Save 15. War of the Roses
"Sii-, Shin Uison!"
"Coming out of the penalty area, he's putting on an incredible display!"
On the screen, what had just happened was being replayed once again.
It was when the ball fell from Carrick's toe.
The very moment van Persie was moving to chase the ball.
Shin Uison came crashing into the goalmouth.
By the time van Persie, having received the pass, turned his head, Shin Uison had already closed in right in front of him. Shin Uison had narrowed the angle and thrown himself into a slide tackle.
'It's okay.'
Shin Uison subtly touched his right knee.
Two cruciate ligament injuries had always made him cautious.
The anxiety of whether he would be injured again.
That was probably a fear he would carry for life.
After putting on a knee brace, he had found mental stability, but during a play like the one just now, he tensed up without realizing it.
"Huu."
Feeling the texture of the brace at his fingertips, Shin Uison let out a sigh of relief.
There was nothing to worry about.
Having reorganized himself mentally, he looked ahead.
In the distance, he could see his teammates moving to evade the Man United players.
'Good movement.'
Having synced up, even if only briefly during training, was helping.
Leaving van Persie, who was still lying down, behind him, Shin Uison immediately took his run-up.
'It won't be fun if they catch on while I'm dawdling.'
Bang!
With a crisp sound, the ball crossed the halfway line.
The Man United players turned their heads belatedly, but it was already too late.
The long, outstretched pass dropped in front of Leeds' left winger.
"Great! A wonderful pass, Shin Uison!"
"At least in passing, he looks better than De Gea!"
Having received the ball, Leeds' winger made a long run down the flank. He had covered an enormous amount of ground today, but in an opportunity like this, he had to run somehow, didn't he?
Manchester United's right fullback, Smalling, stepped up to block him.
Though his original position was center-back and it was hard to expect offensive prowess from him, he was a reliable player in a situation like this.
"The two players collide forcefully! The referee calls a foul on Smalling!"
Smalling's challenge wasn't clean.
His body hit first before the ball.
In the end, Leeds' winger fell as if bouncing outside the line, and the whistle blew.
Although a foul was called, no threatening situation arose as De Gea easily caught the aerial ball from the subsequent set piece.
From Manchester United's standpoint, it had turned out to be a decent choice.
This situation continued to repeat.
No matter how much Shin Uison opened up play with his passing or connected passes directly, it was meaningless if they didn't finish with a goal.
The Leeds bench knew this fact as well.
"Oyy, Diouf!"
In the end, Manager McDermott pulled out a card he had hoped to avoid using if possible.
El-Hadji Diouf, who had practically been treated as outside the first team.
In a big match like today, he had no choice but to trust that experience.
"Is Diouf warming up?"
"Haha. If he's missed, is he a face people long to see?"
"As Liverpool fans cheering on Leeds, they must be feeling conflicted."
El-Hadji Diouf, who had once been at Liverpool, had been thoroughly hated after leaving the team for directly and indirectly belittling his former club.
If there were any Liverpool fans watching the match right now, they were probably praying that he got beaten up by the Man United players.
"Leeds is making their second substitution."
"Will El-Hadji Diouf be able to change anything?"
The commentators didn't particularly sound expectant.
And as if to confirm those expectations, things played out accordingly.
El-Hadji Diouf, having come on as a substitute, was failing to have any impact on the match.
"This is driving me crazy."
Watching Diouf waste a good through ball from the midfielders, Shin Uison sighed.
Even if it was his first appearance of the season, Shin Uison wondered if this wasn't too much.
To the point that the team's performance had deteriorated rather than improved after the substitution.
As the team's overall performance declined, Man United gradually seized the initiative. Unfortunately, it was also about time the Leeds players' stamina began to drop.
It was a relief that they hadn't conceded thanks to Shin Uison's desperate struggles.
"Rooney's shoooot!"
Having seized momentum, a much more composed Rooney struck a long-range shot.
Watching the powerful shot, Shin Uison fell into thought.
Can I catch it?
To be precise, can I catch it cleanly without any variables?
When a shot was struck with that much power, if his luck was bad, there was a risk of fumbling the ball trying to catch it.
'Can I trust my handling stat?'
After a moment of thought, Shin Uison chose to punch it.
If his luck was bad, it would start from there.
The punched ball went, of all places, to a Man United player.
"Damn it."
While muttering a short curse, Welbeck took the second ball and struck a shot. It was simultaneous with Shin Uison diving.
Fortunately.
Blocking a shot aimed right down the center of the goal wasn't very difficult.
"Again! He's stopped it again!"
"But the ball is still with Man United!"
"Van Persie!"
"Aaaaah!"
Taking the third chance, van Persie rose high and headed the ball down.
'Give me a break already.'
Just as the Man United players, including Rooney, were thinking that.
Shin Uison raised his left leg high.
It was a move he often did during shot-saving training in the training ground of his dreams.
The ball that was heading downward.
Was blocked by Shin Uison's foot rising upward.
"Aaaah! He! Even this! Blocks it!! A stunned van Persie!"
Van Persie stared blankly at the ball that had gone out of play.
He wondered if his condition wasn't good today.
But seeing the goalkeeper rising to his feet before him, he realized there was nothing wrong with his condition.
It was then.
He heard Shin Uison muttering as he got up.
"Good thing I cleared the lowest difficulty."
"What? This bastard!"
Not knowing the exact meaning, van Persie took it as a provocation against himself and scrunched up his face.
He was already annoyed, and having some nobody he'd never heard of pick a fight made him explode.
"What the hell?"
To van Persie, that baffled look was even more detestable. Provoking him first and then acting like that!
[Did he hear me muttering?]
'Ah.'
Could it be that he took "lowest difficulty" to mean himself?
Shin Uison finally realized the cause and tried to explain, but the situation was already growing beyond control.
"You fucking bastard, who are you losing your temper with?"
"Won't you back off, bastard?"
"What, you trying to fight right now?"
Leeds' defenders blocked van Persie's path and growled. To them, van Persie getting angry at their good-luck charm was not a pretty sight.
"He insulted me first!"
"Yeah? Did you mishear that snake-like little boy whispering? Huh?"
"You...!"
In the end, the war of nerves led to a clash between Leeds' defenders and van Persie.
The little boy.
It was mockery stemming from the statement van Persie had made when transferring from Arsenal to Man United.
"The little boy inside me whispered to go to Manchester United."
It had been a huge shock to Arsenal fans.
They had kept giving chances to a player constantly injured, and the moment he peaked, he transferred to a rival team while spewing such words.
Thus, "the little boy" became a meme to mock van Persie.
Van Persie, who couldn't possibly not know this.
"Ah, the Leeds and Man United players are clashing!"
Man United players rushed over to help van Persie, who was standing alone.
Wooooo!
At the same time, Elland Road rang with boos.
It was an atmosphere where fans might invade the pitch and threaten the Man United players at any moment.
Beep!
In the end, the referee blew the whistle to calm the atmosphere. Since they had only growled at each other without pushing, no cards came out.
'I'll have to watch what I say from now on.'
Meanwhile, Shin Uison, who had unintentionally lit the fire, let out a sigh of relief.
Had he developed a habit of muttering to himself from the training ground in his dreams?
He hadn't expected the occasional muttering to become a spark for misunderstanding.
After both teams received verbal warnings, the match resumed.
Fired up by the recent clash, everyone was riled up, leading to rough fouls.
The midfield, where the midfielders of both teams were colliding, was now no different from a battlefield.
When one player stole the ball and tried to dribble, another player immediately charged into him roughly.
If the ball was stolen like that.
As if to return the favor, other players rushed in.
"Manchester United's Ferdinand receives a yellow card!"
"They need to calm down a bit."
Diouf was brought down by a rough tackle, and soon a yellow card was produced. Especially since the player who received the warning was former Leeds player Rio Ferdinand, the atmosphere at Elland Road grew even more hostile.
"Everyone calm down! Focus on our play!"
Man United manager Moyes shouted, but it didn't seem to have much effect.
Perhaps it was proof that he had lost his influence as a manager.
Like this.
This War of the Roses, too, was proceeding quite fiercely and treacherously.
"Damn."
Shin Uison clicked his tongue at the situation.
It wasn't good that his teammates were picking up cards.
Among them, if a center-back was carrying a yellow card, the problem grew bigger. Because it would eventually fall back on the goalkeeper as added burden.
He had to be even more careful because one wrong move could lead to a big mistake.
It was while the match was nearing its end.
The score was 0-0.
No goals had been scored yet.
There wasn't much time left even in the 3 minutes of added time.
"Ah, if it ends in a draw like this, they'll have a replay in roughly a week."
That alone was a different result from what people had expected. Because people had predicted a straightforward defeat for Leeds.
It would be a result full of displeasure for Man United fans.
It was a situation where Leeds fans would be satisfied with a result better than expected.
"Huh?"
But.
An event that broke the balance occurred.
Once again, at the moment Shin Uison was trying to distribute a pass toward the front.
"Ack!"
Fellaini's elbow subtly struck the side of the Leeds midfielder who was trying to receive the ball. But the referee's whistle didn't blow as if he hadn't seen it, and soon Man United's counterattack began.
However, a counterattack process like before wasn't necessary.
Because Rooney, having received Fellaini's pass, struck a shot immediately.
Bang!
The problem was that it was a chip shot that easily cleared Shin Uison's height.
"Huh? Wha-whaaa!"
"Damn. Shit."
Shin Uison instinctively realized.
That he wouldn't be able to stop that ball.
At a time like this.
Intuition was nothing but cruel.
"G-, gooooal! It's a gooooal! Rooney's daring goal!"
"Incredible! Once again, Wayne Rooney saves the team!"
The ball, drawing a parabola as it fell, crossed the goal line.
At the same time, silence descended upon Elland Road.
Leeds fans ground their teeth as they watched the Man United players celebrating before them.
The camera caught the Leeds bench. Manager McDermott was shaking his head with a frustrated face.
Beeeeep!
The match ended just like that.
It was the first goal conceded at Leeds.
And at the same time, the first defeat.
***
The locker room was quiet after the match.
Manager McDermott poured out his anger on the players.
Shin Uison listened to that scolding silently.
"You were good today, but the final judgment was a bit unfortunate. If not for that, we would have won."
Shin Uison didn't reply to those words.
Is it my fault?
He didn't want to figure out who was to blame for today's defeat.
He didn't want to blame his teammates.
He didn't want to blame the manager's judgment either.
But he had no desire to take all that responsibility upon himself either.
"Tch."
Shin Uison clicked his tongue and turned away.
He had realized something through today's match.
That no matter how well a goalkeeper played, he couldn't be free from responsibility in defeat.
"Don't worry about it, you played well today."
"That's not the first or second time he's done that."
His Leeds teammates comforted Shin Uison.
The players who had played today's match knew that they couldn't blame the goalkeeper, at least.
McDermott had tried to avoid his own responsibility even when the team's performance was poor, so quite a few players held grievances against the manager.
"It's fine."
Shin Uison smiled bitterly at their consolation.
The first defeat was very bitter.
[BBC] Manchester United scrape a victory!
[Sky Sports] Leeds goalkeeper puts on an amazing performance.
Meanwhile.
After the match against Man United, Shin Uison also became a hot topic.
Although Man United won the match itself.
Nevertheless, Shin Uison's performance was so impressive that he received the highest rating of both teams.
Moreover, Man United was a club with an enormous number of fans worldwide.
Having put on a tremendous performance against that club, it was only natural that his fame would rise.
But since it wasn't something Shin Uison could feel in his bones just yet, just when he was brushing it off with an 'I guess so.'
"Ah, is this Mr. Shin Uison?"
He received a call from someone.
The person who called was quite surprising.
"This is Mendes. Would it be possible to speak?"
Jorge Mendes.
The man called a super agent in European football had attempted to make contact.