Coach Na-na

Kim Na-na kept speaking, trying to explain why she believed they could win. But her voice was drowned by the voice of everyone else in the room. Nobody at this point was paying any attention to her, she gave up on speaking and stared hopelessly at everyone. 

"I think we should hear her out first," Sung-Min said as he stood up to his feet. The chattering continued until the captain, Song Chi Woo spoke, "Sung Min is right, let us all hear her out first." 

Slowly, the noise died down and Kim Na-na began speaking once again;

"I believe in the abilities of everyone in this room, and I believe we can actually achieve what I just said."

"Okay.. how? A voice asked. 

"First, we will change our playing style and tactics." 

"Oh really?.. what style and tactics do you suggest we use?"

"Perfect question." She walked up to the white board a drew a representation of a football formation on it. 

"We will be using the 4-3-2 formation."

"4-3-2, that sums up to 9, did the coach forget there should be 10 on field players?" A voice replied mockingly 

Kim Na-na paused for some seconds to collect her thoughts, then she continued;

"I purposely left one player out, we will get to that with time. First, our defence will stay the same. Then we will use two defensive midfielders, this will help reduce the number of goals we concede." 

"If you are playing two defensive midfielders, while playing just three midfielders. That means that one person will play both the attacking and center midfield, no one in this team can do that sort of hard work. Coach." A voice replied

"The remaining midfielder will only play the center midfield position, he won't be attacking." 

"Isn't that stupid? Who is going to feed the forwarders if there is no attacking midfielder?" 

"The attacking midfield won't be left open during the attack, Lee Sung Min will fill that role and also play as our right winger."

"Are you dumb? How is that going to work?" 

"I want Lee Sung Min to have more space to operate, playing in the right wing as a right footer puts him at a disadvantage due to the fact that he can't take shots with his stronger foot. Only left footers play at the right wing and he uses his right. But if he has space in the midfield, it will be easier for him to create openings for himself and score with his stronger foot." 

"What happens to the striker when Lee Sung Min drives in through the center?" Horata asked.

"The striker will move to the right wing, to create more space for Sung Min." 

"So you want me to play as a winger?" 

"No, I only want you there whenever Sung Min wants to drive in through the center." 

"What I understand from this is that you are trying to build our attack on Lee Sung Min, just because he performed well in one match." 

Kim Na-na paused, takes in a deep breath, and then continues, "You might not like it, but that is what we will be playing."

"Someone get this kid out of here, go play with make up or something." Horata walks to her in anger while staring deep into her eyes, "You do not belong here!" 

Kim Na-na holds his eye contact as she said, "that is what we will be playing, and if you don't like it, I will put you on the bench."

 "Okay, calm your horses." Tae Hyun said, "no one is getting put on the bench, we already lost five straight games with a match coming up next tomorrow, thus is not the time to fight." 

So Chi Woo got up to his feet, "Thank you Kim Na-na for the for that wonderful formation, but like Tae Hyun said, we have a match next tomorrow, lost 5 already. This is not the time to gamble on new ideas, we will play using our usual formation. Now let's get back to practice." 

"But.."

"No one wants to hear another word from you, girl" Horata snapped in, cutting her sentence short. Kim Na-na barely spoke q complete sentence for the rest of the day, when she got home, she walked straight to her room. Closed the doors, and started to cry. 

"I'm coming in," Kim Na-na's mother, Kim Su Ki said after knocking on the door a few times. She then opened the door and walked in.

Kim Na-na was lying down on the bed with a blanket covering her whole body and her face turned to the bed. 

"How was your day? Baby" Su Ki asked. 

"I don't think I can become a coach mum." Na-na replied. 

"Why? That has always been your dream."

"No one wants to listen to me mum." 

Su Ki gently caressed her back, "did you really think it was going to be easy? It's only worth it because it is hard." 

Kim Na-na raised up her head to look at her mum, her eyes was blood shot, face red and tears still streaming down her cheeks, "How do I get them to listen to me mum? I don't want to give up."

"Baby, respect is earned not given, if you want them to listen to you, then you have to give them a reason why." 

"How do I do that?" 

"You have to figure that out yourself baby, but always remember that the only reason you took over from your dad, is because there is someone out there that believes in you. Never let that person down."

The rest of the night and the day after, Kim Na-na spent most of it going over the tactics and doing an extensive research on the opponents. 

 Saturday afternoon, she walked down the stairs of her room wearing an all black blazer. While holding a pen and jotter.

Her mother gasped, beaming with joy as she saw her walk down those stairs.

"My baby is finally going to manage her first game as a coach!"

Her father on the other hand frowned, "hmph.. the university is waiting for you."

The mother slaps her father hard on the back, "support your daughter!" She ordered with a pout. 

"Come back before dinner!"

 Kim Na-na got to the stadium first before everyone in the team arrived and helped to set up for the game, it was an away game against the mid table club Daisuke. 

 "First, I want to apologise for how things ended last time." Kim Na-na said after she got the team's attention in the dressing room.

"Right now all I ask is that you give me your trust, we will play with my tactics, and if we lose I will quit."

Silence had a choke hold on the room for some seconds, then, Tae Hyun got up to his feet. 

"I think we have been a little too harsh on this lady, and I want to apologise for the rude behaviour. I also want you to know that, I, Tae Hyun, will stand behind you."

Sung Min got up next, "I only want to say that it is unfair to write a person off without first, seeing what they can do." 

The captain got up next, "yesterday the coach called me, and we spent a lot of time discussing about the team's defence and how it could improve. And I tell you, she has really good ideas. Let us all support her." 

"She called me too," the left winger, Min Ho said as he got up. "We spoke a lot about what my roles would be and I like them, I want to give her a chance." 

After he finished speaking, another person stood up, then another till almost everyone in the room standing. All talking about their phone call with Kim Na-na and how they would love to support her.

'How many hours did she spend on the phone?' Sung Min thought while watching everyone in the room stand up, everyone except Horata. 

With a frown on his face, Horata began speaking, "she didn't call my phone," He stood up and started walking towards Kim Na-na, "she came to my house with gifts, and apologised. And now my daughter loves her." He reached out his hand for a handshake and Kim Na-na shook his hand. 

"Let's win this together."