Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 95



Only Krnovel

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The next evaluation match was against Morocco.

We had to drive around France again for another friendly match against Morocco, and this was what I was thinking as I rode the bus.

‘The Olympics are held in Paris, so why do the evaluation matches have to be held in other cities?’

I knew why.

Since so many countries are having their final evaluation matches during this period, there will be no room.

In addition, unlike the World Cup, the Olympics are held in cities, so there were many problems.

Moreover, whether it was the French patriotism or the incompetence of the Football Federation, we had to play a friendly match against Morocco in a city far from Paris.

“Player Kim Min-woo. You kept a clean sheet in the last match against Ukraine. Can we expect another clean sheet in the upcoming Olympic group stage?”

And a brief interview before the game.

To be honest, I’d like to give an answer that would be a bit difficult.

Journalists. And there is an image of me that the public expects.

I, who have always shown an impenetrable image, suddenly say, “Oh, Mbappe is so-so…” Hehe. How embarrassing would it be if I were to do an interview like this?

So, I answered with a confident expression and a confident voice, even though I really didn’t feel that way.

“Well, it’s a bit odd to talk about the group stage when we’re about to have our last friendly match against Morocco, but… I’m excited and nervous because I’m going to be meeting the world’s best players. Even those players won’t be able to get past me. It’s thrilling to even imagine.”

“Ohhh!”

I went straight into the stadium to warm up, then came back and spoke in front of the cameras.

“Keep in mind, I haven’t conceded a single goal since my pro debut. Even before my debut.”

He winked at the top of his lungs and even winked one eye.

“Hey! Player Kim Min-woo! I believe in you! Fighting!”

“Fighting, Republic of Korea!”

I watched the reporters’ fuss, smiled, and went into the stadium.

‘Fuck. I did it···.’

Why did you do that?

Why did you do that?

Why are you going crazy beyond verses 2 and 3 when you could just say something like, “I’m confident!”

But the milk has already been spilled, and if we concede even one goal in the group stage, it will be a black mark on our history for the rest of our lives.

“Minwoo! Are you crazy confident? But you need to correct yourself. I’ve already fooled you three times!”

As I entered through the entrance, Lee Kang-im, who had been secretly watching me, grabbed my body and laughed and joked.

I grumbled to myself.

I once conceded three free kick goals to Lee Kang-im, but it was an event match and I had only recently started playing soccer, so it was natural to concede goals against a midfielder playing for Paris Saint-Germain, but Lee Kang-im did it again-

“Brother. Do you want to try again? If you do it now, it really won’t work.”

“No? Why me?”

I kept asking for a rematch, but Lee Kang-im never listened, saying he needed to warm up.

“Shocked?”

“No problem, hyung, I’m busy!”

And Lee Kang-im runs away naked.

Is it an illusion that I am remembering myself running away and roaring in front of the chiller during the competition for the starting position?

*

Morocco are the winners of the U23 Africa Cup of Nations.

In our terms, we can think of them as the Asian Cup champions.

In other words, although this match is a final evaluation match, it is a match of pride between the countries that have won the championship trophies of each continent.

However, the winning team did not have any particularly dangerous players, and if we had to name a few star players, they were two center backs and one midfielder.

The two centre-backs, Atsraf Rajri and Shadi Riad.

These two players played for Lyon and Real Betis respectively.

So you might be under the illusion that the defense is very solid, but Atsraf Laziri is in Lyon’s reserve team and Shadi Riad is on loan to Betis.

hmm.

However, Shadi Riad’s original team was Barcelona, ​​but he was mostly left out of the roster or barely sat on the bench before going to Betis.

And at Betis, where he was on loan, he was currently just sitting on the bench.

I wonder if the Betis bench has a massage function.

So who’s the last midfielder?

His name is Salim El Zebari, and his team is Atletico Madrid. It’s a prestigious Spanish club that is known as the ‘little club’.

But there’s a ‘B’ at the end. He’s also a rookie in the second team, and he’s only nineteen years old.

I’m only eighteen, but I’m still a starter, right?

‘Even Atletico Madrid B is not even in the Spanish second division, but in the third division.’

That’s why I have hope.

The squads of other countries that are expected to win will also be somewhat lacking, except for a few players.

Anyway, Korea has nothing to lose.

Our team has Lee Kang-im, Park Seung-ho who scored a mid-range goal against Brazil in the World Cup, and many others.

There may be wildcards there too, but I can cover that much.

And the game begins.

I clapped my hands with my gloves on and gave the defense a boost.

*

And the match against Morocco was a match that suddenly revived the national team’s performance, which had been lackluster until then.

First of all, it seemed like they had barely analyzed Korea.

If you attack and get blocked, you have to quickly switch back to your own defense, but compared to other teams on average, you are too slow, so I used my quick and accurate kicks to the max in this game.

The players, who were already accustomed to my measured passes, were busy running forward and raising their hands when I caught the ball, so I picked one of them and threw it to him.

Players with the best conditions and circumstances who can do something in this situation.

Right now, I’m choosing one out of many, but once I get to the Olympic finals, I’m thinking of never giving a chance to some of the players who raised their hands.

Because the inevitable limitations of a young player were clearly visible to my eyes.

Anyway, Morocco got beat by South Korea in a big way.

The African Cup of Nations winners had to accept a crushing 4-0 defeat to the Asian Cup winners, and we were able to embrace each other in a good mood when the final whistle blew.

“Good job, our Minwoo!”

“The youngest is the most dependable!”

Since the match against Morocco, I have heard from my fellow players and coaching staff that although I am the youngest, I am more reliable than the veterans in their 30s.

I thought so too.

Even if I didn’t necessarily use the quick and accurate kick, I actively intervened in the ball development by confidently joining one axis of the build-up.

If Lee Jin-seop or Seol Young-wook had nowhere to go, they would just pass the ball back to me, and I would receive the ball and make an accurate long pass forward.

Morocco was repeatedly hit by Korea’s mysterious attack, but they were unable to find a solution until the end of the game, and were just hit unilaterally.

‘They beat a country that had already qualified for the Olympics 4-0, albeit in a different group. Is this really a green light?’

Of course, the problem is that South Korea’s opponents are Mbappe on the left, Salah on the right, and players wearing the American flag in the front, but it still seems worth a try.

Rather, I was looking forward to meeting those countries.

“Brother. You’re on the same team as Mbappe, right? What do you think?”

I asked Lee Kang-im that in the locker room. Lee Kang-im cleared his throat and answered.

“Just do your best.”

That’s something that even Mr. Kim in Korea knows···.

*

They got off to a good start, winning two evaluation matches with shutout scores of 2:0 and 4:0.

Now, we just need to show this brisk start in the group stage.

So we waited for the Paris Olympics to open while doing recovery training.

That doesn’t mean I only trained when I came to Paris. Sometimes I went on a city tour to freshen up.

I went to the Louvre Museum, the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré-Cœur Basilica, and a restaurant with a view of the Seine River…

There was a moment when I was touring Paris that made me think that it was a really good idea to play soccer.

And I also felt a little sorry towards my family for enjoying these tours all by myself.

‘I should take my family on a tour of France during my next break.’

And then one day, two days before the opening day of the Olympics, I suddenly got a call from Corsic.

-Hey~ Kim!

“What’s going on all of a sudden? Why? Are you transferring?”

Since I had no reason to contact Corsic out of the blue, I brought up the most important issue for a football player.

Then Corsic laughed and replied,

-What, Kim? Are you afraid I’ll transfer?

“No. Actually, I thought you were going to let me go, but I said it indirectly because I thought of you.”

-That’s strange. Apparently, Europeans say that Asians are shy, loyal, and don’t joke around much.

“Okay. So why did you call? What’s going on?”

-You’ve recently increased your Instagram followers, right?

“uh?”

What is this again?

I asked back in bewilderment.

“Insta?”

-Hey! When I asked you to follow me back, you flatly refused, but then suddenly increased the number of followers. But that’s okay. Why wasn’t I included in that increased number of followers?

“Is that why you called now?”

– Hey Kim. This is a very important issue. There’s a rumor going around that there’s a feud among Hannover fans right now. You know? The media is making a big fuss about a little spark that could start a big fire.

Hmm. Is that so? But, well. When I first started following, my eyes were wide open and I don’t even remember who I applied to.

-And I have some personal regrets. I thought we were really close! How could you? You follow everyone but me!

“Really? I’ll apply later. I just randomly called someone on the spur of the moment. I don’t even remember who I applied to.”

-Why? You didn’t do that.

“There was a reason for that. Anyway, Corsic? You’re a bit of a girly girl, aren’t you?”

-what?

I hung up the phone right before Corsic started talking nonsense. And then I burst out laughing. Oh my. There’s a guy who calls me because I didn’t follow him back. This is really ridiculous.

*

In recent years, it has become common for Olympic games to begin before the opening ceremony.

And the same was true for this year’s Paris Olympics.

Some of the summer sports were already holding their preliminaries before the opening ceremony.

However, soccer was an exception for this tournament.

So we were able to watch live the various countries participating in the Olympics carrying their national flags and participating in the opening ceremony.

“wow···.”

France really put a lot of effort into it.

My thoughts after watching the opening ceremony were that it was enjoyable to watch?

“It seems like France was very nervous about the London Olympics…”

Eugene Ho’s muttering.

By the way, I heard that the opening ceremony of the London Olympics held 12 years ago was also GOAT.

Well, that doesn’t really matter.

We slept well that day and woke up the next day to prepare for the game.

Fortunately, my condition was fine, and none of my colleagues had a gaunt face, so I expected them to show me their condition.

And the first match of Group A is between France and Egypt, who play three hours before us.

The match between Mbappe and Salah ended in a landslide victory for the divine Mbappe.

“You’re really good at it···.”

Lee Kang-im did not say anything wrong.

Mbappe is very good.

Mbappe’s France showed the world that they are at this level by scoring three goals in the first half against Egypt, which had Salah.

French coach Thierry Henry (yes, that Arsenal Henry), who judged that the game had been completely turned around from the first half, replaced all three players who had been selected as wild cards, and later, when he judged that the game was completely decided according to the course of the game, he used up all the substitution cards he had and rested the first team players.

‘You’re trying so hard to be sincere and give it your all when you’re with us…’

However, as if Egypt’s Salah could not end the game like this, he managed to break through France’s complete defense and score.

And that was for the best.

The match ended with a 3-1 win for France, and as expected, France were incredibly strong.

At this level, he was definitely capable of winning a gold medal.

“Okay! Okay! Let’s focus. Focus!”

And Eugene Ho attracts attention.

That’s there, and we are us.

We were about to play against the United States.

We face France in the next game, but right now we have to face the United States, so we have to focus and concentrate on the United States.

“You all know, this first game is the most important. We beat Ukraine and Morocco, but honestly, they are just mock tests. We have to do well in the actual game. If you do as well as you did in the evaluation matches, the coach won’t worry too much.”

As Coach Choi said, the match against the US was the most important for us. If we couldn’t beat the US, we would have given up on advancing to the tournament.

And the United States was the winner of the regional tournament after Morocco.

‘We only meet the winning countries in a row.’

What’s surprising here is that France, in the same group, is not the regional champion. England is the European champion, but England is a country that would not have qualified for the Olympics even if it had won.

This was due to regional sentiment that if they wanted to participate in Olympic football, they would have to unite with Wales and Scotland, and that they could not stand to see that happen.

If they had combined, they would have created a team that would be just as good as France. It’s terrible.

And France lost 1:3 to Ukraine, the team we faced in that tournament, and that alone showed how great a player Mudrik was.

‘Well, because Mbappe, Griezmann and Coman weren’t there.’

In other words, if Mbappe, Griezmann, and Coman weren’t there, Korea would have had a good chance against France. So, if they weren’t there.

Since it’s not like there isn’t one, I guess it’s worth a try.

In addition, we even rested our players right when the odds were against us in order to prepare for our game.

“America is not a pushover, but we are not a pushover either. Go beat them. Crush them!”

Coach Choi has not mentioned the tactics he will use against the United States yet because he has already heard them over and over again.

Because we really have to play soon.

However, Coach Choi repeatedly explained why we absolutely had to win against the United States, and we held a ceremony to defeat our evil enemy, the United States, starting with Captain Park.

“Wow! Wow! Wow! For military exemption!”

“Wow! Wow! Wow! For military exemption!”

···Oh, I’m so annoyed. Can you change the slogan?

End

ⓒ Doctor Am