12 save. New Home
It was a familiar scent.
It was a familiar interior.
Perhaps it was still under preparation; when he glanced around, the still-unorganized interior of the shop came into view.
Clack.
A mug was placed in front of Sin Uison.
“Here you go.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Sin Uison gave his thanks and lifted the mug. The fragrance tickling his nose was nostalgic enough to leave one awash in sentiment.
“I was surprised.”
“Yes?”
“Were you a football player?”
“Ah······.”
Sin Uison scratched his cheek.
He had never imagined those words would come from her mouth.
“Did you see?”
“My parents are die-hard United fans.”
Among the many football clubs in England with “United” in their names, people think of two clubs when they hear the word.
Manchester United and Leeds United.
Likewise, the pride the fans held for the club called Leeds was tremendous.
“I was just watching the game without thinking, and your familiar face appeared—do you know how surprised I was?”
“Well, it just happened….”
Sin Uison smiled bitterly.
It wasn’t exactly a fact he had hidden.
“I was surprised too.”
“About what?”
“Was your hometown Leeds?”
“Hm.”
Olivia, holding her own mug, smiled awkwardly.
When she had packed up her London shop, she had believed she shared a meaningful farewell with a regular customer.
That she would reunite like this here—surely she hadn’t imagined it either.
“Yes. Right now I’m preparing a shop in Leeds.”
Her gaze turned to the luggage placed beside Sin Uison.
“Did you go out shopping?”
“Well, yes. I haven’t been long since I moved, so there was a lot to buy.”
“Huhu. Come often once we open.”
“I should.”
“Then the usual?”
“Yes. The usual.”
Watching her soon begin to cook, Sin Uison smiled quietly. He had missed conversations like these too.
It was a day of unexpected gains.
***
Time passed, and Sin Uison’s second match approached.
Millwall FC.
A team hovering around the lower mid-table in the Championship.
Their objective strength itself was evaluated as weak, but their home ground, The Den, was a place dreaded by visiting teams.
[Mirror] Millwall hooligans causing havoc again!
[The Sun] Eight hooligans apprehended by police.
It was because of their notoriously extreme fans.
It was a place so infamous that one thought of Millwall at the mention of hooligans.
“Millwall, huh.”
To Sin Uison, it was a team that gave him a somewhat different feeling.
Because Millwall was the club that had an extremely poor relationship with West Ham, where he had been until recently.
In fact, the only hooligans who could go toe-to-toe with Millwall’s rabid antics were West Ham’s hooligans.
He hadn’t made his debut there, but he had been aware that he was a West Ham player during his contract period.
If he conceded even a single goal, he might catch an earful from the West Ham reserve team coaches.
“Hey, Shin.”
The Leeds United locker room.
Brian McDermott, having finished his words to the players, called Sin Uison aside.
“Are you nervous, by any chance?”
“No.”
“Then that’s a relief. Your first starting debut being at The Den—it’s going to be a rough one.”
McDermott patted Sin Uison’s shoulder. That was right. Today was Sin Uison’s first starting debut.
With Paddy Kenny predicted to take at least over one to two months to return from injury, Sin Uison had boldly made his name onto the starting list.
“There won’t be a problem.”
“Good. Everyone out!”
At the manager’s command, the players left the locker room.
In the tunnel leading to the ground, even as they waited briefly there, the opposing players’ gazes poured down upon them.
Curiosity, relief, mockery.
To Sin Uison, they were familiar gazes.
Once they entered the stadium, it intensified even more.
Oooooh!
The moment they entered, tremendous jeers pressured the Leeds players.
It was most severe when standing in front of the goal.
It just so happened that Millwall’s fans were behind the goal.
You bastard from West Ham!
There are no dogs for you to eat here!
[Nothing worth listening to.]
‘I know.’
Sin Uison stretched his neck with an indifferent expression.
Of course, he wasn’t the type to enjoy being cursed at. It naturally bothered him.
But since they were the type to only enjoy it more if he reacted, it was simply a matter of not paying them any mind.
If he were the type to shrink from this kind of thing, he would have hung up his boots long ago.
—The match begins.
—The home team Millwall has gone with a 4-4-2 formation, while the away team Leeds has gone with a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Despite being the away team, Leeds smoothly took control of the game.
But this was Millwall’s home.
He soon understood why visiting teams dreaded this place.
Oooooh!
Every time Leeds touched the ball, tremendous jeers poured down. To the point where the Leeds players’ concentration was scattered by such abuse.
‘Incredible.’
Sin Uison acknowledged the pressure created by The Den’s atmosphere.
It wasn’t only the Millwall players he needed to worry about.
Each and every one of these factors affected the match.
—Ah, a pass miss by Leeds!
—These small mistakes keep coming out today!
—Millwall attempts a counterattack!
Rather, if one looked only at attacking intensity, the intermittent counterattacks from Millwall were even more cohesive.
Even so.
The reason Leeds’s net did not sway was—
“Fuck! Break through, will you!”
The Millwall player who had taken the shot couldn’t hold back his anger and shouted.
He was also the player who had predicted an easy match in the tunnel earlier, but reality was cruel.
“Is this my fault?”
Sin Uison, re-asking as if puzzled, soon snorted.
As if. How could that be?
Having obtained the trait and invested points into prediction, he could now easily predict shots to this level.
‘As expected, the actual sensation is much greater in reality.’
He probably wouldn’t have felt such a big difference simply from raising his prediction stat.
What created this difference—
Was the presence of a trait.
‘If other traits are also to this degree…’
Then even traits he had thought little of needed to be reconsidered.
At a sudden stinging sensation, Sin Uison raised his head.
He saw a Millwall midfielder preparing a mid-range shot from afar.
‘Damn.’
He hurriedly ran backward, and at the same time, the shot was fired. Having quickly returned to position, Sin Uison caught the ball without difficulty.
—He even blocks a wholehearted mid-range shot!
—Just like his debut match last time, he is truly composed.
Meanwhile.
Sin Uison, who had been guarding the goal calmly, felt increasingly frustrated as time went on.
To be exact, it was while watching the Leeds players, who were unable to create chances at all.
Right when that suffocating feeling kept persisting—
A back pass came toward him.
“Hey! Over here!”
A Leeds fullback shouted, raising his hand. It was a signal to pass to him.
“Hm.”
Sin Uison looked at the ball he had trapped at his feet and fell into thought.
Slightly—
He felt greedy.
He saw a Leeds winger moving actively to avoid the opposing midfielder in the distance. His hesitation didn’t last long.
Bang!
A fantastic long pass split the air.
—Wow!
The outstretched pass was delivered straight to the winger on the flank.
He had been looking back with a startled face for a moment, but then fixed his expression and ran into Millwall’s territory.
“Damn it!!”
“Hey, block him quickly!”
The Millwall players, who had been preparing for a midfield scrap, hurriedly fell back to their defensive territory. Unfortunately for Leeds, they couldn’t score, but for the Millwall fans, it was a chilling blow.
“That pass just now was great!”
“It was nothing.”
Seeing his teammate giving a thumbs up, Sin Uison raised his hand casually.
After that as well, Sin Uison threaded clever passes whenever he had the chance.
Sometimes it was a long long pass, and this time it was a low, driven pass.
—Shin’s passing ability is better than expected?
—If he continues showing this level of performance, it seems Paddy Kenny will have a harder time reclaiming his starting spot upon returning from injury than expected.
The commentators exclaimed upon seeing Sin Uison’s passes.
The ones surprised weren’t only the commentators.
The Leeds teammates also looked at Sin Uison with surprised faces.
“This…”
“He’s better than expected, isn’t he?”
This side of Sin Uison was something they hadn’t seen at the training ground.
In any case, if quality passes continued to be supplied from the back, it was nothing but good for them.
—Leeds’s back pass attempts have increased.
When the midfield battle grew harder than expected, the Leeds players sent the ball to Sin Uison. It wasn’t a bad choice. Sin Uison distributed stable passes from the very back.
“Fucking hell, you bastards, press him hard, you moronic bastards!”
The Millwall manager shouted at his players.
They had to block that annoying Oriental goalkeeper from distributing passes.
Following the manager’s orders, Millwall changed their movements as well.
The two foremost attackers pressed all the way to the penalty area, interfering with Sin Uison’s passes.
‘In times like this.’
After confirming the two rushing at him fiercely, Sin Uison moved his body.
Dodging before the tackle came in, he then played a pass toward the empty space.
‘So that’s it.’
Now he was certain.
Prediction was not simply limited to blocking goals.
It was also related to where teammates would move and what kind of pressure opposing forwards would apply.
Having gained conviction, Sin Uison became even more proactive.
That eventually made the difference.
—Gooooal! Leeds United scores the opening goal!
—It was a very beautiful process!
In the end, Leeds United took the lead, widening the score to 1:0.
Even if it wasn’t an assist, Sin Uison was once again the starting point of this attack.
A lightly floated pass connected to the midfield.
The attacking midfielder who received it immediately linked up forward, and that became the goal.
“Quiet.”
The moment the goal went in, Sin Uison smiled. He felt very good seeing this noisy The Den engulfed in silence in an instant.
Millwall now poured in shots as if determined to score out of sheer spite.
Among them were ones Sin Uison caught, ones that completely missed the goal, and ones that were deflected by defenders and declared corner kicks.
But no goal went in.
Beeeeep!
The match ended just like that.
At the sound of the whistle, the Leeds players ran over and roughly ruffled Sin Uison’s hair.
“You crazy bastard! I thought you only blocked the ball well, but you pass well too! Did you swap souls with Gerrard or something?!”
“That sounds rather interesting.”
“What?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Sin Uison shrugged. Having experienced a strange vision, he had come to possess quite an open mind, at least regarding the training ground in his dreams.
‘It wouldn’t be strange if something like that existed.’
[Who can say?]
It was a mischievous answer. If he could see its face, it would probably be covering its mouth and smiling.
[Yorkshire Evening] Sin Uison makes a successful start in Leeds!
[Leeds Live] Brian McDermott: He is a good goalkeeper.
After the match, Sin Uison’s performance received quite a bit of attention.
There weren’t many goalkeepers who didn’t stop at making good saves but also possessed outstanding passing ability.
The Leeds fans also sent cheers toward the newcomer who had shown them another weapon he possessed.
—At this rate, we might actually stand a chance?
—Their situation isn’t great either, anyway.
—Let’s just aim for a draw!
The opponents they were talking about were—
Manchester United.
The team that had long dominated English football and the long-time nemesis of Leeds United.
[BBC] FA Cup Round of 32, which match to watch?
[Sky Sports] The War of the Roses arranged once more!
A derby that had become rare to see since Leeds United was relegated.
The War of the Roses.
That match had been arranged again.