205. Korea-Japan Clash in the Asian Cup (3)
Shivering.
The first thing I felt the moment the match started was seeing the Japanese players.
Our kickoff had set the tone for a match that unfolded slowly at our usual tempo, but I could sense a palpable tension radiating from the Japanese side.
A simple example: I had merely lifted my foot to make a routine pass, yet there was an oddly flinching quality to it.
Well, one could dismiss it as the Japanese players simply being outmatched, but among Japan’s roster—aside from Shizuka—there were plenty who competed in Europe’s lower divisions or the lower reaches of big-league teams. I had clearly read the situation correctly.
‘The opening pressure really did its job.’
So the smartest play here was to land a decisive blow before their nerves settled. Still, Shizuka remained a lingering concern, so I chose to break through the opposite channel. I began circulating the ball and shifting positions incrementally.
“Ha-neul-ah!”
The pass from Han Ye-jin found me at the edge of the attacking third. The first Japanese player sprinting toward me was Tamaki, who played for Salzburg in Austria. As expected from a Japanese player, his passing range was solid, but according to what my mother had told me, his defensive instincts were lacking.
And standing right in front of such a player was an opportunity to etch a clear image into their minds.
With my back to him, I could feel the pushing force behind me. Yet because I had dropped my center of gravity completely, the pressure was just enough to resist. The guy was probably modulating his force too, knowing that overcommitting would result in an immediate foul.
Usually, the players I faced for the first time followed this pattern. Excluding those who thrived on rough play, they tested exactly how much force they needed to push before I lost my balance or committed a foul.
Still, the key point was that his strength wouldn’t budge me. I held firm and waited for the ball to arrive. When it drew near, his pushing force intensified. But that was precisely what I had planned.
The instant his pushing force shifted, I exploded forward. The Japanese player’s center of gravity, already committed to a pushing stance, lurched off balance for a split second.
Thud.
In that brief window I slid the ball to a spot he couldn’t reach with a single touch and then charged ahead.
“[……!]”
A string of Japanese I didn’t understand echoed from behind. Probably a command to stop or block.
Of course, I couldn’t outrun a woman’s speed, so continuing forward would have played right into his hands. And sure enough, he was already glued to my heels.
But as always, the moment the prey believes it has become the hunter is when it becomes most dangerous.
When I saw the expression on the guy who was clearly fixated on stealing the ball, it was obvious he had never imagined I was waiting for him.
I quickly glanced over my shoulder to confirm his position. The moment he tried to shoulder me, I jumped slightly and drove the ball backward with the heel of my right foot, redirecting its flight to the left.
“Uheut?!”
A perfect backheel sent a strange sound from his mouth as he slid past in front of me. I continued sprinting left at an easy pace. Now only the back line stood between me and the goal. At that exact moment, left center-back Shizuka abandoned her position and came charging toward me. In response, the right center-back slid into the gap she had left.
‘Oh, you’re coming out like this?’
A quick glance showed a pass path toward Kim Seul-gi, but right now the shot was more important than a 100 % pass. What mattered was breaking the frozen momentum of the Japanese players one final time.
This was a showdown.
Shizuka was Japan’s captain and its mental anchor—the country’s premier defender.
To have such a player stripped from me in such a humiliating fashion?
Then the already frozen players would have no choice but to grow even more tense.
I watched the guy sprinting and considered how to bring him down most mercilessly in front of me.
‘If only he could crawl on all fours in front of me… Well, in this case…!’
Sometimes the simplest method is the most shocking. I suddenly shifted my body left and slid my left leg across the path of the ball.
Startled.
Though not world-class, Shizuka was a defender who had made a name in the EPL. She reacted to my fake. I smiled inwardly at the sight.
If the player had been a complete amateur, he would have been outmaneuvered with a flashy technique anyone could replicate. But reacting at all meant he was reading my intention to some degree. And I had never lost a psychological battle on the pitch before.
I leaned my body right again and slid my right foot across the ball’s path.
Startled.
The guy’s body reacted again. His eyes darted up and down rapidly—first to my legs, then to my eyes. Ordinary players usually checked the ball’s destination first with their gaze.
‘Yeah, that’s how ordinary players think…’
But I stared straight into Shizuka’s eyes. After all, the ball was with my body, and I had already memorized every inch of the pitch with a single glance. There was no need to look elsewhere.
I felt her pupils widen as if they were about to burst.
When we closed the gap, I repeated the left-side body feint and the fake step-over.
Now the reaction was no longer a simple startle but something deeper.
Again to the right.
The guy who had taken four fakes in that short span finally tried to block the right channel. But my body tilted left instantly. The guy reacted with lightning speed to cover the left channel, yet I had already committed my run to the right.
And the guy reacted to my body until the very end.
…Just thinking.
His body was positioned to block me going right, but his legs had already been overloaded by the constant left-right shifts. His mind could no longer process the command.
Swoosh.
Like a puppet with its strings cut, the guy’s body collapsed.
“Shizuka!”
Voices calling the guy’s name echoed from afar. I wanted to savor the aftertaste of completely stripping one player, but the situation wasn’t ideal—Tamaki, who had been pushed aside earlier, was already closing in behind me.
I glanced forward. Shizuka, perhaps shaken by the fall, the remaining Japanese center-back was sprinting toward me to block.
And that meant the pass path was open.
But the sound of grass brushing against his ears told me Tamaki was attempting a sliding tackle.
I stretched my foot as if to pass. The white front leg precisely blocked the path.
But I had anticipated it. I used the bottom of my stretched foot to roll backward, evaded the tackle lightly, and slightly altered my direction before slotting the ball into the empty penalty area.
Thud.
A light sound as the floating ball headed toward a position ambiguous for the goalkeeper—whether from behind or rushing out—as I had intended. Of course, it was a bit closer to Kim Seul-gi.
Thud.
The ball struck Kim Seul-gi’s head as she leaped,
Thud…!
…The ball that left Kim Seul-gi’s head clipped the post and bounced out.
‘…Was it a bit too strong?’
It had seemed set up to go in just by touching the head… If it had been Arnal, I would have felt the sting of missing the chance to put it away. But there was no point blaming my teammate, so I shook my head and brushed off the thought.
More important was that I had completely shattered the Japanese players’ momentum with that single shot.
“Sorry, sorry. That should have gone in.”
“It’s fine, senior. I guess I put too much curve on it.”
“…Sorry.”
After the high-five, I gave Kim Seul-gi the okay signal while she held up her palm and scanned the Japanese players’ expressions. Every single one of them wore a bewildered look.
To put it simply, it was fear of the unknown. Especially the way Shizuka, their mental pillar, had fallen like a mannequin without any resistance seemed to have hit them hard.
Still,
‘Why that expression?’
Only one stood out. Attacking midfielder Ayaka wore an expression that defied explanation. But one thing was certain: it was not a frozen expression.
And I immediately understood why.
Ayaka was the player I had faced twice in the youth representative days. So he had already accumulated experience that made this play less surprising.
‘Well, after all, he’s a guy who doesn’t have anything to do with defense.’
Still, I wasn’t worried.
After all, the defenders I needed to beat were already under my influence.
Whistle—Bang!
The whistle blew and Japan’s kickoff signaled the start of the attack. Kim Seul-gi pressed the right center-back, and the ball rolled toward Shizuka. I sprinted to apply pressure to Shizuka exactly as I had planned before the match. With the afterimage from earlier still lingering, the guy blasted the ball forward without even making eye contact with me.
‘Completely frozen stiff.’
Japan’s build-up relied on short passes from the back, just like ours or Spain’s.
But launching a long kick like that was excellent for us.
Fundamentally, our physicality was overwhelming the Japanese players.
Thud.
The ball headed by Kang Yeon-ji flew toward Kim Chae-ri.
And our build-up resumed. It flowed much more smoothly than at the start of the first kickoff, which was only natural.
With almost three or four players now stationed within easy reach to block me, the pressure on the other attackers had eased.
I moved to a position where I could draw the maximum attention from the opposing players. As much as I drew their focus, our attack connected without me like water flowing through a channel.
The ball was directed toward Jo Seo-won, the crack winger who excelled at dribbling in the most congested area of our team besides me. Not the fastest, and not the best finisher, but her dribbling was respected even in the French league, so Japanese players’ eyes locked onto her.
Taking advantage of the gap, I slipped out of their sight. The marker immediately stuck to me. Then came Jo Seo-won’s pass. I let the ball coming toward me slip between my legs and sprinted forward.
Thud.
A light sound. Kim Seul-gi, who had missed the header, sent a perfect pass to me who had broken the offside trap.
“Uaaaaaaa!!!”
From behind, Shizuka shouted and came sprinting to block me. The expression on her face—shattered mentally since the fall—looked quite intimidating in build, but there was no reason to fear a player whose mentality had completely collapsed.
Thud.
Just by lightly rotating my ankle like a flip-flop, Shizuka’s leg stretched dramatically. When the ball aligned with the right foot as the stepping foot, I stopped controlling with the sole and touched the side of the ball with my left foot.
Then, crossing my legs, I struck the ball with my right foot.
Bang!
Unlike a volley, a cute sound accompanied the ball toward the goal, but I felt no particular worry.
The best shot during a shot is not a strong drive that seems destined to break the net or an accurate shot aimed at the goal’s corner, but a chip from a spot the goalkeeper’s view cannot reach.
The goalkeeper who had not expected the shot to fly between Shizuka’s legs froze in place. My chip shot shook the net as is.
“Waaaaaaa!!!!!”
The stadium roared as if it were about to explode, probably because so many Korean fans and away cheering squads had come.
‘K… Damn, this is it. As expected here…!’
“Riiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!”
Recently there had been many fan requests to perform this cheer even via DM, so I showed the signature celebration I had now perfected for those fans and savored the joy of scoring the first goal.