Lazy Genius Striker [EN]: Chapter 90

< The Bipolar Genius Striker - Chapter 90 >

< Chapter 89 – Two-Front War >

“Waaaaaah-!”

“What! What just went by!”

“What do you mean what! It was Yohan!”

“Idiot! Don’t you know by now not to even blink when Yohan has the ball?”

“Haha! I think that guy didn’t know either? Look at his dumbfounded expression!”

“A hundred and twenty billion? Wow, what a waste! And we’re using Yohan for free!”

“You should have given that money to me instead! What a waste of money!”

In the blink of an eye, Yohan’s opening goal exploded, and London Stadium was buzzing.

Honestly, no one expected it.

That the opening goal would come so quickly.

Both the timing and the execution of the goal were surprising.

Yohan seemed to collide with De Claiying, then passed him like a ghost before blasting a right-footed cannon shot.

The moment they realized what happened, the ball was already rolling into the net.

“That’s great, old man!”

“Hmm!”

“I was right, wasn’t I? I told you he’d score right away on the first attack! You can never stop Yohan when you face him for the first time!”

“Don’t act like you’re the only one who knew. Even the neighborhood dog knows that.”

“Hahaha!”

Coach Jamie and Manager Schmidt also clenched their fists in excitement.

They launched the offensive faster than expected.

That was all part of the instructions from the bench.

Manager Schmidt had instructed Capello to create an opportunity for Yohan as quickly as possible.

The opposing defender, De Claiying.

He definitely had potential.

It seemed certain that he would become an excellent defender if he gained a little more experience.

But, his opponent is Yohan.

Almost every player is surprised when facing Yohan for the first time.

This isn’t something you can prepare for with video analysis.

It’s a matter of experience that you can only gain by facing him directly.

“You’re wrong.”

Manager Schmidt thought Liverpool had made a mistake.

Assigning a man-marking assignment to someone who was seeing Yohan for the first time was a gamble.

There’s no way he could stop him, right?

However, that didn’t mean he was going to laugh at the opposing manager, Alain Nunes.

Rather, he just felt sorry for him.

Anyway, even if the situation were reversed.

In other words, even if he was the manager of Liverpool and had to stop Yohan, Manager Schmidt wasn’t confident that he could come up with a particularly good solution either.

He just wanted to pat him on the shoulder in sympathy.

Alain Nunes.

You’re still young.

If you work as a manager long enough, you might get lucky and have a player you wouldn’t trade for the world walk into your team.

<6 minutes into the first half! West Ham takes the lead!>

*

“What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean? The bench hasn’t given any special instructions. I’m going to stick with the plan.”

“Are you okay?”

“…Even if I’m not, I have to try.”

De Claiying gritted his teeth.

Yeah.

It’s just the first time.

He was completely defeated by Carvalho at first, wasn’t he?

But, in the end, he overcame it.

Don’t be afraid.

Although training and actual combat are different.

Although today is a place to prove himself, not a place to grow.

De Claiying knew that it was no use blaming himself for what had already happened.

He just needs to pull himself together and stop him again.

But…

The problem is that he doesn’t remember.

‘What was it?’

Even if you forget what happened, you have to learn from it.

However, De Claiying couldn’t remember what technique he had been outplayed by.

It’s only natural.

He couldn’t recall it because he didn’t see it properly.

First of all, he was flustered.

After colliding with him, he was so shocked that his center of gravity was shaken, and he focused all his attention on maintaining his balance.

But that was only for a moment.

But in that short moment, that guy passed by him with a swoosh.

According to the data obtained through video analysis, he wasn’t the type to rely on flashy individual skills.

He’s direct and concise.

If he judges that he can beat you with speed, he just charges and runs.

That was probably it just now.

Considering that speed.

Not a dribbling skill like personal skills, but pure speed.

He needs to move even faster.

More than he thought.

Just following him might be too late.

Prediction must be added.

Perhaps, he will be the opponent he has to focus on the most among the attackers he has faced so far.

Let’s do it.

There is no attacker in this world that he cannot stop.

“Hoo.”

De Claiying nodded with a determined expression.

*

“Did you see that?”

“…It wasn’t perfect.”

“It was.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see it. So it wasn’t.”

“Watch it later on replay.”

A goal was scored, but for some reason, Capello is fuming.

Yohan shrugged his shoulders as he looked at Capello.

Before the game, Yohan made a bet with Capello.

A bet about personal skills.

It started during training.

Capello was still clinging to Yohan that day as well.

As usual, Yohan completely ignored Capello, so Capello showed off his various skills in front of Yohan and started a fight.

“How is it? You can’t do something like this, can you?”

La Croqueta [a dribbling move where the player uses the inside of both feet to push the ball from one side to the other].

Rainbow Flick [a skill move where the player flicks the ball over their head with their heels].

Step Over [a dribbling move where the player steps over the ball to deceive the defender].

Flip Flap [a dribbling move where the player uses the outside of one foot and then the inside of the same foot to quickly change the ball’s direction], etc.

Certainly, Capello was a player who handled the ball beautifully, and he was a technically good player enough to use them in actual combat.

But,

In Yohan’s eyes, it just looked like he was fidgeting around.

It was normal for Yohan not to understand.

He can just dribble the ball and get past him, so why bother doing all that extra work.

Because of this, Yohan continued to ignore him.

Then,

“You can’t do it, can you? You’re pretending you don’t need it because you can’t do it. You can’t do it, not that you’re not doing it. Haha! I can’t beat this body with technique!”

Capello continued to tease Yohan.

And that pushed Yohan’s buttons.

Tatat-!

Papapang-!

“Are you done?”

“…”

Yohan copied all the skills that Capello had shown him.

They were all moves he was trying for the first time.

But it was perfect.

“…Anyone can do it in practice. The problem is in actual combat. If you can’t use it in actual combat, you can’t use it after all.”

“What if I use it?”

“If you use it? I won’t bother you anymore. But, if you can’t use it, you’ll have a free kick match with me again.”

“Okay.”

In the end, the bet was established.

There is one condition for victory.

If Yohan succeeds in using the three skills that Capello set in actual combat, Yohan wins.

If he fails to succeed in even one of those three, Capello wins.

“Anyway, I succeeded in one.”

“Humph! Anyway, that was the easiest one. The problem is the other two.”

Yohan had succeeded in one of those three in the first goal just now.

La Croqueta.

Also known as Phantom Dribble.

In fact, there would be many people who passed by without knowing whether Yohan had used La Croqueta.

Because it was so fast.

Even De Claiying, who was right in front of him, didn’t notice it.

However, that didn’t mean he used it carelessly.

He definitely used it accurately.

He moved the ball from his left foot to his right foot, then kicked it out with his right foot, making it impossible for De Claiying to even react.

Of course, he would have gotten past him even without doing that.

No, he could have gotten past him even faster.

Anyway, he succeeded in one.

He’s going to quickly succeed in the other two and shut the mouth of that annoying narcissist.