Super Wingstorm

”Momentum is like a river, and the players are the fish within it. Going with the flow is like swimming with the current; you get twice the result with half the effort. Going against it is like swimming upstream; you work twice as hard for half the result. This is perfectly demonstrated on the football pitch.”

Van Basten’s words struck a deep chord with Yang Yang. Reflecting on his own recent feelings, he had to admit it was true. He had felt it most profoundly during last night’s match.

However, Yang Yang soon thought of another question.

”If what you say is true, Marco, then in two weeks, when we face Real Madrid again, as long as the team can find the rhythm we had in the second half last night and keep building that momentum, we’ll have a real chance to equalize, or even turn the game around.”

Van Basten laughed, pointing at Yang Yang with an appreciative nod. ”You’re absolutely right.”

But the Dutch legend quickly changed his tone. ”In theory, it’s just as you said. But in reality, achieving it is extremely difficult. Not only do your team’s tactics have to counter the opponent’s, but the players on the field also need to work together seamlessly with perfect chemistry. That’s something that can’t usually be accomplished by just the head coach or one or two players.”

Yang Yang understood. ’If it were easy, it wouldn’t be anything special.’

Besides, you have to realize that if your side is thinking this way, the other side definitely is too. Both teams are constantly targeting and countering each other, doing everything in their power to win. Why would they let their opponent easily control the situation?

”Then how can a single person create a situation that favors their side?” Yang Yang asked.

Van Basten shook his head. ”That’s hard to say. Everyone has a different personality, different technical skills, and different playing habits, so it’s difficult to generalize. But every player has their own unique strengths. Zidane, for example, felt he had a kind of superpower—the ability to calculate what would happen next even before he received the ball.”

Yang Yang listened in awe. ’Is that like predicting the next second?’

”Is it really a superpower?”

”Of course not. It’s a calculation, a very, very complex one.”

Yang Yang nodded, but he felt he definitely didn’t have that kind of calculation ability. ’At least not right now.’

”Some strikers are very good at calculation. They’re extremely sensitive to time and space and know how to run into open areas. Simply running into an open space isn’t hard, but you have to understand that you’re not just running into that space for yourself; you’re also doing it for the teammate behind you who’s making the pass. You have to calculate whether your run gives them a passing lane and whether they can even see you. That’s crucial.”

Yang Yang nodded repeatedly. ’That really is a lot to calculate.’

”There are other players who are skilled at observing and finding openings. It’s as if they’re playing Tetris, constantly shifting players around through their passing. Then there are players with an extraordinary ability to read the game. Their vision is incredibly wide, allowing them to see everything in great detail. For example, when they see a certain striker, they also see the passing lane and the space, and they’ve already figured out how to deliver the ball and in what manner.”

”That’s incredible,” Yang Yang said in admiration.

”Yes, exactly. And these players, through their own unique methods, can make their teammates play around them. They then use their abilities to organize and create that favorable momentum, which in turn leads to scoring goals and winning matches.”

Yang Yang nodded again and again. He was beginning to understand, but at the same time, more questions were popping into his head.

But this time, he didn’t ask them.

Just as Van Basten had said, everyone is different. Some things you just have to figure out for yourself. Only then do they truly become yours.

Van Basten watched Yang Yang with great interest, noticing how he would furrow his brow in deep thought one moment, then look as if he’d had a revelation the next. He couldn’t help but feel a little emotional, but more than that, he was filled with appreciation.

He recalled Luther Carroll once saying that Yang Yang was a player who was very good at thinking and summarizing. He generally wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, and his preparation before every match was outstanding. He was like the straight-A student of the football pitch.

He hadn’t quite believed it before, but now he had no choice but to.

Take his sharp sense of the game’s flow, for instance. How many professional players go through their entire careers in a daze, retiring without ever truly understanding what professional football is all about? They don’t grasp what ”momentum” or ”the situation” means. They don’t know why you have to do certain things at certain times.

They only know how to mechanically execute the tasks assigned by the head coach and never stop to think about these things. No matter how well such players play, they are destined to be nothing more than role players, just ordinary cogs in the team’s machine.

Then there are some players who, by a stroke of luck, might figure out a tiny piece of it within the tactical framework of a particular team. But once they leave that team and that framework, they become clueless again. This is why they often shine brightly like a meteor, only to vanish just as suddenly.

A small portion of players fare better. After playing professional football for a few years and accumulating enough experience, they start to ponder these questions. They begin to figure out how to create a favorable situation for their side. How to turn the tide when things are going against them.

Once they figure it out, they enter the golden years of their careers. They become the soul and core of the team, or at least a crucial pillar, and their careers are completely elevated.

But only a very small number of people have an extremely keen instinct for it. They can sense these things sharply and figure them out quickly, displaying outstanding game intelligence from their debut and continuously improving until they reach a level that everyone looks up to.

The most recent one was named Ronaldo. He was at his peak from the moment he debuted. He was born knowing how to play the game and often became the key to his team’s victory. It’s a great pity that injuries limited his career; otherwise, his achievements would have been far greater than they are now.

In contrast, Zidane belongs to the group that figured it out after accumulating a certain amount of experience. From that point on, he was consistently the most outstanding core player on the planet, whether at Juventus or Real Madrid.

Not long ago, Bergkamp commented on the Premier League in an interview with the British Guardian. He believed that Premier League players were more like track and field athletes than football players because all they knew was how to run, but they never stopped to think about how to get the ball into the goal.

Bergkamp also said that modern players increasingly lack insight, are overly reliant on near-total tactical instruction, and are used to having others arrange everything for them. They don’t know how to think for themselves. When they encounter new problems, their first instinct is always to ask for help, and they lack the ability to self-reflect during a match.

And Van Basten still clearly remembered a phrase Saki would constantly repeat to them: play with your brain.

Without a doubt, in his eyes, the young man before him, Yang Yang, was someone who played with his brain.

Seventeen years old, just starting his career, yet he was already contemplating questions that many professional players never think about in their entire lives. Once he truly figured it all out, what kind of progress would he make? What kind of player would he ultimately become?

Van Basten didn’t know, but he was very much looking forward to finding out. And this was exactly what Ajax desperately needed.

He believed that Van Gaal and Ronald Koeman must be thinking the same thing.

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Late into the evening, Yang Yang was still mulling over his conversation with Van Basten.

That dialogue felt like it had opened a window in a wall for him, allowing him to see the world on the other side.

And now, he had to work hard to find the door that led to that world behind the wall.

But apparently, not everyone thought the same way.

Maxwell and Vermaelen were completely baffled. Neither of them clearly had the patience to think about this problem; they were far more concerned with how to win the current hand of cards.

The Swedish Striker, Ibrahimovic, was even more exasperating.

After Yang Yang finished recounting his conversation with Van Basten, he slapped his thigh and shot up from his seat. ”I think I have that superpower too.”

In that moment, he looked as if he had transformed into a glowing man with his underwear on the outside.

”What?”

”My superpower is that no matter how you pass the ball to me, I’ll find a way to shoot it into the goal.” After speaking, the Swedish Striker tilted his head back at a forty-five-degree angle to stare at the ceiling, wearing a look that said, ’Aren’t I handsome?’

Maxwell sighed and shook his head. ”If you’re playing cards, then play cards. Why are you standing up? Trying to sneak a peek at my hand?”

”Sorry, right away.”

”Tch, quit pretending. Everyone on the team knows it, from Technical Director Van Gaal to Head Coach Ronald Koeman, down to every single player on our team. Go ahead and ask, who’s satisfied with your scoring efficiency? Your conversion rate is so low, and you still have the nerve to say that?” Maxwell was clearly tilted from losing.

And the Swedish Striker, who had been winning big, was choked into silence, daring to be angry but not to speak.

Well, what could he do? He was the one winning all the money.

Yang Yang shook his head helplessly. He didn’t try to force his three friends to discuss the topic with him. He could see they had zero interest, so why force the issue?

The nightlife of a professional player was actually quite boring.

The outside world was crawling with paparazzi. If they went anywhere crowded, they’d be photographed in minutes. The moment it hit the papers, there’d be trouble. The club and the coaching staff would be on their case the next day, and they’d have to go through another round of explanations.

Better to just stay cooped up at home. The three of them would get together to play ”Fight the Landlord.” The stakes weren’t high anyway. A little gambling for fun. They’d pool the money won and lost to treat everyone to a meal, sort of like going Dutch, except that winning and losing at cards gave them something to look forward to.

Yang Yang usually didn’t gamble. He would sit to the side, either watching TV or reading a book.

He wasn’t very interested in the programs on Dutch television, but he liked to use his computer to download some TV series or movies from back home. Otherwise, he’d surf the internet, browsing around. He was interested in everything.

Recently, blogs had become popular back in China. Yang Yang didn’t have one himself, but he enjoyed reading them. Wei Zhen posted almost every day, and whenever Yang Yang had free time, he would go check out his blog.

But today, when Yang Yang opened a blog post titled ”The Girl Next Door’s Theater Show,” the first thing he saw was a clear photograph of a girl.

In that instant, he froze completely. Even his breathing became ragged, and his heart skipped a beat.

So beautiful!

He suddenly felt that he couldn’t find a single adjective to describe the girl in the white school uniform in the photograph.

And in the blog post, Wei Zhen wrote that almost all the boys at their school had a crush on her.

Yang Yang believed it without a doubt.