Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 176



Only Krnovel

excuse

* * *

DFB-Pokal.

The only tournament Hannover participates in outside of the league.

Other strong teams that participate in many international competitions usually rotate non-regular players to give regular players a rest, but this was out of the question for Hannover.

The schedule is already loose, so having a few tournament matches in between won’t cause any disruption to the league matches.

Our opponent today.

So the quarterfinal opponent was FC Saarbrucken.

The league they belong to is ‘Liga 3.’

As the name suggests, it is a third division league.

I was really curious as to how a third-tier team made it this far, but I figured it could be because there are a lot of upsets in tournaments and strong teams rotate.

I remember that Hannover made it to the semifinals last year.

No matter what, since the opponent is the opponent, Yan made some changes to the existing first team, but I was still a starter.

I had no complaints either. If I took a break in this game and got caught up in the variables like other strong teams, it would mean that I would lose one less reward at the end of this season, so I felt more at ease.

“Okay, everyone!”

And Jan draws our attention with his enthusiastic voice. I knew why Jan was doing that. It was because a secret guest had come to visit us in this game… .

I glanced at the people holding cameras. Sophie was there, filming us with something like a small camcorder, but… … more so than Sophie.

Strong men. And the sturdy cameras they carry.

‘Surely big companies are different?’

Hannover eventually signed a deal with NFlix and decided to broadcast their journey to the Bundesliga title to the world.

And those outsiders were part of it.

As the camera rolled, the cheerful atmosphere in the locker room became stiff as if it was having a hard time adjusting, and Jan also guided us in a different voice than usual.

‘Why don’t you all just do as you normally do?’

There are just too many cameras and they are too big for that.

“If you look at it objectively, they’re not that difficult of an opponent, but the fact that they’ve come this far to face us is proof that they’re not an easy team. Don’t underestimate them, and play with the understanding that they might be a tough opponent. Does everyone understand?”

“yes!”

That’s how we got into the game.

Although it was an away game, we are now used to being booed at away stadiums, so there was no particular difficulty.

Saarbrucken, perhaps familiar with our notoriety or perhaps conscious of the fact that they were creating a legend even in the first division, played the game with their line drawn down.

So, there wasn’t really anything for me to do.

Originally, the goalkeeper was a position with nothing to do when the team was launching an overwhelming offensive attack.

I checked our penalty box in the meantime.

The grass inside the box didn’t look like anything unusual. Hmm. Then I guess I’m really left with nothing to do… .

I was wandering around the goal and felt thirsty so I grabbed a bottle of water next to the goal and drank some.

“Hey! Kim! If you’re bored, do you want to play chess with me?”

A taunt erupted from the stands.

Then the people around him burst into laughter.

I pretended not to hear.

“Wow! I’m jealous! How much money do you make just by walking around the goalposts?”

Another round of jeers from the crowd.

The crowd continued to laugh, perhaps feeling that making fun of me was part of the fun of the game.

‘Ah. I miss the real world.’

That statement from Lebron James.

It’s a statement that even if fans mock and criticize us, we eventually return to the real world and live with real problems, and the players are happy regardless.

That’s what I wanted to say to those fans who openly laughed at me and mocked me.

Perhaps if that actually happened, the mocking ridicule would turn into intense anger.

The appropriate response in this case is to ignore it.

‘Ah. Can you at least give me a back pass?’

I didn’t want to listen to that nonsense, so I just walked out of the goal.

Even if you see an empty goal and try to shoot from a long distance, you can see the trajectory beforehand, so you can just jump right in and that’s it.

Only when you step out a little from in front of the goal are you free from the jeers of the crowd.

I couldn’t even stay still, so I changed my position depending on the direction the ball went back and forth.

If the ball goes to the side, I go to that side too.

If the ball goes to the center, I also move there.

How many minutes did it last like that?

‘Coming!’

Is it finally time to pay for the meal?

The opponent’s counterattack.

However, since the skill gap between the players was so clear, it wasn’t a threatening counterattack.

Hannover’s defensive numbers had already swelled from three to six in no time, and Saarbrucken’s players were unable to keep up with the rapid transitions between attack and defence.

Still, I hurried back towards the goal, and the opponent’s counterattack started to be delayed by Ari-eum-bi.

Then, Saarbrucken’s attack seemed to fizzle out before I could do anything.

‘Oh my. It’s Kim Sae-ne.’

It was obvious just by looking at the Saarbrucken winger passing the ball back, seemingly helpless and blocked by the defense.

Then… .

“Kim is great! Even if he doesn’t do anything, the German defenders do everything for him!”

“The German defenders block all attacks and take tens of billions of German dollars!”

“Hey! The club even pays your taxes for you? Right?!”

I wanted to ask you guys if you gave it to me. If someone saw me, they would think that the Bundesliga is run by taxes.

I held back my anger and glanced at the crowd.

“What are you looking at, you punk! Look ahead!”

“Hey! Here comes the ball! Here comes the shot!”

As I quickly turned my gaze forward, laughter poured out.

“It’s a lie~”

“Wahahahaha!”

“Kekekeke.”

Okay. I admit it. That was a bit funny. The opponent’s attack opportunity was completely gone. I looked ahead and held up my left hand to give him a thumbs up.

Then the audience’s reaction is enthusiastic.

Some people laughed heartily, some cursed, and some just kept talking nonsense to make fun of me.

I ignored them all neatly and got back into the game.

* * *

The DFB-Pokal quarter-final against Saarbrucken ended in a clean sweep with a score of 4:0.

Sophie Riva really liked that.

It feels like such a great victory, and in the league, there has never been such a crushing victory with such a cool score, except for the time in Frankfurt at the beginning of the league.

“Okay, let’s begin.”

“Ah. Yes.”

Sophie looked straight ahead with a nervous expression. There were several large cameras in front of her, and many people around her were staring at her.

I’ve photographed others many times, but this was my first time being in the spotlight myself, so I was very nervous.

“You are an employee of the marketing department, and you were the one who guided Kim when he first came here from Korea. You also temporarily transferred your job to become Kim’s German teacher because of his fluent German.”

“yes yes.”

This interview was conducted by NFlix. I heard it was part of a documentary filming within the club, and they were very interested in Kim.

After all, he is the hottest goalkeeper in Europe these days. The record of not allowing a goal since his debut was being criticized more and more as the number of games Kim played increased.

Roughly speaking, is it that legendary records are now becoming mythical records?

If it continues, it may go from being ‘mythical’ to a unique record that no one can surpass.

‘No, is it already like that…?’

What player on earth could keep a clean sheet for two seasons? It was a record that even Yashin could not achieve.

“When you first saw him, what kind of player was Kim?”

“When did you first see it?”

“yes.”

When I first saw it. The first time… .

I saw it at the airport.

What I still remember clearly is that he was a man who fit the image of a Korean I had in mind.

In a word, it meant that he was handsome.

However, because he was a student, he had a very plain image.

Sophie replied that he looked more like a Korean student she saw in the media than a soccer player, leaving out the word “good-looking.”

The question moved on to the next one.

“Kim ended up joining. Sophie was in the marketing department, but she suddenly became Kim’s German teacher. Weren’t you surprised?”

“……hmm.”

I looked back on my memories.

Sure, it was embarrassing.

Actually, it was half and half.

Regret about not being able to do my honey job for a while, curiosity about the new job, and the inexplicable feeling of becoming a German teacher for a Korean athlete, etc.

“In a word… … Um. Yes! I was embarrassed!”

It was a good corporate characteristic.

I entered a certain job, but after some time, I ended up holding multiple positions… Ugh.

“How was Kim’s German education?”

“I felt it even then, but I thought he was smart. He learned incredibly fast. It was like if you taught him one thing, he would know four or five. He learned languages ​​quickly. Later, I even taught him English.”

“Aha. So that’s why Kim speaks English with a German accent. I just thought he naturally learned it from living in Germany.”

“… Ahahaha. Is that how it is?”

Sophie answered the questions sincerely. She said that she had now quit teaching and returned to her original job (she had no more German to teach), and that she did not see him as much as before.

In fact, that was a real shame.

‘When I was teaching German, we met often, even under the pretext of that… .’

There was no justification these days. No justification.

So I just watch from afar or go over and have a quick chat sometimes.

Kim also seemed to lose more and more of himself because he felt like no one was interested in him.

To be honest, I should have listened to Jan’s advice when I was a teacher.

Did they say that if you just have 30 seconds of courage, the world will change?

‘Why does courage always come from losing something important?’

If I think about it, in fact I still don’t have the courage.

Why don’t you just go and tell her right now? If you keep doing this, you’ll miss her and when Kim leaves Hanover, she’ll say, “Sophie. I liked Sophie too. But now I have to leave Germany… … I’m sorry.”

‘What the hell.’

Now that I think about it, isn’t Jan’s advice still valid? Should I just run over and confess to her? It’s not like things can get any worse!

So what if it gets awkward? We don’t even meet that often these days… .

“Excuse me, Sophie?”

Bam!

An American who snaps his fingers.

Sophie stood up straight, her shoulders hunched in surprise.

“N, yes!”

I found myself lost in thought at this important event.

“Last question. Do you think Hannover can win the title this season? Tell me as a fan, not as a Hannover marketing staff member.”

Sophie thought for a moment. Hannover winning the title this season? At the beginning of the season, many experts dismissed it as nonsense, but now most people are giving it high marks.

And, Sophie was actually convinced before the season even started.

“Of course. I have blind faith in Hannover’s goalkeeper. He is more than capable of doing it.”

“Oh. You’re focusing on one individual rather than the team? There’s a saying in soccer that no individual is greater than the team.”

Sophie shook her head.

“That doesn’t apply to Kim. I think Kim is a greater individual than the team. If you want to argue, just watch the upcoming game against Leipzig. Hehe.”

* * *

Time passed quickly.

Several teams faced Hannover, and Hannover either defeated them or drew them one after another.

Darmstadt succeeded in drawing with us. I still remember it clearly. The way the Darmstadt players celebrated as if they had drawn with us and won… .

Hoffenheim were Hoffenheim again in their head-to-head match against us.

It was as if, after the last match, most of the other teams were watching Hoffenheim and thinking, ‘See? I wasn’t wrong, was I?’

Hoffenheim, who had cast the slogan ‘We were not wrong’, finally achieved their goal this time. They drew. The coach there was very pleased as he was the founder of Hoffenheim’s tactics.

It was even more sophisticated than the previous Hoffenheim tactics. They thought that just sitting back down wasn’t the answer, so they occasionally showed threatening counterattacks that made Jan’s heart sink, and prevented a one-sided defeat from occurring.

And the Leipzig match.

Although they were completely behind in the championship race, they were desperate to somehow break through to us.

And they lost like other strong teams have lost to us.

This was the so-called Hanover paradox.

First, the game is lost, but if a goal is not scored, the game ends in a goal with one counterattack…

Well, a team like Leipzig wouldn’t stand a chance against Hoffenheim.

I understand. It would be more respectable to get beaten up and lose than to sit down and do nothing.

Anyway, the Bundesliga was now really coming to an end.

‘There are five games left now.’

There are a maximum of seven games left this season, including the DFB-Pokal. Now, the journey in Germany is almost over.

Thinking that the time to say goodbye to the people of Hanover whom I had grown so fond of was just around the corner, I felt a bittersweet sense of loss.