Chapter 269: Stronger Against the Strong

Chapter 269: Chapter 262: Stronger Against the Strong

After their home game against Auxerre, Ajax quickly faced their opponent for the twenty-second round of the Eredivisie over the weekend: Twente.

The two sides fought a fierce battle at the Amsterdam Arena.

Having played a UEFA Cup match in midweek, Ronald Koeman moderately rotated the lineup.

In the sixth minute, Yang Yang created a threat down the right wing, winning a corner kick.

This time, he took the corner himself and assisted Vlaar, who scored with a header.

After repeatedly practicing [Beckham’s Crossing] every day, Yang Yang gradually found that his delivery—whether crossing from the right, taking corners, or hitting indirect free kicks in the final third—was becoming more and more precise.

They maintained this lead into the second half.

Ronald Koeman substituted Yang Yang in the sixty-first minute. However, after the eighty-minute mark, the Ajax players’ stamina began to drop off. Compounded by defensive problems caused by Heitinga’s absence, the team conceded two consecutive goals in the final ten minutes and suffered a bitter comeback defeat at home to Twente.

One to two. The hot streak Ajax had been on since October finally came to an end in the twenty-second round.

Although Ajax lost, public opinion in the Netherlands was quite forgiving. After all, the team’s record had been so brilliant recently that a few ups and downs were to be expected.

With their first loss since the winter break, Ajax surrendered the top spot in the league that they had fought so hard to win. Meanwhile, Alkmaar, Eindhoven, and Feyenoord all secured three points.

Van Gaal’s team reclaimed the top spot with fifty-three points, Eindhoven was second with fifty-two, and Ajax remained at fifty-one. As for Feyenoord, they were in fourth with only forty-one points.

Judging by the league table, it would be very difficult for Gullit’s team to challenge for the title again.

Combined with their elimination from the UEFA Cup in the Round of 64, Feyenoord’s only remaining hope was the Dutch Cup.

But precisely because of their setbacks on other fronts, Feyenoord could now conserve their strength and focus all their energy on the league. While Ajax was losing, Feyenoord thrashed Graafschap 7-2 in an away match.

Kuyt, who led the top scorer chart, scored his second hat-trick of the season in that match, raising his personal goal tally to twenty-one—a full four goals ahead of the second-place Yang Yang.

Kuyt’s outstanding performance stunned the entire Dutch football world.

The Feyenoord star striker had now scored over twenty goals for three consecutive seasons, showing incredible consistency. This brought him to the attention of other European teams, with rumors linking him to several clubs in the Four Major Leagues.

Everyone at Feyenoord was full of praise for Kuyt’s goals, and the Rotterdam media reported on it extensively. Some newspapers even went so far as to prematurely award this season’s Eredivisie Golden Boot Award to Kuyt.

…

…

When Yang Yang returned to the locker room after his morning gym session, he found his teammates looking at him strangely, which left him puzzled.

“What’s wrong?”

‘He goes to the gym every day; all his teammates know that. Why are they acting so strange today?’

His question seemed to leave his teammates in the locker room unsure of how to respond.

Seeing them glance at one another, each looking like they wanted to say something but holding back, Yang Yang felt more and more perplexed.

“Seriously, what’s going on?”

Finally, Maxwell walked over and studied him carefully, as if he were trying to unearth some hidden secret.

“You all right?” the Brazilian left-back asked.

The other teammates all looked toward Yang Yang as well, their eyes filled with concern.

“I’m fine. Just training,” Yang Yang replied.

He trained every day; sometimes he just pushed himself a bit harder than usual.

“And your mood? Are you feeling okay?” Maxwell asked again.

“I’m fine. What’s this all about?” Yang Yang grew even more curious.

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing.” Maxwell shook his head. “So, is there anything you want to talk about?”

“No. What is going on?” Yang Yang asked again.

Maxwell scratched his head, frowning. “We all think you seem pretty normal.”

“Too normal, which makes it abnormal,” Vermaelen chimed in from the side.

Sneijder, De Jong, and the others nodded eagerly, clearly agreeing with this sentiment.

Yang Yang immediately understood what they meant and shook his head in amusement. “You guys think that because Kuyt scored a hat-trick and is now four goals ahead of me, I should be devastated and in a bad mood?”

Maxwell and the others exchanged a look and nodded in unison.

It was only human nature, after all.

“To be honest, it bothers me a little,” Yang Yang admitted candidly. “But to say this would be enough to devastate me, or even make me act abnormally… I think you’re underestimating me. Do you really think I’m Ibrahimovic?”

As he said this, Yang Yang couldn’t help but chuckle.

‘If this were Ibrahimovic, the locker room would probably be in an uproar by now.’

The Swedish Striker had the kind of personality where he couldn’t keep things bottled up. If he felt slighted, he had to get even on the spot.

But Yang Yang’s personality was different; he didn’t act rashly.

‘Besides, what good would getting angry do?’

When they heard Yang Yang teasing his good friend Ibrahimovic, Maxwell, Vermaelen, Sneijder, and the others immediately knew he was really okay. Or rather, that while the situation had affected him, it wasn’t by much.

“To be honest, if Kuyt hadn’t scored that hat-trick, I’d actually find this whole thing pretty boring,” Yang Yang said suddenly.

“What do you mean?” This left everyone confused.

“A person needs a target. Kuyt is my target on the scorer chart. Think about it: if he hadn’t scored that hat-trick, if I could easily catch up to and even surpass him, what motivation would I have to keep pushing myself to improve?”

When it came to competitiveness, some people liked to drag their opponents down to their own level, where they could be defeated with just a little effort.

But Yang Yang preferred to challenge those who were stronger. The stronger his opponent, the more energized and motivated he became.

In this season’s Eredivisie, Kuyt was the strongest scorer, and he was Yang Yang’s target.

This contest had nothing to do with who would win the Eredivisie title; it was purely a duel between him and Kuyt.

“The stronger he is and the more goals he scores, the more motivated I become. He’s running fast up ahead, and I’m chasing from behind. There are still over a dozen rounds left in the league, so what’s the rush?” Yang Yang said, full of fighting spirit.

Seeing Kuyt score so many goals, it would have been impossible for Yang Yang not to feel the pressure.

But he was also very rational and calm, and he knew exactly what he needed to do.

Van Gaal, Van Basten, and Luther Carroll had all repeatedly advised him that staying calm and rational was the most important quality for a player.

This was true on the pitch, and it should be true off it as well.

As for the possibility that Kuyt might score too many goals and cause him to lose the race for Top Scorer, Yang Yang wasn’t actually that concerned. The reason was simple: he was competing because he wanted to challenge himself.

People always grow fastest under pressure. Yang Yang wanted to put himself under the right amount of pressure to make himself progress and improve more quickly, hopefully even breaking through his own limits.

He was confident that even if he ultimately lost the race for Top Scorer, no one at Ajax would blame him. Even the media and fans wouldn’t use it as an excuse to mock him.

So, he felt pressure, motivation, determination, and fighting spirit—but no panic.

Of course, he didn’t think he would lose, either!

His words left everyone stunned. It felt a bit strange because it was completely different from what they had imagined.

Just moments before, they had been discussing how best to console Yang Yang, but now…

“You’ll all be getting my gift soon,” Yang Yang said with a confident smile, then sauntered away.

He left Maxwell and the others looking completely baffled.

‘A gift?’

‘What gift?’

It soon dawned on them. They remembered that during the winter break training camp, Yang Yang had promised to give each of them a generous gift once he scored more than twenty goals. He was now just three goals away.

Thinking back on how confident Yang Yang had looked, how could he possibly be someone who needed comforting?

…

…

After the team’s loss to Twente, Ajax finally received some good news.

Kluivert finally gave Heitinga the green light. The Ajax center-back, after being sidelined with an injury for three matches, was finally set to return!

Although this meant the young Vlaar would return to the bench, Ajax’s defense would be bolstered.

Over the past three rounds, Vlaar’s performance had been mixed. He was solid most of the time, had some highlight-worthy moments, and even scored a goal, but he also made some serious mistakes. Overall, however, the coaching staff and his teammates were relatively satisfied.

For the time being, however, he was not yet able to replace Heitinga.

Interestingly, both Vlaar and Vermaelen were born in ’85. But Vlaar, born on February 16th, was already twenty years old, while Vermaelen wouldn’t turn twenty until the end of the year. Yet right now, it was Vermaelen who performed more consistently and showed greater individual ability.

Yang Yang guessed this had something to do with Vermaelen getting tormented by him and Ibrahimovic in training for the better part of the last year.

It was similar to how Maicon credited his defensive improvement to his daily one-on-one training sessions with Yang Yang.

After Heitinga’s official return, Ajax traveled to France midweek to challenge Auxerre in an away match.

Although they had already won the first leg by a decisive 4-0, Ajax didn’t dare to be the least bit careless.

Guy Roux had also done his homework for the home game. For the first thirty minutes after kickoff, the two sides were locked in a grueling stalemate.

In the thirty-first minute, Kalu opened the scoring for Auxerre.

But just five minutes later, Yang Yang successfully leveled the score.

After play resumed in the second half, Ajax went on the offensive. In the fifty-fifth minute, Yang Yang assisted a goal by Sneijder, putting them ahead 2-1.

With the tie’s outcome all but decided, Ajax made a series of substitutions.

The three youth team prospects—Ryan Babel, Emmanuelson, and Maduro—were all given a chance to play. Ronald Koeman hoped they could get accustomed to the atmosphere and rhythm of European competition.

Auxerre, for their part, seemed to have lost their fighting spirit, though they managed to score in the eighty-sixth minute to level the score on the night.

In the end, Ajax drew 2-2 away at Auxerre, eliminating the French team 6-2 on aggregate.

Following his performance in the first leg, Yang Yang was once again named Man of the Match for his goal and assist.