Chapter 316 – Legend, Beyond (2)

316

St James’ Park, the venue for the Champions League quarter-final first leg, Newcastle v AT Madrid.

True to its nickname, the stage for the stars, the Champions League is a competition that draws a lot of attention from the beginning.
Even in Europe, the center of world soccer, if the finals gather only the best of the best, the topic will increase.

Of course, a lot of interest was expected as it would be in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, but today was unusually crowded with reporters.

“This is St. James’ Park, the venue for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Newcastle and AT Madrid—”
“Jamie Shirley of the BBC—”
“CNN reports. Hong of Newcastle ahead of today’s game—”
“Hello viewers of the NYT (New York Times). I am-“
“Today we are sharing a piece of history. I am Adam Spieth of News Corp Australia—”
“Eh again, I am now at Newcastle, where our Asian brother, Korea’s national team Hong Min-jun, plays!”

Europe, as well as America, Asia, the Middle East and even Africa.
It is not strange to see the media from all over the world sending reporters to the World Cup finals.

The enthusiasm of the Newcastle home fans entering the stadium was as high as the fever of the overheated coverage.

“Yeah!! We have the best in the world!!”
“Oh~ I’m coming home~ Newcastle~”
“Jesus! Today is a very messy day! You all know Who is with us!!”
“Castellan! Lord of Newcastl!!”
“Aww! Yes! That’s it! We have Hong! The world’s best player, Ballon d’Or winner, and conqueror of Germany! Who!?”

Even before the match started, the citizens who were pouring beer early and red-hot were beyond fever and close to madness, and John Treval, a famous indie band vocalist who is a Newcastle fan, brought a microphone from the square and shouted to the sound of squealing. .

“Red! Red!”
“Thuck King, Jesus!! Why is my voice only like this!! Who!!”
“The Emperor!!”

Madness to the extent that even the reporters who were filming it were startled.

St. James’s Park… No, it was wrapped around the city of Newcastle.

“Oh my god. Hong is nothing short of a god here! Look at them!!”
“Did you just hear? The Emperor! At Newcastle, Minjun Hong is the Emperor!”
“Wow, that’s amazing. I knew football fever was very hot in Europe, but this is more than I could have imagined. It’s like winning the Super Bowl as a group. Or you took a pill!”
“At Newcastle, Hong Min-joon seems to have reached the realm of worship beyond worship. The nickname is also very impressive. You have surpassed the lord of the castle and have now ascended to the throne as the emperor.”

Tickets that were sold out early became scalpers at 10 or 20 times the price, and now it is impossible to obtain them even at prices dozens of times higher.

Nevertheless, the clamor for tickets did not stop, and City Hall, realizing that the heat had reached a serious level, even installed a large electronic display board around the stadium for today.

And the wisdom of the public servants, who had been shown for a long time, shone.
Fans who were not satisfied with what they saw at home or in the pub filled the stadium.

The constant echo of cheering, shouting, and cheering was heard by the Newcastle players and AT Madrid players waiting in the locker room, and the vibrations of the fans surrounding them gently stomped the ground.

“… It’s a really awful place.”
“It’s the first time in my life that I’ve been to a fucking stadium like this. I never thought there would be a place I would hate more than Camp Nou.”

At Madrid players preparing for the game complained, but the captain, the veteran, and even the coach couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

“It goes beyond passion to the level of madness. Aren’t they drinking drugs as a group?”
“I feel like a Muslim besieged by a crusade. A very dirty feeling.”

From the start, the odds of winning were low.
Wasn’t it a game that predicted Newcastle’s victory from experts to fans? Of course, AT Madrid fans expected their team to win, but… I don’t know if it’s true to the real heart.

The match, which no matter how ardent ATM supporters must have had defeat in the back of their minds, turned into a battle of spears and shields.

“I feel that AT Madrid came out well prepared today. It’s a very organized defense.”
“Is it an illusion? In my eyes, the past of AT Madrid overlaps.”

At an away game with a low odds, ATM came up with tactics reminiscent of the days of coach Simeone, who led the heyday of the past.

A two-line defense that thoroughly blocks the center.
It is not a tactic that ends with simply concentrating in the center.

A defensive tactic that requires tremendous organizational power to drive the direction of attack to one side by dynamically concentrating players according to the direction of the opponent’s attack and thoroughly block shots in the central area with the highest probability of scoring.

As if showing the determination of ATM players participating in the game, he was evaluated as showing the best regional defense tactic this season by showing mechanical organizational power that aroused admiration from soccer experts, but it was still not enough to stop Hong Min-jun.

“The first leg held at Newcastle’s home stadium, St James’ Park, the home team, Newcastle, takes the victory.”
“It was a good match for Newcastle. Both as a team and as an ace, Hong Min-jun. They take all the results, performances and records.”

Even Simeone’s ATM could not stop Messi in his prime, but if Hong Min-Jun, who is said to be superior to Messi in terms of overall ability, was blocked, Hong Min-Jun’s ever-soaring evaluation could have been slowed down.

In no time, Hong Min-joon has reached the evaluation that he is superior beyond comparison with Messi, the GOAT of the modern soccer world.

Even if Messi’s ‘playmaking’ ability, which was considered one of his strengths, cannot be matched, according to experts’ analysis, Hong Min-joon has already surpassed Messi in terms of ‘strength’.

To put it simply, Hong Min-joon is physically much better than Messi.
Bigger, stronger, faster, more agile.

It’s not just because Messi’s height is short.
Messi’s genius has turned even his short stature, which could have been just a weakness, into a strength, so didn’t he actively use his low center of gravity and put the defenders in trouble on the contrary?

But even so, Hong Min-jun’s breakthrough was more than that.
Obviously, the center of gravity is higher than Messi, and as the absolute height is large, there will be inconveniences, but overwhelming techniques and reflexes that are not felt at all.

And most of all, even the body management that always boasts the best condition, and the ‘high point’ is the constant.

When you look at the performance that Messi, who was at his best, was at the peak of his career, Messi has nothing to bow to Min-Jun Hong.

Didn’t both of them show jaw-dropping, unbelievable ‘post-human’ level play?
But the biggest difference is how consistently and for how long they can maintain and show such performances.

In that sense, the reason Hong Min-jun is truly called a monster is that he has continued to grow since his debut and continues to grow even now.

And every season, every game, it was in the ‘unhuman’ condition management that consistently maintains the highest performance.

Hong Min-Jun’s play, which always shows the best performance and is always in passive condition, is no different in this game, and it pierces AT Madrid’s defense power, which reached its peak.

“The record of 17 goals scored in a single season by Ronaldo in 2013/14 is finally broken.”

Hong Min-jun’s performance, which recorded a hat-trick in the first game, continued into the second game.

“At Madrid showed a good performance last game with a thorough local defense strategy, but the result was not very good. There were some adjustments today. Did you prepare mainly for interpersonal marks?”

It showed good performance enough to be praised as the best regional defense strategy this season, but it was ATM that had to suffer a disappointing result of 3:1 by conceding 3 goals due to Hong Min-jun’s successive super plays.

However, except for 3 goals through Hong Min-jun’s super play, he succeeded in ‘thoroughly’ blocking Newcastle, and rather produced a better appearance through a counterattack.

“Ah, what! Hong Min-joon sinks AT Madrid more overwhelmingly than in the first game.”

Conceded 4 goals and collapsed miserably.

“With this, Hong Min-jun’s Champions League score has reached 23 goals!! It’s really overwhelming Hong Min-joon!!”
“The record for most consecutive goals has also been broken. From the final against Juventus in the 16/17 season to the second leg of the quarterfinals against Juventus in 17/18, Ronaldo’s 11 consecutive goals scored in 20 years will be broken.”
“You may be going out with subtitles, but like a record breaker, Hong Min-joon, there are many records that have been broken with today’s game. The most hat-tricks in a single season recorded by Ronaldo in the 15/16 season also broke from the previous 3 to 4.”

With the cameras pointing at Hong Min-joon, who led the away game by scoring 4 goals alone, the commentators were busy digging through the data and announcing the record.

“Really… Is there any other player whose nickname fits so well with the record breaker? Haha, Ronaldo will hate this. Today’s match broke three Champions League records held by Ronaldo.”

The commentator’s joke made the caster and all the viewers laugh, but only one.
Because there were people who couldn’t laugh.

Angry insults were posted on the Portuguese retired player’s Instagram.
Right after it came up, it went down quickly in just a few seconds, but you can’t avoid netizens’ eyes.

『Mysterious swear words posted on the Instagram of a legend from Madeira! Who is the target?』