<022. Genius and Glory of the Winning Cup (1)>

The last moments of the first half.

Ho Yung’s play was much less anxious than before. There were no unnecessary moves, he knew how to pass to his teammates at appropriate positions and controlled the tempo with stable ball keeping.

He led his team in efficient playing so only the opponent would be tired out. Fabinho, who had been positioned to mark him, relentlessly chased him, but to no avail. The ball had already left Ho Yung’s feet.

“No!”

It was as easy as that.

Ho Yung passed the ball casually to the fullback who had plenty of space.

Then, he invaded the spaces in the opponent’s defence to start destroying their formations.

This was the weakness of marking one person. The tactic aimed for this defence. Carlos’s tactic; to tangle the opponent’s defence and make space.

Ho Yung whipped around the field, messing up their defence and leading them to attempt fruitless defensive moves.

This tactic started shining at the 20-minute mark.

While Ho Yung and Douglas’ switching play was tightening Paulista’s defence, the ball was delivered to the left where there was an abundance of empty space.

The winger, who ran full speed to gain possession of the ball, glanced at Ho Yung. As they had practised, Ho Yung positioned himself inside the penalty box.

“Here!”

The ball, which was sharply lunged along the ground, rushed to Ho Yung.

Thud.

A first touch above expectations!

Ho Yung, who had used his delicate sense of ball touch, scoured for the right timing.

‘Now!’

At that point, he took a risk and lunged into a front shoot with his left foot.

Smack-

“Agh!”

No!

The shot had been blocked by the goalkeeper’s punch.

His left foot wasn’t his dominant foot, so his accuracy and power had been lesser.

‘He blocked that?!’

It was disappointing but not without gain.

Confidence.

He had gained confidence through this attack. The confidence to believe that he could create this kind of opportunity whenever he wanted.

‘I just need to do exactly what I practised.’

He had been playing soccer with just pure enjoyment before – now, it felt as if he was playing knowing the basic operations. Ball control, passing, dribble, all these fundamentals were embedded into his body so he could perform a stable play in any situation.

‘This is it.’

He was excited about his future.

Until this moment, he only had the dream that he would somehow become the world’s greatest soccer player. Now, he saw real potential.

And.

‘This is fun!’

Soccer had become even more entertaining.

Beep!

Ho Yung’s starting goal had left the first half with a score of 1:0. An angered voice boomed from the away team’s locker room.

“What are you doing!”

CA Paulista’s coach was unleashing anger and disappointment. His name was Bruno. In his mid-30s, he was renowned for being a strict ruler in San Paolo. His tactics and attitude in soccer couldn’t be further from the standard Brazilian’s.

This was maybe the secret to dragging his team up to being third in the league. Strong discipline and perfect tactics.

They had been coasting with these two things but today, San Paolo FC had come out of nowhere to stand in their way. Bruno singled out a player.

“Fabinho, get yourself together! How hard is it to mark someone so much smaller than you!”

“He just kept switching positions…”

“If your opponent switches, narrow the defence and focus on defending the space! How many times do I have to tell you?”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s not just Fabinho. The rest of the three back defenders, if the opponent starts abnormal play, then adjust according to him! It’s like you didn’t learn anything in training. Everyone understand?”

“Yes!”

The following second half. CA Paulista’s players entered the stadium with renewed determination.

The home team’s locker room was relatively peaceful.

“In the second half, try to use as much of what we practised as you can. You can run crazy out there.”

“Yes.”

Those were Carlos’s requests to Ho Yung.

The plan was to take advantage of how exhausted the opposition’s defence is by unleashing Ho Yung, who had been saving up his energy.

Of course, they were winning 1:0, so all they had to do to win was toughen up the defence and wait it out, but that wasn’t Carlos’s style.

That being said, games usually didn’t go exactly the way you wanted to. He was just trying to stick to the mentality of winning the game and also not wasting time idly.

‘1 minute for youths and 1 minute for adults are different.’

Carlos wanted to use every moment to expose his players to different opportunities to enhance their practical instincts and build experience.

This was Carlos’s belief.

Winning was good. Growing players and nurturing the future of soccer was a priority.

Not long into the second half, Carlos spotted a change.

‘They changed the defence.’

Like a true veteran, he took no time to perceive and analyse the opponent’s changes in defence.

‘They’re defending spaces to fight our switching play.’

A respectable tactic.

But Carlos’s eyes softened as if he had been expecting this exact change.

8 minutes in.

Ho Yung felt that something had changed from the first half in defence.

‘This is the spatial defence that Coach was talking about.’

It was certain by the movements of Fabinho.

Spatial defence.

It was the opposite of personal defence, where each person only defended within their assigned space. This was to combat Ho Yung’s switching play. Thanks to this new tactic, there was a lot less instability in their defence.

‘If that’s the case…’

Ho Yung warmed up his ankles.

He kept looking for an opportunity as he leisurely zigzagged around the defence. Just waiting for a space to open up.

“Here!”

‘Now!’

Thud.

Ho Yung received a pass from midfield with his back to the defence. Then, he slipped a pass to his left and charged like a buffalo.

Douglas, who had received the pass, stabbed another pass.

Tat.

‘Nice.’

With a stable touch, Ho Yung dribbled as he kicked and ran at an uncertain angle. This was where the opponent’s centre-backs and defence zone overlapped. Suddenly, the defence lines overlapped and two centre-backs were chasing after Ho Yung.

Fabinho ran quite fast, aiming for him, but couldn’t catch Ho Yung’s speed.

‘Done!’

Thanks to this, space opened up on the side.

Ho Yung balanced his body and kicked.

It was an extremely pressuring situation but this was what he had practised passing for!

Fortunately, Ho Yung’s pass landed safely under Douglas’s foot.

Then.

Swoosh!

Douglas’s stable inside shoot flew straight into the net.

“Woahhhhhhh!”

“Nice!!”

It was a perfect assist. Douglas ran to Ho Yung and celebrated the goal together. This goal felt different; it was the combined effort of Ho Yung’s explosive kick-and-run, fundamentals, and amazing teamwork.

Beep!

After the game resumed, CA Paulista tried to work a change. There was no avail – the game flowed to the advantage of one team until the end whistle.

The final score – 2:0.

1 goal and 1 assist; Ho Yung’s performance earned San Paolo FC a priceless victory. Ho Yung earned something even more priceless.

[Select the skill you desire.]

Blade-like ball allocation (C)

Fabinho’s skill.

Although Ho Yung was satisfied with just the skill, he remained incredibly excited for a while after the game. It was because this game had carved into his mind everything he felt on the field.

‘I think I know how to use these skills now.’

This didn’t mean he could use Chaminator’s kick-and-run as well as Du Rim Cha.

But as he watched his soccer prodigy skill grow, he felt it becoming more and more possible.

Another thing.

‘It’s going to be a long time.’

He needed to not be satisfied here and keep improving.

After the game, San Paolo’s bench was in a festival mode.

“Good job.”

Carlos was greeting and congratulating every player coming off the pitch.

Carlos slapped a puffing Ho Yung on the back.

“Ah!”

“Good job.”

“I’ll do well next time, too!”

“Go home and rest up.”

“You too, Coach!”

Ho Yung didn’t get back to Victoria Heshipe until the evening and returned with a handful of food. Smelling the aroma of street food, Maria Cho came out to greet him in the corridor.

“You’re here Ho Yung. What’s the smell?”

“Oh, these are some snacks. We can eat it with the other kids.”

“Huh? Oh… you won today!”

“Yes.”

“Wow! I knew you could do it!”

“Hehe.”

“Congratulations. You didn’t have to bring me anything… but thank you, I’ll enjoy it.”

“That’s okay~”

She had done much for him, he felt he owed her this much once in a while.

Besides, he had earned 60 Reals ($40) and another 40 Reals ($25) that day for playing in the game as well as scoring.

He hurried up to the second floor after the pleasant greeting.

“Where are you going? Aren’t you eating this too?”

“Start without me! Just a second!”

There was someone who needed to hear this news.

He stopped his tracks at the phone installed in the hallway.

Du du du –

Beep.

“Ho Yung?”

A familiar voice.

Ho Yung opened his mouth.

“Dad! I won a MOM today!”

Of course, the first people he wanted to tell this to was his family.