Chapter 167 – Top Prospect (2)

167

The second leg of the Europa League at Old Trafford a week later.

Old Trafford is such a huge football field that Bobby Charlton described it as The Theater of Dreams. Its size is 74,000 seats.

It is a football stadium second only to Wembley Stadium, which is said to be the largest in England with 90,000 seats, but more famous than this is the fact that it is the home stadium of ‘Manchester United’.

However, the scale of this stadium, which is said to be the second largest in England, did not come close to me.

Size? Yeah, it’s a bit big but what is that
Even Wembley Stadium, which is said to be England’s largest football stadium, would not inspire me much, how dare it win 70,000 seats.

I am a man who made his debut in the world’s largest soccer stadium with over 100,000 seats.
Barcelona’s home stadium, Camp Nou.

A debut game in a stadium full of 100,000 people.
Even when I made my professional debut at Camp Nou, I was annoyed that I wouldn’t be able to play properly with an out of balance rather than tension.

What kind of inspiration will there be in the stadium with only 70,000 wins to me?
There was no inspiration from the size or history of Old Trafford, but only one.

“This is Manchester United’s home ground. Old Trafford.”
“Oh, did you just say Old Trafford? Do you speak some English?”

Aisle before entry.
The Manchester United player who was waiting for the signal suddenly spoke up.

“Little.”
“It’s a great stadium for a great team. How is it, cool? You can play here when you come to Manchester United, mate.”
“Um… My agent. Top. Okay?”
“What? Euhhaha. This is funny. But since you’re learning English, don’t you think it’s very thoughtless? Why, why is there a player from your country who played for Manchester United? Who is that?”

I was mostly taken aback by the strange pronunciation of English, but I noticed it right away when he said that he was a player who played for Manchester United.

Okay.
There is only one thing that inspires me in Old Trafford.
It is the space where senior Park Ji-sung played and spent his heyday. That’s it.

“Right, I remembered. Kagawa? That’s definitely the name… Uh… What’s wrong with that expression? …Isn’t it?”

Fuck this… After that, let’s wait.

“Are you still Asian?”
“Hey’s cub!
“Ugh, what’s wrong? Why are you screaming all of a sudden? It’s in English. I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Ah, this double-gnomed thing!”
“Sano… What? Is this an insult?
“Aaaaagh!”

The Escort Kids, who were waiting hand in hand to enter in a threatening atmosphere, burst into tears.

“Oh, are you surprised? It was a joke, pop.”

He hurriedly crouched down, met his gaze, and smiled, and soon after, the girl smiled.
Well… I want to pinch my cheeks

“Ooh, don’t cry. We’re not fighting? Hey, kid? Kid?”
“Hueeng~ It’s a lie. The two of us, black, just, higheep, let’s fight.”

When I was giggling with my escort kids, who smiled happily when I pinched their cheeks like soft glutinous rice cakes, the nasty guy was still preoccupied with running.

“Oh, no. My friend, my friend. Look, they put their arms around each other.”

The Escort Kids, who were holding hands with me, had already stopped crying and smiled broadly, lowered their stance and put their arms around me as if they were following me.

The little boy, who had been looking at me with a confused expression on his face, started crying again.

“Hueeng!! A lie!! A prince and a monster!!”
“What? Prince and monster? Who, me? Huh… Hey, kid. Why am I a monster?”

At the question of a frowning guy, the child hiccups and hiccups speaks especially clearly.

“Your face…”

The guy and I turned our heads at the same time.
Eyes that reflexively look up and down.

“Huh…”
“Such a fucking Asian—”
“Hohehe! Me too, I’m going out with the prince!”

Surprised by his menacing growl, the child rushes to me and hugs me.

Ugh, this bastard can’t even comfort a child.
What’s so hard about this

When I stroked the hair of a girl who was rubbing her face in her chest and rubbing her face, I was so excited.

After all, both of them are not delicate.

“Why…?

Heh, he smiled at the muttering guy with a shocked face.

“Fuck the face difference.”
“Move away! It’s my prince!”
“No!! I want to go out with the prince too!!”
“Bik! He’s my prince!”
“Hueeng!!”

Well… Well, kids grow up fighting.

* * *

In fact, my childhood idol was senior Son Heung-min rather than senior Park Ji-sung.
Because… Senior Park Ji-sung retired when I was just taking my first steps.

No matter how much he is the hero of Korean soccer, the protagonist of the golden age, the pioneer who paved the way for Europeans and laid the foundation, and the starting point of overseas soccer fans, it was Son Heung-min who was active when he started playing soccer in earnest.

Even so, I can only respect Park Ji-sung.
It’s still a European football world where racial discrimination is still prevalent, but it’s great that Asian players were active in the big club called man utd 20 years ago than now.

Didn’t he pave the way for Korean players to enter Europe by planting a good image of Korean players and cultivating the barren soil with not only their skills but also the attitude to be exemplary as professionals while walking the unfamiliar, difficult, lonely, and arduous path of pioneers?

And more than anything else, while studying the recent moves as a midfielder with Daye, I watch a video of a game in which senior Park Ji-sung was active in the past… Wow, that football intelligence is truly admirable.

I am obviously far superior in my personal abilities that can be seen, but I think I am similar to senior Yoon Hyuk among the Korean players I know, to a level that I cannot imitate just by looking at his clever movements.

Senior Yoon Hyuk also has tremendous intelligence in soccer, so when watching Ji-Sung Park’s matches, senior Yoon Hyuk comes to mind.

Insulting our legendary senior, Park Ji-sung, whom we respect, have a sense of friendliness, and have a lot to learn from… No, the enemy who insulted all overseas soccer players in Korea.

I will definitely take revenge!

Lost. Mr. Bar.
No, in conclusion, did you win?

Europa League round of 16 second leg at Old Trafford.
After a 4-0 win in the first leg, we confidently pulled up the line and went aggressive in the Manchester United expedition.

At Old Trafford, their home stadium, Manchester United’s home ground, things like Frankfurt… It was also unexpected that the team ahead of 4:0 would attack aggressively, so he scored the opening goal in a panic and raised his momentum, but when the first half was over due to the fierce attack of Manchester United players who came to their senses, they had to accept the result of 3 runs.

Indeed, the class of the top teams in the EPL was different.
The Manchester United players, who showed a quality that was different from the second team they faced in the first game, ran like crazy as if they had been doped with the anger of scoring the first goal at home following the first game, and even I could not easily advance the ball. Showed pressure.

I’m the only player who can protect the ball from Man Utd’s crazy pressure.
I went out aggressively, but I struggled alone with my friend’s behavior, which was in a hurry to back pass as scared to receive the ball, and I tried to spread the ball and advance… No matter how much I do, I can’t take a picture of the matchless against man utd.

Barely, really barely, what’s the point of having to get past 1 or 2 people?
Even if I released the pressure and created space, my teammates couldn’t receive the ball properly, and even if I received it, it was quickly taken away by the pressure, so it wasn’t a problem for me to run amok by myself.

Our team, who rushed aggressively and was scolded by allowing 3 runs in the first half, started playing anti-football from the beginning of the second half.
To put it simply, two buses were parked in front of the goal.

Overall, Manchester United’s main scoring route is both sides.
In case anyone is not Manchester United, the powerful attacking power of both side strikers, who are the most highly regarded in the quality squad, is combined with the side defenders that actively overlap like wingers, resulting in great synergy.

When a side defender rises high like a winger and spreads both sides wide, the side attackers who show strength in a 1 on 1 situation cross the half space and threaten.

If the midfielder shifts to one side to prevent it, the midfielder switches to the other side and creates the same situation again, and if the camp is directed to the opposite side to prevent this, the midfielder switches to the opposite side again.

If the camp collapses due to the frantic repetition of left and right turns, they quickly dig in and score.
To prevent this, we set up a back 5 and put 4 players in front of it.

By increasing the defense from the existing 4 backs to 5 backs against Manchester United’s swinging left and right, they were able to not give up space even in Manchester United’s attack, which uses the wide side, and the 4 players in front of them actively participated in the defense and blocked the defense. Man United players were exhausted while standing up and defending with physical bullets.

There was a league match in the week between the first leg and the second leg.
Both our team and Man United.

However, the response was the opposite, with one team trying to catch both rabbits, and the other team concentrating their efforts on one side to catch even one rabbit.

The greedy are Manchester United, the wise are Frankfurt… In a word, Manchester United consumed the starting lineup in the league, and we abandoned the league game.

This was a choice according to the team’s situation. Our team is participating in the winning race in 3rd place, but it is a situation where we have 8 points against 1st place Munich. Since the quality of the team, the thickness of the squad, and “That Munich” Won’t be flawed in a row, the championship is virtually over.

The Pokal Cup must have already fallen, the league championship must have passed, and our team’s goal was focused on the Europa.
In the league, the mindset is that all you have to do is secure a ticket to the Champions League… The gap with 4th place Leipzig is 6 points, so it is still wide.

On the other hand, the league is more important than Europa for Manchester United.
Of course, the EPL prize money is much bigger than the Europa League prize money. Besides, isn’t there a much more important prize at stake, the ticket to the Champions League?

To qualify for the Champions League at the Europa, you have to win, but tournaments have a lot of variables, so it’s uneasy to go all-in after seeing a win.

That’s why I’m struggling to get into the top 4 of the league, which gives me the right to advance to the Champions League.
Right now, Manchester United is in 5th place with a difference of 1 point from 4th place, so the kid will be burned to death.

That said, it was scored 4:0 against a newly promoted team like Frankfurt, but I can’t just pass by in a home game because of Manchester United’s pride.

In this situation, Man United is almost full power in the league… It was not the full strength of the so-called 1.3 group, nor was it a rotation, so I had no choice but to play the game with an ambiguous power and play against us.

The momentum in the beginning was colorless, and as we went into the second half, the amount of activity of the Manchester United team was bound to decrease noticeably.
No matter how much you try to make the squad world-class, if you can’t play, you can lose to the second division in soccer.

Somehow, they played too much in the first half, and the Manchester United team, which was already in poor physical condition, became completely discharged after the middle of the second half and spread.

I wanted to attack in this gap, but I was so hot that I was surprised by the coach’s instructions to strengthen the defense.

The match ended 1:3.
Total of 1st and 2nd leg Frankfurt 5:3 Man Utd.

Lost but won
… Is it revenge?