Chapter 101 – ? Bomber (2)

101

Now, a month after the start of the second half of the season, the atmosphere of the Frankfurt squad was friendly.

Frankfurt, which unfortunately missed out on promotion by losing in the promotion playoffs last season, will remain in the second division this year and have to let some players go.

There are players who left on their own, and there are players who were let go by the club, but the important thing is that many of the players who left the club were talented people who guaranteed the quality of the team.

Germany’s second division has a stronger financial foundation than other minor first division leagues in Europe, but it depends on the people, clubs, and circumstances of their use. As financial security increases, it is natural for spending to rise accordingly.

It means that the salaries of the high-salaried players contracted during the 1st division cannot be afforded by the 2nd division salary system.
At least, the financial foundation was solid, so I was able to catch a high-paying person while aiming for re-promotion right after the relegation, but even this would have been difficult if the finances were poor.

Even the one chance he barely got was ruined, and the Frankfurt squad, which remained in the second division, had to go through a lot of leaks before the season started.

This season, too, the goal was promotion, but everyone, even the insiders of the club, are skeptical about whether promotion is realistically possible with the quality of the squad, which has been significantly lower than last year.

Frankfurt, who won the game to win and lost the game to lose, finished the first half and finished in 6th place.
It was not an objectively low ranking as it was in the top 30% of the league table in which 18 clubs participated, but it was a poor ranking for a club challenging promotion.

However, it is not that the club has the capacity to make a big shine, and in fact, only a young 20-year-old Asian is recruited in the second half. In a way, it was only natural that the team, which had been on a winter break, was not in a bright mood.

However, the second half started and the situation changed.
Thanks to the performance of the 20-year-old young player, he won 4 consecutive wins in the second half and 3 consecutive wins in terms of league matches, and the ranking jumped to 4th place.

* * *

There is such a thing as momentum in sports.
It’s something that can’t be seen or measured quantitatively, but it’s something indescribable that any player on the field feels.

Frankfurt is a German club, but the team has a significant proportion of foreign players in the first team, and most of them are South American players.

The characteristic of South Americans is that they are very sensitive to the atmosphere.
If it’s good, it’s that when you’re in the mood, you’ll show your skills beyond your abilities and become scared, and if you’re bad, you’ll have severe ups and downs.

“Yo, Hong! How the hell do you do that! I must have seen it moving this way and ran at it!”

Brazilian Bruno, who plays the team’s left fullback, is an optimistic guy.
It was a bit of a shock to find out that he was only 24 years old and already married with a son and a daughter. What’s even more shocking is that a guy with two children behaves immaturely like a teenager.

Still, he is a guy who is full of excitement, so he approaches me without hesitation even though I am still clumsy with words.

“Can I just do it?”
“Do it again, do it again!”

I accepted the challenge of a guy full of competitive spirit.
He was like this even when he woke up every day.

“I can’t do it. It’s definitely not like I can’t stop it… But it’s strangely pierced.”
“This time it’s me! I challenge Hong!”

When Bruno, who had been repeatedly penetrated in several confrontations, gave up, Chicharo, who was watching, quickly intervened.
One of the South American connections, Chicharo from Argentina is called ‘chícharo’ instead of his long real name, which means peas in Spanish. Argentina speaks Spanish, so there’s nothing strange about it.

Peas, as his nickname suggests, is a small player with green eyes.
According to his official profile, he is 169cm tall… If this is enough, I think it’s actually in the mid-160’s.

He is small and dwarfed, but his position is central midfielder.
Surprisingly, he easily endures rough physical fights, and is in charge of carrying fire for the team because of his ability to depressurize with agile and quick movements.

“Ah! It was close this time! Right? It was dangerous, Hong?”
“Oh. Admit it. I almost lost it.”

Obviously, like a midfielder with a talent for attack, he’s not a very good defensive player, but strangely, it’s harder to penetrate than defender Bruno.

“Nonsense! I’m easier than Chicharo!? You’re lying, Hong!?”
“It’s true. It’s my feeling, so don’t believe it too much.”

In addition to these two, a friend named Sergei is the closest person they get along with.
They are young players in their early to mid-twenties and have good personalities, so I hung out with them, but these days they call me the Four Musketeers of Frankfurt or something.

“Even to me, it seems harder to deal with Chicharo than to deal with Bruno.”
“Isn’t it? Does the claim look like that?”

Chicharo is delighted with the help of captain Alexander Meyer, who has been watching with a smile.

“Hmm. Hong’s technique is excellent. Compared to the average striker I faced in Part 1, he’s not far behind.”

The captain is a 32-year-old center back.
He’s been playing since the team was in the first division, so he must have faced a lot of great strikers. What an excellent analysis.
Well. Well.

“But if you ask me if I’m this unstoppable… That’s not to say.”

Eh?
At the words of the captain, Bruno and Chicharo giggle.

“Look. Once you get used to it, you’re dead.”
“I’ve analyzed all your patterns now.”

Ah, bluffing while losing every day.

“No. Rather, it’s the opposite. Hong… Will be hard to stop even if you get used to it.”
“Why?”

The captain swiped his chin while looking at the two South American players with genuinely curious expressions.

“Hong’s break-through style I’ve observed so far is more like an unpredictable play… Rather than a way of understanding my movements and reacting to them. So… Yes, his reaction speed is so fast that I can’t keep up with him.”

Everyone pondered at the captain’s earnest words.

‘Come to think of it, reaction speed is the highest among my stats.’

I checked it now, and the reaction rate is the highest.
The reaction speed stat is 79.

Even the technique he invested so hard and raised is 75, which is abnormally high for a skill level that he has never raised before.

‘When I’m in good condition and I’m immersed in the game, sometimes I feel like time slows down… Is it because of this?’

It is often like that.
When time passes slowly, like slow motion in special effects or a time stop in AV.

“Aha. The claim is that Hong is more like Ronaldo than Ronaldinho.”

Bruno clapped his hands.
A Brazilian analogy.

Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, who can be called legendary legends, are players who were said to be unstoppable in their prime, but there are differences in their detailed styles.

All players train, and the more they play, the more they become standardized.
The so-called player’s style.

For example, like Munich’s Aren Robben, who was called ‘Mecro’, like a play that comes from the right to the center and shoots a left-footed shot.

However, Ronaldinho is a player who freely uses almost every skill that a soccer player can use. The defense is unpredictable as he breaks through with all sorts of strange personal skills and scatters passes in the real game, not practice.

Ronaldo, on the other hand, plays based on incredible physical abilities.
It is a monster who played such a game that he could not imitate because his body could not follow him even though he knew it.

That’s why there was a saying that you can’t stop Ronaldinho because you don’t know, and you can’t stop Ronaldo even if you know.

“Minjun. You said that Chicharo was harder to deal with than Bruno? It’s probably because Chicharo’s reaction speed is fast.”

Bruno is not as tall as a full-back whose mobility is important.
About mid 170’s.
Of course, it is much larger than Chicharo, who is in the mid to late 160s.

“Hmm… I think that’s right. My breakthrough style is more like watching the opponent’s reaction and moving rather than being tricky.”

Looking back on the game so far, it’s clear.

“Hey, Hong. Don’t get me wrong, listen. I think… It’s rather fortunate that you suddenly grew taller and got pushed out of Barcelona.”
“Yes?”

Did the interpreter translate the wrong translation?
Wondering what I heard, I widen my eyes and look at the interpreter.

“I don’t mean it in a bad way, it literally means that I am very fortunate. Hong, your style is close to invincible against players below a certain standard, but on the contrary, it is useless against opponents who can catch up with your reaction speed.”

To be honest, I felt a bit bad.
However, it is impossible to get angry at the team captain and veteran, a 32-year-old man who is 12 years older than him.

No matter how much Korean culture is Confucianism and old-fashioned, and European culture is free-spirited, that doesn’t mean there is no concept of seniors and juniors.

Even in Europe, where seniors and juniors have strong discipline, they are strong, and where there is an overbearing side, they are overbearing.
If you look at the life of the famous senior Park Ji-sung at Manchester United, aren’t you surprised that the behavior of the seniors toward the youth is similar to that of Koreans?

“Among the players I faced in the first part, there were players like you… No, honestly, there were players who reacted faster than you. It will probably be the same in La Liga. Since you lost, your rating shouldn’t have dropped significantly, but if this weakness is known, your ransom will take a huge hit. So, prepare now. There are a lot of monster players in the first part.”

… I guess I need more points. ASAP.

“Hey. Chicharo.”
“Uh?”
“Isn’t there a party at your house today?”
“Why all of a sudden?”

I stared into the green eyes of the guy who asked as if wondering.
Why?

It’s because of the pretty green-eyed sister who is the cousin of the cousin of your in-laws.