Chapter 39
***
Even after Yannick Voigt's opening goal, the match was still under Union Berlin's control.
“Drop the line! First, tighten up the defense!”
But that didn't mean St. Pauli were being completely overwhelmed.
The St. Pauli players were startled by Union Berlin's unexpectedly aggressive attack, but they quickly regained their composure, heeding their manager's shouts from the touchline.
St. Pauli's players calmly reorganized their defensive line, and just as they were about to slowly launch a counterattack.
“Run! Press harder!”
Union Berlin, awakened through anger, began to press St. Pauli hard.
[Matthias's back pass! But it's short!]
As a result, St. Pauli made a fatal mistake.
The defender's back pass toward the goalkeeper was too short.
‘This is a goal.’
Yannick Voigt, having spotted his prey, sprinted toward the ball.
[Yannick Voigt is fast! He's sprinting in!]
[Goalkeeper Tobias Adler rushes out in a panic, leaving the goal empty!]
Seeing that, St. Pauli's goalkeeper hurriedly left his goal to clear the ball.
The Union Berlin fans in the stands watched Yannick Voigt sprinting toward the ball, fists clenched tight.
A tense moment.
The first to reach the ball was St. Pauli's goalkeeper.
“Ah....”
A groan went up from the Union Berlin stands. They thought the chance to add another goal had slipped away.
Thwack─.
But.
[Ah!! What is this!! The cleared ball hit Yannick Voigt in the face and went in!!!]
Lady Luck was on Union Berlin's side. The goalkeeper's hurried clearance hit Yannick Voigt in the face, deflected, and was sucked straight into the net.
[A lucky goal! It's a lucky goal! Yannick Voigt's brace! Union Berlin are now pulling ahead by two goals!]
Of course, not everything was luck. It was the result of Yannick Voigt's diligent pressing up front.
“…It went in.”
The players ran toward Yannick Voigt as he scratched his face with an embarrassed look.
“Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”
“Yannick Voigt!”
“Fussballgott─!!! (Football God.)”
“Once more! Yannick Voigt!!”
“Fussballgott!!!”
The spectators' groans quickly turned into cheers that swept over the stadium.
***
The first half ended, and the second half began.
[Union Berlin aren't slowing the tempo of the match down.]
The atmosphere at the start of the second half was much like the first.
Union Berlin pressed hard, and St. Pauli were too busy defending against them.
[St. Pauli calmly work the ball around to escape Union Berlin's press! Are the Union Berlin players getting tired? Their pressing is loosening up!]
But as time passed, the momentum gradually began to shift toward St. Pauli.
[Yes. They showed intense pressing right from the start of the match, after all. It's only natural they'd get tired.]
It was because Union Berlin had spent all their stamina in the first half and were running on fumes.
Union Berlin's players began to look increasingly heavy-legged from the 20-minute mark of the second half.
The flow of the match shifted completely to St. Pauli.
[St. Pauli begin an attacking move. Lucas Brenner takes possession!]
If Yannick Voigt hadn't scored a brace in the first half, Union Berlin might have lost to St. Pauli.
[Lucas Brenner turns and goes into the penalty area!]
[Tobias Leitner's return pass connects with Lucas Brenner! Lucas Brenner shoots right away!!]
[Ooooh─! Felix Hartmann's super save! A super, super save!]
[At this point, that's no different from scoring a goal.]
That was how fierce St. Pauli's attack was as they raced for the top of the league.
“Nice save!”
“Felix, that save was insane!”
While Union Berlin's defenders were praising the goalkeeper for his fantastic save,
“Chan-hyeok, doesn't Daniel look tired?”
“Yeah. If he keeps running, he might get injured.”
“Then we'd better substitute him.”
Seeing the players looking exhausted, Thomas Tuchel quickly exchanged opinions with Park Chan-hyeok.
[Daniel Teixeira comes off, and a defender is brought on.]
[Yes. The players are tired, and since Union Berlin are ahead by two goals, it seems they don't want to take any unnecessary risks.]
Thomas Tuchel brought on a defender and switched into protect-the-lead mode.
Of course, that didn't mean they went all-out defensive.
Yannick Voigt was still stationed up front.
“Yannick, don't come back! Just being there already counts as doing your share on defense!”
That way St. Pauli wouldn't dare push their line up rashly. A ten-man defense without a counterattack was no different from a punching bag.
Unable to go all-in on attack, St. Pauli couldn't break through Union Berlin's defense.
The match ended with Union Berlin winning 2-0.
***
[Union Berlin reclaim first place in the league.]
[Assistant Coach Park Chan-hyeok publicly scouting St. Pauli players? “Join us now.”]
['Brace' Yannick Voigt wins M.O.M. “I dedicate this honor to Assistant Coach Park Chan-hyeok, who fooled us all.”]
[St. Pauli manager explodes in anger at Assistant Coach Park Chan-hyeok. “A brat with no class.”]
['Mischief-maker' Assistant Coach Park Chan-hyeok taunts the St. Pauli manager. “You got baited. Hehe”]
['Lucky Goal' Yannick Voigt wins Goal of the Week with a face-shot goal.]
***
Union Berlin defeated St. Pauli and climbed to first place in the league standings.
Like soil hardening after rain, the players' unity grew even stronger amid the false crisis and the conflict between the manager and assistant coach.
Of course, it wasn't a method to use often. If we weren't careful, we'd end up like the boy who cried wolf.
Anyway.
Union Berlin kept piling up points after that as well.
They added two more straight wins after the St. Pauli match.
Seven straight wins since the league opener. The team's mood was very good.
But we couldn't afford to relax.
Misfortune always comes at an unexpected time.
If key players got injured, Union Berlin could collapse at any time.
“Um, I think we should invest a little more in the medical center.”
To prevent such misfortune, I proposed that we start investing seriously in the club's facilities.
“...Sorry, but we don't have the money.”
But the proposal was rejected because of budget issues.
“This club's always broke, damn it.”
I naturally started suspecting Chairman Dirk Cingler.
Is this bastard embezzling?
***
Needless to say, it wasn't embezzlement. Chairman Dirk Cingler was even dipping into his own pocket to stabilize the club.
The reason the club had no money was the problem that arose when Union Berlin was promoted to the third division.
Costs increased because they had started operating a youth academy.
But since they had to run a youth academy to receive a league license, there was nothing they could do.
‘If this were England, we could've gotten rid of the youth academy...’
Germany feels a little more community- and fan-friendly than England.
‘Money... isn't there any way to make money?’
I was desperate enough to want to take part in the DFB-Pokal just to get some money.
But Union Berlin, who had been in the fourth division last season, weren't eligible to take part in the cup.
They should have won the Verbandspokal, the tournament for lower-league teams, but since promotion was the priority, they had given up on the Verbandspokal matches.
‘Is there nothing else?’
The next thing that came to mind after the DFB-Pokal was, naturally, Korea.
But the moment Korea came to mind, I quickly crossed it out in my head.
In novels, decent Korean conglomerates or mid-sized companies would casually hand over huge sponsorship sums.
In reality, the Korean companies just tried to fleece Union Berlin while saying, “We're all the same Korean people, aren't we?”
I think I'd underestimated Korea's strength too much. Come to think of it, isn't Korea the only country in the world to have gone from colony to developed nation?
There had to be a reason Korea developed the way it did.
‘Come to think of it, I never saw any conglomerates among the sponsorship offers Union Berlin got.’
Union Berlin's size was a bit too small to mix with global corporations playing on the world stage.
‘Should I go make presentations to the food companies that will one day become world-famous?’
Anyway.
I walked around the neighborhood, worrying about money.
Thanks to staff members who had left the club during the financial crunch coming back, I was freed from the risk of dying from overwork.
Even though just the assistant coach duties kept me busy, I now had a little more free time than last year.
“Pass it!”
“Come down!”
I could see kids playing soccer on the futsal court.
‘I wonder if that kid is growing up well.’
Seeing the kids playing soccer, I suddenly thought of Hertha Berlin's six-star world-class prospect.
‘If I can pry him away later, I'll definitely bring him over.’
Anyway.
Among the kids happily running around on the futsal court, I saw one kid sitting alone, unable to join in.
‘...Mixed-race?’
Well, being discriminated against because of skin color and left out among peers was fairly common.
There were quite a few Koreans in Berlin, but unfortunately, mixed-race kids often didn't fit in here either.
Weren't mixed-race children discriminated against in Korea too?
It was for similar reasons.
‘I don't even know that kid, so there's no need for me to help.’
It's unfortunate, but this was a problem the kid had to overcome on his own.
Just as I was about to pass by with that thought in mind.
The scouter flashed.
[Name: Leon Han.]
[Current ability: ☆]
[Potential: ★★★★★★]
[One-line assessment: Wide vision and passing are his strengths.]
I couldn't believe my eyes at that moment.
‘Stars... six stars?!’
It felt like I'd encountered a transcendence-grade stone bed.
Just moments ago I said it wasn't something I needed to worry about, but that was before I looked at the scouter.
The moment I confirmed he had six stars, he was no different from one of my players.
“Hello, Leon.”
I approached him in the gentlest voice I could manage.
“Who are you?”
‘Wow. He already looks smart just from saying hello.’
Maybe because he was a six-star kid? Everything he did looked adorable.
“Haha. I'm the assistant coach of a team called Union Berlin.”
Barely calming my wildly pounding heart, I slowly began persuading the kid.
“There's such a team?”
“W-well, we're a third-division team.”
“I see.”
The moment I introduced it as a third-division team, I got desperate when I saw the kid start losing interest.
“It's a third-division team, but we're in first place right now. We'll be promoted to the second division soon.”
“Oh. Really?”
I kept persuading Leon. To convince him, I didn't hold back on sweet talk, telling him that he had the makings of a top-class player and so on.
Leon also started to cave to my relentless persuasion.
‘Nice.’
Now all that was left was to bring Leon's parents to Union Berlin and sign the contract.
Just as I smiled, certain of successfully signing a world-class prospect.
“But, you know... how did you know my name?”
Leon's question continued.
“...Huh?”
When I was too flustered by Leon's question to answer,
Leon's expression changed instantly.
“He's a kidnapper!! There's a kidnapper here! Help!”
Leon immediately shouted to the people around him.
“Hey, you there! What are you doing!”
“I-I'm not a kidnapper!!”
As some tough-looking white guys approached with grim expressions, I ran without thinking.
And a little while later.
When I came to my senses, I was locked in a holding cell.
“...Huh?”
That was the moment I realized something had gone wrong.