vs Manchester City (2)
Even after the corner kick, as play resumed, Baek Yujin kept relentlessly manufacturing one-on-one situations against Linebri Kjell.
Once more, Baek Yujin dribbled without a second's hesitation.
With each soft touch of the ball, a flicker of fear crossed Kjell's face.
That's already the sixth time. Is this because of their pre-match exchange? Baek Yujin is hunting Kjell and Kjell alone.
Looks like Kjell's mental game is already gone, doesn't it?
A clean step-over. Kjell scrambled to catch up a beat too late, and as Simon broke the line on a penetrating run, Yujin fired a no-look pass that threaded between the defenders and created a one-on-one chance.
While Wright cleanly collected the ball and restarted the build-up with Hong Seoin, Baek Yujin walked over to Kjell, one hand fully open and the other showing only a thumb — six fingers.
Baek Yujin flashes six fingers at Kjell as he walks past. That settles it! He's deliberately targeting Kjell and no one else.
Exactly. Kjell looks like he's living through hell out there — he can't do a thing! This matchup between Baek Yujin and Kjell… can Kjell turn it around? We'll have to wait and see!
Six to two.
That was my record against Linebri Kjell — times I'd dribbled past him versus times he'd stripped the ball off me.
I'd been zeroing in on Kjell and Kjell alone from the start. It was a classic tactic: when a team identifies one opposing player as a weak link, you hammer that spot until it cracks. Usually you deploy it against someone called up suddenly from the reserves, or a player filling an unfamiliar position because of injury. Using it on a relative veteran like Kjell had a simpler reason.
His mentality is soft.
The trash talk before the match had already rattled him, and every time I beat him on the dribble and held up fingers in his face, the damage compounded. By now he was completely shredded — and the first half wasn't even over.
I'd told him he couldn't replace Rodri, but Kjell was currently filling an irreplaceable role inside Manchester City. They wouldn't sub him off. He'd keep playing no matter what.
I didn't originally plan to go this hard.
Even if I was angry about him injuring Seong Yumin, that belonged to my previous life. It had never happened in this one. There was no real reason to be this worked up — but somewhere along the way, that earlier trash talk must have gotten under my skin more than I'd realized.
"Padric!"
Receiving the ball out on the wing, I didn't switch play. I drove forward again and locked into another one-on-one with Kjell.
Beating a bigger man like him wasn't easy. Even when I burst into space, he tracked me; he held his distance and closed the moment I crossed the line. But the fact that he closed so eagerly meant he was easy to bait — and with his head already spinning, even more so.
I dragged the ball in a fake so obvious it might as well have been labeled, then shaped my body for a pass. Kjell bit instantly. As he stepped in, I slipped the ball between his opening legs, glided out the other side, and fed it down the flank.
The second Padric took the touch, he whipped in a first-time cross. Simon attacked the box and got a header on it, but the ball stayed out.
Fortieth minute of the first half.
Something completely unexpected unfolded from Arsenal's defensive third.
Manchester City's cross! The taker is Dove! Bodies flooding the six-yard box. Dove's always had a superb delivery, hasn't he?
Yes — a high-work-rate hard worker who can also strike a dead ball. If Arsenal have Padric, City have Dove.
Manchester City corner. Dove put it in without hesitation.
The delivery was so precise that Ness only needed to redirect it — but Adrian punched it clear, and the ball dropped just outside the box. It bounced once. Hong Seoin lunged to clear —
Whump—!
Linebri Kjell, arriving from deeper, exploded onto it and struck a half-volley with vicious reverse spin. The shot screamed through the air like a torpedo. Adrian never even moved. The net bulged.
Kjell roared his celebration at the corner flag, and Manchester City took the lead against Arsenal.
Kjell found a pocket of space outside the Arsenal players' sightlines, didn't he?
A truly spectacular wonder goal. Even the Arsenal away fans look stunned.
After Kjell's goal, Arsenal kept pushing.
Simon's shooooooot!! Ness with the block!! The keeper gathers!
Hong Seoin with a sudden curling strike!! Ahhh — saved again!
Arsenal pressed hard, but they couldn't manufacture a goal. The first half ended.
After halftime, the second half began. Manchester City and Arsenal returned to the pitch without any significant tactical changes. Both sides had judged that the problem wasn't the system — and they were right.
Manchester City sat deep and counterattacked with composure. Arsenal kept shaking Kjell's confidence and generating attack after attack. The only reason the score sat at a single goal was that neither side had been clinical enough in front of goal.
The Manchester City players circulated the ball patiently, probing for an opening.
A clean sequence of passes found Linebri Kjell. Before the press could close, he ripped a long ball out to the wing.
Hong Seoin received it, spotted Baek Yujin, and played the pass. Expecting a dribble, Kjell closed immediately — but this time Yujin didn't take a touch. He returned it first-time.
As Kjell stepped up, Simon drifted into the vacated space, and the ball flowed into it. While the City players held their shape, Kjell sprinted back into position.
"Davis!!"
Davis tore down the flank and whipped in a cross. It went up before Kjell could fully recover, glancing just off Simon's head and drifting behind.
Ahh — so close. If that had caught more of his head, it was a goal.
The crossing angle was tight. City's defending was excellent.
Goal kick for Manchester City. Play restarts.
The goal kick found Ness, who laid it off to the dropping Kjell. Standard City build-up. Dove drifted into the pattern, and their positional play carried them past Arsenal's press all the way to the halfway line without losing the ball.
Isaac looked for a breakthrough, found no angle, and reverse-dribbled to drag a defender out of shape — but Padric refused the bait and held his ground. Forced to play it to Dove instead —
Baek Yujin appeared from nowhere and stole the ball clean.
Out of nowhere — Baek Yujin's interception! Arsenal counter on!
Yujin drives forward! Linebri Kjell steps across to cut him off! How many times have these two gone at it now!!
Linebri Kjell planted himself in front of Baek Yujin, buying time — time for his teammates to recover their shape.
Yujin had no interest in waiting. He dribbled at a sharp tempo. Few stepovers, little body feinting — just a measured, purposeful drive. When a slightly long touch invited Kjell to stick a leg out, Yujin dragged the ball back, spun through a Marseille turn, and slipped past him with ease.
Before entering the box, he found Padric surging into the half-space.
Padric sold Ness with a dummy run, then cut the ball back to Yujin. The pass arrived perfectly weighted for the speed of his run. Unlike the barren first half, Baek Yujin guided it cleanly into the far corner of the net.
A dazzling dribble, then a goal.
After the pre-match trash talk and a first half without a finish, the equalizer lit something in him. Baek Yujin sprinted straight for the corner flag.
"Yujin!"
"Hey— hey!"
"Wrong way!"
Too fired up to hear a word of it, he charged in and celebrated.
"Boooooo!!"
"Get out!!"
"You trying to wind us up?!!!"
"…"
The problem was that this corner belonged to the Manchester City fans — not Arsenal's.
"Uh…"
A stunned Baek Yujin blinked for a moment, then immediately bowed his head, wiped the smile off his face, and jogged back to his position.
Everyone except him would assume he'd done it on purpose.
…So he really is unhinged. That explains everything.
Watching from a distance, Linebri Kjell made a decision that day: he would never pick a fight with Baek Yujin again.
You don't mess with a madman. That much was common sense.