Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 249



Only Krnovel

Episode 249: The Great General Wei Yunzhang

Before I started playing soccer seriously, I was clearly bad at soccer.

Just someone who cheers on the team during the World Cup.

Since my family always watched the World Cup since I was little, my memories of the World Cup were vivid.

The 2010 South Africa World Cup. The World Cup that took place when I was five years old.

I remember it vaguely, but my parents were really excited at the time. It was their first time in the round of 16.

And the 2014 Brazil World Cup. The World Cup that took place when I was nine years old. In fact, the Brazil World Cup was a World Cup that was forgotten in my memory.

Because of the time difference with Brazil, the World Cup was held during rush hour or during the morning school hours.

And 2018, 2022… … are vivid as if they happened yesterday.

All my life, I have been a person who only briefly took an interest in soccer during the World Cup.

Even during the South Africa World Cup, I thought, ‘Do soccer players only play in the World Cup and spend the remaining four years training for the World Cup?’

‘Because I was so young back then.’

Before I started playing soccer seriously, I only watched soccer during the World Cup, but even I knew a few soccer players.

Well, representative examples include Park Ji-Sung, Son Heung-Min, and people like that. And as for non-players… … .

‘Only Ferguson and Hiddink.’

Hiddink couldn’t help but know that his parents would talk about him whenever the World Cup season came around, and he knew Ferguson as Park Ji-sung’s teacher.

And now, the person I knew, even though I’m not good at soccer, was right in front of me.

The man looked at me with a very curious look and soon started talking about soccer.

Me in Hanover.

Me during my time at Manchester United.

Quite surprisingly, Sir Alex Ferguson is said to have had his eye on me since Hannover were in the Second Division.

When I was slightly surprised by that, Ferguson smiled and said,

“It’s not that surprising, Kim. What footballer wouldn’t pay attention to a very young kid from Korea keeping a clean sheet in the second division?”

“Ah… … I guess so.”

“It wasn’t just me, it was everyone in football in England who was watching you. It wasn’t just England, it was the whole world watching you.”

“… A second division soccer player? World?”

“That clean sheet record is amazing. For a striker, it’s like scoring 90 goals in one season in the second division. Who wouldn’t pay attention?”

And one more thing to add.

“Actually, in terms of difficulty, it is said that keeping a clean sheet in a season is more difficult than scoring 90 goals. That’s why I didn’t understand Jan Lytl. Every time he went into a game, he didn’t score a goal, so why did he keep scoring and then missing…?”

“… Ahahaha. At that time, it was actually difficult for me to understand.”

Let’s tell a joke. Sir Ferguson chuckled. I guess he likes this kind of joke.

Sir Ferguson has since praised me like a gentle grandfather.

You’re doing well, so just keep doing that, you’re a gift from heaven, if you had that kind of talent as a striker, you would have been the greatest striker of all time, surpassing Messi, Maradona, and Pele…

I felt good receiving such praise from someone who was once considered the world’s greatest master… … but I just felt good.

It’s not a burden, right? Yeah.

“In particular, I am so grateful that you came to Manchester United instead of Real Madrid. You must have wanted to go to Real Madrid, which is called the dream club, but is there a reason why you chose Manchester United?”

And Ferguson went on and on about how he didn’t understand, that Manchester United were losing influence, etc.

As expected from an inspiration, he talks a lot.

I listened to all that, smiled, and said something.

“The reason I chose this club is because I thought it would be fun to come here.”

“…Fun? Not because of your career?”

“I thought that no matter where I chose, that club would win all the trophies. That’s why I didn’t go to Real Madrid. They’re already so strong. So if I went… … it didn’t seem fun.”

“Aha. So you came here because you thought it would be better than Real? Right?”

Stand out?

I hadn’t thought about it that much, but now that you say it, it seems right.

“You could look at it that way.”

“… That’s a lot of confidence. It’s a different style from Ji. Well, I thought you had an unusual personality ever since you joined. Haha.”

Sir Ferguson continued talking and then looked at me.

“So, what do you think? Are you having fun?”

“Yes. It’s fun. Sometimes I get really annoyed… … but that’s okay.”

“Can we expect to win the league?”

“Just ask for any cup you want. I’ll bring you whatever you want.”

Ferguson beams at my confidence.

The hosts and staff nearby all smiled at what I said.

‘Well, this kind of showmanship sometimes… .’

And this confidence is not just a word. If other clubs fail to come up with something like a groundbreaking destruction method, this will become a reality.

They’re probably studying day and night to see through me, but it won’t be easy. Even those thorough Germans have given up on me.

* * *

The rematch against Liverpool came quickly.

North West Derby.

This time the match will be held at Liverpool’s home ground, Anfield.

But Giovanni looks confident.

“We beat Liverpool in the EFL Cup last time. Right here, at Anfield. It’s nothing. It’s just a stadium with a lot of Liverpool fans.”

Director Giovanni conveys his message in slow Italian English.

“We also met Liverpool in the first half of last season and beat them 3-0. We’ve met them twice this season and won both times. Liverpool are nothing to us this year.”

Although he says it’s nothing, Coach Giovanni seems to be more conscious of Liverpool than anyone else.

It was a kind of self-projection.

I don’t think Liverpool are anything, so you should think so too!

‘… Liverpool can’t be nothing.’

However, this is a team that is ranked 4th this season. It is a club that even the world’s best Manchester City cannot take lightly (as far as I know, Klopp’s Liverpool has a better record against Pep’s Manchester City), and other teams also get nervous when they face them.

I ignored Giovanni’s shouts and motivated myself to do my best today by not giving up a run.

* * *

… and the game that unfolded was going in a stranger direction than expected.

I stood in front of the goal with my hands on my sides, watching the game unfold from afar in amazement.

“What do you want to do now?”

Why is Liverpool called ‘Hoffenheim’?

Back in the Hannover days, Hoffenheim had a string of clean sheets and decided to take just one point without scoring against Hannover.

And that strategy inspired other teams to torment Hannover until the end of the league season. Seriously.

But I expected that this wouldn’t happen again after coming to Manchester United, and actually, that hasn’t happened yet, so I was secretly happy about it…

“Liverpool are poisoning the well.”

It looks like Liverpool is going to make a move.

Also, Liverpool’s weight class is equal to Manchester United’s or has a slight advantage.

When a team of the same caliber decides to close, it is very difficult to score a goal. Especially when you have strikers like Man U whose form is like a stick in every game.

‘But no matter what, Manchester United is not Hannover.’

A club like Manchester United only has players who know how to score goals. No matter how hard you defend to prevent goals, if you keep getting hit for 90 minutes, won’t you be able to avoid a goal?

As I expected, Liverpool did not sit back and continued to counterattack, but the number of counterattacks was not as large as usual.

‘… I guess I’ll have to wait and see how it goes.’

After a long time, Honey Minwoo mode is activated.

* * *

Despite making these decisions on his own, Klopp continued to doubt himself.

I’m still hesitating whether this is really right, whether this is really the best.

‘No matter how desperate we are for points… … doing this at Anfield… … .’

Cross your arms and sigh.

As expected, the match was a series of frustrating moments.

Liverpool had enough power to push Manchester United and still had the power to turn the game around at any time.

But Liverpool are just quietly defending as ordered.

Klopp himself felt that this strategy was wrong, but no matter how much he studied, there was no way to break through Kim.

Rather than losing by hitting a goal that has no chance of winning, wouldn’t it be better to just collect points like many Bundesliga clubs did?

Of course, this is a strategy that only works for teams with similar strength to Liverpool. If other teams follow this, they will not be able to win the 90 minutes and will eventually collapse under Manchester United’s attack.

Time passes by slowly, the first half passes, half time passes, and the second half passes.

The game was going as planned.

It interrupts the flow in a frustrating way and slows down the tempo by delaying the game for as long as possible.

Naturally, fans who did not come to see this game expressed their discontent here and there.

Klopp felt guilty when he heard that voice.

However, after a long period of meetings and research, this was the conclusion.

Split the points.

‘Of course, the worst conclusion here is that we only play defense and concede a goal, and we don’t even get any points.’

Given the flow of the game, it doesn’t seem likely.

First of all, Manchester United’s attack line looked like the Manchester United that he knew.

Poor decision-making.

A shot that hits with the hope of luck.

Dribbling with unknown intentions.

There are countless other details to go into, but in any case, Manchester United were completely caught up in Liverpool’s strategy.

Perhaps frustrated, Hoilun was replaced by Bayer, but Klopp was rather confident of a draw here.

‘I would have been nervous if forward Kim had come out, but… if we do this, we can really tie.’

Klopp also admits that forward Kim is lacking and immature as a striker.

The young kid is still missing something to play in the best league in the world.

But once Kim appears, something strangely goes wrong.

It’s not always the case, but Klopp believes that forward Kim is a genius at creating variables.

On the surface, it seems like the variables were created by the opposing team’s mistakes, but if Kim hadn’t been playing diligently, those mistakes wouldn’t have happened in the first place.

‘And also a remarkable degree of determination.’

Kim was strangely decisive. He was the kind of player who could score goals easily.

‘No, no. It’s actually difficult, but it looks easy to put in.’

Klopp sees Kim’s development as gradual.

If goalkeeper Kim was already complete, striker Kim looked like Kim from his debut days at Hannover.

A player who will become successful within a year from now at the earliest, or within two years at the latest.

For some reason, Giovanni didn’t use Kim in today’s game, and he even replaced Hoilun with Bayer, so it didn’t seem like Kim would be playing.

As expected, Giovanni tried everything he could to score a goal, but due to Manchester United’s characteristic finishing problem, the goal did not go in.

‘Hmm… .’

And striker Kim, who was brought in at the 83rd minute of the second half.

Giovanni was the last player to be put in after trying everything.

So in the second half, 91 minutes.

Kim took a sharp shot.

Alisson barely managed to block the shot and send it into the corner, but Klopp was scared of that aspect of Kim.

He creates something out of nowhere without any angles. He is truly a genius at creating variables.

‘Whew. I should thank Giovanni.’

Fortunately, time was of the essence.

Now 2 minutes including extra time.

Even if you are a genius at creating variables, you don’t have time to create something.

And the remaining two minutes passed in an instant, including a corner kick, and the game ended with the referee’s whistle.

It ended as planned. A draw. One point.

“…shit.”

I sighed in relief, but I didn’t feel very good. The world-class Klopp had such a shameful game. And it was at Anfield.

The game ended in a draw, but the humiliation was even greater than if I had lost.

When I went to shake Giovanni’s hand, he smiled and shook my hand, but his expression seemed somewhat contemptuous.

‘under.’

You have the expression of a world-class general.

Are you blocking me because I can’t do it? Okay, I understand. That kind of expression.

Klopp turned around and laughed incredulously.

‘If I had Kim, that guy would have been beaten to death without even being able to breathe.’

Damn it. That’s why no one gets lucky.