Shooting Trajectory is Visible - Chapter 308



Only Noblemtl

Episode 308: Overcoming the Wind

‘Something is strange.’

As the game continued, I felt an inexplicable sense of unease.

Something, something is strange.

First, the left.

Mbappe runs down the flank.

He passes to Marcus Thuram and then moves forward again. Thuram sees the advancing Mbappe and passes with a one-touch.

And Kim Min-je reads the flow and blocks it. Mbappe caught the ball, but fell over due to Kim Min-je’s clean defense that pushed in from the shoulder, and the situation seemed to be over.

Beep!

If only the referee hadn’t suddenly blown the whistle.

‘This is foul?’

The referee blew his whistle firmly. The French players were delighted by the decision, while our players reacted in amazement.

“Referee! How is this a foul!”

The players rushed to protest, but the referee’s decision was not overturned. It was a foul.

I just realized this kind of discomfort while watching that scene.

‘Fuck. What nationality is the referee? Isn’t that kid French?’

Sometimes, there are cases like that while playing a game.

Some decisions are a bit confusing.

I’ve felt it a few times in the Bundesliga, but it’s become more frequent since I moved to England.

I thought this World Cup would be relatively quiet… … but why did the referee controversy happen in the final?

‘I thought something was strange. When France got into a physical fight, they gave a bit more lenient judgment.’

However, it is not the case that they blindly take France’s side. Sometimes they take our side as well, and do things to avoid future controversies.

The problem, however, was the difference in frequency.

If the decision is favorable to France 4 times, Korea gets to eat it once?

The only good thing is that it wasn’t a penalty kick.

It was a free kick foul.

A very close free kick foul, right near the box.

‘Is this a good thing? This is also dangerous.’

It was less risky than a penalty kick, but still a dangerous distance.

The kickers are Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann.

With the two players standing in opposite directions, the pressure is no joke.

I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated.

As I open my eyes again and adjust the players’ positions, the referee’s whistle soon blows.

‘Here it comes again.’

The trajectories that are generated are the upper left and upper right. Both trajectories have a red glow that becomes clearer as the gauge fills up, and then the trajectory on the right suddenly goes off with a beep.

The right trajectory disappears as if the power was cut off.

So what remains is the left trajectory.

As soon as I heard the pop, I jumped. It was Mbappe’s kick. It was a curling kick, but even though it was a curling kick, it was so fast that I jumped and the shot came flying in immediately.

The timing was perfect, and Mbappe’s sharp curling shot was blocked by my defense.

“Nice!”

“Minwoo! Good job!”

The surrounding colleagues who watched the defense clapped and roared in delight.

Yeah. I’m happy because my brothers are happy.

But my worries deepened.

It seems like the referee will continue to side with France, either secretly, knowingly or unknowingly, or blatantly… Whew.

It’s already a tough match against France, but with the referee taking France’s side, it’s going to be an even tougher final.

Is this some kind of racism?

It feels a little strange now that I’ve experienced it. It makes me feel bad. But whatever…

‘The wind is not something to be calculated, but rather to be overcome.’

I pulled myself together again, recalling a famous line from a movie I saw recently.

I thought it wasn’t going to be an easy match anyway. The referee is blatantly taking France’s side? That would be better.

First of all, our players have recovered their form a lot since reaching the finals. Especially Kim Min-je.

At least the old, god-like performance was no more.

He’s back to the Kim Min-je I knew, and the offense, while not having a lot of momentum over the past few games, is still sharp.

‘I’m sure my colleagues will do it this time.’

Surely I’m the only one who’s going to be left behind until the end. Hey.

* * *

Philip Harris, CEO of H&B and Kim Min-woo’s personal agent, also visited the stadium today to watch the final match.

The match was tied at 0:0 with France dominating, and Korea also showing its sharp side.

And Philip Harris crossed his arms and frowned.

‘How blatant.’

It may not seem like much, but it was clear to Philip Harris that the referee was on France’s side. It was bordering on favoritism.

Philip Harris also heard rumors here and there before the game that Korea would have a difficult time in the final.

But surely it wasn’t because of the difference in strength between the two teams, but because of the referee’s favoritism?

Korea was already nervous about France, and the referee also took France’s side, so the match went from 7:3 to 8:2.

There were times when Korea would get the ball and advance into the French half, but it sometimes seemed as if France was trying to induce them to do so.

If you play suffocatingly defensively throughout the game, it will be very difficult to break through, so they intentionally raise the defensive line to counterattack.

‘This might be a bit dangerous.’

It was another French attack.

It was a counterattack after intercepting the ball in an attacking situation, and Griezmann’s lobbed through pass was passed to Mbappe.

Mbappe quickly breaks through three defenders and creates a one-on-one situation.

And then Kim bursts out and blasts the ball forward before Mbappe can even get to it.

Clap clap clap clap!

The audience responded with applause at the lakeside. Philip Harris joined in the applause.

As a fellow European, Philippe also thinks it’s not a bad thing for France to win, but he still wants Korea, where Kim is from, to win.

For football to expand further, a champion must emerge from a new continent.

And Son caught the ball that Kim sent far away.

Son dribbles out of the box and striker Kim drops down, dragging two defenders along.

‘The mid-range angle is slightly open?’

As soon as he had that thought, Son attempted a long-range shot from outside the box.

It was a shot that went straight at the goalkeeper, but it was a good attempt to change the mood.

After going back and forth like that throughout the first half, extra time has come and the first half is about to end.

Philip tried to get up from his seat, wondering if the first half would end smoothly.

I needed to go to the bathroom.

And then there was the sudden solo run by Kylian Mbappe.

Mbappe, who was wasting time on the flank, attempted to dribble and broke through a defender with a dribble and physical fight.

The defender was caught in the melee and fell.

‘If it had been the other way around, the referee would have blown the whistle right away.’

But the referee on the French side did not even blow the whistle, even though the game was now in extra time.

Mbappe then beat another defender and slid the ball down to Griezmann outside the box.

Griezmann ran after the ball and fired a powerful shot that went into the ground with one touch.

It was a shot that made my upper body suddenly rise up as if it was going in at that moment.

And Kim stops it.

It was truly a testament to its reputation.

I blocked it just before it went in and twisted the angle.

Sighs of relief, applause, and groans can be heard here and there.

That’s how the first half ends.

The referee was on France’s side, but the game was still not in anyone’s favor.

And, if you think about the process by which Korea rose, it was always Korea who won.

It might be natural, since the incarnation of defense was guarding the goal.

Philip Harris got up from his seat. Now he really had to go to the bathroom.

* * *

As the second half began, France became very nervous. Why? Did they realize that the referee would let them off anyway?

I don’t know. But if we do like France, the referee will blow the whistle and France will let it go, so I thought I would go crazy and jump.

‘The playground is tilted. It’s a tilted playground.’

It was a difficult situation.

Minwoo will probably have the hardest time.

It will be the most sensitive.

Son Heung-min sighed and did what he had to do.

And as time went on, Korea’s only weakness, its relative lack of depth compared to other soccer powerhouses, began to stand out.

France would immediately take off players who looked a little tired, but we didn’t have that.

It wasn’t easy because even the players who were substituted were first-team level players.

Son Heung-min ran to steal the ball from Griezmann, but he felt frustrated when the opponent overtook him with a light pressure.

‘Damn. My stamina…’

I lost so much stamina. I’m already tired after doing just a little bit of this.

And again the French onslaught.

France kept pounding on our goal without stopping, until we were completely exhausted.

Suddenly, such a thought occurred to Son Heung-min.

‘Is this the end? Can’t we lift the World Cup?’

And at the same time, I also had thoughts to rationalize this situation.

Up to this point, we’ve done well. We’ve already broken the 2002 semifinal myth, if not surpassed it. We did our best, and even now, it’s close to a fairy tale.

And then I see Kim Min-woo blocking me like he’s dying. For a moment, I feel embarrassed.

The goalkeeper, who is much younger than him, is blocking France’s attack like that, but the captain is lying around with such weak thoughts.

‘The score is still 0-0. We’re being ridiculously behind, but we also beat Brazil. The only thing we’re lacking compared to France is stamina. Can’t stamina be overcome with mental strength?’

Above all, I was shocked that I, as the oldest member of the national team and the captain, was giving up too easily.

Above all, our national team.

‘We have Minwoo. We can do it. Minwoo did it even in games that seemed absolutely impossible. This game is really not an easy game and the referee is supporting France, but this isn’t the first or second game like this, right?’

It’s such a difficult match, but we still have Minwoo.

A goalkeeper who has not conceded a single goal since his debut.

I’m not afraid of Messi, Mbappe, or anyone else.

Because our goalkeeper is Kim Min-woo.

Thinking about it that way made me feel a lot better.

Even though we feel discouraged and have a hard time right now, we can do it again at any time.

And as soon as I finish thinking that, something happens.

As expected, it was Kim Min-woo. I took a picture because I thought something was going on, and it was Kim Min-woo.

Son Heung-min grinned. He blocked the French attack and threw the ball deep forward. With his hand. It was his patented shot put throw.

Son Heung-min immediately ran forward quickly despite his lack of stamina, and Lee Kang-im, who received the ball from Kim Min-woo, ran forward while adjusting his speed by coordinating with his surroundings.

It was a typical counterattack process.

But France was no slouch either.

The speed at which they returned from attack to defense was truly amazing. The only team that could compare to them was Italy.

In an instant, France had a solid defensive formation, and although they received the ball from Lee Kang-im, it seemed like they could do nothing about it.

He passed the ball to Kim Jun-young, who seemed to be desperate for the ball, as he had no shooting angle and seemed unable to create anything.

I did give some away because I had no one to give it to.

Kim Jun-young received the ball and slowly moved up from the half space to the center of the box.

As expected, there were already French defenders swarming in front of the box, and one player with some spare time rushed to check Kim Jun-young.

Kim Jun-young did not slow down while running diagonally under the player’s control, and shot half a beat faster.

Because there were so many defenders, Kim Jun-young’s shot deflected off the body of a French player, and the goalkeeper saw the angle, stretched his body to the right, and when the deflected shot flew to the left, he exclaimed, ‘Ah!?’

The goalkeeper literally didn’t know what to do and went to the right, then fell to his knees.

And Kim Jun-young’s deflected shot went into the left goal without any resistance. It was literally a surprise shot and a surprise goal.

A sudden goal that no one expected would come at this timing.

The French side was also dumbfounded by this goal. We were the same.

however.

“Ewwaaaaaaaaaah!”

Kim Jun-young’s roar. And the echo and cheers inside the stadium that belatedly vibrated.

Son Heung-min hurriedly chased after Kim Jun-young.

“Kim Jun-yeo, oh my gosh—!”

This crazy guy!

You finally did it!

So this time I’m going to do it, I’m going to score, that guy who used to sing that song actually did it!

‘As expected! Damn it, the Kim-Kim combination is a scam!’

If Kim Min-woo gives it to him, Kim Jun-young can do it again.

But if the situation had been the opposite, would Kim Min-woo have blocked it again? He showed it in the match against Italy.

Son Heung-min ran with a laugh.

It wasn’t just Son Heung-min.

The other players also followed Kim Jun-young like children following a man playing a pipe.

But why is that kid so fast! Stop right there!