Soccer Genius Wants to Get Noticed - Chapter 178



Only Krnovel

Episode 178 Dissatisfaction

Sunday, September 18, 2022.

I am currently away at VfL Bochum in the 7th round of the Bundesliga ahead of the A-match period. The exact location is north of Cologne, right next to Dortmund.

Not only is the travel time very short, but Bochum’s home stadium, Bonovia Ruhrstadion, has a capacity of less than 30,000, so there will be no loss in match performance.

“Hanul!”

Near the second line of enemy lines.

Ljubicic, who started as a right-wing attacker, raises his hand as he breaks through the defensive line, and Schmitz also penetrates from the sideline.

Naturally, the opposing defenders’ eyes are drawn to one side, so he uses his right foot to scratch the top of the ball and change direction to the left. Taking advantage of the gap in attention from his teammates, he attempts to dribble to the other side.

WHEEK!

Ivan Ordez, the left central defender, reacts by turning his shoulder in the same direction, and I again scoop the ball up with the sole of my left foot.

At the same time, if you suddenly turn your upper body, which was leaning to the left, to the right… …the opponent’s body balance will collapse.

The path towards the box line opens.

[… …Wow!]

The moment the distant cheers of away fans are heard, the subsequent judgment and decision also follow smoothly.

Ljubicic is caught offside and the pass to Schmitz is open but not desirable.

After all the hard work of taking down the opposing central defender, is there really a need to move him to the side?

does not exist.

So my choice is to use Dietz at the forefront.

Boom, boom!

With a simple one-two pass, I can shake off even the Bochum midfielder who came in to cover the gap, and my eyes are filled with the goal without any obstruction.

It’s so easy that it’s almost frustrating.

Chorrrrrr!

Even Tim Oe-man’s sliding tackle as a right-back was like that. I tried to shoot, but I mixed in a feint, but I was a little too reckless.

Thump! Degururur-

Anyway, right after that.

He tries to finish straight away, but he rolls the ball to the left, not ruling out the possibility of Ivan Ordez making a back tackle.

The final shooting chance belongs to Florian Dietz.

Pfft! Charuk.

He completed his first goal with an accurate shot with his right foot into the bottom left corner of the goal.

With this, at 18 minutes into the first half, the score was 1 to 1.

It was a comeback from being down one goal due to an own goal early in the game. It’s not hard to guess who scored the own goal.

Beno Schmitz is running towards me with a blushing face.

But anyway, I’m too busy receiving thanks from the scoring party.

“Hanul! You put it in so simply!”

“……I know.”

“thank you!”

“Okay, okay. Okay, so don’t touch my head… … .”

It would have been better if I had just been moderately happy.

It makes me cross the line and say something.

“Well done, Dimitri.”

“… … It’s not Dimitri, it’s Dietz.”

“Yeah. I know. But how do you make it stick to your mouth so well?”

“… … Me too.”

Soon, players rush in and start mingling, and congratulations and encouragement to score a comeback goal are heard. I don’t even add my words.

It was a given that we would win against Bochum. We had an excessive amount of freedom at every moment, whether we had the ball or not.

In fact, it has been like that since then.

26 minutes in the first half.

“Here! Back!”

The connection on the left side continues smoothly.

As winger Jan Tillman cuts deep down the sideline, Jonas pushes up the pitch and plays the ball to me.

As he burrows towards the edge of the box, I send a short pass to Tillman, who holds the ball for a few seconds before returning it to me.

grasp!

I again kick the ball sideways with the outside of my right foot and lob a through pass to the penetrating Jonas.

Even though the Marksman was attached and we couldn’t step on the box line, that was enough. Because we kept moving without stopping for a moment.

Tillman cuts across the middle on a nearly parallel path, while I dart in to take advantage of the flanking space.

Skip forward to Jonas’ left.

Too-ung.

So he stands still and pushes the ball with his toes, and I run past the opposing winger with speed.

“Only foreign language!”

“Just look at the cross angle!”

Just two steps along the sideline, on the left side of the penalty box.

It is difficult to go further than that.

Moving deeper means the angle of the cross is reduced, so central defender Tim Oehrman delivers a strong ground pass with his left foot before cover comes in.

The finishing touches go to Mark Utt, the right-hand top resource.

Swaaaaaaah – crunch!

[Wow!!]

This completes the second goal and the comeback goal. Although I should be happy, a corner of my heart is filled with a sullen feeling.

This is what it should have been like in the match against Atletico Madrid.

The top lineup consisted of Dietz and Mark Uth, the second line consisted of Tillman, me, and Ljubicic, and below them, supported by Schiri. As if they had never shown such poor performance, today’s Cologne looked fresh, bright, and full of energy.

“……ah!”

Even in the attacking situations that followed, he scattered a series of sensational passes that would make the opposing defenders sigh, and his penetrating movements were also thick and sharp, so much so that he even broke the focus on me.

I really didn’t like it.

* * *

The day after the 7th round of the Bundesliga ended.

I am back in Cologne, sitting on a wooden chair on the terrace next door. I have come to see Uncle Günther, but there is something unusual about the presence of an uninvited guest.

“Oh, this is good too.”

“hmm.”

The neighbor living in the house across the street, Bongo, frowns with his white eyebrows and keeps exclaiming in admiration.

What he was holding in his hand was none other than a cell phone.

The screen was showing highlights from the previous game, a 4-1 win, but there was only one problem… …the device was mine.

As a former plumber, I would have taken it away if it weren’t for the work he did on our kitchen.

Here’s another thing I learned.

This is why people shouldn’t live in debt.

“No, is it already replaced?”

“Because it’s a highlight. It’ll pass quickly.”

“It seems like there’s a lot of time left… … It’s only 91 minutes!”

“… … 51 minutes.”

“Haha, my eyes were blurry so I saw it wrong.”

“… … .”

“But don’t you know what I mean?”

I didn’t run out of the house to have this conversation. Uncle Gunther just smiles so kindly that I can only give him a vague answer.

It may be hard to believe, but I also had a basic attitude of respect for elders (this is not an attack).

“That’s because I had already completed the Champions League schedule. I wasn’t particularly surprised because I was informed before the game.”

“Oh, so that’s how much the coaches told you to run?”

“huh.”

“But your expression is completely different from what you say?”

“… … .”

“Bongo.”

“No, really. Look at that baby’s face. It’s full of complaints.”

baby?

Baby-ee?

That very ‘complaint’ was the main topic I wanted to discuss with Uncle Gunther, but the old man across from me… … Ahem, no. I made a small mistake.

I felt my blood pressure rise at Grandpa Bongo’s choice of words.

“Why am I a baby? I’ll be eighteen soon!”

“Oh, is that so? You’re already eighteen?”

“okay!”

“That’s right, my grandson is twenty-one, you punk.”

“… … How old are you? Your grandson is already twenty-one years old?”

“Sixty and eight.”

If you’re sixty-eight and your grandson is twenty-one… … Should I confront you about why you had the baby in such a hurry? That would really be an attack.

Don’t worry for a moment.

Fortunately for all of us, the other person brings up another topic first.

“How are you, brother?”

“huh.”

“You seem to be coming out of the house a lot these days.”

“Brother?”

“you.”

“… … .”

“Don’t think anything of it. I just overheard the old ladies next door talking.”

That’s also overheard, so isn’t it just as strange?

He casts a mysterious glance, as if the luck of his neighbors is converging to 0, but soon comes to his senses and gives an answer to those waiting.

My mom quit her job, so I have less time to look after my brother.

“Oh, that’s good. You should have done that a long time ago.”

“But it’s not all good. I keep running away from home.”

“… … Is it because you feel uncomfortable?”

“I guess?”

And that’s definitely not what I wanted to ask.

* * *

So the opportunity is given to girls of the same age.

What chance?

A chance to answer my questions.

To whom?

To Sophie Hertz, a model student at Kimnasium.

“… … So, to sum it up, you feel like the team Cologne is lacking? Is that right?”

“Yeah. What do you think?”

Inside the school library. On one side of the room, a reading club meeting is taking place, while Sophie Hertz and I are talking slightly away from the meeting.

“Well, wouldn’t it be better to ask the players rather than me? The team captain, or someone with a lot of experience.”

“no.”

“no?”

“They are also interested parties. That’s why I’m worried, but I don’t want to ask them directly. For example, Jonas Hector is like that. He’s only going to play until the end of this season and then retire, so how would I feel if I told him that I was worried about a transfer?”

The other person kept glancing at the reading club, but in the end, he made a serious expression and thought about it together with them.

At first, I scolded him, saying, “What are you doing?” and telling him not to interfere with club activities. But when I got to know him, I realized he was a good person.

Considering that I interrupted and dragged you out during a club activity… … it deserves even higher praise.

“Ha, I see. Then tell me. What are you worried about?”

“I told you, I felt dissatisfied in Cologne and for the first time I thought about whether I should transfer. Before, I thought other clubs wanted to take me, but now it’s more… … serious.”

“I know that. Other than that, what are you weighing on the scale? Why are you worried? What is it that is making you hesitate to change teams?”

It’s a good start.

“Well, this is my area. Everything revolves around me, right? School, the team, and everything else in life is all here. Human relationships are all intertwined, right? Teammates like Jonas and Skyri, and friends like Lisa Weiss and you… ….”

“and?”

“And then there’s my brother’s illness and my family’s opposition.”

“Your family is against it?”

“… … I haven’t checked yet. But there’s a very high chance that they’ll be against it. Mom and Dad are like, if you’re going to go anyway, let’s go to Munich.”

“You don’t like that?”

“yes.”

“Okay. Then what about the opposite? What made you want to change teams?”

“The loss against Atletico Madrid was a big deal. I did pretty well without making any big mistakes, but my teammates slipped and we lost. No matter how well I played, there were games where I couldn’t do anything, and there were such strong teams out there… … It was the first time I felt that way. It hasn’t been decided yet, but if I were to move, it would be in the winter transfer market-”

“That’s fine. There’s no need to think about what happens later. And what else?”

Be decisive too.

Thanks to the clear explanation, I am speechless.

However, the rest of the content contains some things that are embarrassing to talk about, so I can’t help but scratch my head.

“… … It seems like there are no competitors within the team.”

“competitor?”

“Uh. It’s embarrassing to say, but Modeste left the team this summer.”

“huh.”

“At first, I thought it was just good, but now that I look back, I think that damn gorilla was surprisingly motivating. He was a total idiot, and we were more than just enemies… … but his skills were definitely there.”

“… … .”

“I played desperately in every game because I didn’t want to lose to Modeste, and things like that… … became a kind of goal. At least I think that was the case last season.”

“Is it different now?”

“Yeah. It might sound arrogant, but right now Cologne moves according to my guidance. I’m not joking. It’s true. ‘Free roll’ means that the decisions on the pitch are left to me. I’m the center, and the results are determined by what I do. That’s how it’s been. But… … .”

“We were completely defeated by Atletico Madrid.”

“… … .”

“You said it with your own mouth. It was a crushing defeat.”

“Yes, that’s right. Isn’t that contradictory? I know it sounds like nonsense. After becoming my team, I wanted to leave the team. I even imagined what it would have been like if Modeste had stayed.”

If it’s obvious, then it’s obvious.

The team I was at the center of lost to Atletico Madrid, and in the process, I felt the shortcomings of my teammates.

As a result, I even felt a desire to play in a higher league, with higher level teammates.

“If you want to curse, you can. I’m ready.”

Because I can’t be completely honest, I end up rambling on and on, but Sophie Hertz just stares into my eyes and doesn’t move her lips easily.

Then at one moment.

“I’m not swearing. I just… … .”

“Just, what?”

“I think we need to simplify things a bit.”

She carefully opened her mouth to see if her thoughts were in order, and so… … the Seongha Neul Ochebunshi-Tomb-Betting Show began.

I always knew she was a girl who would break easily, but I never thought it would be me who would break.

I didn’t know this.