Chapter 29 Confrontation between kings

After all, the happy time is short. Mark soon ended this sweet and short holiday. Mark broke up with Kolos in Brazil because Kolos still has his career to be busy. So Mark just returned to the Netherlands with Van der Fate and Sylvia. After returning to the Netherlands, Mark was still in the renovation stage, so Mark can only continue to live in his small apartment.

January 21, 2004 is New Year's Eve, a traditional Chinese festival. This festival where Chinese people need reunion, Mark directly invited his parents to the Netherlands to celebrate the festival with him. Since Mark's value is also very high now, it is easy for him to pick up his parents. He just signed up for a tour group visa and quickly got off.

On New Year's Eve, Mark and her parents also made dumplings together. Momo has not graduated yet, and she needs to take care of Mark at any time now, so she did not go home this Spring Festival, but she is actually used to it. After all, she spent every New Year's Eve in school or Chinatown.

This year she was invited by Mark to celebrate the festival at Mark's home. Mark's small apartment suddenly seemed a little insufficient. Fortunately, Mark now arranged his parents in a hotel in Amsterdam, and finally there was no need for three people to squeeze together in this forty-square-meter small house.

Make dumplings on New Year’s Eve is the theme. Watching CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala broadcast by international TV signals, the whole family was having a happy life. After all, the room is full of Chinese, so everyone gets along well. Mark’s mother has a good impression of the girl Momo, and she has to accept Momo as her goddaughter on the spot.

Momo also knelt down to Mark's mother and called "Mom" sweetly. Then he got a big red envelope. In fact, there was not much money in the red envelope, but what he wanted was this intention.

Mark felt much happier to be able to spend this New Year's Eve with his parents. Although he was a little regretful, his girlfriend Koros was not here, but Mark did not have much demands on this. After all, Westerners do not attach great importance to this festival, and Koros is also striving to become a top supermodel.

In the make-up match on January 22, Ajax defeated Lodda away with a score of 2-1, and Mark still maintained strong motivation to run all over the game and scored a goal.

On that day, Mark brought his parents to Amsterdam's Chinatown. The shops on both sides were full of red lanterns and Spring Festival couplets, as well as dragon and lion dance and other performances.

This is quite fresh for Mark's family from the Northeast. During the Chinese New Year in the Northeast, they just look at the lights and then the big yangko. It is not as lively and fancy as it is made in the south.

After the first year of junior high school, Jack Ma proposed to go home. After all, he was not relieved if he didn't go home for too long, and no one at home watched him. Mark originally wanted his parents to stay by his side and live with him. Although Mark could not stand his nagging, he prefers to listen to his parents' nagging.

However, Jack Ma is still very nostalgic about his hometown. This is the reason why he is hard to leave his hometown. Amsterdam is much better than Northeast China, but after all, his roots are still in the Northeast. Perhaps it is a good choice to let Jack Ma travel frequently. If he settles here, Jack Ma will not be able to stand it. After all, there are no acquaintances here, and he doesn't want to chat with someone.

Mark saw that he wanted to keep his parents, so he thought he should let his parents go back first and take Colos to see his parents when he was on vacation.

"Mark, I think Momo is good. Although he is a few years older than you, he knows that women are older and feels sorry for others. Think about it." Mark's mother said to Mark mysteriously.

"Mom, we are not suitable. I have a girlfriend, but you just haven't seen it." Mark did not tell his parents about his relationship with Colos, and Jack Ma and his wife had never seen Mark's girlfriend. Mark wanted to wait for the relationship to stabilize before telling his parents that he was afraid that his parents would be anxious for him, but now there is no way Mark has to explain.

Sure enough, Mark was tortured by his parents after he explained it. After Mark explained everything he knew, Jack Ma and his wife let him go.

"When the season is over, take your girlfriend to China to see us. No matter how busy you work, your wife will have to meet her parents-in-law." Jack Ma left this sentence for Mark at the airport and left.

On January 25, in the 17th round of the Eredivisie League, Ajax faced the second-ranked Nimegan at home. Relying on Babel's final kill, Ajax defeated his opponent one-to-zero and continued to lead the league with a three-point advantage.

Now Ajax has become the half-time champion of the Eredivisie League after 17 rounds. He has won 14 wins, draws and two losses.

What Ajax has to do now is to keep this good momentum and win the final league championship in one fell swoop.

In the 18th round, Ajax visited Helenfin, who ranked fourth, away. As a result, Ajax was tied by Helenfin by Helenfin, and Helenfin even had a chance to win at the last moment, but Mark's outstanding performance blocked Helenfin with his body and two threatening shots. Ajax scored a point away, and Eindhoven, who ranked second, defeated Zevole in this game and narrowed the gap between the two sides to one point.

After the game, Koeman severely criticized the players' performance on the court and announced in the locker room that if he could not win the next game, he would face severe extra training.

When Ajax's players heard the word "practice" and jumped up again, they didn't want to practice more.

Most media are now also worried about Ajax's prospects. After all, the stability of this team mainly focuses on young people still makes those who care about them uneasy, especially their midfielders, 21-year-old Van der Fate and 18-year-old Mark, although they are talented, they are still too young after all. However, Ajax's performance next gave everyone who questioned them a heavy slap.

In the 19th round of Ajax's home game against The Hague, Ajax's players showed their strengths. Mark scored two goals to refresh his goal record to nine. In the end, Ajax also won the game with a big score of 4-0.

Soon, the opponent Ajax of the 20th round will face his mortal enemy. Eindhoven, one of the top three Eredivisie, can talk about the relationship between Eindhoven and Ajax, in the past ten years, the two teams have won most league championships, and the two teams have almost won the Eredivisie championship alternately.

Moreover, as Eindhoven's champion of the Eredivisie last season, the lineup of this season has not changed much. The head coach is Hiddink, the magical coach who created a historic breakthrough in South Korea. Their lineup is relatively luxurious, especially their forward line is simply surpassing Ajax.

Ajax players took the team's bus to Eindhoven, the southern city of the Netherlands. Eindhoven is an innovative city, the fourth largest industrial city in the Netherlands, and one of the four major high-tech settlements in Europe. Eindhoven's high-tech park is the base camp of many large companies, with more than 5,000 businessmen from more than 50 countries. The economic network here has created many high-tech achievements, and high-density disks have also been developed here.

Mark chose to look at the scenery of Eindhoven near the car window. Mark quickly felt the enthusiasm of Eindhoven fans. They waved their middle fingers and shouted outside the car, as if they had hatred for killing their mothers and taking their wives with the players of Ajax.

In fact, the two teams did not have any intersection when they were just established in the Eredivisie. Although Eindhoven's previous results have always been very good, it was entirely up to one person to really pay attention to the whole of Europe, that is, the current head coach Hiddink.

In the 1987-1988 season, under the leadership of the young coach Hiddink, who was only 42 years old at the time, the team won the highest honor in a single season that any European club would be jealous of - the Triple Crown (League, Dutch Cup and European Champions League). From that moment on, Eindhoven truly became a Dutch giant and a European giant.

Moreover, there are many top forwards here, such as Romario, the lone wolf, Ronaldo, and the king of the small penalty area, all of whom are looking at goals like grass.

It seems that Eindhoven has never lacked the bloodline to train super forwards. The most recent super forward trained by Eindhoven is the Seychelles black man Kezhmann who made 33 appearances last season and scored 35 goals.

Interestingly, the current Ajax head coach Koeman played in Eindhoven when he was a player, and through his outstanding performance, he created conditions for himself to join the La Liga giants Barcelona. It should be said that there should be no secrets to fight between the two teams every year.

The Dutch media called this game the Dutch King's game, which means comparing Ajax and Eindhoven to the real king of the Dutch league. Although Feyenoord is now one of the top three Eredivisie, he cannot compete with these two teams in terms of the strength of the players and the honors he has won in recent times.

Moreover, this is a competition related to the league championship. You should know that Ajax is only two ahead of the second place Eindhoven. If Eindhoven can defeat Ajax at home in this game, he will regain the first place in the league in the hands of Ajax. On the contrary, if Ajax defeats Eindhoven, their lead will continue to expand to four points, which is also very helpful for the next game. Therefore, both teams attach great importance to this game, and no side does not want to win this game.

During the training of adapting to the venue a day in advance, it was Mark's first time to come to the Philips Stadium, which can accommodate 35,000 spectators. Mark felt that the turf on this stadium was still very good. Maybe because Eindhoven is a technical team, the quality of the turf is very high, which can better play the advantages of technical players.

The players did some simple adaptive training. In fact, these Ajax players have the chance to play against Eindhoven twice a year and are still very familiar with the Philips Stadium.

The match between the two sides soon began the next day.

In the distant China, we are also ready to broadcast the game. The commentator is still Wang Bing and the broadcast guest is Ma Lin.

"Hello everyone, now is the highlight of the Twenty-Tenth Europa League. Both sides of the game are Ajax led by Mark to challenge Eindhoven away. There are many Asian players in both sides of this game, among which Mark is the best among them." Liaoning TV has now become the supporter of Ajax's home team, and now even Mark has become the biggest star in their eyes. Even when commenting, they say that Ajax led by Mark is the Ajax team.

"In this game, Ajax lined up the traditional formation of 433, while Eindhoven's formation is a strong attack formation of 343. The starting lineup of both sides is Ajax's goalkeepers are Stellenburg, right-back Trabelsi, left-back Maxville, two central defenders are Heatinga and American player O'Brien. In the midfield, Mark, De Jong and Van der Fate's parallel positions in the three midfields. In the forward, Ibrahimovic bursts.

In front, the left winger is the young player Babel who performed well in, the right winger is Pinal. Eindhoven's starting lineup is goalkeeper Watreus. The three central defenders are Boma on the left, Oyer on the right, and Hofland in the middle. The midfield is the left forward Lee Rongpiao, the right forward is Park Ji-sung, and the two central forwards are Van Bomel and Voger. The three players on the forward line divide the left winger Robben, the right winger Romedal and the center Kezman."

"Master Ma, please make some comments on the lineup of this game." Wang Bing, who had just introduced the starting lineup, asked the broadcast guest Marin and said: "I see that coach Hiddink is very bold in his lineup. He actually wants to play against Ajax."

"That's right. The reason why Eindhoven won the championship last season is inseparable from their offense, especially now the three players on the forward line are divided into Robben on the left, right winger Romedal and center Keirman. However, Eindhoven now seems to be playing offensive, but their midfield tactics are still very flexible. Last season, Li Rongpiao's position was very flexible. When playing the fourth defender, he was the left defender, and in the third defender he was the left forward. This player has a lot of physical fitness, so he is very appreciated by coach Hiddink."

"Oh, the game is about to begin. Let's advance an advertisement before watching the game." Wang Bing originally wanted Marin to make a prediction on the lineup, but Marin said something wildly, but Wang Bing thought there would be a chance in the future. As the game continued, he could ask a lot of things at any time.

The game officially began with the referee's whistle. First, Eindhoven took the lead. Both sides fought in the midfield at the beginning of the game. Now Eindhoven does look like four midfielders as Marin said, but their positions are very flexible. When the two wingers returned to the midfield to defend, Eindhoven's current midfielder reached six players.

Although both wingers in Ajax also retreated to help defend, there were only five players after all, and they still had a certain disadvantage in terms of number of players. Moreover, Eindhoven's two central defenders had strong robbery ability.

Now Ajax fans who are coming to cheer on the road are not worried about Ajax's situation on the court. The two midfielders, Van Bomel and Voger, now firmly maintain the midfield. They use their excellent skills to mobilize the running rhythm of Ajax's defensive players.

Mark now feels the pressure brought to him by a world-class midfielder for the first time. Van Bomel's excellence does not lie in his offense or defense, but in his comprehensive ability, strong body, excellent skills and overall view make Van Bomel a key link in Eindhoven's tactical system. In addition, his free kick skills are also a weapon that any team needs.

After the opening, Eindhoven got a free kick opportunity with a good position. Van Bomel showed his excellent footwork. The football flew directly into the corner and flew towards the goal. The goalkeeper Stellenburg struggled to save the football and barely dragged the football out of the baseline. However, although he saved the football, Stellenburg was still in a cold sweat, because the ball was too tricky. If Stellenburg hadn't moved ahead of time, he would definitely not have been able to save the football.

"Damn, this uncle is OK. He looks like a butcher shot very well. I would have a great shot. I would have been able to get such a free kick." Mark couldn't help but think of it when he saw Van Bomel's now look of annoyance.

Now Eindhoven has got a chance to have a corner kick, so Robben took the penalty. After Robben took the corner kick, the football flew to the back point directly with an arc. Van Bomel, who was ambushed in the penalty area, took off and headed the ball.

But Mark had already judged the football route in advance and rushed to the ball before Van Bomel pushed the football out. Van Bomel looked at this Asian player who was much smaller than himself and couldn't help but think in his heart: "This kid's bounce ability is really good. His judgment on the football route just now was also very accurate. It seems that there is no reason for him to be praised by the media before, but in this way I will have the motivation to defeat him."

Mark naturally didn't know what Van Bomel was thinking. After being pushed out by Mark, the football fell to the feet of the midfielder De Jong. De Jong was directly handed over to Babel on the left. Babel began to dribble the ball and ran wildly. Ajax's counterattack began.
Chapter completed!