Chapter 12 The Perfect Premiere ()

The entire court seemed to be quiet when Mark headed the ball and rushed to the top. Mark could even hear his heartbeat and the breathing of the opponent's goalkeeper. Mark could not feel the pressure at all now, and he could even imagine the header's line and the goalkeeper's expression in his heart.

The fans are now nervously watching Mark's header. The Ajax fans are praying in their hearts, "You must go in." Alkmaar's few fans are also praying in their hearts, "You must not enter."

On the bench of both teams, Ajax's head coach saw Mark's chance to shoot and clenched his fists with both hands and was ready to rush out to celebrate the goal. The substitutes around him looked at Mark who was about to score with envious eyes. They were all nervous about Mark's shot this time.

The players on Alkmaar's bench were also very nervous, but this tension was exactly the opposite of those on Ajax's bench. They hoped that Mark could directly push the football into the arms of his goalkeeper. Anyway, it didn't matter where he didn't shoot in the goal.

Mark was not unfamiliar with heading as a central defender. If a central defender doesn't know how to head the ball, it would be a failure. In today's world football, no matter which excellent central defender is, he is very good at heading. Although Mark is not very adaptable to the position of the central defender, it does not prevent him from having good heading skills. However, most of the headings before Mark practiced headings to understand the scope and tactical needs, and there are few opportunities to score.

But now Mark is different. Because of his position moving forward, Mark has already felt another world, and this world is so suitable for his growth. Mark feels unprecedentedly comfortable, able to steal, intercept or even stare at people, and can also insert assists or shoot. This is what football requires for the midfielder now. What Mark needs to do now is to push the football into the goal like a forward.

After Mark hit the football, the football flew straight towards Alkmaer's goal. Although Alkmaer's goalkeeper Timmer had already attacked at this time, the distance was too close, and Mark's header used all his strength this time, so he was very powerful. Timmer just waved his hand in instinctively to see if he could touch the football, but he did not succeed, and the football flew directly into the net.

But it wasn't over yet. Mark's whole body flew into the air now. Although there was a header in the middle that reduced a certain inertia, Mark still thought about Timmer flying over. However, Mark in the air tried to adjust his posture and try not to collide with Timmer. Timmer also tried to adjust not to collide with Mark. Mark flew directly on Timmer's head and flew into the net with the football.

"gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!" After seeing the goal, the commentator began to shout wildly next to the microphone: "This game was really wonderful. Alkmaar performed very well in the first half. Their talented offensive player Perez caused great trouble for Ajax and scored two goals. However, the 18-year-old player from the far east who was replaced in the second half completely changed the situation on the court. Mark showed his outstanding personal ability with one pass and one shot. Such a player is simply a treasure. He reminded me of the football superstar who was also from the Ajax youth training system, the Black Swan Rijkaard."

Mark now has the first nickname "swan" in the Netherlands, which means Swan, which means Ajax believes that he is an outstanding player as good as the greatest midfielder "Black Swan" Rijkald in Dutch football.

"Oh, I scored the goal." Mark now jumped out of the net and ran out of the court, looking at the fans in the stands and shouting loudly: "Haha, I scored, I finally scored."

The fans of Ajax in the stands on the sidelines were also shouting wildly to cheer for Mark and celebrate the hard-won goal with him. Soon the other Ajax teammates also ran out, and Van der Fate jumped directly to Mark's back and was happy for Mark's goal, because his goal was assisted by Mark before, and now he assisted Mark with another goal, which is a favor.

"Good job, Mark." The other teammates also ran up and shouted loudly: "Your speed was so fast just now. I seemed to see a red and white lightning bolt. You are too invincible. How did you exercise and make your speed so fast."

There was no player who was really suitable to guard Perez on the refill, so Koeman had no choice but to take a gamble, but he seemed to be happy to listen to the praises of his teammates. After all, it was something that everyone liked to be concerned about. Mark was able to perform like this in the first game, which undoubtedly gave those who looked down on him in the face. He felt that his speed was very fast just now, but it didn't seem very fast. Logically speaking, his speed was twice as fast as before. Isn't it said that if his previous 100-meter speed was twelve seconds, it would be about six seconds now? But Mark felt that his sprint speed was very fast, but it was definitely not as fast as six seconds.

At this time, the nervous Ajax head coach Koeman jumped out of the bench all of a sudden. His heart was finally able to land temporarily. In fact, he was under tremendous pressure when he replaced Mark. After all, Mark was only eighteen years old and had no experience in the adult team. As the side who wanted to catch up with the score, such a lot of pressure was not suitable for training new players, but he was very angry. Mark's performance on the court completely exceeded his expectations.

It also seems that a talented player is rising. However, these things are not something Mark can understand now. You will know when you go to the dream space in the future. Anyway, Mark is completing the task of this game, which is to stop Perez from scoring. But soon Mark saw the substitution sign on the sidelines lifting up. No. 12 Perez came out, and No. 42 Brazilian Carlos Alberto came on the court. This means that Mark's task has been completed in this game.

Before Mark came on the court, the cross issued a mission to "stop Perez from shooting", and now Mark has completed this mission perfectly after Perez is replaced.

Originally, Alkmaer's head coach Adriansse was planning to replace Perez, who had been beaten by Mark, with strong defensive ability, with Perez, who had been beaten by Mark, to strengthen his defense. After all, a draw at Ajax's home court was also a satisfactory result. However, he did not expect that Mark would seize a counterattack opportunity to score a header at the moment when he was about to substitution. Now Alkmaer is behind 2-3, but now the substitution application is submitted in adversity, so it is definitely unrealistic to take down the substitution at this time.

Now the courage of Adriansse, a tough head coach, has come. He directly replaced a defender and a midfielder with the remaining two substitutions. He directly played a three, four, and three-man attack formation. Anyway, it is already like this. If you lose one goal, you will lose ten goals. It would be better to just bet.

After seeing Adrians' tactical adjustments, Koeman made corresponding substitution adjustments. Mid-back Maduro replaced the right winger Moroccan international Norddin Bocari, and Sneijder replaced the left winger with Belgian international Tom Sotals. The forward line retained a Swedish striker Ibrahimovic as a tactic to handle the attack. At the same time, Sneijder and Van der Fate moved forward as a double-organized midfielder to support the attack. Mark, Maduro and Galasek formed a midfield meat grinder to destroy Alkmaer's midfield offense.

In the next game, the two sides staged a very exciting offensive and defensive battle. Alkmall's players had no chance to organize in the midfield under the interception of Ajax's powerful midfield led by Mark. They had to cheer up their long passes and rush the attack, using their two forwards' height of 1.9 meters to hit Ajax's defense line, but this did not work. Ajax's defenders Hetinga and Grigra also bounced well. Even after being defeated by Alkmall's forward, the second point was often cleared by Ajax's players.

"Note the position" Alkmaar's head coach Adriansey could only shout loudly from the sidelines: "Press up and fight for the second place."

However, his tactical arrangement was completely submerged in Ajax's human-sea tactics, and Ibrahimovic, on the forward line of Ajax, cooperated with Sneider and Van der Fate, and the counterattack he made was also very threatening, which made Alkmaar dare not defeat the attack with all his strength, but the long pass and rushing could not open the situation, which was the most helpless thing.

Finally, after the referee's final whistle sounded, Ajax defeated the away Alkmaar team three-to-two at home after Ibrahimovic's goal in the first half and Van der Fat and Mark's goals in the second half. Mark came on the bench with one pass and one shot and was rated as the best in the game.

Mark delivered an answer in his first game that no matter how picky people are, he played for 45 minutes, scoring one goal and one assist. Moreover, Mark successfully frozen Perez, who scored two goals in the first half, and Mark became Ajax's savior.

At the post-match press conference, Koeman attended the event with Mark, the best player of the game. The reporters were not anxious to interview this talented player who emerged from nowhere. The reporters were curious about where this Mark came from. Of course, the most professional media person is more interested in poaching news.

After interviewing the head coaches of both sides, they quickly entered the topic of this interview, which was interviewing Mark.

"Mark, why did you come to Ajax?" A reporter seemed to know Ajax's youth training system very well. "As far as I know, you have not participated in any level of Ajax echelon except Ajax youth team a1."

The reporter meant to ask Mark's origin. You should know that the Ajax Youth Training Camp is the best youth training system in the world. Mark did not participate in the training competition of the Ajax Youth Training Camp but directly joined the youth team. Where was Mark before this? This is what reporters need to contact.

"I was a free agent before." Mark's mentality is different from when he first came to Ajax. After all, he has proved himself in the first team, so he said it happily about the unhappy things before: "I just came to the Netherlands for traveling. I didn't expect that the Ajax club was discovered by Ajax for finding me, thanks to the club for being able to sign with me, thanks to the youth team coach Mr. Basten for transforming me, thanks to the head coach Koeman for giving me trust and sending me to the bench."

Mark said this reasonably, in short, he thanked everyone. However, Mark knew that what he should be grateful for most was his "artificial intelligence" system, but this matter cannot be said openly, because if Mark said it, it would cause a stir.

"Mark, your speed when you scored the second goal is amazing. Do you have any tips for training speed?" another reporter continued to ask.

"There is no secret," Mark said calmly: "My usual training is the same as everyone else. Maybe this is the talent given to me by God."

"Mark, do you have a girlfriend?" The reporters continued their gossiping nature: "How do you feel about life in the Netherlands? Do you have Dutch beauties you like?"

"My players have the right not to answer anything other than football." After hearing the reporters' words that were beyond the scope of this interview, Koeman interrupted the reporter's interview in time and said: "If you want to visit Mark's matters about football, I don't object."

After listening to Koeman's words, the Dutch media adjusted the focus of the interview back to this game. Mark answered the questions in a regular manner and then ended the press conference. Fortunately, this is the Dutch media not as gossip as the British media, otherwise I wouldn't know when to interview or what questions to ask Mark.

"Mark now everyone calls you Swan. I wonder what you think of Rijkald, the senior who plays in Ajax, is he your idol? Are you confident of becoming an excellent player like him?" The reporter asked the last question. The Dutch reporter was going to get off work after asking this question. In his impression, Mark would definitely speak some official language, what is my goal to catch up, and it is worth learning for my whole life, but Mark's answer shocked all the media.

"How is it possible to be a player like Rijkaard?" Mark began to speak in a striking voice: "I don't think I'll be a player like Rijkaard, because I want to surpass him."

The reporters who were already preparing to leave were suddenly excited. This was definitely the front page headline tomorrow. When the reporters wanted to continue the interview, it was too late. Mark and head coach Koeman had already left the press conference.

After the game, it was time for free to move. Mark's friends in the Netherlands were not right. In the youth team, Babel and Vermallen, and Van der Fate was considered his friend. After the game, Mark invited these friends to go to a Chinese restaurant for a big meal.

"Mark, your performance today is really a bunker," said Vermalen enviously: "Since you switched to the midfield, you've played so amazing. You're so much better than playing as a central defender before. When will I be able to play for the first team?"

Mark was not gloomy when he heard this. He knew that he still had many shortcomings now, such as personal skills, shooting, and physical strength, which he lacked. Moreover, Mark is now equivalent to making a deal with the devil. He doesn't know what his life span is. If he can live forty years old, he will die before he was twenty years old. Therefore, Mark has stronger motivation for the game than Vermullen and others, because he is playing football with his life.

"Now everyone calls you a swan," Babel said coolly as usual: "It seems that fans have high expectations for you. They all hope that you can become a player like Rijkaard, but was what you said at the press conference true?"

"I want to surpass them," Mark said confidently: "Whether it is Rijkaard, Gulit, or the youth team's head coach Mr. Basten, or even Cruyff, I want to surpass them and I want to become the most unique existence on the football field."

Mark said this and stunned the other three people. As a Dutchman, he naturally knew clearly what the "Three Dutch Musketeers" meant. That is the greatest godlike figure in the hearts of these players. Which young Dutch player does not regard these three people as role models for his own learning? However, Mark said that he should surpass them, and not surpass one person. He should directly surpass the three of them. You should know that Basten, Gulit and Rijkald represent the representatives of the best Dutch players in the past twenty years. Moreover, due to their technical characteristics and different positions on the court, there is no direct comparison between the three of them. How can we not surprise them if Mark wants to surpass these three godlike figures in the minds of Dutch players?

As for whether Cruyff's status in their hearts is very high, because they have not seen Cruyff play directly, so to be honest, young players are not very high in their minds. This is like between Bailey and Maradona. Everyone is the king of football, but I believe that more people born in the 1970s and even the 1980s will think that Maradona's achievements are definitely better than Bailey. This is because we have seen Maradona play, but we have never seen Bailey play.
Chapter completed!