Interesting Choice of Friends
Part 14 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
Close Call
I thought we were going to lose against Qingdao Hainiu.
The casuals loved it, but the coaches hated it. This was one of those goal-heavy matches that would make any coach hate his defense.
Luciano Parra is a great striker. We knew that already, of course. But he really proved his greatness in this one, scoring twice before even 10 minutes were up.
Guo Yi scored a third in the 11th minute, and I thought we were home free.
Qinghao has a good team, however. Hayllan, their star striker, got a hat trick before all was said and done, and we were really in danger of losing in the first part of the second half.
Huang Bowen came alive for us, scoring two late goals and rewarding my faith in him. I really was a fool for signing Kim Yong-Il, wasn’t I? Huang Bowen has the potential to be a great star for us for years to come, and we should really look to build on his abilities.
We wound up with a 6-4 victory.
Hou Yu, our first-choice goalkeeper, really disappointed me in this match. I let him know how I felt, fining him and scolding him for doing a bad job. I think he will find himself in the backup role.
We do have a few young goaltenders that I’m looking at, though I don’t think they’re ready yet. As for now, that Chinese goalkeeper requirement is really not treating us well.
I guess you would look at the match and say that we were in control the whole time. I felt differently. We really need to improve if we’re going to play against better competition, and it’s clear to me now that the teams we’ve been playing so far have been too easy for us.
And you thought this was going to be an easy year!
Team Outing
It’s October, which means it’s time for the Chinese National Day holidays. Anybody who has lived in China knows that “Golden Week,” usually from October 1 to October 7, is the best time to go out and explore.
We took a trip to the most interesting historical place in town: the Memorial of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea.
I was worried that the newspapers would make a big deal out of the American manager taking his squad to visit a museum devoted to the “other side” of the Korean War. The politics never really came up, however. Instead, we found ourselves in a mostly empty museum, looking at statues of old Communist leaders and trying to read the misspelled English captions inside darkened rooms.
The ceilings were blackened from decades of cigarette smoke, ostensibly due to numerous party leaders making official visits. It was an interesting museum nevertheless, even with the heavy propagandistic overtones. And it was right next to the Yalu River shoreline, which was the most interesting part.
Interesting Friends
After our trip, I noticed that Stefan Jonovic was hanging out with the North Koreans in a small pack, away from the other players.
I haven’t talked much about Jonovic, mostly because he hasn’t really played much. He’s an Serbo-Austrian centerback, 26 years old, an extremely determined player with a great attitude and the ability to be a leader.
We think that he’ll be good enough to play with us for two years or so, after which we’ll likely move him on. For now, though, we really haven’t even needed to play him. He’s been injured, and, well, there have been better choices at centerback.
But the most interesting thing about him is that he has managed to crack into the otherwise impenitrable North Korean social group. He doesn’t even seem to mind the aggressive looking “bodyguards,” dressed in all black, who insist on sticking with our three first team North Koreans everywhere they go.
They all seem to get along, which is hilarious considering that Jonovic doesn’t speak a word of Korean and clearly has no interest in learning. Don’t ask me how they communicate.
Now, I don’t really care about his political beliefs, and I do hope that he is able to help integrate them with the rest of the squad. Still, I’ve got a lot of questions about this social group.
China Locomotive
We’re playing China Locomotive on the road next.
China Locomotive plays in Tianjin, not too far away from Beijing. They’re in 21st place, which means we’re likely to win this match no matter what happens.
If we don’t win, Chairman Guo will have his revenge.