Field Commander - Chapter 17

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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 17.

Chapter 17.

Chapter 17.

“Booo…”

“Elementary school kids would play better soccer than you guys!”

“We want to see goals being scored! We’re sick of defensive soccer! You beggars!”

Freiburg fans who lost 0-1 after conceding a goal in the second half to Schalke 04’s rising star Jang Jin-woo sent harsh criticism toward the players and manager.

“I want to play well too. But staying in the league comes first.”

Last year’s manager who had brought the team up to 5th place in the Bundesliga suddenly transferred after receiving a good offer, and their key striker moved to the EPL, leaving them struggling in the relegation zone this year.

Near the end of the season when he was managing Freiburg II.

Streich, who had become the main team’s manager, hardened his expression and crossed his arms while chewing gum vigorously.

– If we can just avoid relegation this season, we’ll offer you an official manager contract.

Born in Freiburg, played for Freiburg, and after retiring as a player, started as a coach at Freiburg and worked his way up to first-team manager – Streich didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

Including today’s match, his record over 5 games was 4 draws and 1 loss.

Fortunately, teams competing in the relegation battle had suffered consecutive defeats, so staying in the Bundesliga was now certain.

Now his mind was focused on how to prepare for next season.

However, due to the nature of being a citizen club without sponsors, their transfer budget was among the lowest of all Bundesliga clubs, so decisions had to be made very carefully.

“You did well against a strong team.”

He encouraged the players in the locker room right after the match, but the atmosphere was very poor.

Several players who had expressed their intention to transfer next season through their agents left the locker room without even responding, even though the season wasn’t over yet.

‘We’ll have to rebuild anyway. We don’t have enough resources for attacking football.’

Waiting for Streich as he left the locker room was chief scout Markus Zorg.

“Good work.”

Zorg was also born in Freiburg, played for Freiburg, and became a scout after retirement – he was Streich’s best friend.

“Yeah.”

“We should leave the stadium a bit later, don’t you think?”

“Why?”

“We might get roughed up by angry fans.”

“Ah, that would be troublesome.”

“Did you see the email I sent?”

“Not yet.”

“I figured as much, so I brought it with me.”

“What is it?”

“Let’s sit over there and take a look.”

Streich entered an empty office with Zorg.

“How was Schalke 04’s Jang Jin-woo today?”

“He’s crazy. If it weren’t for the goal post god helping us… we could have conceded 3 or more goals.”

He’s clearly Asian, but… he fights physically like a Westerner.

Even when we deliberately and openly harassed him to provoke his youthful temper, it didn’t work.

His dribbling ability is good, he’s fast, and his shooting ability is excellent, making him too difficult to defend against.

On top of that, he has that Korean characteristic of diligence, so he doesn’t show any conditioning problems – he’s just a monster.

“Would you believe it if there was a player who completely shut down that guy all by himself?”

“If that’s the case, it must be a player I already know.”

“You probably don’t know him. I didn’t know either until I saw the footage. And other club scouts probably don’t know him either.”

Streich’s eyes, which had been showing a somewhat tired expression, sparkled.

“Really?”

“He even achieved victory in all 7 matches against Jang Jin-woo’s high school team with a much lower-level team.”

“High school?”

Streich showed a somewhat disappointed expression.

“I had similar thoughts to yours, but… I changed my mind a bit after seeing this footage.”

Zorg opened his laptop.

“He’s a Korean player that Schmaike is interested in… This is footage of him coming on as a substitute in their 3rd Division League.”

* * *

YouTuber Choi Do-hoon headed straight to Cheongju Sports Complex as soon as he heard the information that Kim Sang-hyuk was included in the squad.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the starting lineup.

“There are quite a lot of spectators?”

The average attendance for 3rd Division League matches was around 300 people, but tonight there seemed to be roughly 1,000 people gathered.

Since it was a stadium that could accommodate 16,000 people, it looked almost empty, but for a 3rd Division League match, this might be the highest attendance of the season.

The match began, and both teams clashed fiercely.

Cheongju FC was a team that attempted quick counter attacks based on defensive tactics, while Chungnam Asan was an attack-oriented team.

A battle between spear and shield.

Since both teams had such fast tempo, the development of defense and attack was quick.

“The 3rd Division League is surprisingly entertaining?”

There was no disagreement that K League 1 was where Korea’s best soccer players gathered.

Some say K2 is lower level, but there’s not much difference from K1.

That’s why after the league ends, many players move back and forth between both leagues.

And the K3 League.

The match tempo wasn’t much different from K1 and K2, but there was definitely a difference in players’ attention to detail, concentration, and precision.

“Ah, they’re missing that?”

Cheongju FC, who missed a goal they should have scored, conceded a goal to Asan from a set piece situation just before the end of the first half.

“Number 5 is really disappointing.”

He seems to be in an important position in Cheongju FC’s tactics…

He defends really well, but in counter attack situations, his passes come out late or he puts in crosses late.

If he could just send the ball forward 0.5 seconds faster, he could create very good situations.

That late timing gives the opponent time to make decisions.

‘This is the difference between K1 and K3. A 0.5 second difference.’

After the first half ended, Choi Do-hoon quietly looked toward Cheongju FC’s bench.

“It seems like they need to make changes now…”

* * *

After drawing 1:1 in the first round and not even getting paid.

As they were trailing 0:1 in the first half of this match, Cheongju FC’s locker room became extremely tense.

“Hey, pass the ball faster.”

Yoo Jung-sang, a defensive midfielder wearing number 5 and one of the team’s main players, frowned.

“Do you think you could pass when you’re being pressured from all sides?”

“What? The attack isn’t working because of you right now, aren’t you? Who are you blaming?”

It looked like teammates might even come to blows.

Captain Seo Dong-myung, who entered late, stepped between the two players.

“Stop it. What’s going on?”

Then the player who had initially complained answered.

“Captain, you know too, right? Who’s causing the game to go wrong like this?”

“Stop it. Right now we need to focus before the second half. Both of you, sit down.”

With his quite charismatic appearance, both players sat down in their seats.

Next to me was Yoo Young-sang, who kept letting out deep sighs.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I have to be okay.”

Since we were receiving training for the same position, we ended up talking about various things.

Yoo Young-sang was also a center-back when he first joined Cheongju FC as a military service volunteer.

However, he changed positions because there was a lack of defensive midfielder resources.

– If I develop my passing ability here and finish my military service, I might be able to go to a higher-level team.

Yoo Young-sang’s goal was to transfer to a higher-level team.

But looking at today’s game, that didn’t seem possible.

I could see a gap that couldn’t be improved upon.

‘Maybe if he were a center-back…’

His decision-making speed was too slow and he had no habit of looking around in all directions.

Soon after, the manager came in.

Despite being in a losing situation, he looked very calm.

“You know that if we don’t win today, we lose 1 million won in bonuses, right?”

Since a third of the squad consisted of married men with families…

The deflated atmosphere immediately became tense.

“And Beom-sik.”

He was the player in charge of center-back.

“Good work.”

“Why me?”

He probably didn’t know, but he kept losing track of the player he was marking during set piece situations.

That became the catalyst that eventually led to conceding a goal.

If it was obvious to my eyes, it must have been quite irritating to the manager’s eyes.

“After the game, review today’s footage. See what the problem was.”

Nevertheless, I thought substituting Yoo Young-sang would be the right move.

Because of him, our attacks weren’t working properly.

“Kim Sang-hyuk.”

Park Chang-yeol soon called my name.

At that moment, I could immediately understand the manager’s intention.

“Yes.”

“Go in for the second half.”

The players’ gazes focused on me.

I had expected it, but I was surprisingly a bit nervous.

Was it because this was my first official game since graduating high school?

“Yes.”

“Young-sang, drop back to Beom-sik’s position.”

“I…”

“Why, don’t you have confidence?”

At Park Chang-yeol’s question, Yoo Young-sang shook his head vigorously.

“No, sir.”

He looked very relieved.

Park Chang-yeol gave very detailed tactical instructions and then said one last thing.

“The opponents overpaced themselves in the first half. Score goals in bunches in the second half and show them who’s superior. The most fans we’ve had in a long time came today, so absolutely don’t disappoint them.”

* * *

“It’s been 3 years since you graduated, right?”

Seo Dong-myung said.

“Yes.”

“You’re fully prepared, so play with confidence. You need to fire the signal flare for our comeback.”

He patted my shoulder and ran forward.

“Hey, pass to me? You know that, right?”

Park Sang-il also said a word as he passed by.

“Wow, our rookie! Please take good care of the back so my joints don’t give out.”

Lee Soon-deok too…

And the rest of the teammates also patted my shoulder once each as they positioned themselves.

The weather was a bit chilly.

But since I was warmed up enough from the preparation exercises, it felt refreshing.

Perfect weather for playing soccer.

The natural grass holding moisture and the smell of grass rising from it.

I had become sufficiently familiar with the grass through team training.

I had also received enough training on tackles that I couldn’t easily do on rough dirt grounds or artificial turf.

I briefly made eye contact with the center-backs behind me and looked around the stadium.

There were quite a lot of spectators, but they weren’t cheering loudly or anything.

Because we were losing 0-1.

105m wide.

68m long.

The dimensions of a soccer field.

I was standing in the middle of one half of it.

Through the training so far, I had memorized our players’ characteristics to some extent.

In counter-attack situations, someone would run straight, someone would run around, someone would hesitate for a moment while assessing the situation.

Of course, it’s not 100% like that…

But having those behavioral patterns in my head allows me to make the next decision quickly.

My synesthetic ability didn’t come for free.

– Beep!

The referee’s whistle blew and the game started with the opposing team’s kickoff.

Asan Citizens Club had a strong tendency to use 4-3-3 tactics with both fullbacks overlapping and pushing their line high, which caused our players to struggle early on, but now they had retreated back as if to protect their lead.

Thanks to that, there was no strong pressure, and they were taking a slow tempo, making it much easier to adapt to the game.

– The opponents absolutely won’t push their line up when the second half starts due to stamina issues. We can’t use counter-attack tactics either. To quickly create an equalizer, this time we become the spear. Make the opponents impatient and make them move more.

The manager seemed to read the situation well.

“Don’t foul! Don’t give away corner kicks!”

That was the opposing team manager’s constant chant.

He seemed burdened by the fact that we had many tall players, including me.

“Don’t give the opponents breathing room and press them!”

Park Chang-yeol also shouted back.

Someone said soccer is a battle of momentum.

Unlike the first half, now we were playing attacking football.

The center-back line had already moved up to the half line, and I had also moved up above the center line.

In this situation, one long pass could expose our back space, but Yoo Young-sang, who had dropped back, was a very fast player.

A player who was good at defense alone.

Thanks to that, the opponents’ counter-attacks didn’t lead to shots.

When I distributed passes stably from the back, our team players began to trust me and give me the ball more.

The more the ball touched my feet, the more I got used to the game tempo.

But extracting a goal against a team that had completely retreated and was only defending was never an easy task.

“Damn, did they also set high bonuses? But for a first-timer, the rookie is doing really well, isn’t he?”

Lee Soon-deok praised me with a tired expression as he moved up.

Of course, I hadn’t just done build-up from the back.

Since the opponents were focused solely on defense, giving me some leeway, I quietly observed their final line, and one player’s timing wasn’t good.

I don’t know if he was a new player like me, but that was definitely a weak spot.

Seo Dong-myung seemed to notice this too, constantly looking my way as he made his off-the-ball movements.

‘He must be tired, right?’

That was the moment.

A pass miss from Park Sang-il came from the front field, and the opposing team immediately began their counter attack.

“Fall back! Defense!”

The manager’s shout rang out loudly, but I actually burst forward instead.

Because I could see something that others couldn’t.

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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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