One Team (2)
The crowd that had come to watch Daegu against Jeonbuk was not made up of fans alone.
"Olá. I thought you were stuck in Lisbon. When did you get here?"
"Don't give me that olá crap. Just because I work for Sporting doesn't mean I've renounced England and gone Portuguese."
"Hahaha. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. We worked at the same club once — you think I don't know you're English? That's how I spotted you right away in a stadium this big."
Scouts. And not from some Asian side, either — men who belonged to prestigious European clubs had made their way into the stands.
Korea. In the old days it had been a place you dropped into on the side while checking out the J-League. The country's standing was a little different now.
"Back when I was at West Ham, the idea of flying out to Korea for work never even crossed my mind. The world's changed, hasn't it, Elliot?"
"True enough. In the old days we'd have gone to Brazil and the rest of South America, or maybe Turkey or Belgium… Still, Korean players have gotten better, so it makes sense."
"They have. They take care of themselves, and more than anything they're diligent and humble."
Part of it was the Korean legion — Son Heung-min, Kim Min-jae, Lee Kang-jin, Hwang Im-beom and the rest — putting in strong performances on European stages. But the bigger drivers were the skyrocketing transfer fees for South American players who had once been the market's main targets, plus their adaptation failures and lazy self-management. Clubs had begun shifting their eyes from South America to Asia for prospects, and the biggest beneficiaries of that pivot were none other than Japan's J-League and Korea's K-League.
"Jeonbuk already have the opener at this early stage. The goalscorer… number 43, a player named Yoon?"
"His movement inside the box was excellent. The way he finds his spots off the ball is impressive enough, but even with his balance gone he still forced it in. The pass had a bit too much power on it, though…"
"It was the only option. Their defensive line was too solid — anything half-hearted would have been cut out. He was probably trying to disguise a pass as a shot."
"So they've got that understanding locked in already? There's a reason those two got called up for the national team."
"It's not just chemistry. He's a rare type who can actually play the number six role even by European standards. That goal started with Baek Yi-an if you look at it properly. He put the assist on top of it, so if you're assigning credit it's about 7:3 in Baek Yi-an's favor."
The moment Jeonbuk's opener went in, the stadium began to roar. Even though it was the away side scoring, the Jeonbuk support in the S seats was so fierce it left the scouts' ears ringing up in the W seats.
Watching that, you could feel how much the K-League's popularity had grown — and just how deeply the Jeonbuk faithful loved Yoon Seung-hwan and Baek Yi-an.
"They're good players. I looked them up — even in the youth ranks they were already being rated as future pillars of Jeonbuk. I've got some material prepared if you want it."
"Huh? Elliot, did you eat something weird? The day you hand me prepared materials. Is this some kind of hometown-friend courtesy for meeting out in the sticks?"
"Courtesy my ass. I'm giving it to you because I know you'll get so sucked into the match you won't analyze properly, then go back to the hotel and rush through the replay. I've already gone through all of it anyway."
Marcus, the scout from Lyon, took the file Elliot slipped him and began switching his attention between the papers and the pitch.
The match kept rolling on. The two of them only opened their mouths again when Baek Yi-an of Jeonbuk took a retaliatory tackle from the Daegu players.
The whistle shrieked.
"Whoa — Daegu's play just got way too rough. Hope he isn't badly hurt."
"Tch… Already showing that player's bad habits?"
"Habits? Elliot, do you know something? At least give me a rough idea of the style — whether Daegu are always this aggressive or if it's just that guy's ugly habits coming out."
"I already showed you the materials. You could look it up yourself… Fine. Daegu aren't naturally that aggressive. But the moment they lose the numbers battle in midfield and their preferred attack gets shut down, that's when they start getting physical."
"Getting physical?"
At Marcus's words, Elliot adjusted his glasses and fixed his gaze on the pitch.
"Daegu's number seven, Hwang Eun-chan, looks good when the game runs at his tempo. But when the opponent's press — or a teammate's mistake — knocks that tempo off, his game falls apart. The quality of his passing drops, and he starts firing off retaliatory plays. Mentally, he's not a strong player."
Elliot hadn't followed every Daegu match, but in the ones he had watched, Hwang Eun-chan's ugly side had shown itself more than once.
"Aaagh!"
"What the hell! Hey! What do you think you're doing!"
Ah… it looks like the argument between Hwang Eun-chan and Baek Yi-an has escalated into a physical scuffle. Players from both teams are pouring out onto the field!
"Here we go again."
Elliot's mouth curled into a smirk at the commentary leaking from the earphone tucked in one ear.
Thud!
"What the— why won't he budge…"
Huh? These guys just ramped their play style way up.
The second they conceded the opener, Daegu started playing the game with a rough edge.
Sure, trailing sides in football often lean into retaliatory tackles to claw the momentum back. But this was beyond that.
"Hey! Keep shutting him down! Stick to him!"
Why are they swarming me like this? This wasn't their style before, was it?
Given how much experience I had in this position, I'd gone body-to-body with opposing teams in most of the matches so far. But I had never seen several of them team up and pile on like this.
Thud! Thump!
As the collisions kept coming, another thought crossed my mind. Were they really fouling just to stop my advances — or were they simply taking their frustration out, trying to knock the core of Jeonbuk's playmaking clean off his feet?
Around three of them closed in near the touchline, contesting me as I dragged the ball along.
…Alright. Now I get it.
Only then did their intention click into place. This wasn't just about snuffing out a counter. They were launching retaliatory tackles at me for winding them up — and for scraping the nerves of the Daegu fans.
Come on… even so, isn't this a little cheap? You want to see what a real physical battle looks like?
As I met the challenges head-on instead of dodging them, that thought kept flickering through my head. If I just sat here and took it, they might hound me for the rest of the match.
So I had to choose.
Either hit them right back the same way — or lace a little acting into it and draw the foul.
Either worked. I decided to trust the referee.
Left to my old nature, I would have preferred slipping a return gift past the ref's eyes. But throwing it back at these guys while they were this poisoned up wouldn't do me any favors — and more than that, there were the words Sang-yong hyung had given me.
Kang Sang-yong sunbae and Han Yong-ho sunbae both told me to be careful. Sang-yong sunbae's temperament has somehow mellowed out, so I don't have to worry about him. Yong-ho sunbae, though… hard to say.
No need to go looking for trouble.
Paying them back in kind wouldn't be bad, but mixing in a little acting and gifting a card to whoever went in hard was just as satisfying a way to get under their skin.
Decision made, I moved straight toward Sang-yong hyung.
"Sang-yong sunbae! I'm open — you can send it my way!"
"Huh? Be careful."
Sang-yong sunbae hesitated for a second, wondering if I'd be alright under that much pressure, then connected the ball to me after a brief thought.
I took the pass, raised my speed, and started driving forward myself. Sure enough, the moment I crossed the halfway line a Daegu midfielder came charging out.
I used my pace to beat him past, and just as expected he started leaning into me with his body.
Now.
The instant the Daegu midfielder's foot brushed the ball, I threw my body outward, rolled exactly three times, and launched into a full performance as the victim of a brutal physical challenge.
The whistle cut sharp through the air.
"Hwang Eun-chan. That was far too aggressive. I've warned you repeatedly already — I can't let it go any further."
"Come on, it doesn't need a card! Ref, that guy was acting! I didn't even shove him that hard…"
"Ow, ow… You can't just shove people like that, sunbae. Even so."
"What? Hey — are you messing with me right now?"
"Messing with you? I don't like joking around with people like you, sunbae."
"Everyone, enough! Baek Yi-an — keep it up and you could see a booking too. Remember that."
"Yes, sir."
The referee, who had come sprinting over, pulled a yellow card from his pocket. The look of pure desolation that settled over Hwang Eun-chan's face — the same face that had been charging in with his teeth gritted only moments earlier — was almost comical.
To a player who had been chaining aggressive plays, it was the ref's way of saying one more stunt like that and he was gone. No wonder he looked like that.
A yellow doesn't just warn one player; it can reshape a whole team's approach. Even Daegu wouldn't be able to keep launching heavy tackles after this.
One Hollywood dive, and not only had I put a yellow on the opposition, I'd won us the throw-in as well. Results didn't get much better. All that was left was to enjoy them.
I got carefully to my feet and walked over to collect the ball Hwang Eun-chan was holding.
"Be more careful with your tackles next time, sunbae. Anyway — looks like this is our ball. Mind if I take it?"
"…"
"Eun-chan sunbae?"
"Ha… shit."
A raw curse burst out of Hwang Eun-chan without warning. He had to have seen it was our throw-in. He should have been heading back to defend — so why was he just standing there?
Puzzled, I reached for the ball at his hip.
"Fine. Take it."
Thwack!
The ball Hwang Eun-chan offered slammed straight into my face.
No — he hadn't offered it. Emotions already running hot from the contest, then the card breaking his mentality, he had hurled the ball at my face in a fit of temper.
At the sudden throw I went down at once, covering my face, and chaos erupted across the pitch.
"You son of a bitch— hey! What the hell are you doing!"
"What? He asked for the ball, so I gave it to him. Guess he was standing behind it and got hit."
"Gave him the ball? You just threw it, you lunatic!"
"Eun-chan sunbae, what are you doing! Hey! Sang-yong, you stop too and get over here! What the hell is going on — quit fighting and get out of there!"
"Yi-an! You okay? Did it catch your eye or something? Here — how many fingers am I holding up?"
"One… More importantly, Gang-rok, why are you giving me a vision test with only your middle finger up…"
You might see it in baseball, but bench-clearing brawls are rare in football. In an instant, a full-blown free-for-all of players clashing erupted right there in Daegu's home stadium.
With Han Gang-rok's quiet support as he slipped up beside me, I pushed myself up and cracked the hand covering my face just enough to take in the scene.
"I knew it the second they started playing that rough, these bastards! Even so — thirty-four years old and you're throwing a ball in an eighteen-year-old kid's face?"
"Everyone just shut up and get out of here, PUTA! Please, just stop already…"
"PUTA? Hey, Anas — are you calling me Colombian right now? You're cursing me out because my Korean's bad, aren't you? You thought I wouldn't know what PUTA means?"
"What are you talking about — why would I curse at you, Shapery! Aaagh! Shit, don't come at me — go break up those guys!"
…The atmosphere's uglier than I expected.
The match itself had been so vicious that both sides clearly had a lot bottled up. I had more or less anticipated a bench-clearing, but if things kept sliding this way we could be looking at a mass card collection — a serious problem.
That can't happen.
I had to break it up. At the very least, the mood needed to shift toward ending the fight.
Thinking that, I looked around.
Thud, thud—
"Huh? Yong-ho sunbae?"
I fixed my eyes on Han Yong-ho as he approached from a distance and began peeling Jeonbuk and Daegu players apart one by one. As the oldest veteran and leader at Jeonbuk, he had clearly stepped in to mediate.
If it's Yong-ho hyung…
He was strict and obsessed with hierarchy, but he valued the fans who came to watch more than anyone. Better to lean on his hands than for me, the victim, to step in myself.
With that in mind I got to my feet and started moving carefully.
"Hey. Come here."
"Yong-ho sunbae?"
Grab!
"You son of a bitch — what the hell did you just pull on our youngest?"
"Y-Yong-ho sunbae! You can't grab a man's throat like that…"
What? What's wrong with him?
My eyes went wide as Han Yong-ho, who had cut through the middle while separating players, roughly seized Hwang Eun-chan by the throat and snarled in his face.
The man who cared more about hierarchy and the fans in the stands than anyone else had suddenly lunged out, grabbed Hwang Eun-chan by the neck, and shoved him. And this was a player one year older than him — his senior.
It was behavior that simply did not exist in the Han Yong-ho I knew.
"…Yi-an, what is that? The Yong-ho sunbae I know doesn't do stuff like that. Why's he acting like that?"
"I don't know either."
Faced with the sudden outburst, Han Gang-rok and I could only stand off at a distance and watch.