No Concession on the Goal to Break the Record

“I don’t want to lose the title to foreign players. I will break the record without fail.”

In the soccer league where foreign players are actively playing, Kim Do-hun (33, Sungnam Ilwha) is called the “Korean pride.”

It seems that he is not free from such responsibility. He didn’t score any goals at the game against Chun-nam Dragons on October 8 and couldn’t break the record of the most goals in the regular league. He was challenged again that day when Chun-buk Hyundai became tied for first place by the victory with help from Magno’s two goals.

Kim Do-hun and Magno, each of whom has recorded 21 goals-tying the record of the most goals made by Yun Sang-chul, will compete for the new record in Sung-nam stadium on October 12.

It is difficult to tell who the better striker is. Kim never lets a chance go unpassed as he showed at the game against An-yang LG on October 5 when he recorded a hat trick, his second this season. Coelho, the coach of the National team, who had excluded Kim because of his age, finally let him join the National team recognizing his ‘quality as a killer’. The problem is that Kim doesn’t have many chances left if he doesn’t score any goals on October 12. He will go to Oman on October 13 for the second round of the Asian Cup’s second preliminary match.

Meanwhile, Magno has more chances than Kim because he can play a game scheduled on October 15. Magno, who recorded goals at each of the last two games, is confident enough to say, “I regained a good sense of how to score goals, and I’m well prepared.” He had played in Fluminense, a famous team of Brazil until last season and his goal scoring ability allowed him to become the highest-goal scoring player in the Brazilian league in 2001.

Accordingly, Kim should score a goal before Magno does at the game on October 12 in order to maintain ‘Korean pride’. This is the reason why he stakes his life as a soccer player on that game. For the October 10 game, he said, “I will prepare myself with a calm mind.”

Sang-Ho Kim hyangsan@donga.com