10. Rebuilding, From Tip to Toe (4)
Coach Daniel narrowed his eyes. He tried hard to suppress his anger and, cupping his hands to his mouth, shouted.
"Defense, aren't you going to focus? I told you, right? This is your competition from now on! I told you I'd be watching every practice to see who will remain in the 1st team when the pre-season ends and the season begins!"
The players, with reluctant faces, met his gaze and then turned away.
They too were clearly flustered by the sudden goal. Indeed, Daniel, watching from the outside, was just as bewildered.
"What kind of goal goes in like that?"
It clearly wasn't a shot. Rather than kicking the ball, it felt like the ball had hit his foot while he was running and bounced off, shaking the net.
"Besides, that kid. For a striker, he has absolutely no finishing ability. His shooting power is so bad compared to his physique that he can't escape the 2nd team, can he?"
He hadn't imagined they would concede a goal right away.
And that too, after receiving a pass from the has-been Danny Scott.
'It must be a coincidence.'
Football was not a precise system.
That went in? No, that didn't go in? The field was precisely the place where such exclamations frequently erupted.
Coach Daniel dismissed the recent conceded goal as a coincidence.
Naturally, he would.
"A fellow who doesn't even listen to the coach's words with the back of his ear."
Coach Daniel's eyebrows shot up as he looked at Danny Scott, who was standing idly on the field.
It was then. The blue team's holding midfielder intercepted a pass.
Having only protected the back four, he had succeeded in a crucial defensive play.
And sometimes, defense could lead to a more perfect chance than anything else.
"Run―!"
On the field, someone's shout rang out thunderously.
"It's a counter-attack!"
Daniel was aghast.
"What on earth? Block it! Use your bodies to collide!"
However, unlike his shout, the players weren't that fierce.
It was because no one wanted an intense fight involving physical collisions in a blue vs. white practice match.
On the other hand, the blue team was different. Whether there had been separate instructions or not, they naturally passed the ball and transitioned into a counter-attack.
It wasn't some meticulously prepared tactic; it just seemed as if the players had moved that way.
If it looked that way even to Daniel's eyes, how would it feel to the players on the field?
A counter-attack? They intended to counter-attack?
No way.
"Run! Just get in there first!"
He had just intercepted because he saw a passing lane, cleared the ball because it was there, and since there seemed to be more of our players on that side, he just sent it over.
But who would have known? That the intercepted pass was a crucial defensive play, and the pass sent out happened to be the weakest link in the opposing team's press.
Even the players playing didn't know.
They had simply kicked the ball naturally.
And the moment the counter-attack materialized.
The blue team players felt an intense heat surge through their bodies, and goosebumps prickled their skin.
It was like a game.
Where if you moved within a set position and framework, a predetermined result would automatically emerge.
Just like such a simulation.
It was so.
'Could this be...'
'Is it because of the tactics? Is it because of those instructions just now?'
'How? How did he know the opposing team's positions?'
Confusion arose among the players.
But they pushed even that confusion far away.
Now was the time to focus only on the ball and the players.
"Block them, I said!"
Daniel's head throbbed as the game, which he thought would be an easy, comfortable win, was suddenly thrown into a strange situation.
Hadn't he even given the white team the instruction to show their abilities if they wanted to get into the 1st team, fearing there would be no motivation in a blue vs. white match?
'But why is the other team like that?'
Wasn't this a blue vs. white match played lightly with the thought of warming up?
Why had the blue team's movements suddenly become so organic?
He unknowingly looked to the left of the technical area.
Indifferent eyes, showing no sign of surprise or excitement at all.
Yoojin's eyes were scanning the field. As if he alone were calm amidst the shouts, roars, and heavy breathing pouring from all directions.
'He devised that counter-attack plan in 10 minutes?'
No, that couldn't be. Yes, devising a counter-attack route wasn't difficult.
'If you understand the players well, you can create a pattern. But when did he finish understanding them?'
Only by accurately understanding the players could one create efficient tactics, patterns, and routes.
And the real problem was whether one could instantly apply and utilize it with the team.
'What kind of game does he think this is?'
Impossible. Therefore, it was luck.
It was a counter-attack process that had just happened to work out.
So he thought, but....
"Roles! Be faithful to your given roles!"
Yoojin suddenly shouted. As if he had anticipated this process.
Watching him shout at the players, a flicker of doubt sprouted in Coach Daniel's mind that perhaps, it might not be luck.
However, neither surprise nor doubt could be resolved immediately. The intercepted ball flew to the vicinity of the penalty box in an instant.
And it landed at Danny Scott's feet.
Coach Daniel's eyes shot up, then he was quickly reassured.
He saw a central defender approaching Danny Scott. It was a player who had a record of completely overpowering Danny Scott with a single collision in the first half.
'Hmph, a player who can't even protect the ball. They're trying to take such an old player? Is the level of League Two that pathetic? Or perhaps the manager's eye is just at that level!'
Daniel's eyes gleamed.
At that moment, Danny Scott, who had the ball, felt numerous gazes focused on him.
'This is a familiar sensation.'
Twenty-one pairs of eyes on the field.
Even the fierce gazes from beyond the touchline. All of it was familiar. To the veteran Danny Scott. And even before the ball reached his feet, Danny Scott's vision encompassed the entire field.
The positions of his teammates and opposing players. Their positions, and even the direction they were running.
He even read their expressions.
And he thought, and came to a conclusion.
'Receive the ball, turn, and penetrate. If I beat just one player, it's a one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The goalkeeper has difficulty stopping close-range shots, so the probability of scoring increases.'
That complex thought processed like a computer and quickly produced an answer.
It was truly an instant.
On the fierce and urgent field, like bulls colliding, it was a very brief moment.
Danny Scott, as always, found the best option and moved.
Just as he was about to.
"Roles! Be faithful to your given roles!"
As if waiting for it, as if watching all his actions and reading his thoughts.
Yoojin's shout, clearly audible amidst all the roars and gasps.
At the same time, a phrase he had heard before the start once again surfaced in Danny Scott's mind.
―I hope you refrain from presumptuous actions.
"!"
Words that were, at first glance, even insulting.
But somehow, he wasn't angry. Perhaps he had wanted to hear such words.
He had always thought that rather than following terrible instructions or tactics, it might be better to play according to what he felt and saw on the field himself.
Perhaps that was why.
Since his younger days, he had rarely had his role restricted.
The manager, and the coaches, knew.
That Danny Scott could only fully blossom his skills if he was allowed to play as he wished.
FreeRole.
That was the clear word that described Danny Scott's playing career.
But now, a voice that restricted and controlled his role with a more certain tone than anyone else, clearly surfaced.
Why was that?
In the past, he would have gotten angry and scoffed at that voice.
'My thoughts are the most efficient, and this is the judgment of a player playing on the field, not outside!'
He would have thought so and moved according to the result of his calculation.
But now, Danny Scott recognized his position.
'An old player. A has-been on the verge of retirement. A veteran who should leave the ground.'
And the person who, while clearly facing that fact, had still called him a 'player.'
'Just once.'
Couldn't he listen and follow?
Danny Scott stopped thinking and also stopped his actions. And he did his best in the limited role given to him.
He looked at the ball, reassessed the situation, and checked the players' positions.
And simply,
Tap—!
"!"
"――!!"
A single threaded pass arrived inside the penalty box.
And in front of it, the blue team's striker arrived.
At that moment, Danny Scott gritted his teeth.
'The pass was fast!'
The pass's position, speed, and rhythm were fast. A proper impact was impossible. The ball would either go high or be caught by the goalkeeper. A golden opportunity would turn to nothing.
But it was then.
"Huh?"
The striker, that player who had the fatal flaw of poor shooting ability.
Half a beat, late.
At the perfect timing.
Ppeong—!
He showcased a perfect finish.
At that moment. He realized.
―Shoot as you usually do. Don't try to shoot at a fast rhythm unnecessarily. Trust your instincts, and aim for the shot as you normally would. Instead, accurately, aim for it.
"...!"
Yoojin's instruction, clearly recognizing the flaw of a half-beat-late shot.
Danny Scott, unable to even think of running towards his celebrating teammates, remained silent.
When was it?
―Coach, that doesn't seem very efficient, does it?
Daniel couldn't forget the expression on his face back then, when he had refuted his instructions right in front of him.
He couldn't forget the expressions of the players gathered around even a little.
What was more humiliating was the fact that he couldn't respond properly because anger had surged up.
―If you do that, the line keeps going up, doesn't it? Look at their second line over there. There's no countermeasure for their movement breaking the line and coming in, is there?
Even now, when Daniel thought of the gazes of the players that had poured down on him back then, his face burned.
That was why he disliked Danny Scott.
As time passed and Danny Scott's decline became evident, and his utility even as a substitute resource diminished.
He had inwardly rejoiced and proposed to the manager. That they needed to rebuild. That they needed to cut out the old players and transfuse new, young blood.
'A thick-headed fellow who, just because he has some experience, doesn't listen to the coach's words worth a damn. I was so relieved that I wouldn't have to see that arrogant face on the ground anymore.'
Someone came looking for him.
Saying they would recruit Danny Scott, who was preparing for a coaching position.
At first, he didn't believe it. Who would come forward to recruit a player whose retirement date was set? He really thought Danny Scott was staging some kind of protest against his retirement.
But today, he saw. He was a real manager. Because he had blatantly asked Danny Scott, he also learned the fact that he was the manager of a completely ruined 4th division club.
At that fact, Coach Daniel smiled triumphantly, as if to say, 'Of course.'
'A completely ruined club? Where players and coaches have all escaped, and they barely avoided bankruptcy? And on top of that, a rookie with no managerial experience? Then what makes him different from me?'
His feeling of intimidation because he was a manager was brief.
While not all coaches aimed for the manager's seat, Daniel's goal was to be a manager. That was why he studied and delved into tactics.
Perhaps that was why.
He inwardly looked at Yoojin with pitying eyes.
'What manager in the world comes in person, on their own two feet, just to recruit one old player?'
It was even pathetic.
'Then again, for a ruined team in League Two, even someone like Danny Scott would be a godsend.'
Thinking so, he exchanged greetings.
But somehow, that man's words and expression stuck in his mind.
Was it because of his consistently confident attitude? Or was it because of his posture when looking at the players? Yes, it was because of his posture, his expression and posture.
'Manager, is this really your first time?'
Did he have the air of a manager?
Such an aura emanated naturally.
From that face, which was clearly younger than his own.
It was as if the experience of a renowned manager who had overcome countless adversities was alive and breathing.
Perhaps because of that, he wanted to belittle him.
―It's no different from pestering a mammal to lay eggs.
Especially when he talked about tactics.
He felt something bubbling and boiling inside him.
It overlapped with the way Danny Scott always used to point out his instructions.
Even though it was the 4th division, he was a manager, yet he dared to say such things. He didn't like it.
Anyone could see it was advantageous. Daniel had watched those players for years. And in fact, the white team was much more advantageous. Because the white team also included three or four 1st team players.
"However..."
He stared blankly at the field.
The ball, lofted high into the penalty box.
When the ball, which had dropped loosely during the contest, landed at Danny Scott's feet.
Ppeong—!
A shot whose satisfying sound would not have been lacking even compared to his prime.
It shook the back of the net.
1 goal, 2 assists.
It was the best proof Danny Scott could show.
And, something that no media, no football fan, paid attention to.
No, something they wouldn't even know would happen in the future.
'Manager Yoojin...'
Danny Scott looked at Yoojin with astonished eyes.
'It's the 4th division, but still... a manager is a manager, I guess.'
Coach Daniel glanced sideways in dejection.
"What's going on? What's with everyone's condition today?"
"Wow. With this kind of condition, if we perform just a bit in a friendly match, we could even make it to the 1st team, huh?"
"Today's play was good!"
"But who on earth is that coach?"
Amidst the players' buzzing interest.
It was a stage where Yoojin's abilities were clearly demonstrated for the first time.