Breath of The Interferer - Chapter 88
Only Noblemtl
#88 – Breath of the Interferer_Key – 1674294
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Olympic national team
After finishing filming for the advertisement and the advertisement, Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong joined the national Olympic team. Neither Cha Beom-soo nor Kim Si-woong have ever stood out in Korea, so they don’t know anyone on the national team. However, they greeted each other cheerfully because they had been on the soccer team since elementary school. The two, who are not yet 20, are the two youngest players on the national team.
Since there is no need to adjust to the time difference, we train in Korea for a month and head to Tokyo a week before the opening of the Olympics. Since most of the players have already made their mark in the K League, we are conducting tactical training and matches in parallel. We played against university teams almost every other day.
“For God’s sake, why did you bring those two little brats here? They’re no different from us.”
“That’s right. It’s such a shame that Young-Yoo and Seung-Cheol are gone.”
“I really don’t understand why they would take out the kids who worked hard with the team throughout the preliminaries and bring in two kids who could be sent to the next Olympics.”
In games against university teams, Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong failed to show anything special. They were unable to adapt to the team’s tactics, and the referee was strict about physical contact, so they were unable to fully utilize their strengths. The free kick opportunities were all taken by other players, so Cha Beom-soo did not get a chance to play.
“But the defense was okay.”
“It’s not that bad. They’d just foul if they got the chance. When I played soccer in England, I saw that the kids had no skills. They only knew how to play soccer with their bodies.”
When you play a game, you easily get excited and your movements become bigger. Now, the referees are strict about physical contact because they don’t want anyone to get hurt. So, the somewhat violent physical contact between Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong was often called a foul.
Two players who had been struggling together are gone. Because of this, most players are feeling a little dissatisfied. If Cha Beom-soo or Kim Si-woong had come in half a year ago, it would have been okay, but it is hard to hear good things about them suddenly coming in less than 40 days before the Olympics open.
“Their league ended in early May, but they called us in mid-June because they needed a break. We’re in the middle of our season too, isn’t that too discriminatory?”
Although there were complaints, no player directly expressed their complaints to Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong. They simply kept their distance and did not get close to the two. Some coaches also questioned the abilities of Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong.
“Director, these guys are the real deal.”
Kim Hyuk-kwon is a power analyst. He doesn’t just analyze other teams’ power, but also analyzes the skills, condition, and psychological state of the team’s players. He films training and game videos, edits them to make them more readable, and extracts and organizes meaningful data.
“Cha Beom-soo’s pass success rate is 96%, Kim Si-woong’s pass success rate is 88%, and these success rates are achieved even when other players did not play actively.”
In particular, Cha Beom-soo made quite a few mid- to long-distance passes. These were mostly long passes to the opposing wing. However, since Cha Beom-soo did not create any fancy scenes such as fancy dribbling or continuous breakthroughs, his performance looked dull.
“Kim Si-woong’s defense is perfect, and his timing when he steps up in an offensive situation is a work of art.”
Since the intensity of the game is lacking, Kim Si-woong also has some free time and tries overlapping at appropriate times. His crosses have also improved a lot compared to before. However, they are not threatening enough to be used as the main attack route. The point should be made to somehow get the crosses.
“What does the spy say?”
Coach Shim, who was watching Kim Hyuk-kwon’s evaluation of Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong, opened his mouth. Right now, my mind is full of worries. It’s an important time to decide whether to create a new tactic with Cha Beom-soo as the core or to let the two adapt to the original tactic.
“I heard the players have a lot of complaints. They’re still kids.”
Coach Shim did not try to get the two to join. Kim Hyuk-kwon strongly recommended it, and the association also exerted great pressure to get the two to join. Since the two went to Europe as soccer scholarship students for the S Group and played soccer, the S Group put pressure on them through the association.
Still, I thought they would be better than the domestic players, so I brought them in. However, unlike what I saw on video, they were real. In particular, Cha Beom-soo surprised Coach Shim. Since they were seniors, he couldn’t tell them what to do, so Cha Beom-soo moved appropriately with Kim Si-woong and blocked the holes in the defense as much as possible.
“Let’s start both of them for tomorrow’s game. Let’s watch the game results and make a final decision.”
If Cha Beom-soo is sent out, there is no need to use two defensive midfielders. The 4-2-3-1 formation changes to 4-1-4-1. The defense remains the same, but the attack power is strengthened. Up until now, there have been no strong opponents, so the formation has not been very meaningful. We decided to send Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong out in the match against the Argentina Olympic team tomorrow and see how it works before making a decision.
### I am a serious dividing line ###
Yoo Seung-jin couldn’t fully concentrate on the game because of the coach’s bombshell remarks before the game.
“Today’s starting lineup is as follows, Beomsu will command the defense, and Cheongsu will command the offense.”
Yoo Seung-jin played as a defensive midfielder with Cha Bum-soo. At the beginning of the game, he was busy blocking Argentina’s attacks. But after a few minutes, he felt something strange. He felt like he was playing alone in the team.
After the defense stabilized, he came to his senses and saw that everyone else on defense, except for himself, was moving according to Cha Beom-soo’s instructions. Even Son Hyun-min, who played as a left back, was taking the position that Cha Beom-soo had designated. Son Hyun-min, who came in using a wild card and is a regular player for the national team, followed Cha Beom-soo’s instructions obediently.
“Siwoong, number 2”
Kim Si-woong’s upper body moved skillfully at Cha Beom-soo’s direction. As Kim Si-woong’s center of gravity moved, the opposing player dribbled to the opposite side. However, he was immediately surrounded by the central defender, Kim Si-woong, and Cha Beom-soo. All the passing routes were blocked, and he only did meaningless dribbling, and eventually lost the ball to Cha Beom-soo.
Yoo Seung-jin got goosebumps. The process of holding the opponent with his shoulder, shaking the opponent’s center with the strength of his hips, and then taking the ball away was as natural as flowing water. Cha Beom-soo, who took the ball, did not dribble long, but passed it forward long. Yoo Seung-jin looked at Kim Si-woong, not at the ball going forward. When Cha Beom-soo took the ball away, he intervened between Cha Beom-soo and the Argentine player to protect Cha Beom-soo so that he could pass comfortably without being obstructed.
‘The level is different.’
When playing against college teams, they looked ordinary. In fact, they are also ordinary now. However, because they were opponents, there were not many players who looked ordinary. When the level of the opponents went up, some players, including himself, struggled, but Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong showed the same stable performance as when playing against college teams.
Lee Cheong-soo, who received the ball from Cha Beom-soo, faked with a small movement and then ran after kicking. The Argentine defender was a little slow to react, so he was late in turning his body. He grabbed Lee Cheong-soo’s arm because it could be dangerous if he allowed a breakthrough.
“Beomsu, you drive.”
Lee Cheong-soo is also a regular player for the national team and joined as a wildcard. Before the game, coach Shim asked Lee Cheong-soo to yield the ambiguous free kick to Cha Beom-soo. He yielded it to Cha Beom-soo because it was not his favorite position.
The sound of a ding rang out clearly. The keeper had no reaction to the exquisite course. The ball hit the goal post and bounced back, and the Argentine defender quickly kicked it to the goal line. It was a corner kick situation.
Son Hyun-min, who is ambidextrous, took the corner kick. Son Hyun-min’s ball went to the near post. Cha Beom-soo, who was relatively neglected due to his small stature, quickly ran forward. Unlike Gray, Cha Beom-soo headed the ball toward the near post.
Because he is short, he has few opportunities to head the ball. That is why Cha Bum-soo’s heading skills are not well known. Aside from his ability to seize heading opportunities, Cha Bum-soo’s heading score is 10. However, because his height did not grow and stopped at 175, he was not able to make full use of that excellent score.
After conceding a corner kick, Argentina launched a fierce attack, but failed to properly break through Cha Bum-soo’s defensive line. Many players were replaced in the second half. However, Cha Bum-soo and Kim Si-woong remained until the end, and Coach Shim told them to focus on defense in the second half. Argentina knocked on Korea’s defensive line with player and tactical changes, but the game ended 1:0 due to the performance of Cha Bum-soo and Kim Si-woong, and the Korean defenders who took the important defensive positions early.
### I am a serious dividing line ###
“Jaebeom, Yohwan, Jaewoo, you three never pass the ball to Cha Beomsu during training or team games.”
“No, sir.”
“Well, it’s the same for the other kids too, but you three are the worst.”
The three of them wondered what Lee Cheong-soo, who usually treated them well, would buy them again when he called them. However, Lee Cheong-soo reprimanded the three of them with an unusually serious expression on his face.
“You guys are only 22 years old. It’s still too early to be treated as adults. But we’re soccer players. We’re treated based on our skills, not our age.”
“I’m close with the coaches, so I heard in advance that they’re going to come up with a new team tactic. The tactic is to solidify the defense with Cha Beom-su as the core and deploy five players for a counterattack.”
The three young children were still young and could not understand what Lee Cheong-su meant.
“I’m a player. Even in my eyes, I can see that you three aren’t passing the ball to Cha Beom-su. So, don’t the manager or coaches know about it?”
The three of them turned pale. Now they understood what Lee Cheong-su meant.
“If you three continue like this, you’ll be pushed out of the starting position. Do you think I’m saying this for Cha Beom-soo’s sake? I’m saying this for you guys who are rivals in Korea. In the end, the player who works well with Cha Beom-soo and follows his commands well will become the starting player.”
I understood what Lee Cheong-su said. However, I did not accept it in my heart. I knew that this was how the world worked, but I was still rebellious because I was young.
“You know what job I respect the most? Being a kindergarten teacher. It must be so hard to coax and comfort kids who think they’re the center of the world.”
“Cha Beom-soo and Kim Si-woong, they were also playing in the Champions League. Didn’t you see the 3:3 draw with Real? Didn’t you see the interview with Jose, who said he would be in charge of Barcelona’s defense for the next 10 years? When he was at Notts County, he played defense under Cha Beom-soo’s direction. What does that mean? It means that Cha Beom-soo will be the key defender for the Korean national team for at least 10 years, and up to 15 years.”
The sharp sense of reality shattered the three’s spirits.
“If you don’t have good chemistry with Cha Bum-soo, it’ll be hard to become a national team player. Didn’t you see their skills yesterday? Didn’t you see the Argentine kids acting like elementary school kids in front of Cha Bum-soo? Didn’t you see them go to the referee and whine that it was a foul after losing the ball?”
“I’ll say this again, am I saying this for Cha Beom-soo, who I’m meeting for the first time here? I’m saying this because I’m thinking of you all. So stay close to Cha Beom-soo. At least on the field. I’m saying this only for you guys.”
Wildcard players Son Hyun-min and Han Woong-jin also called several players and told them the same thing as Lee Cheong-soo. The team atmosphere gradually changed, and coach Shim changed direction to a 4-1-4-1 tactic with Cha Beom-soo as the core.
As my waist got stronger, my back became more solid and I was able to transmit my power forward more strongly. At least I gained confidence to play a game without losing. Coach Shim practiced penalty kicks for more than half an hour every day. The color of the medal I was aiming for slowly changed.
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