Three Assists Against Arsenal
In soccer, an assist means giving a teammate the direct help they need to score a goal.
Of course, recording an assist is no easy feat. The opposition is never standing still — they are doing everything in their power to deny you a clean chance — so the difficulty is baked into the game itself.
Needless to say, the bar rises even higher on the professional stage. And when that stage is the Premier League, widely regarded as the best in the world, it becomes harder still.
And right now, a message floated up before Jung Hyuk's eyes, ordering him to record assists.
A special reward condition has been generated.
Record 3 assists against Arsenal, who have been showing strong defense recently. Success will award 3 Points.
It was a mission with a tempting reward — three Points. Points meant he could raise any stat he wanted on the spot, so of course he wanted them.
But the condition itself — three assists — was no small ask. And the opponent was Arsenal, a side that had been defending well of late. After conceding an unexpected early goal to Oh Jung-hoon, Arsenal had settled into a rock-solid defensive shape. The mission was clearly going to be brutal.
Even so, Jung Hyuk's expression was bright. Interest was written all over his face.
"This is going to be fun."
When something was on the line — when he had a goal he truly wanted to reach — soccer became even more enjoyable for Jung Hyuk. Results mattered, but the process of chasing them was pure pleasure.
So right now, with a light heart, he began to move in the way best suited to breaking the mission.
Ever since he had learned to use both feet freely, Jung Hyuk had been putting in extra sessions as a left winger. The training load had grown, but learning an unfamiliar position had been fun. Adapting to it quickly and producing good football made it even more so.
And today, against Arsenal, he was starting on the left wing. Manager Pochettino had given him a clear assignment.
Jung Hyuk — tear their left side apart.
Destroy Arsenal's flank. Jung Hyuk had nodded without hesitation.
And now, ball at his feet, he charged straight at Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna.
Jung Hyuk, driving with the ball, scanned the space around him.
Their defending is solid.
The moment he tried to beat Sagna, Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey closed in. Hemmed in by two men in an instant, Jung Hyuk did not force a reckless dribble. He turned and laid the ball off to a teammate.
The player who received it was Oh Jung-hoon. Tok! Before the press could arrive, Oh Jung-hoon flicked it on to Adam Lallana.
That was when Jung Hyuk surged forward — so fast Sagna could not stay with him. Lallana sent a long ball into his path. Thump— Jung Hyuk claimed the high ball and, in the same motion, drove deep toward Arsenal's penalty area. There he met Arsenal centre-back Per Mertesacker.
Nearly two metres of giant, Mertesacker radiated pure physical menace. But Jung Hyuk knew his weakness.
Mertesacker is extremely slow.
That lack of pace was his greatest flaw. Still, simply trying to run past him could backfire. Mertesacker compensated for his speed with outstanding positioning and clean tackling.
Even so, Jung Hyuk went at him with bold, unhesitating dribbling, slicing straight into the box. For once, Mertesacker could not get a clean tackle in. Because Jung Hyuk used both feet, the timing was impossible to read — which way he would break, what pattern he would use. Nothing was predictable.
Mertesacker flinched, backpedaling under tension. In front of him, Jung Hyuk was working the ball with dazzling footwork. Whoosh! Whip! Legs flicking this way and that — the kind of movement that could easily be read as a taunt — and still Mertesacker refused to bite.
Then Jung Hyuk dragged the ball toward Mertesacker's left, toward the corner-flag side, using the sole of his right foot. The cautious giant finally moved, stretching a long leg to poke the ball away. But Jung Hyuk nudged it with his left foot — tok—
The ball slipped straight between Mertesacker's legs.
"What the—!"
Startled, Mertesacker spun toward the gap the ball had vanished through. Too late. Someone was already striking it.
It was Oh Jung-hoon — the man who had already scored today, who had brought peak condition into his first match back from injury. Without forcing power, he calmly redirected the ball. Tok—
"Woooooo! This is the Korean Hulk!"
Oh Jung-hoon was all in today, hammering the "Korean Hulk" nickname for all it was worth.
And the moment the goal went in, Korean fans still watching late into the night could not contain their excitement.
Jung Hyuk, who had set up Oh Jung-hoon's goal, wore a satisfied smile of his own.
One down.
He was locked in on the three-assist mission, and he had just banked the first. With the first half still ongoing, two more felt entirely within reach.
Arsenal under Arsène Wenger were strong. They were trailing 2–1 after conceding twice in the first half, but in pure performance they were still looking sharper than Southampton.
Mesut Özil, who had already registered an assist of his own, kept spraying dangerous passes. And there was another player matching him stride for stride: Santi Cazorla.
Arsenal midfielder, good enough to represent Spain — the greatest footballing nation on earth — Cazorla was small in stature but superbly balanced, with fundamentals and technique so refined that the ball almost never left him. Add pinpoint passing, dribbling, and shooting, and he was a locked-in starter. Calling him Arsenal's true ace would not have been a stretch. He was tearing Southampton's midfield open.
He did it again now. Tok! Cazorla met Aaron Ramsey's lay-off with a first-time shot. Thump! It did not find the net — Southampton keeper Artur Boruc got a hand to it.
From the resulting corner, Özil was on the ball. He whipped his left foot through it. Every player rose and contested. The winner of the aerial duel was Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud.
With his physical presence and heading ability, Giroud smashed his forehead into the flight of the ball. Thump! The ball dropped from height, bounced irregularly off the turf, and arrowed toward goal. Boruc could neither read the bounce nor throw himself at it. All he could do was stretch his arms forward and turn his head to track where the ball had gone.
It was a slugfest — goals traded back and forth. For the fans it was pure entertainment. For the managers and players on both sides, it was a match that drained the blood from their veins.
Two players, however, were enjoying every second of it.
"Heh heh! Scoring in a game like this would look so damn cool, right?"
Oh Jung-hoon was living for the chance to be the hero.
"The match is getting fun. But the real stuff starts in the second half."
Jung Hyuk was simply enjoying the football itself.
Peeep!
The first half ended. The second half began.
The second half has begun.
Trait effect activated.
All stats increased by 3.
With his stats boosted by the trait, Jung Hyuk became even more dangerous than he had been in the first half.
Southampton's plan for the day was simple. Adam Lallana would launch long balls into Jung Hyuk. Jung Hyuk would tear down Arsenal's flank, then either shoot himself or create a chance for Oh Jung-hoon.
It was that straightforward — and astonishingly effective. The reason was simple: Jung Hyuk was completely dominating Bacary Sagna. A full-back with solid defensive ability was being beaten again and again.
Thump!
Once more Lallana sent the ball diagonally into the path of the sprinting Jung Hyuk.
"Urgh!"
Sagna gritted his teeth and sprinted toward the drop. He was losing his mind.
How the hell is he that fast?
He knew Jung Hyuk was a threat. Arsène Wenger had drilled it into him endlessly — stop Jung Hyuk no matter what. So Sagna had played far more conservatively than usual for this match. The problem was that he was still getting beaten.
Even now, starting from a better position, he was caught in an instant. The speed was sickening from Sagna's point of view. He lost the aerial duel as well. Aaron Ramsey kept dropping back to help, and still they were carved open.
Tak! Whoosh!
With Sagna and Ramsey in front of him, Jung Hyuk feinted right, herding both of them that way. They had no choice but to follow. Then he spun at speed and burst left.
The cross that followed. Thwump—
A high ball arced into Arsenal's box. Timing his run to Jung Hyuk's delivery, one player arrived inside the area: Oh Jung-hoon.
Taat! Using the momentum of his sprint, Oh Jung-hoon leapt high. He was an athletic monster with serious height — but Mertesacker was taller still, and a centre-back with elite positioning and football intelligence. He had taken the right spot to win the duel.
Tat! Mertesacker rose with him. Thud! In that brief aerial collision, the winner was, shockingly, Oh Jung-hoon. He crashed into Mertesacker with the force of someone trying to break him in half, and the giant was sent sprawling.
Crash!
Mertesacker hit the turf. Oh Jung-hoon met the ball with his forehead. Thwump! Just as Giroud had done in the first half, the header took an irregular bounce and was sucked into Arsenal's net.
"Woooooo! I am— ah, wait, no."
Oh Jung-hoon, about to rip his shirt off again, remembered the yellow card he had already collected and switched celebrations on the spot.
"Uwaaaaah! This! Is! Southampton!"
He swung an imaginary spear like a Spartan warrior.
"Haaah...... Jung-hoon, what are you doing now."
Jung Hyuk let out a long sigh. Something had clearly gone very wrong during rehab.
"Well...... at least that's another assist......"
For now, the result was good enough that he could look on the bright side.
After Jung Hyuk's assist and Oh Jung-hoon's goal made it 3–2, Southampton controlled the second half.
Mesut Özil and Olivier Giroud, both in outstanding form, fought hard but could not find another goal. Southampton's attack, by contrast, was merciless — and left winger Jung Hyuk was the brightest light of all.
Mixing patterns — driving left on either foot to whip in crosses, then suddenly cutting inside onto his right for a shot — he made Bacary Sagna completely unplayable. Jung Hyuk did not merely break Sagna's spirit; he ground it into dust.
In the end Arsène Wenger hauled Sagna off and brought on Thomas Vermaelen, a stronger one-on-one marker. Vermaelen could not handle him either. Right up until the final whistle, Jung Hyuk demolished Arsenal's flank.
The moment the match ended, Wenger lost his temper and kicked a water bottle near the bench.
"Damn it! Why is a player like that at Southampton?!"
When the final whistle blew on Southampton versus Arsenal, the score was 5–2. Southampton were the winners.
Jung Hyuk had not scored, but he had recorded three assists and put in a performance any winger would dream of. Oh Jung-hoon had piled in three goals of his own, delivering a perfect return from injury.
"Well done."
"You were the best today."
"We won because of your solid defending."
The Southampton players praised one another and celebrated the victory. Oh Jung-hoon, the hat-trick hero, collapsed onto the pitch the instant the match ended and finally let the tears he had been holding back pour out.
Southampton fans still inside Emirates Stadium answered with a huge round of applause. The looks they gave the returning Oh Jung-hoon were warmer than ever.
Jung Hyuk walked over, offered a few quiet words of warmth, then turned away. Right now, Oh Jung-hoon needed time alone.
He flinched.
Halfway to the bench, Jung Hyuk stopped. A message had appeared before his eyes.
You have recorded 3 assists against Arsenal, who have been showing strong defense recently.
Reward: 3 Points awarded.
The mission-clear reward had arrived. But that was not why Jung Hyuk had stopped walking.
A new message had appeared.
You delivered a peak performance in an unfamiliar position.
Bonus experience awarded.