The Proposal (1)
The atmosphere was chilly.
The national team's mood was even colder than I had expected.
There were twenty-seven players gathered at the national team training center, including me. And only twenty-three would make the World Cup roster, meaning four had to be cut.
Those four would almost certainly become domestic players.
In South Korea, stepping up from overseas first-division leagues without having come through the youth system from abroad—as I had—meant you had nothing to show domestically. Among the overseas players who had received call-ups, everyone except me and Han Ye-jin from Crystal Palace had skipped the domestic league entirely.
Han Ye-jin was still only a player in the first or second team at Crystal Palace, so among the twenty-seven, the one who would be cut was almost certainly a domestic player.
That explained why the national team’s atmosphere felt so cold, split into two clear factions.
Especially the defenders and midfielders among the domestic players, who were already tense with one another, had grown even colder since the day they first earned a spot in the national team.
It wasn’t as if I didn’t understand the tension.
The stage ahead was the World Cup.
The World Cup was never just a tournament. It was a once-every-four-years event where the nation’s pride was on the line.
Even players who dreamed of stepping onto the World Cup stage once in their lives had to settle for that dream.
Holand, who had won the EPL top-scorer title for most of his prime—except the season I reincarnated into this world—and had challenged me directly, had cried in his press conference after never stepping foot on the expanded forty-eight-nation World Cup stage.
The importance of the World Cup stage needed no further explanation.
Perhaps the atmosphere would calm once the final roster was announced.
Still, when the reporters came to film training, we had been friendly. But once they left, the cold returned.
Of course, the overall mood was chilly; there were also cheerful groups. Those groups were the overseas players who had no fear of being cut. And, naturally, I belonged to that overseas group.
“Ha-neul-ah, what are you doing?”
“Ah, just thinking for a moment.”
“It’s your turn. Not going to play?”
“No, I have to.”
I caught the table-tennis paddle Kim Seul-gi offered. I felt the players likely to be cut staring at us with the quiet contempt of “lucky bastards.” But I had no desire to match the mood of those who spoiled the atmosphere. Light exercise after a meal was good for the body, so I swung the paddle with deliberate flair.
As we rotated through post-meal exercises, gathering time approached.
“…Let’s go.”
Yoon Seo-hee gathered the resting players in a low voice. The players still hitting the table tennis ball and the others sitting around creating a cold atmosphere all turned their attention to her.
“…It’s meeting time.”
If anyone who didn’t know us had heard that voice, they would have assumed it was charismatic. But since she had said nothing all day except for one call, the tone had grown hoarse.
‘Still, Seohui sunbae is leading us. Good I said it on the first day.’
Original Yoon Seo-hee would never have gathered the players at gathering time. The subtle suggestion I made to her after entering the training center—something along the lines of “You should lead the players”—was now bearing fruit.
Watching Yoon Seo-hee fulfill my request, I felt a strange, almost proud sensation, like a son secretly watching his child chatting with friends. (Or daughter, in this context.)
But my own feelings were the opposite of the national team’s darkening atmosphere.
The hoarse voice of Yoon Seo-hee made it so.
“…Should I not have played table tennis? Seohui sunbae’s expression is gloomy.”
“Was there something bad happen to you today?”
“Is that so? Hey, Ha-neul-ah. Did Seohui sunbae have something bad happen?”
“…Why are you asking me that?”
“You’re close to Seohui sunbae.”
“…Am I?”
“You ate together, didn’t you?”
“How do you know that?”
“I saw it on the internet? I never heard that Seohui sunbae ate with someone else.”
“Well, Seohui sunbae is the type who doesn’t eat with others easily. She never says ‘let’s eat’ first. But when she does, she eats with us?”
“Ei, that’s because Sl-gi unnie is close to her. How would a junior like me ask Seohui sunbae to eat together?”
Kim Seul-gi and Han Ye-jin, who played in the EPL, were speaking in a small voice that Yoon Seo-hee could not hear.
I considered telling these poor souls the truth, but if they learned that the senior I respected was a “chickenshit,” it might affect the two players’ performance before the World Cup. So I kept quiet.
Kim Seul-gi of West Ham and Han Ye-jin of Crystal Palace were options that could not be missed in Korea.
As we watched the little drama the two were performing, we entered the meeting room. The coaches were already there, waiting for us.
Tomorrow’s opponent was Honduras, a strong team from North and Central America.
Since we had assumed Mexico from the group stage, the starting lineup for tomorrow would likely be the same as for the Mexico match.
“So, when facing the Central American team, the key is their fast transitions…”
Since I already knew this part, I listened to the coach’s response with one ear and let it drift out the other. Suddenly, the time to call the starting lineup for tomorrow had arrived.
“Then the starting lineup for tomorrow. Goalkeeper: Kim Eun-hye. Backline: Park Hye-ri, Kang Yeon-ji, Seo Hye-won, Kim Min-seo.”
‘Backline is exactly as expected. Seo-hyeon is a bit concerning, but her skill level is still higher than the others, so whatever.’
The backline the coach had called was nothing special. They were not a depth chart that could adjust the defensive line to the opponent. Probably, they wanted to run the starting lineup as much as possible to maintain organization.
“And the midfield line: Jo Seo-won, Han Ye-jin, Son Ju-hee, Kim Chae-ri.”
But, unlike the backline, the midfield lineup was quite surprising. Because Yoon Seo-hee was missing.
“Huh…”
“Eh? Me?”
Some players took a sharp breath at the coach’s words, and Kim Chae-ri, who had been named for the left midfield spot instead of Yoon Seo-hee, also looked taken aback.
“Why, Kim Chae-ri? Not confident?”
“No! I am!”
Probably because North and Central American teams were known for their fast transitions and mental play, they had chosen the younger Kim Chae-ri over the less mobile Yoon Seo-hee. In that sense, they had also selected twenty-four-year-old Jo Seo-won over thirty-year-old Lee Ju-hyun on the right.
‘Was it? Or did Jo Seo-won simply get selected as the right starter? During training, Jo Seo-won had looked better too. Well, coming from Lille is better than coming from Al Sadd.’
The other midfield combinations were as expected?
“For now, both wingers have to move as much as possible. Think of it as the Mexico match and actively transition. And the two-striker is Ryu Ha-neul and Yang Hyun-hee.”
‘…Eh?’
But, like the unexpected wing combination, the two-striker pairing was also a different one from the coach. Instead of Kim Seul-gi, who had scored fifteen goals in the EPL as West Ham’s main striker, they had selected thirty-seven-year-old Yang Hyun-hee as the starter.
I glanced at Kim Seul-gi’s expression. It did not look good.
‘There isn’t a single center-back over 185 cm in Mexico, so using a two-meter Yang Hyun-hee isn’t unreasonable, but even if the height difference is big, isn’t Kim Seul-gi better?’
Moreover, deploying a two-meter target man, Yang Hyun-hee, meant actively crossing. But to cross well, it would have been better to use Yoon Seo-hee and Lee Ju-hyun on the wings.
Yoon Seo-hee and Lee Ju-hyun were players who crossed well even when wingers tended to cut inside, unlike Kim Chae-ri or Jo Seo-won.
‘Well, the coach has his own thoughts.’
Guessing what those thoughts might be, it was probably to test whether Yang Hyun-hee could be used in this situation.
Our group-stage opponents were Mexico, Sweden, and Germany. But no matter how tall she was at two meters, Yang Hyun-hee would not break through the tall defenders of Sweden and Germany. So Yang Hyun-hee would be useful only if she showed her worth in this match.
If we used Yoon Seo-hee or Lee Ju-hyun, who crossed well, the sides would be exposed to Mexico’s fast wingers.
So this match was essentially a test of whether to take Yang Hyun-hee or not.
There were at most three strikers who could be taken to the World Cup. Among them, me and Kim Seul-gi were fixed, so the remaining spot was a battle between Yang Hyun-hee and Kang Sae-young.
Both of them, having realized the coach’s intention, gave off a strange atmosphere.
‘Hmm… But Sae-young is too much of a substitute for Sl-gi sunbae… Isn’t Yang Hyun-hee with a definite option better?’
Heading is a one-time win that can be fatal. If I could let her knock the ball under me once in about eighty minutes, it would be enough to take her.
And to do that, Yang Hyun-hee had to show a good performance in this match.
Fortunately, compared to the wingers who did not cross well, I was pretty good at crossing. Especially the crosses into the penalty box from the half-space had been like my long-range shots from my midfielder days, so if I lifted the ball a bit, Yang Hyun-hee would have no trouble scoring.
‘Good. The picture is starting to form. Tomorrow’s match, I should play lower.’
As I thought about how to assemble tomorrow’s match, the lineup announcement ended, and we returned to our rooms with the disband order.
Knock knock.
After a few minutes, as we were about to go to bed, someone knocked on my door.
‘What? Is it Seohui sunbae? Trying to talk about that game again? …But Seohui sunbae wouldn’t come to my room at this time.’
Opening the door to the knocking sound, there was a person outside the door who was not as I had expected. Two of them.
“Ahaha, Ha-neul-ah, hello. Is it bedtime?”
One was Kim Chae-ri, wearing an awkward smile as if uncomfortable in this place,
“Ryu Ha-neul, let’s talk?”
The other was Kang Sae-young, in the same position.
“…Eh? Now?”
“It’s not something to talk about here…. Entering the room is a bit awkward, so let’s talk downstairs.”
‘What? Trying to confess? Haha. Damn. Really crazy. But why two of them? Did they come together…?’
Thinking of some self-defense techniques I had learned from bodyguards in my previous life, I followed Kang Sae-young to a quiet place where no one was around, and the words that came out of Kang Sae-young’s mouth were far more shocking than a confession.
“About tomorrow’s match…. Instead of giving the ball to Hyun-hee sunbae, how about playing to stand out more?”
“Eh? What does that mean…”
“I’ll say it straight. Honestly, I am better than Hyun-hee sunbae. From your perspective, wouldn’t it be better for me to go to the World Cup? The talk with Chae-ri is already over.”
“What?”
‘This idiot…?’
…The national team was, much worse than I had thought.