Perfect Hat-Trick and the Coach's Hamstring Blues
Son Jinho had just slotted home the winner and was celebrating in front of the crowd.
“Scheiß! My hamstring!”
Jurgen Klopp, overcome with joy at Son Jinho's winning goal, had been jumping around everywhere before clutching his thigh and collapsing.
“Huh? Kloppo?!”
“Jurgen! Jurgen's down!”
The Dortmund bench erupted into chaos in an instant at the sight of Klopp's sudden affliction.
The team doctors rushed to the injured Jurgen Klopp.
“What? What's going on...?”
The Dortmund players looked back at the bench with bewildered expressions.
Misinterpreting the situation as grave due to the players and doctors crowding around Jurgen Klopp, the referee halted the match.
“Oh! Jurgen! Jurgen!”
With the game stopped, the fans—equally assuming the worst—began clapping and singing songs of support for Klopp.
Referee Mayer, who had paused play, approached Jurgen Klopp to check on him. He gave a puzzled look at how surprisingly fine Klopp appeared compared to his expectations.
“Jurgen, where does it hurt?”
“...My hamstring's pulled.”
Jurgen Klopp let out an awkward laugh as he replied. The referee cracked a wide smile at the affable, neighborhood-idiot-like grin from Klopp.
“Excessive celebrations that provoke the opposition earn a yellow.”
“...Can't you let it slide since I'm a patient?”
“If you're a patient, maybe head to the hospital? I could make it easier with a red if you'd like.”
“Hmm... I'll pass on that.”
While the referee firmly rejected Jurgen Klopp's plea...
“Kloppo being Kloppo, huh.”
Dortmund's starters and the Signal Iduna Park crowd, hearing the news of Klopp's overexcited injury, could only let out disbelieving chuckles.
“Hoo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo!”
The commentator, spotting the comments about his "perfect hat-trick" slip-up, quickly added clarification.
Dortmund's team doctor and bench players grabbed Jurgen Klopp again as he instinctively tried to leap out once more in joy over Son Jinho's hat-trick.
The match ended, and news of Cha Dong-won's goal came through.
He'd been busy with federation stuff, so he hadn't helped Tuna adapt to the league much.
Looked like Ja-cheol hyung and Heung-min hyung had gotten him settled in Bundesliga just fine.
On a whim, I hopped into the national team group chat.
The chat was blowing up about my team right on cue. I read the messages and stayed quiet.
Jurgen's a great guy, but...
Bit embarrassing to brag about publicly. Still...
It was fun hanging with him anyway.
Anyway. While Jurgen Klopp recovered from his hamstring, Dortmund took on Monchengladbach in Bundesliga Round 15. They led thanks to Robert Lewandowski's opener, but Marco Reus equalized late for the visitors, ending in a draw.
And four days later, on December 7th.
The fateful day arrived to decide Group F's knockout qualifiers.