When the ball was on the left, Yang Yang slowly drifted around the right side of the center circle.
He needed to rest and catch his breath. Only when the ball came over again could he charge faster.
As the saying went, resting was so one could travel farther.
Back at Ajax, Van Gaal and Van Basten had told him more than once that running and speeding up on a football pitch were easy. The truly difficult part was figuring out how to stop and slow down.
As his career progressed, Yang Yang gained an increasingly profound understanding of the truth behind those words.
Especially as he gradually grew older and his physical condition continued to decline, he became even more aware of it.
Knowing when to stop and when to slow down was an art.
No one could keep running nonstop for all ninety minutes of a match. Human stamina simply could not support that at present.
Therefore, learning how to "slack off" during a match had become a profound art.
Yang Yang was "slacking off" now. He looked more like he was strolling, constantly adjusting his direction and position.
He was also waiting for an opportunity.
The ball was on the left, and Paris Saint-Germain's defensive focus had shifted toward their right.
Alves had pushed forward, while Marquinhos and Kimpembe had also moved over. As a result, in the area to the right of the center circle, only Paris Saint-Germain's left-back Yuri remained. But his attention was also on the right, and he merely glanced at Yang Yang beside him from time to time, keeping track of his position.
A person's attention was always limited.
Gradually, as Alves moved forward to combine with Verratti and Di Maria, Yuri's attention was drawn over as well.
As a left-back, he