Chapter 341 – Myth (2)

341

Right before the match, Argentine coach Marco Borges gathered his players and ordered them to play with confidence.

“It is a dream stage that any player wants. Do you see what I mean? You are the chosen ones. Leave no regrets. Rush like a warrior and bite ferociously like a wild beast! Victory doesn’t come from someone else. That’s what you, with your own hands, win for yourself. Go and bite them!!”

Encouraged by the manager’s words of leading a team whose realistic goal was to advance to the round of 16 or quarterfinals to the final stage, the players responded in unison… Indeed, Marco Borges was skeptical.

‘This game… It’s going to be hard. Korea’s military power is more formidable than expected. Furthermore…’

Opposite the Argentine squad as they enter the field.
The player can be seen among the Korean players who come out with a relaxed expression.

Minjun Hong.
The greatest player of all time.

He knew he was great, but he never thought he would be such an unmanageable player.
In the World Cup, where each match is blood-curdling, there was no time to analyze the next opponent first, or to analyze an Asian team that might or might not meet. Even more so when it comes to Korea, which was defeated lightly in a friendly match right before the World Cup.

But it was an illusion.
Korea at the time Hong Min-joon was absent and Korea now are very different teams.

Stronger organization, smooth transitions, solid defense and quick counterattacks…
It’s a completely different look from Korea, which gave away dog ​​meat just half a year ago. And above all, Korea was a team that changed so much with the presence or absence of a player.

Minjun Hong.
A team that varies greatly depending on whether or not there is an ace in Korea.

And the last piece of Korea, Korea when Hong Min-joon entered… It was so threatening.

* * *

The stage for the World Cup final is the biggest in Spain… No, it was the largest soccer-only stadium in the world.
Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona.

Boasting a whopping 100,000 seats, this enormously large stadium was chosen as the final stage of the World Cup early on, but there was no controversy in the meantime.

However, right after the results of the Korea-Spain match came out and the final match was completed, a belated controversy arose over whether the stadium was too big.

Because the countries that advanced to the final were Argentina and Korea.
Argentina can do that, but Korea is a country located in the Far East on the other side of the globe. There were people who predicted the ‘possibility of advancing to the final stage’ due to the name value of Hong Min-joon and advance to the semifinals of the last World Cup, but it was not serious enough.

For example, it feels like ‘the top 10 countries with a chance of advancing to the finals’.
The probability of being in 10th out of 16 countries advancing to the finals is lower than the middle, after all… However, if you look at it as low, this level is in the middle, so you can’t see it as low at all, and you can’t see it as high on the contrary.

Of course, in FIFA, Korea… No, I didn’t expect the finals of Asian countries.
The stadium at the final stage held in Europe is the world’s largest soccer-only stadium, but there is no European country.

South American Argentina is fine, but how many people on the other side of the globe expected to advance to the finals in Asia?

Right after Korea was confirmed to advance to the finals, only slightly more than 2,000 seats were reserved by Koreans out of 100,000 seats at Camp Nou.

FIFA faced an embarrassing situation: ‘It’s the World Cup final, but the stands are empty’.
Of course, since it is the final of the World Cup, there will be no empty borrowing, but it is true that the excitement is getting colder. Because the cheering enthusiasm of the audience in the third country will inevitably be lower than that of the finalists.

It is only 4 days from the final match to the final.
This embarrassing situation began to be resolved surprisingly easily, and it was the tremendous heat in Korea that no one expected.

“Does it make sense that there are no Red Devils in the finals! Develop countermeasures immediately!”
“It is a good opportunity to promote. The World Cup is a global marketing field, and it cannot be missed.”
“Hmm… It’s a son-in-law’s match, but if you’re bored cheering, use it.”

From the de facto owner of the Korea Football Association and the head of soccer fanatic Hyundai Group to the marketing-oriented conglomerate, GT Group, Korean conglomerate groups are ‘historic Korea’s World Cup finals. XX will be with you.”

While many Spaniards, who were expecting the invincible armada of the ‘golden generation’ led by Jorge Garcia to advance to the finals of the World Cup held in their country, canceled their reservations ahead of the final, Korean conglomerates transported Koreans to Camp Nou with the active cooperation of FIFA. Yes.

In just four days, the number of Korean spectators, who had only 2,000 seats, exceeded 20,000.
Considering the number of seats reaching 100,000 seats, the ratio is less than half, but even with the support of large corporations, it was certainly an amazing achievement that 10,000 people could fly to the other side of the world in 4 days.

And on the day of the finals, everyone’s efforts paid off.
With over 30,000 Argentinian cheering squads, over 20,000 Korean cheering squads, and 50,000 spectators from all over the world who came to watch the finals, the seats at Camp Nou were filled with spectators.

Although it was the World Cup final, preparations for the match against Argentina were extremely lacking.
First of all, the schedule was not enough, so the time given to us after the 4th round was only 4 days.

4 days is not enough time to invest only in recovery for the players who have been playing fierce matches and fought bloody battles from Spain in the semifinals to the penalty shootout. However, it was impossible to postpone the World Cup schedule, so I had no choice but to focus on recovery training as much as possible.

Of course, there was no way we could have prepared any other strategic tactics, so we prepared for the longest and went out with the most confident tactics.

4-3-2-1, the Christmas tree tactic.
No matter how much I tried to recover, I couldn’t be in a good condition.

On the other hand, Argentina had a day longer to prepare because they played the game a day earlier than us.
We played a fierce game against Germany, but it didn’t go overtime like we did.

If you look at the objective conditions, you can only say that Argentina has an advantage.
However, the faces of the players in the game were quite the opposite.

“World Cup victory awaits! Let’s go!!”
“Don’t be vigilant until the end, let’s have fun. Fighting everyone!”
“An ordinary high school defender from Korea entered Europe and became a World Cup winning member at the age of 22!? Is this real?”

Colleagues whose confidence radiates from the inside is expressed through their faces.

“It’s just the team we destroyed in the last friendly. There is nothing to be afraid of!”
“Let’s do our best even for the supporters who came to support us today.”
“I heard that Leo came to the stands. I have to show Leo how to win the trophy.”

On the other hand, the Argentine players are confident on the outside, but their shrunken hearts are revealed implicitly.

People watching from the outside don’t know, but that kind of intuition that players who observe each other before the start of the game can intuit, tells each other’s mind.

We’re going to win
We’ll lose

Mental strength is an invisible but never-to-be-ignored factor.
Why is there such a word as tenacity, and why is there such a thing as winning mentality or hard work?

You shouldn’t blindly believe in spiritualism, but you shouldn’t ignore it either.
There is a clear difference between running thinking that you have already lost and running with the conviction that you will win, so the importance of winning mentality is just that.

And the difference in winning mentality split the game from the beginning of the game.

The Argentine player, who was struggling under the pressure of Korea, who built up a thick center, made a mistake, and his sharp-edged teammates accepted the mistake perfectly.

“Minjun-ah!!”

Senior Seol Yo-han, who caught the ball after fighting over it, shouted my name and sent a long pass straight to Cha Myeong-geun.

In a brief moment when the Argentinian players, who were reflexively running towards me, hesitated, Cha Myung-geun, with only one markman, settled down relatively comfortably, got up, and headed the pass to the other side of me.

The pass was followed by Hwang Jun-su, who dug into the half space accurately, and Jun-soo broke the pressure from Argentine full-back Ricardo and connected it with a powerful shot.

Powerful shot right in front of the penalty box.
The moment when a properly hit ball aimed for the corner of the goal and was shot, but bounced off the waiting goalkeeper’s save and wanted to be blocked.

‘Honey~’

While everyone’s eyes were on the ball, I secretly moved to a space where I couldn’t see them, and my feet, which started a sprint late to the opponent, caught fire,

“It’s easy.”

It was the opening goal.

After that, Argentina’s fierce counterattack… There was nothing.

Since we scored the first goal, we took a defensive stance, but the Argentine team, who had made up their mind once, ran into a counterattack through my solo dribble and lost a goal.

On the contrary, when Argentina shrank, our attack spewed fire.

Argentine, who had been swung by me to lead Korea’s flank attack alone, moving freely from left to right all the time, could not stop Korea’s attack from pushing through with the power of the thick center.

Until fitness issues got in the way.