feel as if he wants to be immersed in this peaceful night.

I don't know how long he sat there before Van Gaal looked away from the starlight in the night sky, only to find Truth sitting beside him at some point. She was always by his side silently, but he was always like a child who needed someone to take care of him.

Perhaps, this has something to do with him being the youngest of nine siblings in his family.

The youngest one is always given special care.

"I just listened to Aaron Moy's football online." Truth smiled slightly.

"Hmm." Van Gaal was noncommittal. This was his favorite radio program before, but he hadn't listened to it for a long time.

"Tonight's show is about half of Ajax, and the current situation is not good."

Van Gaal nodded slightly and sighed deeply.

European professional football has changed too fast, especially in the years since the emergence of the Bosman Act.

The transfer of players has become more convenient. Those big teams with money and power no longer pay attention to youth training, but blindly start to adopt a faster way to improve the strength of the team, which is to burn money.

This is understandable, all the rich teams play this way, Van Gaal also played this way when he coached Barcelona, ​​but in fact, he knows very well that he is not good at these things, what he is best at is training and promoting young players, and shaping the team step by step, just like he did when he was at Ajax in the 90s of the last century.

But unfortunately, it is impossible for today's professional football to give him such patience.

All teams, whether it is Barcelona or Ajax, are becoming more and more eager for quick success. Whether it is the flow of players or the performance of the team, the speed is getting faster and faster, so fast that he only had half a year when he coached Barcelona for the second time.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the resignation of club chairman Gaspart, but Van Gaal is also very clear that all of this is becoming more and more unfamiliar, and he needs to adjust himself and re-adapt to this environment.

Some time ago, Ajax chairman Michael van Prager went to Noordwijk to meet him in person, hoping that he would succeed Leo Benhak as the club's technical director. Interestingly, in the 90s of the last century, when Van Gaal took over the Ajax coaching position, his predecessor happened to be Leo Benhak.

Van Gaal was somewhat resistant to this because the club's manager was Ronald Koeman.

He knows Koeman very well, and he is definitely a very assertive head coach, but he also knows himself. To put it nicely, he is frank and straightforward. To put it bluntly, he is not tactful, not smooth enough, too aggressive, and easy to offend people.

If he really takes over the position of Ajax's technical director, can he coexist peacefully with Koeman?
Even if it is possible, can it solve the various difficulties Ajax is currently facing?

Ajax is one of the biggest victims of the Bosman Act. Not to mention the loss of the lineup that won the Champions League in the 90s, I am afraid that it will not be able to keep Chivu and Van der Meyer this summer.

Even if Van Gaal and Ronald Koeman could work together, what would change?
Thinking of this, Van Gaal sighed deeply again, "It's all bad news."

"No." Truss chuckled.

"Oh?"

"Aaron Moy spends more than half his time talking about one person."

"Who?" Van Gaal was curious.

"Yang Yang."

"It's him." Van Gaal immediately thought of the Chinese teenager he met in Almere, and the figure of him practicing hard against the wall in the skate park appeared in his mind, and he couldn't help feeling warm.

This is the most beautiful thing he has encountered in the past six months.

"He's red." Truth laughed.

"Ok?"

"In the past four games, he represented Almere in the amateur competition and won all four games. He performed very well. Aaron Moy had never heard of him before, but many fans called the hotline to break the news. They chatted very enthusiastically about such things as three people in a row, extraordinary pendulum, and Ronaldo II."

After hearing this, Van Gaal couldn't help smiling, which he didn't expect.

"That kid is famous in this way." He smiled wryly and shook his head.

"Almere is not well-known. It's rare for such a good seed to emerge from an unpopular team. The fans are all excited."

Van Gaal can understand the feelings of the fans. If Almere really produces a star, all the citizens will be honored for it, even if Yang Yang is not Dutch.

"Has he...been doing well lately?" Van Gaal intrigued.

Truss nodded, "I heard it's very good, but I don't know the details, or... let's go to see him play?"

Van Gaal hesitated for a while.

He lost the bet with Truss last time, and the bet is to do one thing. Truss hopes that he can find a job as soon as possible and not stay at home all day. At present, there are invitations from several teams and Ajax's recruitment, and Van Gaal is seriously considering them.

Is it appropriate to watch Yang Yang's match at this time?

But soon, Van Gaal laughed himself, whether he is suitable or not, just go and see if you want.

"Okay, let's go and see."

…………

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Volendam, a professional team located in Volendam, a small town northeast of Amsterdam, won No.6 in the Eredivisie League last season, and successfully entered the Eredivisie League through play-offs.

This professional team, born in 90, was once a strong team in the Eredivisie League, but was relegated in the late [-]s. It struggled in the Eredivisie League for five years and did not return to the Eredivisie until this year.

As a small team, Volendam and Ajax are inextricably linked. The two teams have very close cooperation with each other. Wim Jonker, who played for Ajax in the early 90s, came from Volendam's youth training. He joined Inter Milan at the same time as Bergkamp in [-], and returned to the Netherlands to join Eindhoven two years later.

As a team in a small town, Volendam has limited financial resources, and the youth training is not outstanding, but they can't hold back against the big tree of Ajax. As a newly promoted Eredivisie, Volendam has loaned many young players from Ajax this summer.

Participating in the summer amateur competition are center back Herald Afies, left back Paul Questen, left winger Sebastian Stewart and forward Rowan Van Saan. These four players are all from the Ajax youth training. In addition to the central defender Henny Schild and the right winger Charles Diesels promoted by their own youth training, Volendam's lineup is quite good.

It is also inextricably linked with Ajax. Almere is even a satellite club signed by the Eredivisie giants, but the gap in the league level makes Almere receive far less support than Volendam.

At the very least, there is not even a single Ajax youth trainee in the amateur lineup.

Different from Fraferenz, who faced strong defense and weak offense in the previous round, this time Almere faced Volendam, the most typical Dutch team. It was strong in offense and weak in defense, and it was playing at home. Almere was bombarded indiscriminately from the beginning of the game.

Rao Almere had been psychologically prepared for this, and at the beginning of the game, he assumed a weak posture of defensive counterattack, but he was still very embarrassed by Volendan, and was attacked into the penalty area again and again, and the front of the goal was even more dangerous.

Although Yang Yang is a right winger and the core of the team's offense, when he saw that his team was in a difficult situation, he also chose to return to defense, actively press the opponent's defense line, and retreat at any time to help the midfielder. On the contrary, he did not perform very well on the offensive end.

But even so, Almere was still in the No.209 minute, was inserted into the penalty area by Volendam's right winger Charles Diesels, and calmly scored a goal.

After opening the scoring, Almere was a little confused and became more passive on the scene.

Yang Yang also saw that the mentality of his teammates had changed, and each of them became a little restless, secretly worried.

If it continues like this, needless to say win this game, I am afraid that it will lose a disastrous defeat.

With this in mind, Yang Yang resolutely retreated to the 30-meter area and stood at the front of the penalty area. At the same time, he kept signaling his teammates to retreat actively, temporarily abandoning the frontcourt attack, and blocking Volendam's attack first.

The fans of the home team on the sidelines shouted with great enthusiasm.

Those who can enter the fifth round are basically strong teams. Volendam is very lucky and draws the weaker Almere, which is equivalent to a guarantee for the sixth round.

Van Gaal and Truss also stood in the crowd on the sidelines, looking at the two sides on the court, he shook his head helplessly.

"The strength gap between the two sides is too great, and Almere has no chance." Truss shook his head.

"I don't think so. As long as he hasn't given up, he must still have a chance." Van Gaal didn't think so.

There is still the second half of the game, as long as the tactics are right, everything is still possible.

After all, football is a game for eleven players, and it is very difficult for a single player to change the trend of the game.

Besides, Yang Yang is not an extraordinary genius, how could he change the trend of the game by himself?

Others may not know it, but Van Gaal is very clear that Yang Yang's achievements today are all due to his hard training, not talent.

But Yang Yang on the court didn't seem to pay attention to other things, he was still running without hesitation, defending every ball.

With the frontcourt players actively returning to defense, Almere was able to block Volendam's tide of offensive.

At the end of the first half, the home team Volendam took the lead [-]-[-] with Diesels' goal.

(End of this chapter)