Viking Wonderkid
Part 11 | Yanbian FC | 延边足球俱乐部 | 연변축구 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
More Dominance
This is probably the only team in the world that could win 8-0 and still make me feel nervous.
We dominated in our trip to Gansu Province — of course we did. Everybody knew we were going to win.
Luciano Parra had his third hat trick of the young season. Huang Bowen had two goals, and was tantalizingly close to scoring a third. Borja Calvo scored two from defensive midfield, and Mr. Kwon managed to score yet another one of his specialties.
But it took us 22 minutes to score the first goal, and the second didn’t come until the game was a half hour old. I started to wonder if I had brought the wrong team along with me.
We dominated as we should have, but, boy, we could have played better.
The Streak
Don’t look now, but we’ve won 10 matches in a row.
9 of them have come in the league. One came in the Chinese FA Cup first round, and that was against a team in the Chinese Super League.
We’ve only given up 4 goals, and 2 of those came in that Chinese FA Cup tie. We’ve had 8 clean sheets from 3 goalkeepers, and yet most of the boys are whispering in worried tones about how we lack depth in goal.
I think we’ve got a great club. Why does it feel like it’s not as good as it could be, though?
Morale Issues
We all seem to be happy. Well, almost all of us.
Huang Bowen is still upset. I’m not sure what to do for him, either.
He’s gone public with his frustration over me signing Kim Yong-Il. Not even the fact that Huang Bowen has made more appearances than Kim Yong-Il (6 to 3) and has scored more goals (6 to 1) can appease him.
Kim Yong-Il hasn’t lived up to his reputation for us so far, and I am starting to regret the signing. However, all of this nonsense has me wondering about how professional Huang Bowen really is. I can’t do anything else in this situation other than give him the playing time that he wants. If he’s not happy with that, I really don’t have any answers.
He might look grumpy when he sees me, and he might spend more time talking with the press than I would like, but at least Huang Bowen is getting it done in our matches. I know I can rely on him, which is more than I can say for Kim Yong-Il and his tendency to run away when the going gets tough.
It’s not easy, even when you are undefeated.
Young Viking
One of the key signings that has gotten us this far was Kristoffer Paulsen, our 18-year-old Norwegian central defender.
We signed him from Viking FK for almost nothing — only 1 million RMB. And he’s been absolutely incredible for us, performing as arguably one of the best defensive players in the third tier.
Stavanger, Norway, is certainly a long way away from Yanji, China. It’s a bit colder in Yanji, though, and the local economy is not quite as developed as Norway’s. Still, he seems to feel at home with the side, and has been playing well.
Charlotte doesn’t care much for him, of course. She tells me that we Western men all look alike anyway.
Taiyuan University of Technology
We’re off to face another university team, which should mean another win for us. Taiyuan are in 14th place and aren’t playing all that well.
If we lose this match, then something is simply not right in the world.