vs. Qatar (2)
Yeah, this is football...!
Seeing the teams that had been mindlessly sitting back with ten men down until now, and then Qatar coming out aggressively, I felt my heart lighten up.
Although Qatar's aggressive approach meant a lot of danger for our team, it still felt like we were finally playing proper football?
Still, the good thing was that thanks to my first goal, Qatar's attack wasn't as precise as it could have been.
But the bad thing was...!
Thud - Ouch!
...their defensive organization was quite strong.
The offside flag went up and Kim Seul-gi made a disappointed expression. It seemed like a perfect pass timing, but the result was offside.
Qatar's defenders, except for the left fullback, were all players they had been playing with for years at Al-Sadd. The left fullback for Qatar was handling the attack together with the risky player Melissa, so the player guarding the back line was one of Al-Sadd's defensive trio.
And because they had been playing together for a long time, their offside trap was quite sophisticated. Even though I was responsible for ball distribution, it was already the third offside of the day.
According to the information my mother had told me, Qatar was the defensive line that had created the most offsides in this Asian Cup. It was fortunate that we had scored first before they could adjust their mindset, and we were struggling against their offside trap.
'As expected, Seul-gi side won't work...'
After all, it was true that having a solid central striker made the attack easier, so I had been trying to open up the attack towards the Seul-gi side somehow, but it seemed this method had to be discarded.
Then what remained was both wings. And there was a player on our team who I had been playing with for several years.
A player whose face I could read like an open book, whose movements I could predict the next move from just by looking at them, someone I had known for almost the entirety of this life.
“Yu-ri.”
“Huh?”
“From now on, I'll mainly focus on your side. Get ready.”
“Okay.”
I let Yu-ri know my intention while slipping past them during their free-kick setup, and Yu-ri nodded subtly without anyone noticing. That should be enough to avoid detection.
'Starting with front pressure, then offside trap. Lydia's really well-prepared.'
Breaking our low line and slow tempo with front pressure, and preparing the rising defense with offside trap. Lydia really was a tactically capable coach.
But what the opponents had overlooked was that this attacking-versus-attacking stage was my home turf.
Breaking through ten men was a situation I occasionally faced against league bottom-feeders or national teams, and my physique definitely made it difficult. But if the other side created such a familiar stage, I was confident I could teach them what football really was.
'First, build up to the right and send the ball to Yu-ri at the decisive moment.'
After mentally simulating the upcoming play, the match resumed with Qatar's long kick...?
'Eh? Long kick?'
Qatar was a team coached by Lydia, a Barcelona legend. For such a team to launch a long kick from the back like this...!
'It's a pattern!'
This was the pattern they had prepared! Naturally, as a team led by a Spanish coach, they would build up carefully and look to exploit the moment when our defense wasn't organized yet.
I quickly turned my body backward. And there was Melissa, Qatar's ace, racing toward our goal faster than Park Hye-ri.
Park Hye-ri was a player who had been performing on the German stage. An all-round fullback that fit the current trend of evenly distributed abilities—attack, defense, everything. But her physique was just average, and her feet weren't particularly fast either.
And Melissa was a player whose strengths were breakthrough speed through pace and finishing ability.
'Dangerous...!'
Following the ball into our half, my instincts were warning me of danger.
Thud.
Melissa, with her long legs, shoved Park Hye-ri aside with her shoulder and took the ball. Park Hye-ri grabbed at her jersey, but since she had already been knocked off balance by the shoulder charge, she couldn't stop Melissa's sprint, and Melissa turned the ball toward the goal and sprinted forward.
"No...!"
A shout rang out from the ground. Naturally, it was in Korean.
BOOM!
With a cannon-like sound, a shot flew from the player's foot,
-WAAAAAAAH!!!!
A thunderous cheer erupted.
'It must be because they're from the same Middle East, so many Qatar fans came.'
...Now the score was 1:1.
Definitely not an easy opponent. Individually, our players were better, but team-wise, Qatar seemed to be in a fully completed state?
Since Diana wasn't a tactically inferior coach, perhaps the difference came from having played together for a long time at the same club.
'Set-piece tactics too, and counter-tactics... Sigh... Diana isn't losing, right?'
After tying, doubts about Diana began to smolder, but I quickly dismissed them. Nothing uglier than blaming the coach after losing a match.
'Yeah, think of it as us exploiting the opening while they were relaxed.'
After all, I had no intention of ending the game with just one goal in this atmosphere.
Thud - Ouch!
The whistle blew and the match resumed. We lowered the ball to our defensive line as always, then slowly began building up from the back, and after a few passes, I waited for the timing while assisting from the midfield.
How many minutes had passed? Just as I thought the Qatar players' responses were slightly loosening due to the repetitive movements, I sprinted forward and found an opening. And a pass connected right at my feet, and before I knew it, a defensive midfielder from the opposing side blocked my path.
'One in front... and one more behind.'
If it had been another player receiving the ball, Qatar would have pressed hard to force a pass miss, but since they had been doing this since earlier, when I took the ball, the defender in front held position as long as possible until his teammate arrived.
They had prepared well, but this was a method I had experienced countless times in Europe.
Before the player behind me could stick to me, I sprinted forward and lured the defender in front into taking a step back.
'I'm passing...?'
With every footwork carrying that intention, I approached the player. The one who seemed about to push the back line forward extended his foot forward. Timing-wise, the player behind him would almost be there.
Then the perfect pass timing had arrived.
'It was toward Han Ye-jin, right?'
When I saw the face of the player who had been chasing from behind earlier, the player's marking target was Han Ye-jin.
While pretending to pull the ball back as a drag-back, when the ball came toward the planted foot, I used a heel kick with the planted foot to send it toward Han Ye-jin.
BOOM!
And with the sound of the ball being struck, the ball connected forward. Han Ye-jin, unmarked, connected it to Jo Seo-won. I sprinted toward that side too, and Jo Seo-won pretended to enter the penalty box and gave me the ball.
Receiving the ball in the outer zone of the right penalty box corner, I made eye contact with Yu-ri, who was positioned on the opposite side.
'Yu-ri! Now...!'
As the ball left my foot, Yu-ri, who had been positioned in the offside trap, shot forward at the perfect timing. And in response to Yu-ri's movement, Qatar's right fullback also moved his body, and at that moment, Yu-ri quickly turned around.
Trusting that my ball would curve back to its original position.
Yu-ri, who had perfectly understood my intention, took the ball while unmarked, but since she had turned, her posture was unstable. There was no good shooting angle, but she was in a dangerous position, so Qatar's players rushed toward Yu-ri's side.
Just as all eyes were focused on Yu-ri, I moved up to the back line and created a free space, and Yu-ri slipped out to the sideline, suddenly turned, and crossed without looking.
In that urgent situation, Yu-ri's cross flew toward the penalty arc, away from the center of the penalty box where Kim Seul-gi, Jo Seo-won, and Han Ye-jin were positioned.
Only I was here.
And Yu-ri's cross was flying into the perfect position for a volley shot, just as I had repeatedly said during La Masia days.
'As expected...!'
Even though it had been about two years since we had last played together, Yu-ri's body still remembered La Masia days.
I set my posture and waited for Yu-ri's cross to fall. Seeing that, the Qatar players who had chosen to mark me inside the penalty box instead of marking me for a medium-range shot rushed toward me.
But it was already too late.
BOOM!
An unexpectedly loud sound came from my foot, spreading from the top of my foot.
And the ball that impacted exactly on the top of my foot drew a beautiful arc and was sucked into a position the goalkeeper couldn't reach.
-WAAAAAAAH!!!!
Although it was a match held in the Middle East, fewer of our fans would have come than Qatar fans, but while listening to cheers that didn't fall behind, I ran to Yu-ri.
“Yu-ri! Nice cross!”
“Ha-neul!”
“Perfect. Like before.”
“Even if you kicked it like that, if you can't remember, you're not human.”
I hugged Yu-ri tightly, sending her the perfect cross like in La Masia days.
'...Huh?'
...Was I hugging too tightly? A warm sensation came from the chest area, so I was a bit flustered, but pushing Yu-ri away here would look strange, so I didn't show any sign and stroked her head while still holding her.
“Ryu Ha-neul! You crazy guy!”
“Uwaaaaa! Ha-neul!”
After that, there was an incident where our bodies got a bit closer because of the other players surrounding us.
Anyway, the score was now 2:1.
“Then, let's take it slowly. Up to the semifinals.”
And I felt that today's match wouldn't end at this score.