Chapter 296 Qualifier finals XIII
At worst if it were to be overheard by their fans, it would have greatly affected their already degrading morale and would have probably created a scandal.
Despite his teammates arguing barbarically around him, Park Seung-gyu who was seated at his seat with his back upright was rather calm. It was like as if he wasn't paying any attention to the fuss taking place around him.
His eerie black eyes, devoid of any kind of emotion was looking at the bigger picture while his thoughts were dwindling elsewhere.
Not because he didn't care for his teammates and didn't want to get involved but because he wanted them to drain some of their energy by venting their anger first so that he could intervene at the right moment and salvage the situation.
As time progressed, the fuss which had originally begun as an argument continued to intensify violently as some players started getting violent.
Earlier they were simply arguing with their mouth but now some of them were even on the verge of retorting to physical violence.
"Wasn't it you who failed to stop him one on one and costed us the first goal?" Saying so in a fierce tone full of anger, Park Ji-hye rushed towards Kim Ji-hoon and grabbed him by his collar while also slamming him against the locker.
Having forcefully pinned against the locker out of nowhere, Kim Ji-hoon's eyes became startled as he let out a muffled groan, "Argh" while contorting his face in pain.
Immediately Kim Il-sung who was the closest was about to react by forcefully tossing Park Ji-hye away from Kim Ji-hoon.
'It's time' Park Seung-gyu's eyes flashed with cold glint as he finally decided to react.
But just as Kim Il-sung was about to intervene, a familiar voice filled with coldness rung in the room, causing him to pause midway.
"Enough!!"
His authoritative voice as it echoed in the locker room caused everybody to freeze at their place.
"Enough with all your blames and rants. Why don't you all use this energy on the field instead of displaying it here against your own teammates." While speaking such, he diverted his cold gaze towards Park Ji-hye, "And you Park Ji-hye, don't act like you haven't done any mistakes. We all have made mistakes. Whether you all like it or not, that's the truth. So own your mistakes and quit acting like brainless children. If you can't perform then just exit the pitch there are other's who are dying to take your spot"
Park Seung-gyu's bold voice as it echoed in the locker room caused everybody to become tongue-tied. And instantly the once noisy room became ghastly silent.
However before the players could even process the words spoken by Park Seung-gyu, another voice filled with the vicissitudes of time resounded in the room out of nowhere, "Indeed, he's right"
As that deep voice echoed in the room, those gazes which were concentrated at Park Seung-gyu immediately jolted towards the direction of the voice.
Upon turning their gazes towards the direction of the voice, they found their manager standing infront of the door, staring at them with a frown.
Right now his time-worn face was full of wave like wrinkles while his raven-black eyes was filled with concern and disappointment.
They would have only felt bad if he was angry but not even an ounce of anger could be seen on his face at this moment. Looking at those face full of concern and disappointment, rather than feeling bad, players felt extremely guilty.
Out of guilt, they couldn't even bring themselves to look him in the eyes. Thus no sooner as they locked eyes with their manager, they immediately withdrew their gaze from him.
Their manager however didn't stop sweeping his disappointed gaze across the room. Even so he couldn't bring himself to point out the flaws of his players.
He knew that this players were only frustrated. Usually they wouldn't act like this. Although he had only been appointed the manager of this team recently, he still had ran thorough analysis of their personality and had also spent subsequent amount of time with this players.
Thus despite their barbaric behaviour, he didn't reprimand any of them. Instead he let out a deep sigh and started to advise them in his gentle tone, "I know you all are frustrated. I know that the game isn't going as per our wishes. But we still have 45 minutes left. So why are you all crying as if we've already lost the game? There's still so much you all can do"
His words filled with warmth and encouragement as it rung in their ears, most of them started feeling apologetic. They felt like they owed an apology to their manager and their teammates whom they've hurt a moment ago because of their pride.
"Although we are making mistakes, we aren't playing badly either. It's just that the opponent that we are facing this time is rather tough. And precisely because they're a tough opponent, we need to become even more united. If we become divided then it'll only become more advantageous to them." While speaking such, manager Kim Seong-Hwang tried to alleviate the mood of his players and raise their morale of the team.
Having coached clubs like FC Seoul and Jeonbul Hyundai Motors previously, he was a renowned figure in Korean football.
As a player although he hadn't attained any impressive feats but as a coach even though he hadn't achieved any international success, he had bagged quite a lot of success domestically.
It was even him who had brought the best out of Park Seung- gyu. Before he took the lead of the club FC Seoul, Park Seung- gyu was just an average player playing in the youth team.
Playing as a midfielder, although he was scoring decent amount of goals, Park Seung-gyu before getting discovered by Kim Seong-Hwang was just a nobody.
Let alone playing in the national team, he wouldn't even had got a professional contract if it weren't for coach Kim Seong-
Hwang. It was also coach Kim Seong-Hwang who had managed to bring out the best of Park Seung-gyu's potential by changing his position from midfielder to striker.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to account Park Seung-gyu's achievement to manager Kim Seong-Hwang. Without him who knows, he may still be a nobody or he might have just taken a lot more time to get to the limelight.
Thus even Park Seung-gyu, he held a lot of respect to manager Kim Seong-Hwang.
While manager of Korean national team was giving a pep talk and uplifting the mood of his players, manager Haruki was doing the same as well.
Although they were winning, he had noticed that his players were getting somewhat arrogant of their lead.
And oftentimes arrogance and overconfidence will only being disasters. Thus to prevent any kind of anomaly from happening, he was trying to remind his players to keep their cool and play the game normally.
"So are you all happy about our lead?" Manager Haruki wearing his usual smile on his face questioned his players.
With bright smile on their faces, most of the players nodded their head without realising the intention behind that question.
But the moment they nodded their head, manager Makoto's expression turned grim as he spoke in a heavy tone, "Hmm... So you all are satisfied with your performance."
Suddenly manager Haruki rose the pitch of his voice as he yelled, "Why are you happy about having one goal lead? We could lose that lead any moment."
Just as he spoke such, the smile on the faces of the players vanished away and their cheerful faces turned grim. Instantly the air around the room became heavy as an eerie silence engulfed the whole room.
We are not even allowed to celebrate our lead? Why is he yelling at us even when we're winning the game?
Different kind of thoughts started to surface within their hearts as they fixated their eyes on manager Haruki who seemed quite furious at this moment.
In comparison to the reaction his teammates were displaying, Hiro however seemed rather calm at this moment. He wasn't a least bit upset by manager Haruki's words.
Infact he was rather joyous with manager Haruki's words. He knew that his teammates were starting to show signs of overconfidence and arrogance. And even if manager Haruki wouldn't have brought this matter up ahead, he would have brought this matter himself.
Upon seeing the tensed up expression of his players, manager Haruki then toned down his voice as he said to his players, "I'm not discouraging you from celebrating your lead. But it's just too soon to celebrate"
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