In the stands, Qin Xiong's friends stared at him worriedly.
George's voice was hoarse. He had been cheering for Qin Xiong.
This was his first time watching Qin Xiong play from the stands. He was not disappointed. He was still proud of Qin Xiong.
Yes, Qin Xiong's performance was not good. However, he quickly got up every time he fell. There was no sign of discouragement. Wasn't that a shocking display of willpower?
On the field, behind the skills, a player needed to be unbeatable and unyielding!
It was hard to say that Dekoiz, Ruttmansen, and the others had come to watch Qin Xiong because they were hardcore Ajax fans.
Freddy was completely heartbroken. He felt guilty and blamed himself.
He knew Qin Xiong very well. Qin Xiong had three pairs of sneakers.
Broken nails, rubber nails, and steel nails.
In Qin Xiong's many years of training, these three sneakers with studs were worn by Qin Xiong on different training grounds.
Many years ago, Freddy knew that he had to prepare a pair of long spiked sneakers for Qin Xiong to deal with the rain. However, perhaps he felt that it would be useless if he prepared it early, so he kept delaying it. After all, Qin Xiong's feet were still growing. If he bought the shoes early, he might not be able to wear them after a period of time!
Many years had passed in a flash. All along, Qin Xiong did not have a need for long spiked sneakers. Freddy also gradually ignored this matter.
Until today, at this moment!
Freddy witnessed Qin Xiong fall repeatedly. Later, Comain saw the problem with the sneakers. Freddy instantly fell into a huge self-blame.
How important were sneakers?
In Freddy's mind, the first thing he thought of was the famous Bern miracle.
In the pouring rain, the Hungarian players, the golden team of history, kept slipping, falling, and stumbling on the field. But what about the West German team? They put on the "magic sneakers" that Adidas had prepared for them, which were suitable for a rain battle. With these sneakers, they were able to close the gap with Hungary, which was one of the important factors in creating the Bern miracle.
The golden team in history, Hungary, also failed to become a legend and lost the World Cup!
Today was not the World Cup, but in Freddy's eyes, today's match was as important to Qin Xiong as the World Cup!
A good performance in a game is not enough for a young player to rise to the top. It is definitely not enough!
He needed three matches, five matches, or even more matches. Only then would he be able to rise to the top!
However, a young player is likely to be discarded for a long time because of a poor performance in a game!
Professional football is too cruel. The more powerful and competitive a team is, the less chances and patience they give to young players!
Freddy could not imagine that if Qin Xiong was thrown into the cold by Comain because of a poor performance in this game, he might not be able to forgive himself for this simple mistake for the rest of his life.
He was Qin Xiong's agent and also an elder who treated Qin Xiong as his own child. He was here to help Qin Xiong without hesitation. He did not see this as a contribution, but rather, it was his duty. If he did not do it well, it would be his dereliction of duty!
The game on the field was still going on. Ajax's side was down one player because Qin Xiong took the initiative to leave the field. The first half of the game was coming to an end. Taking advantage of Ajax's lack of players, Groningen suddenly started to attack their opponents. In this kind of rain battle, Groningen's "muscle strength" advantage in the front field would help them suppress Ajax's soft midfield. At the very least, Van Der Vaart and Pienaar would not be able to gain an advantage in a confrontation.
Comain was not annoyed that Qin Xiong did not prepare a pair of long spiked shoes for a rain battle. He walked to the substitutes' bench and asked the substitutes. Qin Xiong's teammates were basically all prepared with such shoes.
The team leader and the staff in charge of trivia would usually manage at least three pairs of shoes for a player. Sometimes, they would even have two pairs of shoes of the same type, or even more.
The more famous a player was, the more shoes he would have. He could change his shoes at any time to adapt to different competition situations. It was even possible that one day, when a pair of shoes did not fit him, he would change into a pair of shoes of the same type on the spot.
Most of Ajax's players were technical players. They were not tall. For example, Snede, Van Der Vaart, Sottars, and Sikora were all around 1.7 meters tall. Players like Qin Xiong, who was almost 1.9 meters tall, were relatively rare.
The substitutes were willing to lend their shoes to Qin Xiong, but Qin Xiong could not fit into most of their shoes.
In the end, Qin Xiong wore the shoes of the substitute goalkeeper, Stekelenburg. This player was ten centimeters taller than Qin Xiong. His shoes were slightly too big for Qin Xiong, but he had no choice but to make do with them.
After changing into his shoes, Qin Xiong entered the field. Although he could stand firmly and feel that his balance was better, he still felt uncomfortable running.
Firstly, it was his first time wearing the spiked shoes. Secondly, the shoes were too big.
After he returned to the field, Van Der Vaart and Pinard automatically gave up their positions to him. Then, they moved forward to return to their original positions.
But just as this change in rhythm occurred, Groningen seized the opportunity to push forward from the middle. Pinard and Van Der Vaart were almost defenseless. Qin Xiong did not notice that his two teammates had moved forward. He was still adapting to the "new" shoes.
As a result, the midfield was easily penetrated. The opponent's striker created chaos after he shot. Smit, who came in from the back, scored a shot. Qin Xiong could only passively follow behind Smit. He was less than a meter away, but he could not interfere with the opponent's shot.
Groningen's fans erupted into thunderous cheers in the rain.
They scored!
They were in the lead!
Qin Xiong had nothing to say. He did not blame his teammates for immediately adjusting their positions after he returned to the field. After all, in this game, his own performance was a burden to the team.
Van Der Vaart, Pinard, and even the striker, Ibrahimovic, all looked at Qin Xiong with cold eyes before the ball restarted.
Perhaps, his previous brilliance was an illusion.
He just suddenly exploded and performed beyond his usual level.
Today, he showed his true level.
Most of his teammates began to lose trust in Qin Xiong.
Groningen broke the deadlock first. They stopped while they were ahead and immediately adopted a defensive stance to consume the remaining time of the first half.
"The first half of the game has ended. Groningen leads Ajax 1: 0 at home. Ajax's midfield is very chaotic in this game. Starting midfielder Qin Xiong's performance is terrible. His passing success rate is not bad, but he did not successfully pass a threatening pass. He also made five mistakes, committed three fouls, and has a yellow card. What's even more ridiculous is that he did not wear the right shoes. This is an amateur performance. However, he is still young, only 18 years old. He should be more lenient. "
Back in the locker room, Qin Xiong sat on a chair and silently cleaned up the dirty jersey and the water in his sneakers. Because the shoes were big, there was water in them after running for a few steps. Even though these sneakers had a special ventilation hole, which was similar to a drainage function, to prevent water from accumulating on the sneakers, the sneakers had to fit the feet first.
In Galasek, Snede and Heitinga patted him on the shoulder as if silently encouraging him.
The other teammates chose to ignore him.
They were probably used to this kind of situation.
There were always some young people who were transferred to the First Team to be observed by the manager to see how the game felt. Then, most of them returned to the reserve team or sat on the bench for a long time, becoming a peripheral figure.
Qin Xiong's current situation was probably developing in that direction.
Comain did not want to put too much pressure on Qin Xiong, so during the halftime break, the dressing room lecture was for the whole team. In the second half, he emphasized acceleration, outburst, and everything.
In the first half, Ajax played with restraint. In the second half, he played with force. It could be said that this was the plan set before the game. In addition, they had won all three games in the Dutch Cup, the Premier League, and the Champions League, so the players did not have much psychological burden. The situation of teammates blaming each other after two consecutive losses did not happen.
Before the start of the second half, Comain came to the side of the field and looked at the situation on the field. He immediately flew into a rage and complained to the stadium administrator of FC Groningen!
During the halftime break, they did not take the initiative to clean up the water on the field!
This terrible field had almost become a rotten vegetable field full of potholes!
There were large areas of water in some places, but they did not clean up. This was obviously intentional by FC Groningen!
The worse the field conditions, the more advantageous it was for FC Groningen!
Comain's protest and complaint did not receive a positive response from FC Groningen.
Anyway, the game was about to start. They just treated it as listening to Comain's complaints.
The whole FC Groningen team could not wait for Ajax's geniuses to fall a few more times on this rotten vegetable field. They might as well take a bath in it.
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