Copa del Rey Final: Second Leg
“……No matter how objectively behind Real Sociedad is compared to us, no one would be complacent, right?”
“None!”
“Yeah, the final stage is a stage where anything can happen. How many finals have we experienced so far? And how many cups have we piled up there? We are a team that has never lost in a final. You know that, right?”
“I know!”
“Let’s make this season a season to be remembered in history. With our own hands.”
“Coach! Isn’t it feet, not hands?”
“…Anyway, let’s create a record that won’t be broken for the next 100 years. Who are we?”
“Barcelona!”
“Who will win on this stage today?”
“Barcelona!”
“Okay. Let’s go. To add one more trophy.”
“Let’s go!”
“Vamos! Barcelona!”
New history. Perhaps because this season is progressing towards making a treble and drawing a line in the history of football in this world, Angela’s speech wasn’t as long as in the Champions League final.
And like Angela, the players’ morale was sky-high. In this tournament where the throne has been held for years, the dream of a treble couldn’t slip away.
The locker room door creaks open, and the escort kids waiting in the corridor and the sunny pitch gather.
“Ha-neul, you’re a fan.”
A escort kid waiting next to me calls my name, which anyone who has watched some football can easily pronounce, and talks to me.
In my previous life, it took quite a long time, almost 10 years, for people to call my name, but seeing even these children calling my name after only 3 years since debut, I think that I must have been pretty good at football.
Well, there’s also the point that I’m the only male pro footballer playing in the female pro league in this world, but it felt pretty good, right?
“Yeah. Youth?”
“No, not that.”
“Don’t be nervous. Name?”
“Diana.”
“Yeah, Diana. I said you’re my fan, right?”
“…Yes.”
“Watch the match today well.”
“Of course!”
While waiting to enter the stadium by shaking hands with the escort kid next to me and chatting briefly, I feel gazes directed at me from the side.
When I was with the opposing team for the first time, there were half the players who looked down on me with ‘What does a guy know about football?’ and half who thought ‘Is he okay?’ and occasionally some players who looked at me with lustful eyes, but the gazes now looking at me are completely different.
“This guy needs to be stopped… Well, that’s the look, right.”
The look mixed with hostility, envy, and caution. And, to put it another way, the look of looking at the opponent’s ace.
Looking at the look sending such gazes towards me, who am not Albaria, the winger in the top five in the world from Ballon d’Or, and Yelena, who was praised as a flawless midfielder, and Tiana, not the nucleus of our team’s defense and not the one who is slowly becoming the world’s best centerback, I think that I must have been pretty good at football.
“…And I want to stomp on them too.”
The greatest happiness as a football player is to dance in joy while watching the opponent cry after losing in the final.
I didn’t want to share that kind of happiness that only one team can enjoy with the opponent at all.
I knew that now I had to focus only on the opponent.
…But when I thought about Yuri and Valentina, who were starting from the bench today, one side of my heart felt heavy.
It seemed like they wanted to hear some words from me after winning the final with their own hands, but since the Champions League match was only a few days ago, they couldn’t come out today.
Well, on the other hand, Camila, who started in today’s match, was burning with the will to win by any means.
Looking at such appearances, unlike football where I feel I worked hard and did well, I think my human relationships are ruined.
There are times when I think that if I had chosen one person and loved them normally, but then the question of who I should choose and the selfishness that I don’t want to give up on anyone arises.
And, right before becoming the greatest footballer of all time, the thought of spiritual escape that it’s unfair that I died young in this second life also comes up.
I thought that such spiritual escape was disgusting, but as a pro player, I had to live while using spiritual escape.
After all, there would be winners and losers in the match, and the loser would curse the winner. And I, who am the winner in most matches like me, needed to firmly arm my mind.
That was my own mental management trick that continued from my previous life. If I gave meaning to everything, I might have died from suffocating on the flying curses.
Moreover, I didn’t steal my teammate’s girlfriend like someone like me, and I didn’t need to deal with kids like someone who sinned.
No, I did sin, but the guilt is until today.
If I talk after the match today with a face-to-face meeting, something will come out as a result.
“So. Let’s do our best. First, after finishing this match.”
While making such a resolution…,
“Players, you will enter soon.”
…With the referee’s words, the line starts to move. Now, it’s time to throw away all the things outside the pitch.
It was unprofessional for private matters to interfere with the match, and I was the pro among pros.
“Let’s go!”
“What’s up, Ha-neul. You’re shouting.”
Albaria, who has a captain’s armband, turns around and smiles with a grin after hearing my cry that threw away everything.
“It’s the final.”
“No one who didn’t shout once in the Champions League final. Yeah, anyway, let’s go. If we lose to these guys, we won’t have the face to see the players who passed through Barcelona.”
And he provocatively calls out the guys loudly enough for the Real Sociedad players standing next to him to hear.
“This fucking…”
“Guys who aren’t even shit.”
The Real Sociedad players, as always, continued with their rough reactions upon hearing that, and thanks to those players’ words, Savina, the defensive midfielder and one-club man who is the captain of Real Sociedad, shouts loudly.
“Let’s go! Let’s show who the owner of the trophy is to these fucking guys!”
Savina, who is rumored to be a gentleman in the league, trash talking like this. But, compared to the gentleman eating big and trash talking, the voice didn’t have much confidence.
And I, who has been on such stages many times, could sense the doubt in Savina’s voice.
“That guy is probably my marking man?”
Savina was a player with outstanding ability. He had been included in the league best a few times and had sent offers from big clubs. When I was young, there was a link with our team Barcelona.
But, whether out of love for the team or not, he was one of the few romantic players in this era who remained at Real Sociedad even now that he’s in his late thirties.
Even a player with such outstanding ability and love for the team, the power difference is overwhelming enough to make them slightly doubtful.
“Today’s match will be easy.”
While judging today’s match as such, Albaria says again with a quieter voice than before. The opponent’s captain’s voice.
“Let’s play as usual. As usual. If you raise your voice, will your ability come out that wasn’t there? If that were the case, all the dogs and cats would have come to our team.”
“……”
“Players, you will enter now.”
The captains’ battle between the two teams ended with our victory, and we walked into the stadium.
After some ceremonies like the Spanish national anthem (even though the match was held in Seville, many Barcelona fans who were sure of victory came, so the booing was fierce.) etc., it was finally time for the match to start.
“Camila, let’s win.”
“…Yeah.”
Before taking positions, after briefly talking to Camila, I checked her expression, and I could see at a glance that there was full of desire for victory.
“…I don’t think this expression will come out even in the World Cup final.”
Such desire could sometimes lead to excessive play and mistakes, but since Camila was a player with a few football intelligence that I recognize, it seemed no need to worry too much.
Pee — click!
After putting aside worries about Camila, I turned my head to the opponent’s side, and the referee’s whistle blew, and the match started.
First kick is Real Sociedad.
Thinking that something like last year’s Champions League final might happen, I rushed at Savina, the key player in the build-up, but Savina passed calmly and the Real Sociedad build-up started.
“Well, I didn’t think it would be this easy.”
Actually, the reason I could snatch the ball and score early in last year’s Champions League final was because the match had the pressure of the final stage of the Champions League final, and also because Manchester City, the opponent in the final, was playing their first Champions League final in team history.
But, the Copa del Rey didn’t have that much weight, and since Real Sociedad had played the Copa del Rey final stage before, it seemed they didn’t feel the pressure like Manchester City did then.
“Let’s play slowly. There’s plenty of time.”
After all, there were more than 90 minutes left. No need to rush.
Just like usual, we would snatch the ball and slowly harass the opponent and suffocate them.
Click!
And the attack foul of Real Sociedad rang out, and the attack rights came over.
Was it because the talk in the corridor stimulated the Real Sociedad guys? It was the guy dribbling swinging his elbow and knocking down Narcis, the left back.
“I’m sorry. It was a mistake.”
But my thought that the attack foul ringing in such situations was because the guy was apologizing to the referee while making an ardent defense was my misconception.
In normal situations like this, if an attack foul is called, the guy who should be making a heated defense and denying it is apologizing to the referee.
And I knew quite well why the guy was doing such an action.
“This pattern is… Is it a drag pattern?”
Probably, before the referee’s card comes out, he would try to act as if it’s a mistake as much as possible and come out roughly. And by apologizing, he would plant a gentle image and think to delay that card as much as possible.
I had experienced this pattern a few times even in my previous life.
“There’s no way he would do this operation without the coach’s instructions… So, was it prepared from before the match?”
Although Real Sociedad’s team is far from rough football, this match is a final. And with an opponent with a clear power difference, this method was simple but quite effective.
“Anyway, guys who don’t have any skill, just their bodies are rough.”
“Albaria stimulated it a little while ago, right.”
While Narcis was trying to look as hurt as possible to induce the referee’s card, I could hear Albaria and Arnal talking nearby. Even these veteran players — Arnal wasn’t really a veteran, but she had been playing since her teens, so she was a veteran in all but name. — to be in such a laid-back state…
“…Sigh, so did she subtly induce the talk in the corridor too? So Savina’s voice was a bit shaky? Guys, you’ve prepared a lot.”
Well, now I could understand why Savina, rumored to be a gentleman in the league, started trash talking from the corridor.
Of course, it wasn’t a situation where I could just laugh inside, so I approached the two of them with a quiet voice so the opposing team couldn’t hear.
“Albaria, Arnal.”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Those guys seem to have come out with the intention. Like the incident earlier. It looks like it will get rough, so tell the other teammates too?”
“…Yeah? Yeah, Savina wouldn’t have said such things for nothing. Okay. I’ll tell every player I meet to be careful.”
“Yeah. I’ll talk to the other players every time I meet them too.”
I wonder how they would scratch our nerves.
I couldn’t be sure of the method, but I had a feeling that this final would be a pretty dirty match.