Low Self Belief
Our Wonderkid Goalie | Part 2 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
Taking Care of Business
The nerves came back to my stomach before that first match. I had nightmares the night before: dream after dream of Ingolstadt, of upset players wanting to leave, of goal after goal going in during that 7-0 thrasing against 1860 München.
Charlotte finally punched me in the back around 2 in the morning, frustrated by my night of tossing and turning. I think I muttered something to her about the poor quality hotel Wuxi hotel bed. She didn’t want to hear any of it, and muttered a somewhat vulgar equivalent of “sort yourself out” back at me.
Needless to say, I was a mess the next afternoon.
But, as it turns out, the match against Wuxi wasn’t exciting in the least. We scored early and often. We made it look easy, starting with an opening goal by recently acquired 24-year-old left winger Liu Yue in the very first minute. Both strikers scored, and we ended the half with a comfortable 4-0 lead — and Wuxi hadn’t even managed a shot on goal yet.
The second half was much quieter. We threatened throughout, but did not manage to score. We didn’t give anything up, of course, and we came away with the dominating and deserved victory.
Everybody was happy. Both our recent signings up front, the Chinese veteran Gao Yang and the Italian wonderkid Peter Rovaglia, scored goals. So did Kwon Hyeok-Kyu, the 21-year-old South Korean midfielder who made huge headlines when we paid 5.5 million RMB for him, a record for our club. Little do they know that we’ve got 300 million more to spend.
It was a great day to wear the red and white.
Emergency Goalkeeper
What the public didn’t realize is that we narrowly averted a major disaster.
When I came in to this team, the first choice goalkeeper was a 15-year-old kid named Wu Ping who couldn’t even look me in the eye.
Wu Ping hails from Longquan, a small city in Zhejiang province that would take at least a day to reach via train from Yanji. Maybe it was being on his own for the first time that was getting to him. Maybe it was the wheat-based northern cuisine and the harsh, gutteral sound of the local accents. I don’t know what the problem was, but he sure seemed depressed.
The coaches told me that they thought he had good enough natural talent to play at this level, and that he might advance. However, Wu Ping had so little faith in himself and his own abilities that I wondered if he’d ever amount to anything.
I went out in search of more help in goal, signing 31-year-old veteran Hou Yu from Meizhou Hakka, as well as a 25-year-old backup, Zhang Yan, who came over from Chengdu Rongcheng. I figured that we’d keep Wu Ping on the under 19 squad until he started to develop some confidence, or until we could loan him out.
Of course, as fate would have it, both Hou Yu and Zhang Yan managed to injure themselves shortly before our first match.
And so it was that we started the 15-year-old kid. We had no other choice. We simply had no other goalkeeper with the ability to play at this level.
It feels like poetic justice that he managed to keep a clean sheet in the end.
Fast and Furious
We’ve got a lot of games to play in this league — 46 in all, to be exact. They come fast and furious, with only a few days in between.
Charlotte warned me about spending too much time at work. She never talked about Ingolstadt directly; she only warned me about “you know what” and “that one time.” It took me a few days to realize that the children had absolutely no memory of our German adventures, as if our life were some sort of director’s cut from Men In Black.
That manilla envelope she handed me at the start of the season seems to have helped. Still, I can’t help but think about transfers while I wander around the house.
And, well, Charlotte herself doesn’t help things. She keeps asking me questions about what our other 21-year-old Korean midfielder, the baby-faced Lee Jin-Yong, was like in person, as if he were some sort of movie star. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Beijing Renhe
We’re up next against Beijing Renhe, one of several teams from Beijing in this version of the Chinese league. This will be our home opener, and we’d better put on a good show for the fans.
Beijing Renhe also won its first match 4-0. This should be a good early test of our squad’s ability to measure up against good competition.
And, you guessed it, we’ll have Wu Ping back in goal. I can’t help but root for the kid.