Chapter 85
***
The match between Union Berlin and Mainz went on, and the two teams battled fiercely throughout the first half.
[Title: Anyone watching the Union Berlin vs. Mainz match right now?]
└ Me;; are these really second-division teams?
└ Who the fuck, lol, said the Korean league was Bundesliga 2 level.
└ It's just that Union Berlin and Mainz, those two teams, are on another level.
└ But seriously, this season's second division feels especially brutal.
└ Park Chan-hyeok <<< the crazy bastard who, after Thomas Tuchel left, not only fixed the completely fucked-up team atmosphere but also got results;;
└ On top of that, he's a lunatic who's even developing Korean youth players.
└ Can't Park Chan-hyeok just coach the Korean national team….
└ But club management and the national team are different....
└ Taking the national team job would be an honor, but he says his goal is to lift the Big Ears in the Champions League, so he won't do it.
South Korean football fans let out gasps of admiration at the high-level football being shown by the two teams, even though it was the second division.
As people watched the fierce match between Union Berlin and Mainz, losing track of time.
Before long, the first half was nearing its end.
[Thomas Mayer's interception, and the ball goes to Marcus Matchke!]
Union Berlin launched a counterattack after cutting off Mainz's pass.
[Mainz's heavy press, Marcus Matchke gets free. Matchke opens it wide to the flank! Timo Breitner takes the ball! Crosses it in!!]
Timo Breitner, who was out on the left wing, tried to send in a cross,
[Ah! But Neven Subotić gets there a step earlier and clears it away!]
Neven Subotić succeeded in clearing the ball before it could be fed to Lewandowski.
[Yes. And just as Neven Subotić clears the cross, the referee's whistle blows. The first-half score is 1-1. Union Berlin struck first to take the lead, but Mainz quickly pulled level.]
[That's right. Although the score is 1-1, it was an extremely intense first half. Both teams were so aggressive that it felt like we hadn't seen a match with such rapid transitions between offense and defense in a long time.]
The referee's whistle for the end of the first half rang out over the pitch.
Both teams battled fiercely, but neither could shake the net again, and the first half ended with the score tied 1-1.
***
Once the first half ended, the players returned to the locker room and started catching their breath.
I looked quietly at the players, then nodded.
“First off, good work in the first half, everyone.”
The moment I opened my mouth, all the players' eyes turned to me.
It was a scene that made me feel just how much respect the players had for me.
I met their eyes and lightly praised their first-half performance.
A small smile spread across Union Berlin's players' faces.
Since most of them were still young, they were genuinely happy to be praised by the manager.
“This match is extremely important for us.”
The more I went on, the more pressure settled on the players' faces.
If that hadn't been the reaction I wanted, I might have been flustered while speaking.
But the players' reactions were exactly what I'd intended.
“This match will decide whether our Union Berlin rides this momentum and soars, or whether the momentum is broken and we crash down.”
I wanted the players to realize how important this match was.
In the naturally heavy atmosphere, I threw a question at Yanik Voigt.
“Yanik! Then what is it we want! Victory! Or defeat!”
“Victory!”
Unlike usual, Yanik Voigt answered with all traces of a smile stripped away.
Union Berlin's young players naturally began to get swept up in the atmosphere.
If it were a normal day, I would have finished motivating the players at this point.
But today's opponent is 'that' Jürgen Klopp.
Jürgen Klopp was surely motivating his Mainz players right now, too.
‘Can't lose.’
My competitive spirit ignited.
I delivered one more speech that only I could give at Union Berlin.
“Win today's match, and there's a bonus.”
The instant the word bonus left my mouth.
“Jaaaaawooooooooooool!!”
“Ya─booooooool!”
Union Berlin's players immediately shouted in unison.
At this pace, they looked like they could tear Bayern Munich apart.
After a long period of humiliation and oppression, the Germans had finally returned to being war machines.
***
With halftime over, the second half got underway.
I looked at Mainz's players from Union Berlin's bench.
‘They’re all showing a firm determination to win.’
Mainz, too, had determination in the players' eyes.
Jürgen Klopp had motivated them through a locker-room talk.
Mainz are currently in 4th place in the league, so they'd want to beat us.
But unfortunately, Union Berlin, having been promised a bonus, was a team on a completely different level from the first half.
Union Berlin's players showed such fierce fighting spirit it was as if they'd eaten something strange, and the fans gave them passionate support in response.
“Dem Morgengrauen entgegen, ziehn wir gegen den Wind.
(We will press on against the wind toward the dawn.)”
“Wir werden alles zerlegen, bis wir Deutscher Meister sind. (We will tear everything apart until we become German champions.)”
Fired up by the fans' passionate support, the players became even more devoted, and the fans, moved by the players' performance, answered with even bigger cheers.
“Wir! Eisen!! Union!!”
The virtuous cycle continued without end.
It was, quite literally, an endless source of power fueled by bonuses.
“Go! Captain! Hurry up and score a hat trick!”
And even the players sitting on the bench cheered passionately for the team's victory.
Thanks to me emphasizing that we were one team and promising bonuses to the bench players as well.
Right now, in this moment, Union Berlin was perfectly united around the goal of victory.
The moment Roberto Lewandowski's shot tore through Mainz's goal.
I turned my head and looked at Jürgen Klopp,
and, coincidentally, Jürgen Klopp was looking at me too.
Jürgen Klopp's eyes were full of bewilderment.
Well....
That aside, I had to do what I had to do.
“Hooooooo─!”
If I didn't steal the celebration myself, Levi would be disappointed.
***
Jürgen Klopp couldn't hide his bewilderment as soon as the second half started.
Union Berlin had started running around like even crazier lunatics than in the first half.
‘……They're playing as if today's match were the season finale. Did getting knocked out of the Pokal leave them with that much energy to spare?’
Union Berlin's DFB-Pokal exit had its own advantages.
It gave the regular starters some breathing room physically.
After being pushed back as soon as the second half began, they conceded to Roberto Lewandowski, and the match tilted completely in Union Berlin's favor.
“Hooooooo─!”
Watching Park Chan-hyeok sprint to the corner flag and celebrate, Jürgen Klopp let out a hollow laugh.
‘The lineup hasn't changed much, and yet they've become a stronger team than they were in the first half of the season.’
The players currently starting for Union Berlin were exactly the same as when they'd met in the first half of the season.
But unlike the first half of the season, when they'd drawn, facing Union Berlin now was grueling because Union Berlin's players had grown that much.
And because, for some unknown reason, they had started running like madmen.
‘Just what on earth did he do to make the players run as if their lives depended on it?’
***
The match between Union Berlin and Mainz continued.
Union Berlin succeeded in winning the ball back through intense high pressing.
Roberto Lewandowski, having won the ball, immediately slipped a lofted through ball to Son Hong-min, who was sprinting into the open space behind Mainz's defense.
With Mainz's defenders having pushed beyond the halfway line in an effort to score the equalizer.
Mainz's goalkeeper ran out without hesitation, leaving the goal open.
Thump─.
Son Hong-min calmly lifted the ball with a touch from underneath, getting past the goalkeeper,
Tap.
He calmly rolled it into the empty net and scored.
“Yeaaaaaaah!!!”
As the crowd's cheers rang out, Son Hong-min, having scored, immediately ran to the corner flag.
It was already getting close to the end of the match.
Having poured out the last of his energy in that sprint, Son Hong-min's legs were trembling, but
he couldn't slow his legs down as they carried him toward the corner flag.
If he was even a little late....
the manager would steal his celebration from him.
Seeing Park Chan-hyeok racing toward the corner flag, Son Hong-min hurriedly jumped.
“Hooooooo─!”
“Hooooooo─!”
That day, double Hoo echoed from the two corner flags.