Field Commander - Chapter 16

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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 16.

Chapter 16.

Chapter 16.

For some people, acting like a senior in the 3rd Division League might be their reason for playing soccer.

“Birthday.”

Park Sang-il made a scoffing expression at my question.

“January 10th.”

But I have to make Korea win the World Cup within the given time.

And Hong Yoon-bo, who was newly appointed as the National Team manager this time, filled 85% of the squad with overseas players, and filled the rest with players from clubs he had worked with.

When even players competing for MVP in the K1 League can’t get selected, there’s no way they’d come to watch games just because someone’s flying around in the K3 League.

“Mine’s January 1st.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Why don’t you ask the manager?”

I was abandoned at an orphanage before I was even one year old, so I don’t know when my birthday is.

So I just decided on February 22nd.

But what’s wrong with changing it to January 1st, a birthday I don’t even know?

The guy spoke as if he wouldn’t back down.

“I came here a year ago, you know?”

“That’s military service, right? I’m exempt.”

“Still, you should treat me like a senior…”

“Are you better at soccer than me?”

“…”

Ah, of course I had no intention of making an enemy of Park Sang-il.

This guy was the team’s main striker, and the faster I could sync up with him, the shorter the time until I played my first game – that was an absolute fact.

“Are you better at cursing than me? Can you get on people’s nerves better than me?”

“Ah, sorry. I’ll admit that. But in terms of looks…”

“If you and I stand together, people will think it’s a zoo.”

“Haah…”

“So, is that the end of our first greeting?”

“No, why does everything get so twisted whenever I meet you?”

“It’s not just you, so don’t think you’re special.”

Park Sang-il burst out laughing at my words.

“You really have a unique personality.”

When I extended my hand for a handshake, he gripped it firmly.

“Congratulations on joining.”

“Thanks.”

“Let’s work well together from now on.”

“Good. But is that all your luggage?”

“Yeah.”

Only then could I look around the room properly.

But…

“What? Are you already married?”

A wedding photo placed on the desk.

The bride is quite pretty.

“It was a bit early. That’s Jung Ga-eun. My childhood friend. We were at the same school in high school, then got married right after graduation. Originally we got married early because I was going to go overseas, but that failed.”

For a guy who looks like a gorilla, he has quite a shy expression.

“But why are you living in the dorm?”

“To focus on soccer.”

“You’re not living together?”

“Yeah, she’s working at a farm our parents run in Gangneung. A baby’s going to be born soon too.”

“Wow… you succeeded.”

“Hehehe. Now I just need to play soccer well.”

“I’m envious.”

Me…

I…

I don’t think I can even dream of getting married and having a baby.

If I can’t make Korea win the World Cup within 15 years…

“You can do it quickly too.”

“Does that happen just because you want it to?”

“If you put your mind to it, what can’t you do?”

I’m in a position where I can’t do it even if I want to.

But I really am envious.

Park Sang-il looked at his watch.

“Pack your stuff roughly and let’s go down. Training’s starting soon.”

“Okay.”

* * *

“Finally here? Kim Sang-hyuk?”

“Oh, welcome.”

The players I met while coming down from the officetel building all greeted me warmly.

“How’s my hairstyle today?”

Even the player I teased about having thin hair during the game threw out a friendly joke.

“Model-level, sir?”

“Hehe. What’s with that light-speed attitude change? But should I quit soccer and become a model?”

“No way. We absolutely need you in the midfield, hyung.”

Captain Seo Dong-myung chimed in.

“Hehe. I guess it’s my destiny to play soccer.”

Overall, the atmosphere seemed quite good.

They treated not just me, but also the other test players who joined with me comfortably.

“Is the atmosphere always like this?”

When I asked Seo Dong-myung, he shook his head.

“They’re being nice to you guys because you play soccer well. The expectations are no joke. But if you played poorly, they would’ve started cursing you the moment they met you.”

“Ah, really?”

“Even if you get cursed at, don’t take it too personally. That’s just how those people are. But they all have the same goal. They want to play in a higher league. Since transfers aren’t easy, they want to win the championship and move up to the second division. It’s good that resources that can help have arrived.”

“Transfers aren’t easy?”

“Every year monster-like rookies appear, and high-level foreign players are recruited… opportunities don’t come easily to us who’ve fallen to the lower leagues. Unless we show tremendous performance in the Korea Cup.”

While hearing various stories about Cheongju FC, we finally arrived at the training ground.

“Alright, everyone gather!”

Manager Park Chang-yeol gathered the players.

“I already talked about this during pre-season training, but since new members have joined, I’ll talk about it again today. Even if it sounds like nagging, don’t show it on your faces and listen.”

“Yes.”

They looked quite disciplined.

“First, our goal this season is promotion. In the Korea Cup, our goal is advancing to the round of 16. To achieve that, we’ll pay a lot of attention to defense.”

I felt Park Chang-yeol’s gaze behind his sunglasses turning toward me.

“My soccer philosophy is defense first, attack second. We defend solidly to block the opponent’s attacks, then steal goals from the opponent with quick counter attacks. For that, communication during games is important. On days when games go well, communication flows well even without saying much, but on days when games don’t go well, no one opens their mouth. This season, let’s make sure that doesn’t happen…”

Cheongju FC’s defenders were all over 185cm tall and skilled in physical battles and headers.

Overall, their speed was somewhat slow and their ball-handling level was low, but their pass timing was definitely fast.

The midfielders also knew how to engage in physical battles to some extent and lacked creativity, but they were skilled at transition passes.

In contrast, the wing-backs and one of the front attackers, Seo Dong-myung, were quite fast.

“…Newly joined players will gradually receive opportunities once their bodies are sufficiently developed and they become familiar with the tactics. Please have patience with a mindset of sacrifice and dedication for the team’s goals.”

It was somewhat different from high school days when everything was authoritarian.

And I noticed coaches and club officials bringing various equipment needed for training.

My heart was pounding with excitement at the thought of finally playing real soccer.

“Lastly, I will announce what was agreed upon with the club owner yesterday.”

At those words, I felt the existing players’ gazes focus on Park Chang-yeol.

“The league championship bonus is 30 million won. The victory bonus for each match is 1 million won. And for important matches, increased bonuses will be set according to the club owner’s intentions.”

Then, unlike the reluctant responses from before, a truly eardrum-hitting sound rang out.

“Yes!!!”

“Great!”

“Let’s go! Let’s go! Championship!”

This seemed to be the first time seeing such an energetic atmosphere while the manager was speaking.

I also did some research…

For a 3rd Division League victory bonus, this could really be considered substantial.

“Alright, now let’s start training.”

* * *

Late at night.

Cheongju FC Director’s Office.

– Are you the manager? Are you the manager? Huh? This bastard got cocky because I praised him for doing well, where do you think you’re climbing up to? Want to die?

Park Chang-yeol briefly recalled old memories and opened his eyes.

He had followed the soccer elite course and played for about 5 years at a K League club after graduating university.

Though not famous, he was a necessary player for the team and could continue playing soccer, and wanting to change the soccer world once, he prepared for a UEFA Coaching License since his playing days.

Thanks to that, he was able to start his coaching career at a K League club immediately after early retirement.

However, due to conflicts with the manager and Korea’s narrow soccer network, he couldn’t find employment and was struggling when he ended up here after coaching an early morning soccer club in his hometown of Cheongju.

The manager who killed his career in the soccer world was currently the national team manager.

“Someday…”

Park Chang-yeol, who had briefly dozed off, got up and looked over the evaluation charts of the new members.

This evaluation chart was Park Chang-yeol’s personal creation based on his subjective judgment and wasn’t shared with other coaches.

Lee Chang-su had good off-the-ball movement, was fast, and had decent decision-making ability.

If they instilled the team color and developed his match sense, he seemed like he could be sufficiently developed as Seo Dong-myung’s replacement.

Goalkeeper Na Jung-seok possessed such good skills that it was incomprehensible why he hadn’t debuted on the professional stage yet.

He was a resource who could work even if taken to the K2 League right now, and they planned to put him in the starting competition immediately.

And…

“Kim Sang-hyuk.”

The rumors that circulated in the soccer world 3 years ago were definitely not false rumors.

Regarding mental abilities, he showed such perfect performance that one would wonder if there could be such a player in Korean soccer.

– That guy can see 1 second into the future, can’t he?

The coaches’ joke flashed through his mind.

– Prediction Ability: A+

His prediction ability was ridiculously good to that extent.

It was amazing how his fast and accurate decision-making could make the game itself so stable.

– Decision Making: A

However, physical problems still needed to be reconsidered.

– Stamina: D

“Well, this is something time will solve.”

Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to run very hard, but video analysis clearly showed he went exactly where needed and minimized unnecessary movements.

“And I thought he would be relatively slow…”

Since he rarely attempted overlapping, I thought he wasn’t confident in speed, but his speed was definitely not slow.

Of course, it wasn’t at the level to compare with speed-specialized wing-backs or Seo Dong-myung, but compared to the team’s defenders, he was fast.

– Speed: B-

Despite having a massive height of 195.7cm, his body flexibility and balance were excellent, not matching his height, as shown in the previous practice match.

– Flexibility: A-

– Balance: B+

“This must be the physical ability that explains this guy’s ironclad defense.”

On top of this, he felt no discomfort handling the ball with both feet.

– Both feet.

To be precise, his left foot had high accuracy, and his right foot was full of power.

– Pass: A

Even just looking at high school matches, Kim Sang-hyuk rarely made pass mistakes, and this continued during the week of training.

– First Touch: A

Not making pass mistakes under tremendous pressure means having good first touch.

Park Chang-yeol had evaluation charts for all Cheongju FC players, and the overall evaluation items were roughly between C+ and D+.

But Kim Sang-hyuk’s overall evaluation was surprisingly B+.

A player who could sufficiently reach A0 if he improved his physical aspects and refined a few movements.

In this evaluation chart he’d been making since his coaching days, Kim Sang-hyuk was the only player to receive an overall evaluation of B+.

Yoo Cheong-ryong, who transferred from the K League to the EPL, was about B0.

Of course, this evaluation chart doesn’t explain everything about a player.

There are tendencies and habits.

“If I can’t improve the team’s performance with this guy, that would be a problem with my ability.”

The first match played on Thursday was against the Ulsan Citizens Team, which was in the relegation zone last year.

Despite dominating gameplay, they ended up drawing 1:1.

The team’s disappointing concentration shown in the second half.

“I’d like to give him more time to build his body, but…”

The team’s performance was also very important.

Though he didn’t yet have the stamina to play full time, if he came out in the second half and just prevented goals, the substitution would be meaningful enough.

* * *

“Gather!”

At the manager’s shout, I got up from loosening my tense muscles.

Unlike training alone, this was definitely systematic and several times more intense.

Initially, I had physical problems that made it difficult to finish all the training, but now, about 2 weeks later, I was completely digesting the training.

All the players gathered in front of the manager with tense expressions.

They had no choice but to be tense because the next match lineup was being announced.

– Think that you’ll play as a substitute in about 3 weeks.

Having received a hint from the manager, I wasn’t expecting much and was catching my breath.

“Tomorrow’s match against the Chungnam Asan Team is a rivalry match. Don’t forget that meaning. Now I’ll announce the lineup… Starting… Substitutes… Number 88 Kim Sang-hyuk…”

When my name was called, the other players gave light applause.

“Wow, you’re getting into a match the fastest among the newly joined guys, right? In 2 weeks?”

Lee Soon-deok, the starting midfielder and oldest member, livened up the atmosphere.

“Probably so?”

Seo Dong-myung answered.

“Now we can worry a bit less about the back, right? At my age, my joints aren’t good. Oh, my joints.”

Since he was someone who melted the stiff atmosphere within the team, laughter naturally flowed out.

“If your joints are bad, retire and become a coach.”

When Park Chang-yeol replied, Lee Soon-deok made a dying sound.

“Ah, I don’t have enough money.”

In the end, everyone burst into laughter.

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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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