113. Is This Really Fucked Up?
The sudden shock from behind made me roll on the ground.
“Ugh!”
“Ryu, you have to endure at least this much. The body contact in La Liga is rougher than you think.”
“Is this actually a match? I know it would be a foul right away.”
“Haha, is that so?”
And Yelena grabbed my hand and stood me up. Well, it was a bit shocking, but I didn't feel bad about it.
This was basically just a passing-of-arms thing.
When I came up to the first team for the Champions League, the players would play rough mini-games with me, and it wasn't strange for them to play roughly with new players like me who had just joined the first team.
Usually, when you come up to the first team at a young age, you play rougher in training to adapt to the first team match, and while there was a bit of intent to bully the newbies, it was to make them adapt to training so they wouldn't be flustered in matches.
Well, I don't really need it.
Of course, for me who had been in pro life for over 10 years, it was pointless.
But Yelena didn't have bad intentions, and if I got angry and told them to tone it down, the coaches might think ‘Ryu is the type who can't handle pressure on the field. Not suitable for starting lineup?’ so I just laughed it off.
If it was my previous life, there wouldn't be any players to play rough with me in training, and even if there were, I would have beaten them up.
But now, I'm a new player who just joined the first team, with nothing to my name.
Moreover, even though Arnal, the starting striker, was out due to injury and I was called up, I didn't become the starter.
Currently, my competitors are Loutina, the candidate striker, and Albaria, the left winger.
Loutina has played 7 matches and scored 2 goals this season if including candidate, Albaria has played 14 matches and scored 4 goals and 5 assists, and the biggest threat to my starting appearance is the ace Albaria.
Albaria is the undisputed ace of Barcelona, who debuted at 17 in the 03-04 season and has been with Barcelona until now. After becoming a starter in 05-06, he scored 12 goals in the league, and except for the 13-14 season, he has recorded double-digit goals in the league for 11 consecutive years, leading Barcelona's prime in the late 2000s as a winger.
And sometimes, when the starting striker gets injured, he plays in the center and shows good performance.
Moreover, Barcelona currently lacks central striker resources, but there are 4-5 resources who can play as wingers, so compared to Loutina who was clearly better in the Olympiacos match, Albaria is more dangerous.
Of course, I thought my pure football skill was better, but the coaches couldn't help but consider the name value, so I had to train to please the coaches as much as possible.
…With strong impact.
Sluggishly, since I've been dealing with it, now let's show off my skills?
Having shown a calm smile even in rough pressure, now it's time to show my real skills.
“Ryu!”
With Lorenz's pass towards me, Yelena comes running from behind again. Seeing the speed, it seems she wants to take me out with a body check again.
But since I no longer wanted to be taken out, I also ran forward and received Lorenz's pass. And the moment I received the ball, I quickly turned my eyes to check Yelena's position.
With this speed…!
I calculated Yelena's running speed and waited as close as possible for her to come running, then subtly rolled the ball with my sole. But Yelena, unfazed by the ball, charged towards me, and the moment Yelena's gaze was directed at my body rather than the ball, I pulled the ball out from between Yelena's legs.
“Eh!”
Yelena tried to grab me, but I was already rotating my body and had escaped the range Yelena came from. With my quick movement, Yelena's hand slashed through the air. Now, only two players left to the opponent's goal, including the goalkeeper.
Thoughts on how to score popped up in my head. And among the many methods, the one I chose was 'nutmeg'.
Nutmeg, aka alkaegi, is a method that gives the player being nutmegged a great humiliation, and makes viewers think how easy it is to score in football.
Of course, it wasn't easy to see, so to take out all the players with nutmeg and put the ball through the goalkeeper's legs? It would definitely have a big impact.
The defender Tena from the opposing team in yellow bibs comes running. This season, he was pushed aside by Tiana, who was acquired for a large sum, but Tena was a starter until last year in Barcelona. And like players who have played in big clubs for a few years, Tena's pressure had no extra.
But making gaps for these defenders is my specialty.
With upper body paint and moving the ball outside with my left foot, I shook Tena's attention. But as expected, unlike defenders I've met in Barcelona, only my gaze was shaken, but the posture didn't collapse.
If the posture collapsed, I would have used the left foot inside to feed the ball, but the veteran who has held the position in Barcelona for a few years was felt.
Yeah, if it's easy to get, it's not fun.
After checking the liver, now it's time for real technique. The confrontation between Tena and me continues.
I make an expression that shows no gap at all. The basics of personal skill is to deceive the opponent. I wonder if Tena saw my expression, but if it's a player of this level, their eyes naturally turn faster than normal people, so I decided to assume he saw it and pretended to do a heel pass and brought the ball back with my right foot.
And at that moment, I saw Tena being careless.
…Now!
I pulled the ball I pretended to heel pass even more and sent it back with my left foot behind. Probably Tena would see it as a heel pass. But that was Tena's misconception. At the moment Tena was careless thinking it was a heel pass, I quickly rotated my ankle and used the sole to roll the ball I was rolling with my sole and kicked it forward using the top of the foot.
…Through Tena's legs.
“……!”
Tena's eyes widened at the slight application of backflip flap, and his posture completely collapsed. And at that moment, I ran forward and slightly pushed Tena's body to knock him down, then after recovering the ball, I dribbled towards the goal.
“Wow!”
“What? Just now!”
“Whee!”
The surprised teammates' voices of admiration came from behind. Even among them, there was someone whistling in admiration. But my mind was ahead of those admiration sounds. The candidate goalkeeper in yellow bibs, Wendy, blocks in front of me.
Since Wendy already knew my specialty, the lob shot, her weight seemed to be on top.
I pretended to kick the bottom of the ball with the top of my foot and prepared to strongly roll the ball with my sole. Of course, this might be Wendy's trap, so if I suddenly narrowed my legs, I would stop, so after stepping with my planting foot, the moment Wendy's body flinched, I judged it wasn't a trap and strongly kicked the ball with my sole.
…Through Wendy's legs.
And naturally, the ball I kicked shook the goal net.
“Wow…….”
Slightly smaller exclamation than before. But I knew it wasn't because it wasn't surprising, but because it was too surprising for words to come out.
What is needed at this time is showmanship to tell that this is reality.
I turned my body towards the teammates behind me and shrugged my shoulders and spread my hands wide. As if this level was nothing to me.
“Wow! Ryu! This is completely crazy?”
“Did you eat the ball three times just now?!”
“Fucking crazy bastard!”
Then the teammates didn't hide their excitement with louder voices than before.
“It completely changed from when you came last time? You grew up fast because you were young, right? What happened in a week?”
“Eh, that time I was a bit tired because I was coming from a tournament. This is basic.”
Answering the question with a loud voice and seeing the expressions of the coach and coaches, it seemed they were completely hooked on me.
Then, is the next match lineup almost certain to be me? The next match is against Leganes, right? Fortunately, it's a shitty team. Perfect for debut.
Even if the Leganes defender plays well, he can't play better than Tena who has played in Barcelona for a few years. Since I beat Tena easily and ate the ball from the goalkeeper, the coach probably had high chance to use me as starter.
“Tena, substitute with Amira. Ryu.”
And seeing the coach make the substitution, my thoughts were almost certain.
Using Tena first as my opponent was probably to judge if I could handle Leganes defenders.
Now, putting Amira instead of Tena is to check if I can show this performance against even higher level defenders.
Confirming that the defender's level has risen one step, it was clear that I had confidence that I could easily handle defenders at Tena's level.
Yeah, soon I should face defenders of this level too. Except for when I played against Chelsea last time, is this the first time? Well, even then, the form of the opposing players didn't seem to be up.
Amira is a player who has already been recognized as the world's best defender. Of course, the evaluation includes the fact that as a midfielder, build-up and ball control, which are important elements in modern football, are big factors, but no matter how well build-up is done among the world's best defenders, as a center back, without basic defensive ability, such evaluation is impossible.
In other words, Amira has reached a level of defensive ability that is top in the world excluding build-up.
The thought of facing a defender playing at world top level for the first time in a long time made my heart flutter.
And the opportunity to quell that flutter came quite soon.
“Ryu!”
A pass coming to me again. The pass Lucia stabbed from behind was clearly connected to me who was occupying space between Amira and Yelena. Is this the pass of the 'pass master' person?
After receiving the pass that fell exactly in front of me, I turned around and saw Amira running towards me.
…Her speed is quite fast? No way?
I expected to properly match with Amira, but thinking of this speed and Amira charging towards me with a hardened gaze, it seemed she wanted to strongly pressure me like Yelena did earlier.
But since I had shown that I maintain composure even in such pressure, I had no thought of rolling on the ground after being taken out with a body check.
While thinking to avoid Amira's body check, when running forward,
…Amira's body slowly sank.
…Eh?
This is clearly not a body check but a sliding tackle!
The thought that a player of Amira's level would do a sliding tackle in this situation, whether her judgment is impaired because she switched to defender and headed too much, flashed in my mind for a moment. And the optimal judgment for that situation also flashed in my mind.
After lifting the ball with the top of my foot, I also lifted my body. Maintaining distance from the ground to run forward as fast as possible.
Usually in such training between teammates, there was no chance to do sliding tackle with feet up, so in normal situation, my judgment was an irrefutable choice.
…Fuck!
…In normal situation.
Amira holds up her spikes. The moment I saw that, I raised my feet higher in the air, but a creepy sensation was felt in the football shoes.
And no matter how much I was, I couldn't maintain balance in the air.
The moment Amira's foot touched my foot, balance collapsed, and
“Ahhhhh!”
Instinctively, when I tried to step on the ground to fall, a strong scream came out.
…Fucked up.
With the squishy sensation from the spikes.
…This is really fucked up.
“Ahhhhh! My leg! My, leg!”
As I fell to the ground, looking to the side, I see Amira grabbing her calf while rolling on the grass and screaming. And it seemed blood was flowing from the part where my spikes were stamped.
“Are you okay? Amira?”
From the experience so far, the squishy sensation was the feeling of torn calf muscle, and it was at least a 2-month injury.
Doing such an accident right after coming up to the first team and training, burying the starting defender…!
Moreover, our team is in a state where the starting striker is out due to injury.
Fuck, this seems really fucked up?
…A big accident.