Versus Qatar (1)
Spanish master clash, Diena versus Lydia! Who wins?
…Quarterfinals of the Asian Cup: Spain’s master coaches meet. Diena, leading South Korea, and Lydia, leading Qatar, are the Spanish representatives’ masters……
Diena, who didn't stand out in her playing days, jumped into coaching at age 32. She led Sevilla to a Europa League win, showcasing her tactical prowess, and settled in Barcelona. Diena, as Barcelona's manager, led the league to wins, stacking up numerous achievements……
Lydia, unlike Diena, is a superstar known worldwide since her playing days. Lydia started her career as a defender at Valencia, then spent 10 years at Barcelona from the 99 season, winning numerous league and Champions League titles. In her later years, she moved to Al-Sadd in Qatar, and after retiring from Al-Sadd, she led Al-Sadd……
Both Lydia's tactics as a player and Diena's as a coach are based on Spanish short-pass football……
Objectively, South Korea has the advantage, but Qatar is no pushover. Qatar, which naturalized many foreign players to prepare for the 2022 World Cup,……
Additionally, Qatar's seven starting players are from Al-Sadd, and since the 2018 World Cup, Lydia, who took over the captaincy from Al-Sadd and now leads Qatar, has a strong synergy with them. With years of coordination, their organization is considered the best in the Asian Cup……
*
“The player Qatar needs to be most careful about is this player, Melissa. A Brazilian player who naturalized for Qatar. She’s the top scorer in the Qatar league for the past three years. She’s fast and has great individual skills, and in the Qatar league, no one can be marked.”
Lee Joo-hyun, who plays for Al-Sadd and is the Qatar national team liaison, speaks up.
I didn't know much, but Al-Sadd was a strong team with Joo-hyun on the right and Melissa on the left, winning the AFC Champions League. And transplanting that Al-Sadd into Qatar, it's not an exaggeration to say that Qatar is one of the top 3-4 teams in Asia at the moment.
…They did use a bit of a trick to naturalize Al-Sadd's mercenaries into their own players.
“[What is Lydia's style like, Joo-hyun? Will she use a defensive tactic against us?]”
“Well, I don't think Lydia coach is the type for that. I think she'll go for a strong vs strong matchup.”
“[Hmm…]”
Diena's forehead wrinkles deeply. So far, the opponents they've faced have mostly been teams that try counterattacks after defense, different from Spanish passing football teams like Qatar.
So, what ingenious strategy will Diena devise in this situation?
“[No need to worry. We have Ha-neul. Ha-neul.]”
“…What?”
“[Let's teach these Qatar guys what football is.]”
“…Me?”
Is it over without any special tactics? Just like that?
A wave of panic hit me, but now I understood. Diena's words carry hidden meanings. Diena, the tactical genius and Diena-mother, wouldn't just blurt out something without thought. There must be some meaning. And that meaning would be figured out through training ahead.
So, day one, two days, three days. And the match day.
“…Huh?”
We continued training without any changes, and the morning of the Qatar match dawned.
But I wasn't anxious. Diena didn't add any special training, judging that we could win with our skills. And if the game got tough, she'd surely lead us to victory with some ingenious mercenary tactics.
“Yeah, we've come this far. It's strange not to believe. Just believe. Let's play believing.”
*
“Then, as Ji-hye said, using Ji-hui, who has good defensive skills, today seems better. After all, Qatar guys will definitely come out aggressively.”
“Haa…”
Seeing Diena nod at her words, Ryu Ji-hye sighed inwardly. As the head coach, giving opinions for the team and having the coach accept them is good, but since she hasn't seen Diena shake her head in all the time since joining, anxiety is unavoidable.
“Am I doing well?”
Diena is a rather peculiar coach. It's fair to say that she delegates almost all the tasks of selecting players, evaluating, and training to the head coach. Diena only explains the big picture of tactics and presents the big picture of training, so Ryu Ji-hye couldn't feel the difference between what she's doing and being the coach.
Well, the only difference is that when the game starts, substitutions are commanded by Diena?
Well, that doesn't mean Diena is a bad coach. She hasn't made any wrong judgments so far, whether in drawing up the big tactical picture or substituting players at the right time. Maybe it's the intuition of a master coach.
When Ryu Ji-hye first heard Ha-neul's complaints about Diena, she quit her position as coach of the youth national team to join the adult national team to protect her beloved son Ha-neul. So, at first, she couldn't trust Diena, but contrary to her worries, Diena was not a bad coach.
Diena was quite communicative, easily adapted to Korean culture, and knew how to protect players when the ban on Ha-neul's participation came.
Overall, a good person?
But whenever she saw Diena always nodding at her words, negative thoughts arose.
What is Diena thinking now? Am I going appropriately? What if my judgment is wrong and the team loses?
…Such negative thoughts.
“Ji-hye?”
“No. Then, let's go that way.”
“Yes. Let's do that.”
After the simple meeting, when Ryu Ji-hye left, Diena quickly turned on her phone and restarted the action she was doing before Ryu Ji-hye came.
“……Translation. Hmm. Public opinion is okay.”
Immediately, checking public opinion about herself.
“This much, even if they say we won't advance to the quarterfinals, there's no big problem as long as our performance isn't bad.”
When asked if our performance could be good, Diena's answer was ‘possible.’ Because South Korea has Ryu Ha-neul.
Ryu Ha-neul is the player with the highest football intelligence among those Diena has seen. A genius who, if left to his own devices, leads the game without any special instructions.
Any guy would, without any tactics, make the team play like a team with his individual abilities.
Since such a player will naturally distribute the ball and create shooting chances, there's no worry that the performance won't be good. Also, her tactics are sufficient to help Ryu Ha-neul.
So, even if we lose, we'll definitely lead with a 6:4 possession ratio.
When such possession-based tactics combine with Ryu Ha-neul's individual skills, the performance can't be bad. So, even if we lose, Diena has confidence to keep her coaching position. Considering the contract period and her salary, there's 0% chance of her being fired in just half a year.
Moreover, she even played golf with the association president and lost appropriately to build rapport……
“Good, good. If this goes on, the World Cup will be smooth sailing.”
She wanted to suck money here for four more years, but actually, it's not easy for Asian teams to break through the group stage, so she didn't want that. But preparations were already in place.
Since she had studied a bit about the East Asian ecosystem, if she shows a good performance only in the World Cup group stage, China would definitely come looking for her with a large sum.
“Well, the best is winning the Asian Cup and advancing to the round of 16.”
Of course, Korea is a great country to live in, and if the games are left to the football genius Ryu Ha-neul and the minor parts to Ryu Ji-hye, who is the head coach and knows Korea well, she could enjoy work-life balance, so she didn't want to leave.
So, Diena spent time without any worries about the match, and time passed, and the match against Qatar approached. And before the match starts, in the locker room.
“Good. Let's show everyone who the strongest in Asia is! If we do as practiced, we won't lose. Believe in yourselves. If you don't believe, believe in me behind you. I'll give you the win!”
Diena, as usual, boosted the players' morale without any special tactical instructions,
“Let's go! Let's go!”
“South Korea!”
“Fighting!”
With Diena's words, the players responded one by one, raising their voices.
Combining her career as Barcelona coach and overwhelming win rate, Diena had already become a figure of trust for the Korean players.
[The match between South Korea and Qatar starts with a kick-off by Qatar.]
And the game started. Qatar, as if not thinking of coming out defensively, pressed South Korea, and center-back Kang Yeon-ji snatched the ball and finished Qatar's attack.
“Clearly, Yeon-ji has basic skills…. It should work in Europe too. The transfer window is about a week away…. Time is about right. Then, let's see. Yeah, Emi was working at Manchester? Man U is looking for a defender right now. Should I recommend her? If it works, it's a good thing.”
If my recommendation gets Kang Yeon-ji to Manchester United, a big club, then the already good public opinion would get even better. Even if we don't win the Asian Cup, we can make up for it.
So, Diena nodded satisfiedly, and in the meantime, South Korea's attack continued.
[Ryu Ha-neul! Connecting to Jo Seo-won after beating one player!]
The player in the center is, of course, Ryu Ha-neul.
“Hmm, clearly doing well. How did a player like that come out from Korea?”
While watching the game and thinking other things, Diena was drawn into Ryu Ha-neul's play as soon as he got the ball.
Ball trapping, knowing the incoming player from before receiving the ball and dropping it perfectly safely.
Breaking ability to beat the incoming player with a simple footwork.
Passing to find an empty player and poke it nicely.
[And again, Jo Seo-won gives the ball to Ryu Ha-neul. Ryu Ha-neul holding the ball near the penalty box!]
In addition, spatial awareness that exactly knows where he should be.
Each of these plays was so beautiful that Diena couldn't take her eyes off. Ryu Ha-neul, as if to repay the emotion, dribbled through one by one inside the penalty box where players were crowded and created 1:1 chances with the goalkeeper.
“How can he slip through there like that? He's crazy! It looks like the ball is stuck to his foot,”
[Ryu Ha-neul shoots! Goal! Ryu Ha-neul scores the opening goal in just 7 minutes of the first half!!]
And the opening goal was scored.
Diena clapped from the heart and thought.
“As expected, I don't need to do anything. Just leave it to Ha-neul. No, rather, trying to make him do something might suppress his creativity. This was the right answer after all.”
Is there any coach who can put their color on Ryu Ha-neul? Excluding physicals, Ryu Ha-neul is already complete in everything.
And suddenly this thought came. If I were still the Barcelona coach, I could have built an immortal reputation with Ryu Ha-neul.
But that opportunity is already past, and finding employment in Europe is not easy.
So, the only thing I can do is enjoy work-life balance while watching Ryu Ha-neul's play that delights the eyes.
“Ha-neul! Cool, real, try!”
So, Diena used her awkward Korean learned to gain favor with Koreans and raised her thumb.