Chapter 54: Eindhoven's Flank Attack (4k)

In the away team locker room at the Philips Stadion, the Utrecht players sat in a circle, with Ten Hag speaking right in the middle.

Everything that needed to be said had already been covered during training. Before the match, Ten Hag mainly reiterated a few key points and then boosted the players' morale.

"Everyone come over, everyone come over!"

Ten Hag made a hand gesture, and the players, already wearing their boots, stood up and walked to the center.

"That's all I'm going to say. Remember, do not lower your expectations for this match before it even begins. Our only goal is to win, and our opponents are never as strong as we imagine!"

Ten Hag placed his hand in the center, and Ramselaar pressed his hand on top of it.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Go Utrecht!"

Clap, clap, clap!

"Woohoo!"

The players clapped their hands. Ten Hag proved to be a master motivator; after his speech, the players' spirits were noticeably heightened.

Tang Ye stayed behind. Being observant, he noticed Ten Hag's hand trembling slightly behind his back, so he walked over. "Mr. Erik, there's no need to be nervous."

"Th—Thanks, you asshole, get lost! What the hell are you comforting me for!?"

Ten Hag took a step back and glared at Tang Ye in front of him. "You're the player, I should be comforting you, understand?"

He looked Tang Ye up and down.

Chewing mint-flavored gum, holding a towel in his left hand, and on his feet... slippers?

"Where are your football boots?"

"Over there. My shoelaces are knotted."

Tang Ye pointed to a pair of boots on the floor. "I think I tied them too tight last time, I can't untie them."

"Damn it! Hurry up and untie them!"

Ten Hag hurried over, picked Tang Ye's boots up off the ground, and frantically searched for the knot. "The match starts in 6 minutes, couldn't you have said something earlier if your laces were knotted?"

...

"Vooruit nu Rood-Witten (Forward now Red-Whites!)"

"Vooruit PSV (Forward PSV!)"

"Wat eens d'Oude Glorie"

"aan roem heeft gebracht"

Just as they stepped onto the pitch, the home fans applied pressure to the away team by chanting their club anthem in unison, while the stadium announcer's booming voice loudly broadcasted the names of the home players.

Every time a home player's name was called, a roar of "woww" echoed from the stands, but when the announcer introduced the away starting lineup, the stands were filled with countless boos.

"Damn, that's fierce."

Tang Ye looked at the densely packed crowd and flags in the stands, feeling a mix of emotions.

I have to admit, PSV Eindhoven truly lives up to its reputation as one of the traditional top three in the Eredivisie; this fan culture is something ordinary teams simply cannot compare with!

"Alright, good evening everyone in the live stream!"

"It's Utrecht's match again today, but today Utrecht's opponents are a bit fierce: PSV Eindhoven."

"I'm quite familiar with this team. Let me introduce today's starting lineup for the brothers!"

PSV Eindhoven (4-3-3)

Goalkeeper: Jeroen Zoet

Defenders: Santiago Arias, Jeffrey Bruma, Héctor Moreno, Jetro Willems (Note: translated naturally as Brenet in context)

Midfielders: Davy Pröpper, Adam Maher, Andrés Guardado

Forwards: Luciano Narsingh, Luuk de Jong, Jürgen Locadia

Head Coach: Phillip Cocu

"I won't introduce the away team Utrecht. You just need to know who the core player is."

"4-3-12, standing in the center is the number 99, Tang Ye!"

"The match is underway. Today, the streamer favors Eindhoven to win by 1 to 2 goals. Feel free to bet against me, folks in the chat!"

[When did Xiao Chao learn to pronounce all the players' names on the pitch?]

[Fun fact: the streamer is an Eindhoven fan, isn't it normal to know a team's names?]

[Tang Ye starts again, haha, he starts against Eindhoven too. It seems Meng Ge's position is secure!]

[I'm calling it, Ten Hag will walk towards greatness under Tang Ye's leadership.]

[Favoring Eindhoven? Streamer, how can you lose faith in Tang Ye!]

[There's a 10-fold difference in market value. Utrecht is probably going to suffer in this match. I'm backing the home team to win outright!]

[Bet against Utrecht. I don't care, I'm a die-hard fan of Tang Ye. I'd rather bet on a draw than see the opponents win!]

[Market value difference of 10 times? Where is the difference?]

[Fun fact: Tang Ye's market value is still 0.]

[Audacious user above! Slandering my Meng Ge, believe it or not, the moderator will ban you straight to the dark room!]

The match had already started. Just as Ten Hag emphasized before the match, Eindhoven loved to exploit attacking opportunities down the wings.

In the 4th minute of the match, Maher snatched the ball from Ramselaar and then decisively passed it forward to Locadia.

Locadia bypassed Tang Ye and then began to drive down the flank!

"Hiss..."

Seeing Utrecht's midfield defensive line bypassed so easily, Ten Hag grabbed his head.

"Drop back, drop back!"

Ramselaar cut off Tang Ye, who was preparing to step up and challenge Locadia.

He knew very well that Tang Ye couldn't stop Locadia, so instead, it was better to have Tang Ye fall back to cover defensive positions in the rear.

Receiving his teammate's instructions, Tang Ye didn't hesitate; he sprinted back, constantly looking over his shoulder along the way.

Tang Ye wanted to intercept the ball the moment Locadia made his pass, but unfortunately, Locadia lofted a high ball.

"Locadia, to Narsingh, an absolutely textbook layoff!"

"Narsingh moving down the flank, Janssen is under a lot of pressure now, Janssen is tracking back."

"Contain him, Narsingh and de Jong looking to combine!"

"De Jong passes it back to Narsingh!"

Eindhoven's flank executed a textbook one-two combination, leaving Janssen and Strieder in a miserable state.

Both of them had been beaten!

Narsingh took the ball all the way to the baseline!

A one-on-one between Conboy and Narsingh!

Conboy's tackling ability was relatively weak among all the defenders, and players knew their own weaknesses very well, so Conboy chose not to stretch his leg out rashly.

Narsingh began to press Utrecht's defensive line!

"Middle!"

Tang Ye shouted. Strieder, reacting to the call, ran toward the edge of the box, but he was still a step slow. Narsingh's cut-back successfully reached de Jong at the edge of the area.

!!!

Rieuwers was in no position to watch de Jong complete a shot, so he ran forward very decisively.

De Jong flicked the ball wide to the supporting defender Arias.

Arias struck it first time!

Letschert and Rieuwers both went to ground in the penalty area simultaneously, trying to use their bodies to block Arias' long-range shot, but they failed.

Goalkeeper Ruiter made a dive, but because his line of sight was blocked by Rieuwers and de Jong, Ruiter failed to spot Arias winding up his leg to shoot in the first instance.

"It's a goal!"

"It's a goal!"

"Awesome, Arias! That's a worldie. In the 6th minute of the match, Eindhoven takes the lead!"

"Brothers, follow my rhythm. Eindhoven will lead by at least 1 goal today, and looking at it now, 2 or 3 goals might not be entirely impossible!"

Wang Chao clapped and cheered.

Out of Utrecht's last 10 matches, this was the only one where Wang Chao did not favor Utrecht.

The reason was simple: Wang Chao was an Eindhoven fan.

A PSV Eindhoven fan!

[The streamer has defected!]

"Oh, damn!"

Seeing Arias score, Ten Hag turned around with a dark face and sat straight back down on the bench.

Eindhoven's overall strength was indeed stronger than Utrecht's.

But wasn't this first goal arriving a bit too early?

The fans at the stadium were cheering wildly. Ten Hag sat in his chair and thought, the more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt, so he quickly stood up.

"Pull back, drop the defensive line back!"

Eindhoven's wing attack was ridiculously strong. Facing a team that utilized the width of the pitch like this, the solution Ten Hag came up with was to drop defensive midfielder Strieder back into the central defender position.

Switching from a back four to a back five!

This was the decision Ten Hag made, but since it was a temporary idea hatched by the Dutchman on the spot, even he didn't know if it would work.

They just had to try it out first!

The first goal had already been scored, and next was Utrecht's kickoff. Haller kicked off from the center circle.

He passed directly back to Janssen!

Tang Ye started moving forward. Eindhoven exerted intense pressure; as soon as Haller kicked off, all three of their forwards had already crossed the centerline.

Janssen played a long ball, looking directly for Barazite.

At this moment, Tang Ye had originally planned to occupy the central area, but before making his run, he performed a quick pre-scan, which made him notice Maher running toward Barazite.

So Tang Ye followed.

Barazite prepared to trap the ball!

He looked up; Janssen's pass was traveling a bit too fast, and Barazite wasn't confident he could bring it down cleanly.

He wanted to find Ramselaar on the right, but Ramselaar's body position had already been blocked by Guardado.

He had no choice but to control it himself!

"Give it to me!"

Barazite had already readied his foot when Tang Ye suddenly ran up to ask for the ball.

Barazite didn't hesitate. He turned his back, puffed his chest forward, brought the ball down with his chest, and laid it off to Tang Ye on his right.

While the ball was still in mid-air, Maher turned and sprinted toward Tang Ye, giving him no chance to control it.

"Turn and shield the ball!"

Haller shouted, but Tang Ye did something fancy. Facing the bouncing ball from Barazite, he raised his right leg and kicked it toward the left baseline without even looking.

Wow!?

Realizing he was disrupting his teammate's rhythm, Haller quickly turned and sprinted toward the baseline.

Although Tang Ye's pass wasn't accurate, because he had scanned beforehand, the general direction was fine, and Haller extended his leg to control the ball.

"Tang Ye, holy crap, a blind pass! Tang Ye has huge guts!"

"Now it's a one-on-one between Haller and Arias!"

"Haller, beats Arias, continues into the penalty area, Bruma is stepping up!"

Tang Ye had been observing the whole time. Seeing Bruma rush over to tightly mark Haller, Tang Ye quietly slipped in behind Haller.

Bruma poked the ball away from Haller's feet, poking it right into Tang Ye's path.

Haha!

Tang Ye smiled.

This wasn't opportunistic poaching!

This was sheer ability!

He flicked the ball away with the outside of his boot!

He looked up at the goal!

He curled it toward the far corner!

[Kevin De Bruyne far-corner curler, Lv1: Imitation]

Proficiency: 27/50

A Level 1 far-corner curler might sound trashy, but Tang Ye already had half the proficiency.

It looked like Level 1, but actually, it was Level 1.5!

"Long-range shot, the ball speed isn't very fast!"

"Zoet! Goalkeeper Zoet didn't reach the ball!"

"What the hell, what is going on?!"

Wang Chao grabbed his head, watching helplessly as the ball flew into the net without being able to do a thing.

"No way, you couldn't save that shot?!"

"Damn it, why?! Holy crap, when did Zoet become so trash?!"

[Hahahahaha, seeing the streamer bust his bet makes me so happy.]

[Curling it to the far corner, awesome!]

[Wait, the home team just scored and the away team equalized right back, are they really this awesome?]

[The streamer has already blown up; this is the price of not believing in our King Tang!]

[Don't you get it? Zoet never expected Tang Ye to shoot, and his line of sight was blocked by Bruma and Haller. Both of them are 1.9 meters tall, there was no way he could see the 1.7-meter Tang Ye behind them.]

[Fuck your 1.7 meters, how is Meng Ge at least not 175? Stop spouting nonsense, haters.]

"Brilliant!"

Utrecht's players ran across the pitch, and Ten Hag raised both hands high.

Even though they fell behind early on, it didn't matter; Utrecht pulled it right back.

Why was Utrecht able to equalize?

Because Ten Hag made a tactical adjustment after conceding, widening the team's defensive width!

This was the reason why Utrecht's attack bore fruit!

"Stay calm, stay calm, concentrate!"

Ten Hag shouted to the players on the pitch: "Listen to my instructions, we can get points from this!"

The match continued. After conceding the equalizer, Cocu's expression didn't change much.

Although Utrecht suddenly displayed a strong long-passing attacking capability, this situation was still within Cocu's control, so there was no need to panic.

Eindhoven was in possession now, and head coach Cocu's gaze fell on Tang Ye, who was strolling in the central midfield.

Cocu had heard of this 16-year-old prodigious talent long ago.

Currently, Tang Ye left three main impressions in Cocu's mind.

1. Lacks active running off the ball

2. Dislikes physical duels

3. First touch is extremely steady

"What do you think?"

The assistant coach looked at Cocu sitting beside him, knowing that the Eindhoven manager was extremely interested in Tang Ye.

Cocu shook his head.

"As a midfielder, that number 99 lacks sufficient coverage. Midfielders like that generally don't make it big."

The assistant nodded. "But..."

"But what?"

"But we conceded a goal to him."

"..."

...

Reaching the 30th minute, the broadcast stats displayed the possession data for both teams.

PSV: 68%

UTR: 32%

"Alright brothers, judging by possession, Eindhoven is still quite steady."

"It's 1-1 right now, and the streamer's advice is to back Eindhoven for a high-scoring win."

"Hey, hey, hey, don't flame me yet, I haven't defected, I'm stating facts. Aside from Tang Ye's curled shot earlier, Utrecht hasn't really created any decent chances."

Just as the pundit said, Utrecht had only managed 3 shots on target so far, with 1 of them coming from Tang Ye.

It was genuinely a bit lackluster!

"Listen to me, Eindhoven will definitely score another one before the first half ends."

"I think a forward will score, Narsingh, de Jong, or Loca..."

"Here it comes!"

"Maher and Guardado! Another one-two combination, Janssen is having a hard time, he can't handle it!"

"Tang Ye is running back!"

"Don't worry about that, King Tang can't possibly run back in time to cover that position."

"Maher!"