Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 163



Only Krnovel

Hexagonal Player

* * *

Hamburg, who met Hannover again after a long time in the DFB-Pokal round of 16, was feeling the difference in strength between the two teams as they looked completely different.

Starting with Coutinho’s opening goal to take the lead 1-0, Hannover continued to press their old rivals, leaving Hamburg breathless.

‘Is Coutinho a great sparring partner?’

It was clear that this was an opponent that would not be a burden for the Bundesliga return match.

And Coutinho led the game with 2 goals and 1 assist in his debut match for Hannover, and when the game ended, the Hannover fans’ skeptical gaze turned 180 degrees and they started applauding and chanting his name.

I also smiled happily and clapped.

“It’s been a while. It’s been a while since I’ve had the spotlight stolen from me.”

In Hanover, only I received those looks and applause, but after a long time, I lost this luxury to a field player.

Of course, today’s POTM was also Philippe Coutinho’s, and Coutinho quickly disappeared into an open space for an interview.

I drank some water, waved to the fans, and soon returned to the locker room with my teammates.

* * *

Philippe Coutinho’s transfer to Hannover was an unexpected surprise.

Naturally, people expected Hannover to bring in someone in the winter transfer window, given their lackluster attack and their public statements about looking for a striker.

But who would have thought that someone would be Coutinho?

Wasn’t Coutinho, along with Eden Hazard, a dark part of La Liga’s history?

It was also an example of La Liga, which had been quietly poaching only the EPL’s star players, taking a real hit.

David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Thierry Henry… .

Star-studded EPL players have been moving to La Liga one after another, and Coutinho and Hazard have also moved to La Liga, following in the footsteps of history. The two players have been in such poor form that some are even saying that they contributed to the transfer of La Liga’s hegemony to the EPL.

And the old diehard Hannover fans and journalists who were just waiting to get their teeth into it also watched today’s match with half worry and half anticipation.

And the worried looks turned into looks of anticipation as soon as the game ended.

Philippe Coutinho, who was selected for POTM, was interviewed while receiving warm attention from reporters for the first time in a long while.

“Philip, what a brilliant debut! It’s been a long time since you came back to the Bundesliga after playing in the Arab League. How do you feel about it now?”

“ah….”

Philippe Coutinho was momentarily speechless.

‘Oh. You’re saying there’s juice here?’

The reporters stare at Philippe’s face with shining eyes. The splendid debut of a fallen player. And the hot tears after the game were a story that was more than enough to fill the headlines that day.

But Coutinho has lived too many twists and turns in his life to feel such emotions.

Coutinho quickly regained his composure and began a lengthy interview.

After briefly licking their lips, the reporters moved on to the next question.

“It’s not common for a player to show such good form before their debut. Can we see this as a signal of revival? Do you think Philip is underrated?”

“What I can say is that I will give my heart and soul to Hannover, the team that recruited me. I am proud to have joined Hannover, where a miracle is happening.”

“Oh! Philip, you know Kim well, right? Did you talk to him this time? What kind of player is he?”

A common question in Hanover.

Do you know Kim?

Although Kim Min-woo is clearly not German, the people of Hanover are very proud of him.

What Hannover fan wouldn’t be happy when a player who has all of Europe watching and cheering for his club has appeared?

Coutinho smiled sinisterly at the question.

“That guy is good at dancing.”

“…yes?”

“Back to the main topic, um. I had time to get to know not only Kim but also the Hannover players and get to know their faces. They all had good energy. Especially Kim… … I haven’t met him for long, but he was special.”

“If it’s unusual, what then?”

Journalists pay close attention to Coutinho’s words. What he says determines what kind of articles will be published.

Coutinho thought for a moment and then said, “Hmm.” And.

“Even during training, you were blocking all the shots. I tried to make a shot somehow, but none of them went in.”

“ha ha ha.”

“Kim is like that originally.”

The reporters decided that tomorrow’s article should be written in a gentle and friendly way, so that the readers’ hearts would be warmed when they read the article.

* * *

On days when there was no match, I lay on the sofa and watched Tottenham’s game.

Captain Son’s Tottenham Hotspur, who had a meteoric rise last year and had qualified for the Champions League this year, are now playing against a team called Young Boys.

It was an away game and Young Boys were struggling against Tottenham.

‘Just because they’re both teams that advanced to the same Champions League doesn’t mean their skills are similar.’

As far as I know, Tottenham is in Pot 2 and Young Boys is in Pot 4, hmm.

“It’s one-sided….”

Australian manager and Tottenham Hotspur manager Anze Postecoglou has a reputation for running Tottenham very attackingly.

It was the same even then.

A coach who is not intimidated by strong teams, and is better than anyone at beating weak teams… .

‘If that guy was the manager of Hannover, even I would have conceded a few goals.’

A director who shuts up and attacks.

I still don’t think I’ll keep a clean sheet for the rest of my career, but I think if I had been a goalkeeper under him, I would have conceded a few goals by now.

How much of the game did you watch?

During Tottenham’s attack, Son Heung-min starts running.

And the quick runs and shots from the penalty box.

[Son Heung-min is running! Shooteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!]

[I got in―!]

And goal.

“There’s something strange about that guy.”

Koreans are surprisingly decisive.

Sonny makes a mid-range shot that leaves viewers breathless, and performs a sliding celebration and a snap celebration at the same time.

It was a form that made it hard to believe he was 32 years old.

‘I can’t be sure, but I think it will be stable for the next four years.’

The North and Central American World Cup is now just over a year away. It is likely to be Sony’s last dance.

Of course, considering his age, he could play until the next World Cup… … but that depends on Son Heung-min’s mind.

anyway.

“Ugh~ I want to go to an international competition too.”

I stretched and got up from the sofa.

Well, let’s start with the international competition at Meister Chalet.

* * *

The following 20R match against Werder Bremen was held at home again, following the DFB-Pokal Round of 16.

Philippe Coutinho started with great expectations from the fans and Hannover officials, and I started as I always do.

‘Is it because of the aftermath of the last match? I feel like all eyes are on Coutinho… .’

If Coutinho continues to live up to these expectations and do well, then all is well, but if he doesn’t live up to them or his behavior deteriorates… … well.

Let’s just watch it for now.

Beep!

And the game starts with the referee’s whistle.

Werder Bremen played the game quite tightly from the start, as if they were not going to give up.

They put a lot of pressure on the Hannover players who had the ball, and Hannover’s response was to retreat.

There was a goalkeeper who was good at build-up, but he had the mindset of not breaking through the tight line himself.

Hannover played the ball back and I got involved.

And surprisingly, Werder Bremen walked into our trap themselves.

Hoffenheim didn’t do it!

‘Oh!’

Is this finally a normal game?

I lightly ignored the Bremen striker running towards me and passed the ball to Phil Neumann.

Phil Neumann passed a long ball to Alex Scott, who crossed to Ariumbi.

Ariumbi to left midfielder Derek.

Derek to Coutinho, the old man who came out as a public defender.

And Coutinho decided to take matters into his own hands rather than hand it over to someone else.

Dribble and then beat!

“…evil!”

But it’s a futile attempt.

Coutinho, who was pushed back by the defender’s physical contact, fell to the side, and the referee did not blow the whistle as he deemed it a legitimate physical contact.

‘First, 1 stack.’

Once you get to about 3 stacks, the fans will start to cross their arms.

When 4 stacks are stacked, a loud noise will be heard, and when 5 stacks are stacked, a jeer will be heard.

So, time passed.

6 stacks were built.

“Wow, wow—!”

“What are you doing, you punk!”

“Pass the ball to your teammates!”

“Does he still think he’s a Barcelona player? You fucking Middle Eastern leaguer!”

“Hey, he …

As Coutinho rolled around the pitch and failed to show even a gram of the form he showed in his debut, the Hannover fans’ patience ran out and they booed him.

It felt like Coutinho’s color, which was said to be a miracle signal, was fading in an instant.

‘I guess there’s a reason why no one comes looking for something.’

Philippe Coutinho was the quintessential hexagonal player.

It doesn’t mean that all stats are full, but that the performance is rolling like dice.

If the last Hamburg match was a dice roll of ‘6’, it looks like today’s match will be a ‘1’.

Once the ball reached Coutinho, it was like a black hole.

Something, once the ball goes the flow is murky and interrupted.

On top of that, there’s a 50% chance of it being stolen… … The fans can’t help but boo this.

It was fortunate that no projectiles flew in.

“Corsic! Ariumbi! Close the gap!”

Werder Bremen’s attack begins.

He’s moving outside the penalty box and I can already see a trajectory forming before my eyes, so I think he’s aiming for mid-range.

He prepared to block, and as expected, he bounced out as soon as the opponent kicked a mid-range shot from outside.

“Tchcha.”

It was an easy route to block if you knew the trajectory of the attack.

In fact, most shots took that route.

That’s why so many teams that face me don’t even want to face me.

When I block, it’s too easy to block, and I keep blocking chances that seem like they’ll be goals, so I just end up giving up on scoring opportunities.

It started with Hoffenheim, and if not Hoffenheim, then maybe some other team tried.

As rumored, Werder Bremen started to lose to Hoffenheim after I kept blocking their attacks and in return, I kept putting myself in danger of conceding goals.

And the first half was over.

Yann, with a troubled expression, encouraged the players in the locker room talk, especially Coutinho.

“Philippe. Forget about showing something. Got it? You seem to be obsessed with the idea that you should do well since you performed better than expected in your debut match. You don’t have to do badly in the next three matches, so just take it slow. If you get excited, your vision will narrow and the match won’t go well. Got it?”

“… Yes, coach. And my fellow players, I’m sorry. I think I got a little excited.”

“If you keep doing that, you’ll have to go back to the Middle East.”

Corsic’s outrageous remarks.

It seems like he said it to make people laugh, but the locker room becomes colder instead.

I also kept my mouth shut and observed.

“I almost said that.”

Korsic uses the escape method I taught him. I never thought I would see a Croatian using that phrase. Life is long enough to see this… .

* * *

And Coutinho’s performance improved noticeably in the second half.

It looks like the dice that was 1 has gone up to 3.

Coutinho, who had shown a poor performance until the first half, started to act human at least, and Hannover also started to move towards Bremen, and gradually accumulated damage one by one to Bremen, who were just crouching and waiting for the game to end.

‘You don’t need that, just give me a free kick and I can take care of it.’

Of course, the other party knew that too, so they were trying their best to avoid foul play.

So, whenever they face Hannover, the opposing teams become quite docile.

I hope it will be a clean game where the cards don’t come out well.

Card suppressor Kim Min-woo… .

“Wow!”

And the roar of the Hanover crowd.

The Coutinho of the nightmare-like first half has disappeared, and when the Coutinho of the debut match briefly appeared, the cheers were heard again.

‘No matter how much I think about it, there is no one who is as swayed by this and that as soccer fans.’

If I suddenly become incompetent, I’ll probably get a lot of hate from Hanover and be told to get out of there right away.

That’s what happened when Son Heung-min was in a slump at Tottenham, and even the god of football, Messi, didn’t do well at PSG.

And that’s the way football is.