Romantic on the Field

34.

ridge.

ridge.

The drumbeat of the supporters rang in my ears.

‘How should I put it?’

In exhilaration, Jamie thought.

‘How did you do in the first half?’

I searched for memories as I hit the ball.

‘ah.’

yeah i remembered

In the away game in the first half, he was ‘scorched’ by being hit in the face by Brian’s cross.

‘At that time, I almost died of shame.’

Recalling the memory, he laughed bitterly.

Of course, at this point, that doesn’t really matter.

Rather than the momentary embarrassment, the fact that I got one point with that goal at that time was more important.

‘Today, I need to get 3 points, not 1 point.’

Jamie glanced at Brian, who was running on the left flank.

At that moment, the opponent’s defensive midfielder roughly stretched his legs.

round and round Just as he avoided Jack’s tackle at the training ground a few days ago, he rotated his body to avoid the opponent’s rough tackle.

Oh oh.

The crowd was buzzing.

It’s still too early to be surprised. After Jamie passed to Brian, he ran straight into the penalty box toward the near post.

There were already several defenders in the penalty box. Instead, there weren’t many of them, and even that was around the big Mikel.

In other words, whether it leads to a goal or not and who scores a goal now depends on which of the two Brian chooses.

‘Of course it must be me.’

Jamie expected so.

Normally, it would be right to choose Mikel, who has much better air power, but now Mikel was taking his place among the defenses, and Jamie was now infiltrating alone.

Besides, it was Jamie and Brian who had worked hand-to-hand over the past few months through personal training.

Although the shooting angle was not good because it was on the near post side, Jamie could overcome it enough. Brian couldn’t have known this.

‘Do you want to make a pass that spreads under your feet? Then I have to hit non-stop.’

Jamie naturally thought that the ball would come to him, and he even thought about his next move in advance.

However, Brian’s choice was Mikel.

‘ah.’

He hit the ball high toward the far post.

‘···yes. It’s not something I entrusted to you.’

Jamie took a slight step back, trying to suppress his disappointment. It was to avoid being caught offside when the second ball was caught.

“Michelle!”

“Hit it!”

“Push it!”

Brian’s cross flew right over Mikel’s head, and Mikel didn’t miss it and headed it hard.

C-Ah!

Unfortunately, Mikel’s header hit the crossbar hard.

‘It’s not over yet!’

Jamie did not give up and pursued the ball until the end.

The ball hit the crossbar and flew diagonally where Jamie was standing.

‘iffy.’

It was too high for a header.

‘Eh, I don’t know.’

Jamie turned and took a big leap.

At the same time, he rotated his body vertically and kicked the ball floating in the air with all his might.

Per-billion.

A technique called an overhead kick or bicycle kick.

It was a shooting action that was regularly nominated for the ‘Puskas Award’ for the best goal of the year.

However, this operation had a fatal flaw.

Of course, it is difficult to succeed, and even if it succeeds, the problem is that it is not possible to immediately check whether the person concerned has scored or not.

‘Did he go in?’

Falling with his back to the goal post, Jamie listened.

“eee-Yeee!”

Immediately, the home crowd let us know that the goal had been scored with fervent cheers.

phew. Jamie let out a sigh of relief and stood up. I would have been embarrassed if I had failed.

“You are so crazy, Lee.”

Mikel, who was in the penalty box, approached and said in a blank tone.

“Ouch! You crazy bastard!”

“Can you do a bicycle kick there?”

Harry and Brian, on the other hand, were very excited.

ha ha ha. Jamie couldn’t help but laugh at the contrast.

“Jamie, look over there.”

After a while, I was walking to the half line after the goal celebration, and Brian, who was nearby, gestured toward me somewhere.

“uh?”

Jamie turned his head to where he pointed.

The away fans of Barnsley FC all stood up and applauded.

“It was a great goal!”

“lee! lee!”

Some fans even chanted Jamie.

ha ha ha. Jamie burst out laughing once more, then raised his hand to applaud in return.

**

“Stop!”

“Damn it. How many times have you already been pierced by that guy alone!”

Overshadowing manager Barnsley’s desperate cry, after that, Jamie played full-time and shattered the Barnsley defense.

[Stoke City 3-0 win over Barnsley FC]

[ 2 goals and 1 assist, Jamie Lee, selected as MOM ]

[Jamie Lee gave the team victory with a fantastic bicycle kick and Wonder Goal]

[Lee’s wonder goal received a standing ovation from opponent supporters. Will it win the Puskas Award this year? ]

[Director Charlie Adam, “This is Lee’s class”. Showing a satisfactory reaction to the fantastic opening goal]

The result of the match was 3-0, a huge win for Stoke City.

Jamie did a great job recording 2 goals and 1 assist that day, and the bicycle kick that scored the first goal became a hot topic.

[ (GIF) A common third league goal ]

[Actually, it’s not common. LOL. ]

B [I expected it after seeing the title. he’s really crazy ]

B [I want to see him in the Premier League. I think Leicester City will suit you well. ]

B [Have you still not given up? ]

[ Arguably, the best goal of the year ]

[Jamie Lee scored another wonder goal. This time it’s a bicycle kick. ]

[ #Jamie #Lee #JamieLee #StokeCity #WonderGoal #BicycleKick #Puskas Award ]

Various media, social media, and communities constantly discussed the goal scene.

“Why are you upset?”

A few days later, right before the Papa John’s Pizza Cup quarter-final match.

I was sitting in the locker room waiting for Coach Charlie, but Harry came up with a fight.

“what.”

“The whole of England is in an uproar, so why are you so alone?”

At his words, Jamie shook her head.

“I am a child.”

I’m not a kid, but I actually did a lot of searching.

looked and looked again Among them, there was one Twitter post that was ‘retweeted’ a lot, and I watched it repeatedly enough to recite the contents of the text written by the author.

“I don’t see that. Why don’t you do some heading training while you watch it?”

“…”

Jamie, who made Harry shut up, thought again.

In the meantime, I had searched a lot for articles related to myself, but it was true that I had been quite calm a while ago.

To be precise, I was worried about the upcoming Papa John’s Pizza Cup.

‘You played full-time last time, so you’ll miss it, right? Then I might not be able to win.’

More precisely, he was anxious.

“Today, Ralph is playing instead of Lee.”

Unfortunately, Jamie’s anxiety became a reality.

“Ralph, your role today is a box-to-box midfielder. Run until your lungs burst with Harry. Do you understand?”

“Yep.”

Ralph took the place of Jamie.

“The opponent is in the third division like us. For reference, we lost when we met in the league in the first half.”

Opponent: Milton Keynes Dons FC. It was a team often abbreviated as ‘MK Dunce’.

“And now, you might think our situation is similar to what it was back then. Because Lee doesn’t run.”

Coach Charlie looked at Jamie, who was sitting, then looked back at the players.

“But, this time it is different. What’s the difference?”

After talking to myself, I asked myself, and the corners of my mouth twitched, wondering if it was funny even thinking about the drumming and drumming. But in the end he didn’t laugh, and soon returned to his usual solemn expression.

“Check it out on the pitch. more.”

no, is that the end? Jamie opened his eyes wide in amazement and looked at Director Charlie.

‘Ralph, run with Harry until your lungs burst. That’s the end?’

I wondered if simply running a lot could be a means to overcome my absence.

But after a while, not long after the match started, Jamie had to change his mind.

‘Director Charlie was right.’

I even had thoughts like this.

‘Aren’t they really famous?’

**

Harry, Jack and Ralph were originally Stoke City midfielders.

Among them, Harry played the more defensive-oriented midfielder than Holding-, and the rest of the players ran hard all 90 minutes.

Then, Jamie was recruited, and Jack and Ralph took turns competing.

‘Since the defense is strong, the synergy effect of those three is revived.’

Jamie looked up at the field in admiration.

At first glance, Stoke City’s midfield was no different from before Jamie was recruited.

However, if you look closely, there is a pretty big difference.

First of all, Harry didn’t take on a defensive role.

Thanks to this, he was able to run non-stop from the Stoke half to the MK Dunns penalty box as a box-to-box midfielder alongside Ralph.

Even one player running around like crazy can add a lot to the team. But there were two or three such players.

Jack, who played as a central midfielder, also moved around the field diligently, although not as much as Harry, and this soon led to opportunities for Brian and Troy or Robin, who played on the left and right wings.

It’s hard to believe that all of this happened simply because Harry wasn’t playing a defensive role. The more fundamental cause was ‘defensive stabilization’.

“What the hell!”

“Damn it! Is that number 24 again?”

And at the center was Mutombo.

“Mutombo! go up!”

Besides, that wasn’t the end.

When it was a corner kick or free kick chance, Mutombo took his place in the penalty box with tall players like Harry and Ralph.

“Raymond! You stick to number 24 too!”

“That, Director. Then Harry Harris mark is good for you.”

“ah······.”

“Just trust Richard.”

“…”

Mutombo wasn’t just a good defensive player.

“eee-YEAA!”

“GOOOOAL!”

“hahahahaha, Mutombo! Defending and scoring goals. Are you going to eat it all by yourself?”

Just before the end of the first half, he scored the opening goal with a header from a corner kick chance with overwhelming physicality.

“Hey, Harry Harry! What else are you!”

In the second half, two defenders were attached to check Mutombo, and Harry, who was relatively less marked, scored an additional header.

The result is 2 to 0.

It was a perfect victory for Stoke City.

“Good work everyone. With this, we also advanced to the semifinals of the Papa John’s Pizza Cup. Maybe I will pick up more than one trophy.”

After the game, coach Charlie’s final locker room conversation was over, and Jamie packed his things.

“Yeah. How long has it been since we won without Jamie?”

“Yeah. hahahaha.”

Then, after hearing Jack and Ralph’s conversation, he stopped packing his things.

‘He won without me.’

The moment he became conscious of that fact again, goosebumps grew on his frozen hands.

Won without Jamie.

What this sentence means is bigger than I thought.

In the meantime, director Charlie ‘saved’ Jamie for 60 minutes, 45 minutes, and 30 minutes each. Like caviar.

On the day Jamie played, I somehow won the victory, but on the day Jamie was absent at all, the win rate was 0%.

‘What if I keep winning?’

Most of the days Jamie plays wins.

Even the days I don’t participate win.

So what will happen?

The calculations were not difficult.

“can do.”

Jamie muttered aloud involuntarily.

can do.

Not only the league championship, but also the Papa John’s Pizza Cup and, by extension, the League Cup.

After leaving the locker room, Jamie texted Hannah.

[I’ll give you a gift. ]

Whoops.

The reply came right away.

[ suddenly? what gift? ]

Jamie smiled and typed the message.

[You’ll find out in a few days. ]