After scoring the opener, Ho-young ran toward the corner.
Then he leapt.
"Siuuu!"
A celebration that expressed, with his whole body, his strong determination to show everything today.
Then his teammates came running after him and welcomed him.
"Young, I knew you'd do it."
"You're seriously out of your mind."
It was Arbeloa and Ramos, who had run all the way from deep in defense.
["As expected, the Real Madrid players are the first to come over. The others are also joining one by one to celebrate the goal."]
["Of course. Ho-young is delivering for Spain. For them, it's like gaining an incredible weapon. They should be on the ground bowing to him."]
That was true.
Cazorla in particular, the player who had passed to Ho-young, followed him with an emotional expression as he watched his back.
"To think that would turn into a goal in one move..."
All he had done was win the ball and play a simple forward pass.
In truth, it had not been a threatening pass at all.
But Ho-young turned it into a dangerous chance and then into a goal.
It was only natural to feel a sense of admiration.
But that did not apply to every player.
The Barcelona players, including Gerard Piqué, Fàbregas, and Pedro, huddled together and ignored Ho-young's goal.
"Annoying. To get that excited over just one goal."
Anger.
And it was not directed only at Ho-young.
As the clique issue intensified, tension started to spread across the pitch.
That was because not only the Real Madrid players, but the others too, were gradually starting to follow Ho-young.
Fàbregas, who had been the team's rising ace after Xavi Hernández, was beginning to feel a growing sense of crisis.
'This can't continue.'
Control inside the Spain national team was slipping away.
And on top of that, Del Bosque was openly backing Ho-young.
In other words, it was only a matter of time before he lost the ace role.
That was what frightened Fàbregas.
As the team's ace, it was a very serious matter for him.
He was even starting to worry that he might end up like Robinho.
He even began to think about interfering with Ho-young's play.
For Fàbregas, who was normally known for his excellent professionalism, it was something truly unimaginable.
'No. I can't do that. This is an actual match.'
He was not a coward.
If anything, he was usually the kind of player who set an example for his teammates.
'Focus on the match. This isn't the time for this.'
He kept trying to steel himself like that, but it was not easy.
And in the end.
"Pedro, drop a little from the left and receive the ball. I'll put the weight of the play on you from now on."
His intent was to take control back from Ho-young.
That was when it started.
The match began to flow strangely.
["Spain are changing their attacking route. The flow of the ball is shifting from the center to the left."]
Pedro, who should have been creating havoc on the left and opening the central lane, shifted his position slightly, and the dynamic began to change.
["Are they trying to target the Netherlands' tactic from the opposite angle? To me, it looked better before the change."]
["I'm not sure what's going on, but we'll have to watch a little longer to find out."]
The attempt itself was not bad.
But there was one thing Fàbregas had overlooked.
["Ho-young and Pedro's movement paths are overlapping."]
["That's right. If this continues, Ho-young won't be able to fully show what he can do. They need to make an adjustment quickly."]
The Netherlands did not miss that gap.
Van der Vaart and Sneijder shifted to the right, luring Spain's attack toward the left.
A trap.
The empty space created in the center was then filled by the full-backs pushing up on both sides.
And as time passed, the effect gradually began to show.
Spain's trademark central attacks were no longer working properly.
At the same time, the Netherlands launched a surprise tactic by sending through balls into the space behind Arbeloa on the right.
Their intent was to attack the right while Spain focused heavily on the center and left.
That plan paid off around the 18th minute of the first half.
["Sneijder threads it deep into the right channel!"]
["Van Persie is onto it!"]
A killer pass aimed viciously at the space behind Arbeloa.
Van Persie, who had been up front, suddenly changed direction and burst into the right side.
And the moment he took control of the ball.
Tap!
["Ah, he cuts inside straight away!!"]
Van Persie got into the box with an astonishing first touch.
He immediately set himself to shoot with his left foot.
It was not an ideal shooting chance, but with his left foot, getting a shot on target was no problem.
Even Casillas tensed up.
But then.
"Ugh!"
["Gerard Piqué with the sliding tackle! It was too deep!"]
Piqué's foot, as he rushed in desperately, struck van Persie in the knee.
He had originally gone for the ball, but the timing was off, and that was the result.
The outcome was obvious.
Tweet!
["The referee shows Gerard Piqué a red card. He is sent off."]
["The correct decision. No one would say it was intentional, but it was clearly dangerous. And since it happened inside the penalty area, there's no doubt about it."]
With Piqué sent off, things began to head in a strange direction.
Van Persie went off injured, but that was not the end of the problem.
["Arjen Robben comes on in place of van Persie."]
An opponent just as dangerous as van Persie.
The Netherlands' ace Arjen Robben had entered the match.
To make matters worse, Huntelaar converted the penalty and brought the match level.
["From here on, Spain can no longer be said to have the clear advantage. No matter how good Ho-young is, this is now 10 against 11."]
["Exactly. Now the Netherlands have their chance too. Ho-young still makes things difficult, of course, but this is definitely a game they can contest. And Spain's chemistry is a mess right now."]
That was true.
In a match between professionals, the absence of even one player was enormous.
The Dutch players also began to feel hope one by one.
But there was one thing they were overlooking.
Ho-young's existence.
They did not know that he had dominated even in 7-v-11 training matches.
For him, being one man down was hardly anything at all.
Sure enough.
'This is getting interesting.'
Ho-young looked even more confident, as though this suited him just fine.
Even the corner of his mouth twitched upward.
'I should thank Piqué. This is an even better opportunity.'
There was one thing Ho-young had learned keenly from playing football all this time.
Opportunity comes from crisis.
'I'll deal with Pedro first.'
Pedro busied himself trying to get on the ball, but once Ho-young really started moving, the situation began to change.
With Ho-young making sharp runs, their movement no longer overlapped, and soon the ball was naturally being concentrated on Ho-young.
Ho-young's sharp movement swallowed Pedro's presence whole.
And that was not all.
Every time Ho-young got the ball, he produced extraordinary play and created chances by himself.
This may have been an international friendly, but no one was taking it easy.
The Netherlands, feeling they could not let this continue, switched to a 5-4-1 and took a more defensive stance, but the disadvantage remained.
["Juan Mata's pass, Ho-young receives it."]
["Van der Vaart and Huntelaar are closing him down!"]
Van der Vaart, once Ho-young's teammate, came at him with a desperate look on his face.
'Please, just stop him once!'
That was his silent plea as he went in for the tackle, but it was useless.
["Wow!"]
["Ho-young pulls off a rainbow flick!"]
Having received the ball at the halfway line, Ho-young drove forward at speed and then struck a right-footed shot.
That was all.
Whoosh!
["Goooooal! A shot from 40 meters goes in! Once again, it's Ho-young!"]
["Magnificent. The spin was perfect. At this point, you could say his long-range shooting is the best in history."]
2-1.
Just before the end of the first half, Ho-young scored again.
The Netherlands were only still in it because they had the extra man. Otherwise, they would easily have conceded at least two more already.
At the sight of that, Fàbregas shook his head repeatedly.
'My God.'
The same Ho-young he had seen at Manchester City was showing up here too.
And only now was he beginning to realize it.
'This is insane...'
Playing on the same team as Ho-young.
Only now was he beginning to understand just how extraordinary that was.
If you played with Ho-young, you did not lose control. You could become an even better player.
And so Fàbregas's feelings naturally began to turn into awe.
Of course, that did not mean he suddenly developed good feelings toward Ho-young.
But after the first half ended, one sentence in the dressing room changed Fàbregas's mind.
It was a single line from Ho-young.
"Cesc, we're footballers. We should play football, not just compete."
A direct shot aimed at Fàbregas.
Already shaken, Fàbregas felt as though he had just been hit in the back of the head.
Only now was he starting to realize what he had been missing.
From that point on, Spain began to change.
Their chemistry gradually improved, and the understanding between the players got better and better.
At the center of all of it stood Ho-young.
And before long, the Dutch goal shook again.
Whoosh!
["Gooooal! A hat-trick!! Ho-young scores his third!!"]
["A hat-trick on his debut, of course, that's Ho-young for you."]
It was a goal scored from Fàbregas's through pass through the middle.
The score was suddenly 3-1.
"Hoo!"
After completing a hat-trick in his international debut, Ho-young finished his celebration quickly and carried the ball back to the halfway line.
Because there was still a lot he had not shown yet.
And then around the 70th minute of the second half.
["A killer pass into the right channel! Fàbregas slips it through again!"]
The pass was aimed at Ho-young.
And in front of him stood the Netherlands' right-back Wilfred Bouma, but he was treated like nothing more than a dummy.
["Ah, it's a flip-flap!"]
["And then a phantom dribble!!"]
Ho-young shifted the ball from right to left in an instant, then drove along the edge of the penalty area and unleashed a powerful left-footed shot.
It was Arjen Robben's greatest trademark move, commonly called the macro.
The reason he suddenly used it was simple.
To covet the talent.
Whoosh!
["Gooooooal! Ho-young scores again!! A devastating long-range strike!"]
"Hoo!"
Scoring with Arjen Robben's signature move.
The result of pulling it off was perfect.
[Arjen No-Robben (T)]
Robben's instincts and experience.
That alone was satisfying, but that was not all.
[Thick-as-Thieves (T)]
Fàbregas's instincts and experience.
It was the reward for achieving 'score twice from Fàbregas's killer passes.'
And near the end of the match.
The Netherlands scored two goals with their numerical advantage, but the result never changed in the end.
Tweet!
The final score was 5-3.
A result more than enough to send the Spanish people into a frenzy.
But after the match, something even more surprising happened.
It was the interview with Ho-young and Cesc Fàbregas.
(To be continued.)