Seongjin Hanul FC's Showcase
The moment I stepped into the stadium, I felt it in my skin.
I was back on the pitch. The man who'd gotten his team promoted to the second division only to be sacked on some absurd pretext and a coach's smear campaign—that man had returned.
Not to the German stage, but to Korea, the outer fringe of the football world. That barely mattered.
I had an owner who believed in me completely—an owner who was treating me better than I deserved. If I failed under those conditions, that would be on me.
And the conditions themselves were simple enough. Take a second-division side in this peripheral football nation and lift it into K League 1. There was hardly an easier assignment.
But I wouldn't get complacent. No—I would analyze even more thoroughly and solve every problem with absolute certainty. That was who I was.
"All right. From this point on, I'll walk you through today's tactics. We covered this in the meeting, but to go over it once more…"
I took the players through Chungnam City FC's primary system and the approach we would use against it. As I explained what we'd drilled into our bodies through training, the new tactical ideas we'd absorbed with the fresh blood in the squad, the players' faces began to brighten.
I loved this moment more than anything—watching my players understand my tactics and wear that look of satisfaction. Of course, even better was watching those tactics unfold on the pitch itself.
"Today is Seongjin Hanul FC's first match. We do not belong in a place like this. This is where we prove it. Understood!? Today is our showcase, and our first home game. We take this. No exceptions!"
Once the interpreter finished translating my words, the players lit up with even more energy. I decided to trust them and go where I belonged—off the field, on the bench where a manager was supposed to sit.
Bring me the win. You can do this. I believe in you.
The moment I checked the team sheet after arriving at work, I couldn't help but be stunned.
I already knew Seongjin Maseong FC had been acquired by Hanul, rebranded as Seongjin Hanul FC, and then put through a massive rebuild that included the coaching staff. What I hadn't expected was how many of the starting spots would go to prospects I'd never even seen—kids pulled up from university sides and the U-23 ranks. And the fact that Jo Tae-ung was left out—the team's second-leading scorer and, until last season, its primary goal threat—was even more surprising.
Even if his form had slumped harder lately, Jo Tae-ung was still a player this team needed. So why was he out?
"Commentator Kim Yu-seong, why do you think Jo Tae-ung is missing?"
At caster Kim Min-gyu's question beside me, I offered my own take.
"Jo Tae-ung has been struggling badly this season compared to last, hasn't he? He was competing for the K League 2 golden boot, and now his goal output isn't even half of what it was. The inconsistency has hurt the team's play at times, too. Maybe that's why he's on the bench?"
"If not that, it could simply be the new manager's stubbornness."
The new manager—Marco Feltner, of course.
Marco Feltner, a coach who'd been working in the German Bundesliga's second tier. He was so obscure that almost no domestic experts even knew the name. The one thing that stood out was that he'd taken FC Marstadt—an old-name club stuck in the third division—and guided them up into mid-table in the second tier.
How an unknown coach like that had ended up in Korea's K League 2 was a fair question—until you remembered who owned Seongjin Hanul FC.
Han Do-a. The golden child of the Hanul family. Anyone who followed Yeouido finance knew her as the Midas touch of the markets.
With her radar, finding a rough diamond of a coach like this would have been well within reach. Rumor even had it that his salary was by far the highest among K League 2 managers.
Which was why the expectations were building. A bold flood of young prospects, and a 4-2-3-1 formation that had nothing to do with the old 3-5-2. What kind of football would they show us? Could they bring a new wave into the K League?
Personally, I hoped Marco Feltner—and Seongjin Hanul FC—would bring a fresh wind to Korean football.
I probably shouldn't say this while commentating K League 2, but Korean football right now is clumsy. You could even call it lacking—especially tactically.
If someone could bring a new wind to that, a cleaner and more exciting kind of change, nothing would make me happier.
With that quiet prayer set aside, I started the broadcast with caster Kim Min-gyu.
"Good evening, everyone. Welcome back to the resumed K League 2 season. I'm your caster, Kim Min-gyu."
"And I'm commentator Kim Yu-seong."
Tens of minutes later, not long after kickoff, Kim Min-gyu and I had no choice but to shout together.
Three minutes in. Cha Jeong-woo, driving with the ball, checked the situation in front of goal once—then whipped it in without hesitation.
"Cha Jeong-woo—cross!"
Waiting where the ball was headed was Kang Si-woo, the twenty-year-old striker brought in as part of Seongjin Hanul FC's rebuild.
Kang Si-woo killed it with a chest trap, eased the ball down to his feet with a soft touch, and never even glanced at the goal—just the ball.
He ignored the three defenders closing around him, too. As if he already knew exactly where the goal was. As if those defenders couldn't stop him anyway.
Whoosh—
Thwack!!
Perfect contact. You could feel it—the ball striking clean off the laces.
Fwoooooosh—!
From just outside the penalty area, the ball left Kang Si-woo's boot and tore, absolutely tore, into the far corner of the net.
"Kang Si-woo! Kang Si-woo! Kang Si-woooo!"
Rip!!
The ball buried itself in the corner as if the goalkeeper's hands didn't even exist, and the net bulged hard—
"GOOOOOOOAL!!!"
Kim Min-gyu and I had no choice but to roar.
"Kang Si-wooooo!"
"Only three minutes after kickoff! Kang Si-woo has the opening goal!"
"This player was still in the university league just two weeks ago! Incredible!"
"Where has he been hiding!? What took you so long to show yourself to the world, Kang Si-woo!!"
"And Cha Jeong-woo, who put in the cross—he's starting at wingback for the first time today, and he looks completely at home!"
"Seongjin Hanul FC takes the lead!"
Yes. Seongjin Hanul FC had gone ahead.
But that wasn't the end. It was only the beginning.
The birth of Seongjin Hanul FC—the opening of that team's showcase.
And the sacrificial lamb for that showcase was, naturally, today's opponent: Chungnam City FC.
Wheeee—
A whistle cut through the air. The source, of course, was Do-yun oppa sitting right beside me.
"Hey, this is actually fun to watch. Aren't they better than the national team?"
"There's a talent gap, so probably not."
"But the spectacle's better here, right?"
"I won't argue with that."
Do-yun oppa was right. The spectacle was far better on this side.
The old Seongjin Maseong FC's problem had been claiming to play possession football while defaulting into that U-Build Up—and even then doing it so poorly they kept giving the ball away. And once they lost it? They had to face the counter with too few bodies back.
Bluntly put, without Nam Gi-cheol and Seo Dong-hyeon, they would have lost half the matches they somehow managed to win.
But now? The moment someone received the ball, the players without it were already darting into open space. If a man felt over-marked, he pulled the other way to stretch the pitch, and someone else immediately attacked the gap that opened. Once the ball moved on, the passer didn't stand still—he looped around behind the defense to restart the next phase of the attack.
Pass, pass, pass. Nowhere to go? A burst of dribble. Repeat that cycle long enough and the ball kept advancing.
Not that there were no problems.
Whoom—
Thud!!
With a squad built around prospects, the bodies still weren't fully developed, and that showed up as a physical disadvantage in duels. I knew that intellectually, but—
"Come on! Foul! That has to be a foul, right!?"
"Looks like a fair challenge to me."
I still tried to argue it. Fine—I knew. It was a legitimate physical battle.
Anyway, losing those duels left them vulnerable on the break—except—
Whoosh—
Crack!!
—captain Nam Gi-cheol and Seo Dong-hyeon beside him refused to allow it.
The two of them operating as defensive midfielders today were not ordinary double-pivot protectors of a back four. They were a shield for the debutants whose bodies weren't finished yet. That was the job of our holding midfielders tonight.
And once those holding midfielders won the ball back?
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Whip— tap.
The passing sequence started all over again. And the end of that sequence was always—
Tat-tat-tat-tat—
Whoom—
—our Kang Si-woo, hurling himself at the ball whipping in from the front line.
Thwack!
Kang Si-woo rose and met Ha Seung-pyo's cross with a perfect header. The ball took a vicious change of direction and dragged the goalkeeper the wrong way.
Whoosh— Rip!
"GOOOOOOOAL!!!"
"Kang Si-woo—brace!"
"Two goals in just fifteen minutes! Seongjin Hanul FC is running away with this!!"
Two–nil. And only fifteen minutes gone.
That was when I became sure. We'd won this match. Our showcase was already complete.
And yet the expression the cameras caught on Marco Feltner's face was something else entirely.
Not satisfied. As if this still wasn't nearly enough.
Seeing that look only made me more pleased. Yes—sports demanded ferocity and greed. You couldn't rest on your own play or your own results; you had to keep chasing something higher. That was sport. That was the condition and the qualification of the strong.
Feltner had that qualification.
Chungnam City had clearly picked the wrong day. They were the sacrificial lamb for the showcase of a new powerhouse called Seongjin Hanul FC.