The ball was sucked into the net—the moment my teammates’ shouts were being overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of spectators.
I wanted to jump around and throw punches, my whole body buzzing with tingles, but I didn’t.
Because I felt that, in many ways, now was not the time to reveal my joy.
It was only just past the middle of the first half, and it was merely the first goal, an equalizer at that.
If I had celebrated as though I’d gained the entire world with just that—even if I actually had—I thought we’d probably look insignificant from the opponent’s perspective.
As in, *They must be terrified inside, getting that happy over just one goal.*
So instead of roaring and throwing punches into the air, I ran to the goalpost and picked up the ball again.
And holding the ball, I returned to the halfway line and placed it down.
Of course, my sunbaes looked a bit dumbfounded seeing me like that, but I did it because I didn’t want to look the slightest bit contemptible in any minor detail.
Ultimately, the equalizer wasn’t something so joyful for us; I wanted to say it was merely one goal needed to turn the game around.
Though I didn’t know if the opponents would take it that way.
Hmm.
Come to think of it, it had been a meaningful goal for me in many ways.
It was my Champions League debut goal, and a goal scored after getting past Hakimi, the captain’s nemesis. Above all, the fact that I’d scored it with a curled shot I’d practiced to death in training meant the most.
It was a bit of a shame that I hadn’t done a proper celebration for such a goal, but at the same time, I didn’t regret it that much.
Because I somehow had a feeling that another chance would come before today’s match ended.
But that chance didn’t arrive before the first half ended, and the match continued into the second half.
*
“Why are you all frozen stiff! It’s one-one! We were evenly matched!”
“Yes—!”
“Have some confidence! Especially you, Chris!”
“…Yes.”
“You’re the captain, yet you’re frozen stiff, so the other kids are all tense right along with you. You did well. You held the line well too. Did you get broken through and give up a chance? No, you didn’t. So play with more confidence!”
“…Yes!”
“All of you, same thing! Play with more confidence! When you get the ball, don’t all just keep looking around to see where Jian is! How many times did I tell you in training? You have to properly attack the right side for space to open on the left. Do you think the opponent will fall for it if you just pass the ball around carelessly, huh!”
“Yes—!”
“Penetrate! Feed passes! Shoot! And if space opens, send it to Jian! If they spread their defense out conscious of that, aggressively look for the half-spaces! Be proactive, proactive!”
“Yes—!”
“Good, get out there! Go tear them apart and come back! This is our house! Like proper hosts, teach those uninvited guests a lesson!”
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
Coming out of the locker room after halftime, the path through the tunnel toward the pitch was louder than ever.
Perhaps because he’d had a lot he wanted to say during the first half, the coach, who had poured out a passionate speech the moment we returned to the locker room, was now nagging us with the momentum of a parent chasing after children going to school, as if he would follow us right onto the pitch itself.
At this, all my sunbaes, myself included, nodded and ran back out onto the pitch.
They all looked like they were nodding half-heartedly, but they were taking it in.
“Good! Let’s get back out there focused!”
You could tell just by looking at the captain shouting the fighting cry more energetically than usual.
Until the start of the first half, he’d had a face like he’d seen a ghost.
Maybe it was because he’d taken the coach’s barrage of nagging, but he seemed to have improved a little, which was a relief.
…Perhaps it was also because Hakimi had played a large part in the opponent conceding that first-half goal.
“…”
Suddenly, resting my foot on the spot where the center circle’s outline and the halfway line crossed, a funny thought crossed my mind and I let out a short laugh.
Just now… looking at the captain whose face had brightened a little, I thought, *I’m proud of him.*
Ha, seriously.
Even if this place has no such thing as Confucianism, a strict hierarchy exists here all the same.
For me, who was by far the youngest and most junior in both age and experience, to dare think that about the captain—
Had I always been this impudent?
But honestly… aside from the word *proud,* there didn’t seem to be any other word that could more accurately express the emotion that had suddenly washed over me.
Because I knew it too.
How burdened and afraid the captain must have been ahead of today’s match.
Of course, it was incredibly impudent of me to act as if I understood another person’s pain, but even so, I somehow felt like I knew.
Because until just moments ago, the captain’s face had clearly revealed emotions like that fear and pressure.
But the captain had played the match.
Even now, he was still standing in his place, greeting the second half.
It meant he had fought without hiding.
Living together, I had learned that the captain wasn’t very different from me.
That just because he was the captain didn’t mean he had no worries, no fears, or could do everything.
So no matter how impudent it was, nothing but the word *proud* came to mind.
Perhaps that was why the sudden thought of wanting to see the captain smile, having completely shaken off his painful memories, grew even stronger.
And I felt grateful that there was a role I could play in making that possible.
It was a happy thing.
If only I could do that.
Beeeep—!
The whistle signaling the start of the second half blew, and I crossed the halfway line, running into the opponent’s half to begin the match.
At the same time, I could see the spectators beyond the opponent’s goal, and I suddenly had a presumptuous thought: when those people watched me, wasn’t it with that same feeling?
…Maybe it wasn’t for no reason that I’d felt like cheering.
Even now it’s the same, but when I first stepped onto the pitch—
I was so frozen stiff that you could tell I was nervous even from three hundred meters away.
My face must have been set like someone who’d seen a ghost.
I think the fans wanted to see someone like me smile.
Just like how I look at the captain now.
Hmm.
At a very strange moment, I finally realized why the fans sent me such enthusiastic support.
…Then, was Jiu for that reason too?
“Five minutes! Watch the first five minutes!”
At the voice brushing past my ear, I immediately shook off my wandering thoughts.
Anyway, it was time to focus on the match, and the opponent wasn’t one we could beat while distracted.
*
They had definitely looked like they were nodding perfunctorily, but it was clear the sunbaes had been listening closely to the coach’s words.
The second half had begun and several exchanges had taken place, but around the time twenty minutes had passed without a score.
I was feeling that the flow of those twenty minutes was distinctly different from the first forty-five.
The reason was that when we attacked, we had tried the right-side attack using Romero more aggressively.
Following the coach’s words to be more active on the right, the number of passes distributed to Romero had increased, and the other teammates also supported the attack more aggressively by penetrating.
Thanks to that, Romero looked a bit excited.
Romero had already said he definitely wanted to score in today’s match.
He’d said he wanted to receive the gaze of God—exactly, he’d called it grace—just once.
Although he hadn’t scored yet, he had definitely received that gaze not just once, but several times.
Anyway, as a result, quite a lot of space was being given to me as well.
Not only the right side, but as Saponara kept attempting to penetrate centrally, the defense marking me couldn’t help but be drawn away.
Thanks to that, there had been several moments when I wished for a switch pass to come right then.
Perhaps it’s the rule of the world that when one thing goes right, another doesn’t.
At such moments, a pass hadn’t come yet.
But that didn’t mean I could afford to relax.
Because I believed that just when I thought it wouldn’t come my way this time either, the pass would definitely arrive.
And making the most of that opportunity was my repayment to the team that had accommodated me, someone who disliked rubbing shoulders with others… so even when the ball didn’t come, I kept trying to stay focused.
Well, leaving all else aside, even if I’d wanted to relax, I couldn’t have.
Though our attack had grown more active, the opponent had actually created more threatening scenes.
Simply put, the woodwork had been struck twice.
Once by Messi, and once by Mbappé.
Two shots had hit the frame, and that chilling sound was one that forced me to tense up even without the ball.
So… around the time I was thinking that, in a way, it was fortunate the 1-1 scoreline was holding.
The opponent’s attack had ridden the momentum for about five minutes from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth minute, and when we’d barely cut off that flow and begun to possess the ball.
I was watching the ball developing to the right from afar, preparing to receive a pass with the thought that it wouldn’t come my way this time either.
Whoosh—!
The ball left Bonaventura’s foot, and its direction was toward me.
At the moment I thought it wouldn’t come this time, the ball eventually flowed to me.
While the opponent’s midfielders were tilted to the opposite side, a ground pass that arrived without meeting a single obstacle touched my foot.
Thwack—!
Trapping it forward, I once again faced Hakimi with a feeling that was weary but welcome.
Not to make excuses, but when an attacker and defender face off 1v1 repeatedly in a single match… as time goes on, the advantage goes to the defense.
Because defense benefits more from increased information about the opponent than offense.
But… I wondered if the story wouldn’t be different if that information happened to be a painful memory.
Hoping that the breakthrough he’d afforded me earlier had become nothing more than useless information to him, I set aside my complicated thoughts and approached straight on.
At this rate, we’ll become close friends.
Tap-tat—!
Diagonally from the left touchline toward the corner of the box.
Staring intently at the opponent who had lowered his stance and was backpedaling with short steps, I tapped the ball with my right foot and drove in.
The moment both the opponent and I realized we’d reach the box with just a little more.
Tap-tat—!
Lowering my upper body to the left and loading weight onto my left foot, I pushed the ball to the right with the outside of my right foot.
And pushing off the ground hard with my left foot to burst to the right, I soon realized my upper body feint hadn’t fooled him.
Tap-tat—!
So much so that it was more accurate to call it prediction than reaction.
Because the opponent quickly stretched his leg and blocked the path ahead.
But… it was truly ironic.
Because it was so fast, it gave me the chance to change direction again.
To keep the ball from rolling toward the opponent’s leg that had shot out a step ahead, I scraped the ball at a right angle with the inside of my right foot.
Tap-tat—!
And just like that, I knocked the ball forward and ran. At the moment when my calves and thighs, pushing off the ground, felt a throbbing ache as if screaming emergency.
From behind, an unidentifiable sound rang out.
Thud—!
It was a sound that made me desperately want to look back, but there was obviously no time to turn my head.
Shaking off the intense temptation, I chased the ball rolling along the left side of the box.
At the same time, I turned my gaze right to check the goalmouth situation.
Tat-tat—!
Roughly several defenders and slightly fewer attackers were rushing pell-mell into the goalmouth.
Capturing that scene like a photograph and saving it in my head, I turned my eyes back to the ball and ran.
And taking out that photo I’d just snapped… I discovered one important piece of information.
Lengthening my stride to strike with my left foot.
And I struck it.
Whoosh—!
Instantly, a rather uneasy sensation climbed up my left foot.
Because I’d struck the ball with the outside of my left foot.
The instep is stable, and the outside is unstable. That’s why when passing, nine times out of ten you use the instep.
In the end, it meant the kick I’d just taken wasn’t a pass.
Swish—
The shot struck with a slicing motion on the outside curved, heading low like a cross before bending away.
The important information I’d obtained when I glanced toward the goalmouth a moment ago was that the goalkeeper had jumped out forward, as if expecting a ground cross.
I’d never trained as a goalkeeper, so I didn’t know for sure, but isn’t it a keeper’s duty to protect the goal above all else, no matter what?
This was because he had failed to uphold that duty.
Swish—
Thwack—!!
The ball, passing the hand of the goalkeeper who’d stretched out while twisting his body grotesquely, was sucked into the goal.
Waaaaaaaah—!!!
Immediately, an earthquake-like roar erupted from the stands, and I finally answered that call.
“——!!”
Letting out something more like an animal’s cry than human words, I ran toward the corner flag.
To those who wanted to see me smile, I freely showed them exactly what they wanted.
Then, I soon changed direction to look for someone.
Ah.
He’s running over there.
Smiling widely, I spread both arms toward the captain running at me, nodding proudly.