<029. The Place with Dreams and Skills (3)>
As Ho Yung's shooting shook the goal nets, there was laughter and joy from the Dream Tree Expedition bench.
However, there was one person who could not laugh comfortably.
Du Rim Cha.
Because his home team was Eintracht Frankfurt, it was an awkward situation for him.
He couldn't help but smile a little bit.
"Korea's future looks bright. When do you think he'll join the national team? 7 years? 8 years?"
The record for the youngest player who joined the national team was held by a player named Pan Gon Kim in 1983.
His age was 17 when he debuted.
"Hmm. It seems like that will be possible…"
"You get better first."
Bum Gon Cha jokingly said.
"Everything is meaningless."
It was too early to solidify anything.
Like it was hard to predict where a round ball would roll.
A young man who worked in a factory could become the top scorer of the EPL, and a future star that everyone thought would go on to become a national player could just end up being an average player.
Nobody knew the future.
"But you must have some sort of hunch? You're good at soccer."
"Look at Pele. It's all wrong."
"Ah. Yes."
Du Rim Cha closed his mouth.
And Bum Gon Cha opened his.
"But I have a good feeling about that kid."
"Why?"
"He's trying his best. For now."
There is no medicine for a lazy genius.
Even with that, the potential could be seen in Ho Yung.
Swish!
9 minutes into the first half.
It hadn't even been 10 minutes since the beginning of the match, yet the second goal was scored.
It was a mid-way shot that came from Ho Yung's right foot.
'The ball just wraps around my foot.'
The mid-way shot skill that he had developed into C+3 was at a nearly perfected stage.
'But this time it went up quickly. About 3 months?'
It felt like there was a different proficiency to it, even if it was the same mid-way shot.
It seemed that executing the skills in-game was more helpful than practising alone.
That was why this time, he needed to experiment.
If he maintained this feeling, then he could go up another level before the start of the new season next year.
B Class!
He could do it.
…. If he tried his hardest.
The match flowed on in an interesting manner.
Unlike the first half, which the away team had dominated, the home team began to counterattack.
The reason why they could do so was because of one boy.
"Ho Yung Wu. He's preserving his energy."
The director for Frankfurt said while pointing to Ho Yung.
Energy management.
Ho Yung, who had been flying all around the pitch in the first half, was now focusing only on attack.
It was a physical arrangement that was for the rest of the match.
He could overexert himself and go all-out, but since it was a friendly match, he felt no need to play out of his mind.
There were more than just one or two future star players who had suffered from overexerting their bodies.
'There's nothing bad in being safe.'
Ho Yung gained possession of the ball with this mentality.
14 minutes into the second half of the game.
Ho Yung, who had received the ball from the full-back, slowly escaped the pressure using his footwork skills.
It was only a (C+) skill of quite fancy footwork, but the players who lacked even that fell apart.
Additionally, it was a dribble with the Brazilian special skill of 'rhythmical flexibility'.
The opponent had to have a taste of frustration every time Ho Yung got the ball.
Tok.
Slide!
"Ah!"
As Ho Yung mixed a body feint in between his dribble and changed directions, the defender lost his balance and fell over.
Ho Yung could briefly see the frustration on the boy's face.
'I was like that last year.'
The frustration he had felt when battling Germany's Stuttgart.
He had returned that to another German team, so it almost felt like some sort of revenge.
'My skills really have improved quite a lot.'
He didn't know while playing in the season, but he could definitely feel it now.
He could feel himself, who had grown significantly in 1 year.
And it wasn't something that could be made with the snap of a finger in one morning.
The body painting and basic dribbling that used the control of balance.
He felt like grinding his teeth at how much training he did to achieve this one simple-looking movement.
That was the same for the shooting training.
He refreshingly used all the skills that he had gathered up through his sweat and blood.
Swish!
The third goal came from Ho Yung's foot, making it a hat trick.
It was a clean shot that was created right in front of the goal.
"Woah!"
Ho Yung showed off his ceremony, which he had not done for a while.
Ho Yung was good, but there was also the factor of Eintracht Frankfurt being below average.
The current U13 player level had been lowered significantly, due to the kids that did well in the U13s graduating to the U15s.
"Nice~"
The expedition's kids began to applaud Ho Yung's goal.
"You scored again?"
"It looks like learning soccer in Brazil really is different."
"No."
"Then?"
"He was always good…"
Hyung Jun, who had already assisted Ho Yung 2 times was talking.
"He was always good, but he's gotten better…. He's like a monster…."
Hyung Jun was jealous of Ho Yung.
He had been taller than Ho Yung but didn't have the skills, but now, that didn't seem to be the case.
Ho Yung had grown around 15 cm in 1 year.
"He's like a monster...."
"Oh! Did you call for me?"
"Yes, you bastard! Let's score one more goal!"
The match was a little more loose near the end of the second half.
With that, Peniel Mlapa scored the first goal of his team with a header.
The problem was, the whistle that signified the end of the match rang directly afterwards.
Beep~
Dream Tree Expedition took the victory with a 4-1 score.
Although it was a friendly match, if they had to choose a man of the match, it would obviously have to be Ho Yung, who had 3 goals and 1 assist.
But he didn't care if he got man of the match or not.
Because he had gained something more valuable.
[Select the skill you wish to gain.]
Compliant heading (C+)
'Compliant heading is good.'
That wasn't the end.
[Select the skill you wish to gain.]
Tough body integrity (B+)
Compliant stamina (C-)
Du Rim Cha's skill.
'There's no need to think about this.'
He chose the tough body integrity skill.
It seemed like a skill that would improve his physique overall, and it felt like it would be helpful in injury prevention too.
[It will take 4 days for the skill to fully transfer. You cannot take any other skills for 4 days.]
"Wow."
As soon as he received the skill, he felt an unfamiliar sensation rooting in his body.
It was a similar feeling to when he got the fast legs skill from Douglas.
'Alright. Now for an evaluation.'
[Ho Yung Wu]
Skills Possessed
Soccer Genius (A)
The Chaminator's kick and run (U)
Legs faster than a Lamborghini ()
Lightning-fast ball cutting (B+)
A wide open slate for development (B+)
Tough body integrity (B+)
Quite a heavy mid shot (C+)
Quite fancy footwork (C+2)
Rhythmical flexibility (C+2)
Strong muscles of a healthy man (C+)
Impressive curving free kick (C+)
A delicate sense of ball touch (C+)
Satisfactory ball stopping (C+)
Blade-like ball distribution (C)
Compliant heading (C+)
Quite a sharp 2 to 1 pass (C-)
It had been 1 year since he got the skills.
1 U-class, 2 class, 3 B-class and 10 C-class.
He had received a total of 16 skills.
Maybe one day he'd have so many skills that they would fill his eyesight.
'I wish.'
The more the merrier!
He wanted all the skills in the world.
So, he would slowly start with the future stars of Germany this year.
'I'm a little excited for our next opponent.'
The next destination took 4 hours by bus and was the biggest city in Bayern, as well as the capital.
It was Munchen.
The expedition unpacked their luggage after arriving at a hotel.
It was the goliath of German soccer that commanded Europe over the Bundesliga, as well as the giant engine that moved the tank corps.
It was a hotel that was attached to the Bayern Munchen training grounds.
The expedition was to stay here until the continental competition began, so they had quite a bit of time ahead of them.
Because of that, there were a lot of plans excluding the training.
4 days later they were to watch the home game of Bayern Munchen, and this morning, they were to visit a tourist attraction about soccer.
This was to give the children the motivation to achieve their dreams as soccer players.
The children of the expedition explored around the nearby tourist attractions under the supervision of their parents, who had followed them there by paying.
Of course, Ho Yung had to be taken care of by other parents.
But, he received too much extensive care.
It would have been bothersome to take care of their respective children, but the parents went out of their way to take care of Ho Yung.
He was just that famous.
Being mature was second, and it was more because he was unbelievably good at soccer.
As a parent who had a child that wanted to be a soccer player, how good would it be for their child to be friends with the kid that was #1 in the entire school?
They had a gut feeling.
That this kid would be a star in the future!
"I don't know how you're so mature~ Ho Yung, would you like some sausage?"
"Yes. Thank you."
The German sausage that they sold on the streets was delicious.
It was very luscious and juicy.
'Looks like this really is Germany.'
Only when he felt like that did he notice the scenery around him.
Much like a city that is called the toy village, the atmosphere felt very similar to an antique European village.
He had never come to this place before, so he felt a lot of things.
Now that he thought of it, he felt like he had rushed forwards breathlessly too much all this time.
With the complaint that he was too tired to go to the memorial this afternoon, he went back to the hotel with the VJ after having lunch.
An art gallery, a museum, a memorial.
That was far from his tastes.
He wanted to instead use that time to talk to Bum Gon Cha about his future.
Bayern Munchen's training centre, Sabener Strasse.
It was full of skill training private fields that were used to prepare for the Bundesliga League.
But there was a young man in his late 20's that was there from before.
"You're serious?"
"Yes. I heard that they were coming to see our next match."
The Asian legend soccer player who had commanded the Bundesliga.
Chabum.
The young man was excited at the fact that he was in the Sabener Strasse.
"But he's that amazing?"
The man who asked this was Bastian Schweinsteiger, who had debuted on the team last year.
And the young man replied.
"He's a legendary player. Bastian, you're young, so you won't relate, but I grew up watching Chabum's matches. He's my idol."
Unlike Schweinsteiger, the young man was a personal fan of Chabum.
He was yearning for Chabum enough for the media to have called him a hardcore fan.
It was a definite course of action for the young man to go to Chabum's hotel after finishing his morning training.
He had already told Chabum that he wanted to meet him, and had the permission to visit whenever he wanted.
The young man borrowed the training ground electric keycard and began to walk towards the hotel that they said that Chabum would be residing in.
"Mmm?"
'It looks like someone else is waiting apart from me.'
Outside the building.
A young boy was waiting for the response from the interphone and standing around.
The young man lowered his electric keycard and went towards the boy.
And spoke in German.
"Hello?"
"Wow."
The boy had seen the face of the young man.
Ho Yung was shocked.