Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 111



Only Krnovel

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The referee checked VAR, as if the Argentine players’ protests had been heard.

And the VAR check also showed that it was offside. Messi was slightly ahead and the assistant referee caught it without missing it.

I breathed a sigh of relief at that decision.

This time we were lucky and the goal was disallowed, but it was a heartbreakingly perfect concession.

And I got a feel for how to deal with Lionel Messi, even though it was only one match.

“Jinsup! Jinsup hyung! Messi! Don’t let Messi hit you! Got it!? Tell the players around you too! If you let Messi bring the ball to you and hit you, I won’t be able to stop him! Just mark Messi!”

“Messi? What about the other players?”

“I’ll cover for the others, so just block Messi! If Messi runs towards you, two or three of you should stick together and block him! Do you understand?!”

“Oh, oh, okay. Okay. I’ll tell you that!”

When Lionel Messi takes a shot, you can see the trajectory after the kick. As a human, you can’t react to Lionel Messi’s shot. No matter how high my stats are, it will be difficult to react.

then.

‘In the first place, we should not create a situation where Messi gets hit. If possible, we should eliminate that situation altogether!’

Anyway, Lionel Messi doesn’t know about this situation. I can see the trajectory of the shot, and I can see the shot Messi takes after he takes it, etc.

So, we need to force Messi to play the role of scattering the ball around without creating an angle for him to hit. If we just create the situation, Messi will not hit the ball directly but will scatter it to the players around him.

‘Then we can stop it.’

Messi only appears late, the rest of the players are normal.

*

And the operation worked as I intended.

Score 2:0. Korea focused on defense for the rest of the time, and when Messi got the ball, the nearby players reacted immediately and did not give him space.

Messi left a strong impression with his genius moves every time, and as a result, there were meaningful figures such as an increase in the number of effective shots by nearby attackers, but they were all blocked by my fingertips.

‘Phew···.’

I hugged the ball and lay down on the ground to catch my breath for a moment. Even though we were wasting time, the referee didn’t really pull out a card or anything. We took full advantage of that.

And if you get up and look around for a moment, and then kick it to the far wing with an old-fashioned shot, you can save about a minute.

‘There are about 15 minutes left.’

It was still too early to feel at ease.

Won-seok Eom, who received my ball, ran or dragged his feet on the wing to waste time. Then, the audience burst into laughter and applause.

‘I guess France and Argentina will be fierce rivals?’

France, which had already lost to Argentina twice in international competitions, threw away its neutrality and cheered only for Korea. The Taegeukgi flag could be seen everywhere in the stands.

I had this mindset that I couldn’t stand to see you guys win a gold medal in our living room.

Thankfully, the referees often took Korea’s side, even if not openly, so even though Messi and Di Maria came out, the flow of the game was not greatly disrupted.

‘···Uh. Messi seems to be limping.’

I saw Messi walking around our camp and noticed a slight limp. It seemed like Messi was playing in the game while enduring the pain.

It was awe-inspiring to see a player who had achieved everything there was to achieve as a soccer player do something like that.

‘Here it comes again.’

I prepared once again.

Argentina, having taken the ball, was coming up fiercely.

After several passes, Messi got the ball, broke through Park Seung-ho and started dribbling.

But the move was blocked by Lee Kang-im’s deep sliding tackle. Messi lost possession of the ball and rolled around the pitch, and the French crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Depending on how you look at it, it could have been seen as a foul call, but the referee went ahead with it.

Following this, Seung-ho Park picked up the ball and passed it back and forth with the surrounding wingers to buy time.

‘Hmm. It might be a bit dangerous to target Messi’s ankle when he has an ankle injury…’

It’s probably not something Lee Kang-im aimed for, but there’s a sense of pressure that comes with being on the Olympic final stage.

After that, Argentina continued to attack fiercely.

Messi avoided making aggressive breakthroughs as defenders kept pressing him hard, perhaps because he was injured, and instead kept spraying the ball to the players around him, which was exactly what we had intended.

I blocked every valid shot by Di Maria, Alejo Bellis and Enzo Fernandez.

It wasn’t difficult. Our defense was thick to begin with, and no matter how they broke through it, I could see the trajectory.

All of Argentina’s attempts were in vain as soon as they put their hands on the trajectory.

So the regular time passed and 2 minutes of extra time were given.

Now the gold medal was right in front of us. All we had to do was stretch out our arms and grab it, and it would be ours.

And even at this moment, Argentina’s attack continues without stopping.

Alejo Bellis to Enzo Fernandez.

Enzo Fernandez to Lionel Messi.

Lionel Messi was limping off the ball, but with the ball in his hands, he moved his body like a completely different person.

‘It’s dangerous!’

In fact, we had reached a point where we could not physically stop South Korea from winning even if we conceded one goal, but this was a story that concerned me.

There is only a slight difference between winning the Olympics by conceding one goal and winning by not conceding a goal, but the weight given to it is different.

Lionel Messi dribbled his way through the pressure from his teammates.

It was a dribble that made my mouth drop open just watching, but I swallowed and lowered my center of gravity.

It was truly the final crisis.

Messi burst through from the flank and appeared to pass the ball around before going for it himself.

Rolling kick.

He reacted quickly and flew away.

This time too, Messi’s shot had a trajectory that appeared after it was kicked.

‘ah···.’

A curling shot much faster than my reaction time. Lionel Messi only attempted a direct shot twice, but I was completely defeated in both of those duels.

The shot goes behind my body.

To be exact, the ball passed first and my body moved later.

Is this really a goal? This time, it broke through from below and it wasn’t even offside.

Tae-aeng─!

And the goal helped me.

Messi’s curled shot hit the goal post and bounced out of the goal line.

After the France match, we were lucky again with the goal post. It was a blessing.

‘The heavens are literally helping me…’

I got up slowly, catching my breath.

And I received the ball from the ball boy. I checked the scoreboard and saw that the time was almost up. The game would end if a goal kick was taken.

Messi’s expression hardened with regret.

I prepared for a goal kick.

There was no time wasted with a goal kick. The French referee foolishly figured it out and ended it.

Boohoo-!

And it was as expected.

Before the ball even landed, with about 7 seconds left in the game, the referee ended the game by making an arbitrary decision.

The final whistle blew like a harmony, and we defeated Argentina 2-0 to secure the gold medal.

I swallowed hard as I slumped down in my seat. I expected to feel a surge of joy, but it felt more bland than I expected.

Is it because of the dedicated actions of the soccer god? After the game, I find myself thinking more.

‘Everyone is so happy···.’

Unlike me, who was calm, the national team players were all at a loss.

Running around the field, hugging the players around you in joy, things like that.

‘We won the championship without conceding a goal, but um…’

Do you feel like you won by writing like this?

If you say that there is no such thing in the world of competition, I have nothing to say, but no matter how much I think about it, I feel uneasy.

The audience is only cheering for us?

Is the referee taking care of us without us knowing?

Is Lionel Messi injured and not performing well?

I tilted my head for a moment and thought about it carefully.

All three were included, and luck was on my side whenever it mattered.

At the moment when I should be the happiest, I was lost in thought like a sage, lost in deep thought, and only when I looked at the status window could I stop my thoughts.

[Little World Cup]

[Get into the top 3 at the Paris Olympics in France!]

[You have exceeded your goal by winning without conceding a goal. You will receive a reward.]

“ah.”

And the pouring stats and special rewards.

I checked them out and smiled.

“Full-bellied brat.”

Luck is a skill, you piece of shit! Enjoy!

I stood up from my seat, repeating that to myself.

“Yar!”

And then he enjoyed his victory by belatedly punching the air.

*

We stood next to second place Argentina and third place France at the medal ceremony that followed, and we received the gold medal around our necks.

Since I received the gold medal, there was one thing I had to do. Crush the medal with my teeth. Not only me, but all the players were chewing on it with their teeth.

“How much would I get if I sold this?”

Lee Jin-seop’s muttering.

I made a statement that struck a chord.

“It’s a gold medal, but it’s not really gold. I heard that more than 90% of it is silver?”

“Huh? It’s not gold? It’s a gold medal?”

“Gold is just something that is applied superficially.”

“okay?”

Jinseop Lee with a slightly regretful expression.

“Well, if this much pure gold was given to each sport at every Olympics, the Olympic Committee would go bankrupt.”

And the flag begins to rise.

The Taegeukgi is at the highest position. On the left, slightly lower, is the Argentine flag. On the right, even lower, is the French flag.

We listened with our hands on our hearts as the national anthem resonated throughout the stadium.

‘This is what they call promoting national prestige. It’s a little sad.’

In Europe, where soccer powerhouses abound, and even the host country France has sharpened its sword, who would have predicted that South Korea would win the gold medal at this Olympics?

But we succeeded.

Although we had a stroke of luck, we proved that we are the best in the world by defeating France and Argentina, who were considered by everyone as championship candidates, one after another.

After the national anthem was played, Lee Kang-im tapped me and smiled.

“By the way, Minwoo, how’s it going? Even exchanging uniforms with Messi?”

“I want to make it a family heirloom.”

After the final, I tried to swap jerseys with a dead Lionel Messi.

And it wasn’t a lie that he had a good personality, Messi readily accepted the request.

Although I must have been very disappointed to have missed out on gold in this Olympics, which was practically the last dance, Messi gave me some words of encouragement.

“Kim. You will definitely become a world-class player.”

“Do you know me?”

“How can you not know a goalkeeper who won the Olympics without conceding a goal? I will look forward to it in the future.”

Maybe Messi noticed me because I was doing so well in the Olympics (probably starting with the match against France).

It was a great honor.

It seems like only yesterday that before his professional debut, when asked who his role model was, he answered Lionel Messi.

The winning interview that followed also ended well.

“There is a saying that those who are passionate cannot beat those who enjoy it. We enjoyed every game, and with an unwavering spirit, we were able to climb up the ladder one step at a time and win the championship···.”

Actually, it’s a joke.

I don’t know about my other colleagues, but I was really desperate.

How could you not be desperate when Football Manager promises compensation?

And I saw the ultimate reward for winning the Olympics.

[You have won the Olympic finals and become the champion. As a reward, your ‘Stamina’ stat increases by 7, your ‘GK Reaction Speed’ stat increases by 6, your ‘GK Positioning’ stat increases by 6, and your ‘GK Speed’ stat increases by 5.]

[Running Mate ‘Cho Young-woo’ scored multiple goals in the Olympic finals. As a reward, ‘Physical Strength’ stat increases by 8, ‘GK Kick’ stat increases by 5, and ‘GK Diving’ stat increases by 7. Running Mate’s ‘Decision Making’ stat increases by 7 and ‘Speed’ stat increases by 8.]

It was a very generous amount of stats for winning one game.

And this wasn’t even the main thing.

This was a quick appetizer to whet our appetite before the main meal.

The real main reward is.

[Trait: Eye of Yasin 2.0]

[Explanation: The shot’s trajectory now appears a little faster and more varied. When the opposing player selects one of the paths, the other trajectories disappear, leaving only one trajectory.]

[Additional explanation: If the opponent’s stats are significantly higher than the player’s stats, there may be changes in the speed of trajectory creation and the number of trajectories created.]

==

Messi told me I would become a world-class player. I guess he wasn’t talking about right away, but after a long time.

‘Brother Messi. I don’t think it will take that long···.’

End

ⓒ Doctor Am