A 90-minute unscripted match — if someone wrote a scenario like this, wouldn't they be criticized? FC Shooting Star produced another all-time great performance. The winning mentality instilled by the "special mercenary" Patrice Evra steadied the team and became Director General Park Ji-sung's "masterstroke."
Coupang Play's "Shooting Star" season 2 is a growth football entertainment show in which legend star players who have truly learned to enjoy real football after retirement challenge the K3 League. There are many sports entertainment programs with formats in which retired players reunite to play matches and grow, but "Shooting Star" differs in its authenticity because it competes against professional players and has clear rewards and punishments in the form of promotion and relegation.
In the first season, "Shooting Star" confidently achieved promotion after storming the K4 League, and in the second season it formed a "Legend League" to compete against K3 League teams. Excluding two special matches, the three matches played resulted in 1 draw and 2 losses, with 5 goals scored and 8 conceded — a record that clearly shows that, no matter how legendary the retired players are, the K3 League is not easy.
FC Shooting Star, which recorded one draw followed by two consecutive losses, needed a "masterstroke" to reverse the mood as losses piled up, confidence dropped and the team risked falling into defeatism. Director General Park Ji-sung contacted Patrice Evra, his "soulmate" who had played with him at Manchester United. Evra, who had shown his loyalty by staying with Park through his mother's funeral up to the burial, gladly accepted the invitation and set foot in Korea.
Evra's arrival was truly a "masterstroke." His reputation as a "world-class" defender injected confidence into the team, and his winning mentality lifted a team that had nearly collapsed. In episode 6, "One Chance," released on the 3rd, FC Shooting Star, facing Chuncheon Citizen FC, conceded three goals in the first 21 minutes and nearly saw the game fall apart.
At that moment Evra told the players, "We can create the opportunity. If we score just one goal, we can start again from there. Don't think about scoring three goals; with that one chance we can restart. Once we score one goal, we can come back and the other team will be taken aback." Even Koo Ja-chul, who hardened his bones through the Bundesliga and K League, was moved by Evra's winning mentality, and the squad regrouped to score two goals and finish the first half down 2-3.
At the start of the second half FC Shooting Star almost saw the mood sink after conceding another goal, but the winning mentality kicked in and the players awakened. As a result, with multi-goals from Kim Seong-hwan and Lee Seung-hyun, a match that had been 0-3 almost turned into a 5-5 draw, showing remarkable resilience. They even nearly snatched victory after relentlessly pursuing the chase to the end. It was performance consistent with the qualities of a strong team: losing games they could draw and winning games they could draw.
In modern football a single player cannot overturn a match alone. That is why coming together as a team is important, and Evra became that catalyst, making Director General Park Ji-sung's choice a "masterstroke."
This overlaps with a drama that turned crisis into opportunity and achieved success. The tvN weekend drama "Bon Appetit, Your Majesty," which ended on the 28th of last month, faced the crisis of Park Sung-hoon's departure, but Lee Chae-min, newly cast, delivered a performance that was called a "masterstroke." As a result, it produced a peak rating of 17.1% (Nielsen Korea nationwide) and became a drama that will remain memorable in 2025. If Lee Chae-min was the "masterstroke" of "Bon Appetit, Your Majesty," then wasn't Evra the "masterstroke" of "Shooting Star"? Director General Park Ji-sung's pick worked, succeeding in moving people with a lasting 5-5 scoreline and performance.
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