Field Commander - Chapter 15

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 15.

Chapter 15.

Chapter 15.

“In the second half, everyone will be substituted. We’ll give other applicants a chance too.”

After conceding a goal, Cheongju FC ran like madmen as if they were playing in a final.

Since my position wasn’t the last defender, I did my best to stop the opponent’s attacks, but I couldn’t cover for our team players getting beaten in one-on-one marking.

Eventually, we conceded a goal to Seo Dong-myung who had shaken off our defender, and the first half ended 1:1.

Being swept up in the opponent’s tremendous tempo, my stamina was completely drained before I knew it.

‘This is just the beginning.’

In just 3 months, my stamina and body had developed enough to handle half a match in the 3rd Division League, so it definitely couldn’t be called too late.

Very fast.

The entire team was substituted and the second half began, ultimately gifting Park Sang-il a hat-trick as we suffered a crushing 1:4 defeat.

The biggest problem was the lack of defensive resources who could handle Park Sang-il’s physical battles, and the goalkeeper who came in during the second half also played a big role with his poor judgment.

After the second half ended, the Cheongju FC players who had played almost the full time were finishing up by drinking sports drinks and draping towels around themselves, but most of the applicant team members who had only played half the match were lying flat on the grass, breathing heavily.

‘Seeing it from here, the difference is clear…’

While both sides had similar ball-handling skills, their passing timing was much faster, and there were no players using individual skills during the match.

Constantly forming formations with pass, pass, pass…

Only when creating shooting chances in the opponent’s territory did some players use individual skills slightly?

In contrast, the applicants seemed desperate to stand out, trying to use individual skills to beat their opponents.

Among them, players with really good footwork often beat defenders, but they also gave away counter-attack chances by losing the ball to quickly arriving support defenders.

Moreover, since the defense had no central axis, they were disorganized and wasted unnecessary stamina.

The difference between professionals and amateurs.

“Alright, everyone gather around.”

I got up and moved to the center of the field, standing in a line.

“Everyone worked hard today. It was a good game. Let’s finish with handshakes.”

The players who had glared at me as if they wanted to devour me during the game now smiled as they shook hands with me.

“You were good today.”

“Thank you.”

“Wow… you weren’t just famous for nothing, huh?”

“Haha, is that so?”

“Is my head really that shiny?”

“No… it was just a joke.”

“If it weren’t for you… really… But do you really not know me?”

Despite being blocked by me, Park Sang-il was also a striker with considerable talent.

With that large body, he handled the ball flexibly and had good passing and header abilities.

“How could I not know the striker who was considered the best in Gangwon Province during high school?”

“Why did you pretend not to know?”

“To beat you.”

“Ugh…”

Seo Dong-myung, who was standing next to Park Sang-il, pushed him.

“Get out of the way, man. Don’t create traffic jams.”

Seo Dong-myung shook hands with me and said.

“I sincerely want to play together with you sometime.”

“Thank you.”

After finishing handshakes with the opposing players, we gathered around Manager Park Chang-yeol.

“I commend the hard work of everyone who faithfully participated in the tryouts for a week. Today was the game that made our current players the most flustered among all the practice games during the tryouts. You can give yourselves a round of applause.”

Park Chang-yeol and the coaches clapped, and we clapped along too.

“If the squad allowed it, we’d want to recruit everyone, but due to the club’s circumstances, only a few of you will end up playing with us. Even if you don’t make it through the tryouts, if you love football, don’t be disappointed. If you gain match experience in lower leagues, you’ll eventually connect with K3 or even higher-level clubs.”

Finally, Park Chang-yeol bowed deeply to express his gratitude to the players.

After the brief but loud applause ended, a coach standing beside him held up a notebook.

“Numbers 4, 32, and 201, follow me.”

Number 4 was the goalkeeper who played the first half with me, and number 32 was Lee Chang-su.

The goalkeeper definitely had strengths in making saves.

Thanks to him, we avoided conceding goals during several crises.

Lee Chang-su’s movement was very clever.

Even if he were in Seo Dong-myung’s position, he seemed like he could fulfill that role sufficiently.

But both of them looked extremely surprised at being called.

“Congratulations. All three of you were clearly on a different level.”

At someone’s comment, the remaining applicants showed disappointed expressions but still applauded.

“Congratulations.”

“Fighting.”

I looked at them applauding and bowed my head slightly.

“Thank you.”

Now I was taking my first steps as a professional player.

And there was still such a long way to go.

* * *

– I sent today’s match video in full version. You told me not to send just highlights.

Freiburg’s scout Schmaike checked the email he received from Jung Seung-jin, with whom he had a long-standing relationship.

An Asian player.

Until just a few years ago, German football had several prejudices.

Asian players have small builds, so they don’t suit German football.

Their durability is poor, making them hard to use long-term.

They lack star quality, so they don’t bring in money.

However, Hamburg’s Park Hong-min had elevated Hamburg to high rankings with his speed and shooting power, becoming a national team player at the youngest age and rising to star status.

He heard rumors that the marketing revenue from that was tremendous.

Schalke 04’s Jang Jin-woo, who recently emerged, was already being considered a top scorer candidate with his amazing talent.

Some Japanese players said they’d be fine not receiving wages as long as they could play matches, so they were using those players for free, and surprisingly they had things that German players lacked.

Footwork, delicacy, individual skills, speed.

And very low wages compared to their abilities.

It was true that German clubs’ favorability toward Asian players was gradually increasing.

Since Freiburg was a citizen club, their scouting range wasn’t wide due to budget constraints, and they didn’t know much about what players existed in Korea.

However, Jung Seung-jin was such a sincere and highly trusted person that they were building a deep personal relationship.

“Let’s see if this guy really has Bundesliga potential.”

Although Jung Seung-jin was a small-scale agent, the quality of players he introduced matched his descriptions.

He also concluded contracts reasonably…

Since he was a trustworthy person, Schmaike decided to take time to watch the video.

– The team in white uniforms consists of tryout applicants, and the black uniforms are current players from the 3rd Division pro league. He was substituted in the second half, so I’m sending only the first half. Think of it as a match between amateurs and pros. Number 5 in the white uniform is Kim Sang-hyuk, the player I introduced.

“Wow, good size?”

He was clearly the biggest player on the ground.

Freiburg basically loved players with big size when it came to defenders.

Schmaike showed an intrigued expression.

This was because the team’s style was to defend with strong physicality and attack with counter-attacks.

“But he’s a defensive midfielder, not a center-back?”

This was a bit different from the introduction.

“I wonder if he can really perform well?”

The abilities needed for center-back and defensive midfielder were somewhat different.

“He’s been talking a lot since the start of the match. Good. Communication is fundamental. Oh, and didn’t they say this guy speaks some German too?”

Soccer was fundamentally a team sport, so there couldn’t be any communication problems.

“Good. Good. Nice pass. Is he two-footed?”

Even when the massive striker came in with rough pressure, he seemed to be passing one beat faster because he was two-footed, making it stable. On top of that, there were almost no pass mistakes.

About 10 minutes into the match, the surrounding players began trusting Kim Sang-hyuk and passing to him.

The back build-up was centered around that number 5, and the opposing team couldn’t easily steal the ball.

The white uniform’s defensive organization, which had been a mess early on, gradually began taking shape around Kim Sang-hyuk, and now they were starting to defend quite well against the opponent’s sharp attacks.

“Ooh… look at this?”

He was completely dominating the aerial ball contests against the opposing striker who looked much bigger.

Thanks to that, it was clear that the opponent’s attacks weren’t flowing well.

Rather, the tryout team looked better, as the opposing defense was falling apart from his long passes.

“His crosses are quite high-level too?”

Ah, wait…

Schmaike paused the video for a moment.

“This wasn’t just a highlight compilation video, was it?”

His eyes were soon filled with excitement.

He started watching the video again.

“Red card.”

But the referee pulled out a yellow card.

“I can’t understand it.”

But if a red card had come out here, it seemed like the tryout team would have won.

“The coaching staff looks bewildered too.”

And then the overhead kick situation unfolded.

He rewound and watched that part of the video several times.

“Wow, what kind of decision making is that? Is that really the judgment and movement of a player who suffered a major injury and stopped playing soccer for 3 years?”

Usually in situations like that, even Bundesliga players would lose the ball without being able to do anything.

The flexibility and jumping power he displayed were also at a considerable level.

After watching the video filled with exclamations and muttering, Schmaike leaned back deeply in his chair while looking at the paused laptop screen.

Then he placed both hands on the desk and tapped with his fingers for a while.

“This player is completely insane. He seems like a player the club absolutely cannot let slip away…”

He began typing on the laptop keyboard.

To. Head Scout.

– Boss. Take a look at this video. It’s urgent.

* * *

“Wow.”

Choi Do-hoon let out exclamations several times while looking at the clip he would upload to his live broadcast.

It was the scene of Kim Sang-hyuk doing an overhead kick.

Looking at this clip brought back the match situation he had seen this afternoon.

‘He’s not dead. Kim Sang-hyuk. He came back in an even more developed form!’

The start was Division 3, but the possibility of moving up to higher leagues soon was 100%.

“But he did show some physical problems near the end of the first half. For a player who hadn’t played soccer for 3 years, running that much was amazing, right?”

Not only that, but he had instantly improved the defensive capability of a hastily assembled team.

Enough to make active professional players play desperately.

“But Division 3 matches are surprisingly fun…?”

Was it because Kim Sang-hyuk was there?

Choi Do-hoon looked at the overhead kick clip again.

“Wow…”

It was inevitable to watch soccer because of scenes like this.

When he started the live broadcast, people began entering one by one.

– What’s that clip? Is it edited?

– I thought it was Zlatan.

– I can do that much in Jo-chuk too.

– When does the Liverpool commentary start?

– I’ve done overhead kicks in Jo-chuk too.

– That wasn’t Jo-chuk, it was a match between a K3 League team and tryout players. I went to see it too and wow, it was really amazingly fun.

– K3 League is fun? What about the soccer level…

– That clip is Kim Sang-hyuk, right?

– Isn’t Kim Sang-hyuk a defender? Why is he doing overhead kicks?

– When are you doing Liverpool commentary?

– When are you doing Manchester match commentary?

…

Some people showed interest, but most were people who came to watch today’s match commentary between Manchester City and Liverpool.

‘Well, there’s no need to explain it right now.’

People who watch EPL League wouldn’t be interested in K3 League matches.

They were people who cursed even K1 League as trash.

Once people got familiar with him, it seemed like he could eventually explode Kim Sang-hyuk’s potential.

“Alright, alright, let’s start the commentary now. Round 32 match between Manchester City and Liverpool!”

– Stop that rival bullshit. How can Liverpool even compare to Manchester City?

– Manchester City with their money games have corrupted the spirit of soccer.

– Arsenal is the best!

– Acting tough in front of Manchester United. Sir! Ferguson!

* * *

I had to move to the dormitory just 3 months after getting a place.

The landlord, who learned about my situation, immediately found a new tenant and I was able to vacate the room the next day.

I had kept it quite clean, but also because I had no belongings.

What I brought out from the empty room was one small travel bag, one backpack, a paper bag with shoes, and 2 soccer balls.

Agent Jung Seung-jin in Korea took care of finishing all the contract matters.

As discussed.

I went to the club, met with the club owner and manager, exchanged welcome greetings, and received a simple briefing.

“We’re using an entire officetel building, and it’s 2 people per room. We also have various training facilities inside. Among K3 clubs, we’d probably be ranked number one.”

All 3 players selected, including myself, attended this meeting.

Striker Lee Chang-su, goalkeeper Na Jung-seok.

Uncontainable excitement was clearly visible on their faces.

I also felt like I had stepped up a level, but since the goal I had to achieve was in such a distant place, it didn’t seem to show on my face.

“What, are you dissatisfied? Sang-hyuk?”

Park Chang-yeol said something.

“I always have this expression.”

“I see.”

He chuckled and continued speaking.

“The support from various companies is excellent, so the meals come out well at K1 level, and above all, the allowances are strong. Our club’s goal is to reach K1 League in the shortest time possible. For now, this year we have a path prepared to move up to K2 League, and now we just need to place first in the league.”

The two players showed tense expressions, and Park Chang-yeol scratched his head for a moment.

“I’m not telling you guys to become immediate assets. Train sufficiently and just don’t disappoint when you’re given a role.”

That was too obvious.

“Yes!”

The two players answered loudly.

“…Sang-hyuk can stay in Room 803. There’s a restaurant in the basement of the building, and on the first floor there are several facilities including a fitness room. If you have a car, register it and…”

After listening to about an hour of orientation related to player life, I went to Room 803.

When I opened the door and went inside, I saw a gorilla sprawled on the floor wearing only underwear.

“Huh?”

The gorilla jumped up at the sound of the door closing.

“What’s with the ‘huh’? Aren’t you going to greet your senior?”

It was Park Sang-il.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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