Twenty Seconds
After consecutive losses to Chelsea and Aston Villa, Southampton's team atmosphere was, unsurprisingly, foul.
Even the players' faces during training looked grim.
It was their first two-game losing streak of the season — and it had come right in the middle of a run of free-flowing, high-scoring wins.
And now, with the squad already sunk in that gloom, the next opponent was Manchester City. The thought only made the players more restless.
Of all times to draw Manchester City…
This is when we need to snap the streak… and it's Manchester City…
Can we even win? Honestly, it looks rough…
The fans were just as cold.
That was the climate. Southampton's recent performances had disappointed, and the fans had drifted. Nobody was confident about beating Manchester City.
Still — the players weren't without hope.
Thud!
"Whoooo! That's a Korean Hulk shot right there!"
There was Oh Jung-hoon, dominating every practice match, and Jung Hyuk, whose blistering speed, elite pressure-escaping ability, and razor-sharp movement put him in a class of his own. Having a monstrous ace and a striker who could score at any moment was a real source of hope for the squad.
That didn't mean anyone was certain of a win against Manchester City. Of course not. Soccer was an eleven-man sport. In the best league on earth, you only won when the whole team played well. And this season's Manchester City was looking like one of the strongest sides in recent memory.
Before the 2013/14 season began, Manchester City had undergone a major overhaul. The biggest change was sacking their previous manager and bringing in Manuel Pellegrini, who had been leading Málaga CF.
Fourteen rounds in, the appointment looked like a success. They had dropped a few unfortunate results, but in most matches they played well and won — and in several of those, they ran up the score and completely overwhelmed their opponents.
Riding that peak form, Manchester City fully expected to beat Southampton as well. Defeat never entered their minds. The gap in transfer fees and name value between the two squads was enormous, and City held the advantage on both counts. Objectively, they were the stronger side.
Even so, City carried a quiet anxiety of their own. They were formidable at home, but on the road they often looked like a different team entirely — flat, disjointed, poor. And the Southampton fixture was an away match. That was the source of the unease.
And now the match between Southampton and Manchester City had begun.
At the same moment, something no one had expected unfolded.
Preeeeep!
The referee's whistle sounded — and the first player to touch the ball on the center spot was Jung Hyuk. He laid it off immediately to Oh Jung-hoon beside him.
Tap — Jung-hoon collected it lightly. From here, the plan was simple: circulate the ball patiently and build the attack the way they had trained.
Except Jung-hoon started doing something strange. Something that had never been rehearsed.
Tap — the moment he had the ball, Jung-hoon surged forward. Startled, Manchester City striker Álvaro Negredo closed him down, but Jung-hoon used his arms well and shrugged off the pressure — a technique he had drilled relentlessly in training. Whoosh! Free of Negredo, he drove on again. A sudden full-throttle burst the instant the match kicked off.
"What the hell? Get tight on him!"
Yaya Touré barked from midfield. Closest to Jung-hoon, Fernandinho charged in — only for Jung-hoon to shift direction with surprising agility and leave him behind as well. Fernandinho was not a player you beat that easily, but the City players' bodies weren't fully warm yet, and they hadn't locked into the match. That was the only reason the dribble worked.
At the same moment, Jung Hyuk felt something about to break open and started running — backup for whatever might come.
That instinct proved right.
Having already beaten Negredo and Fernandinho, Jung-hoon was suddenly face-to-face with Yaya Touré. Standing in front of one of the best defensive midfielders in the world, Jung-hoon didn't flinch. He moved with the same boldness he showed against anyone else.
Whoosh! Swish! Feinting with a dummy step, Jung-hoon suddenly accelerated and tried to burst past on the right. But his opponent was Yaya Touré. Thud! Touré read the move early, dropped his shoulder in first, and braced with his full weight.
"Hhk—!"
Jung-hoon spun away in shock. He had always trusted his physique — but colliding with Touré felt like running into a boulder. The dribble ended there. Jung-hoon didn't force it.
Swish!
He scanned for a teammate — and found Jung Hyuk.
"Hyuk!"
Thump — he released the ball straight to him.
Good work.
Jung Hyuk's eyes lit up. Yaya Touré was a handful even for him — but right now Touré was still stuck to Jung-hoon. That was an opening. Fernandinho, beaten by Jung-hoon, hadn't recovered his position either. In front of Hyuk there were only City's defenders, and the goal wasn't far. In other words, the conditions for a long-range shot were excellent.
And in that instant, a message appeared before his eyes.
S-class talent effect: Movement beyond your current abilities is now possible.
(Time limit: 5 seconds)
With the special effect active, there was no reason to hesitate. City defenders were scrambling toward him, but the shooting lane was already there.
Whoosh — Jung Hyuk swung his leg. Not his right. His left — now fully reliable — cracked through the ball.
The instant it left his instep, he knew. It had caught clean. As long as it didn't fly dead-center, the keeper had no chance.
And then, with a thunderous crack, the ball left his foot, beat Manchester City goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon, and buried itself in the far corner of the net.
A beautiful strike on a perfect trajectory — a goal twenty seconds after kickoff.
At the same moment, a colossal roar exploded through Southampton's home ground, St. Mary's Stadium. Southampton fans screaming themselves hoarse.
"Wooooaaaaaah! Jung Hyuk! You're the best! You're really—! Woo!"
"Oooooooh! A goal right at the start? How many seconds was that?"
"What a beautiful goal! This is insane!"
"Hahahaha! This is why you come to the home ground! Jung Hyuk is completely mental! An absolute crazy monster!"
"Whoa! Incredible! Hyuk was brilliant, but Jung-hoon's random breakthrough threw the whole Man City side into chaos! Hahaha! These kids are lunatics!"
At the same time, Korean soccer fans watching the broadcast reacted every bit as wildly as the crowd in the stadium.
Conceding inside the first minute left the Manchester City players badly shaken. Knowing that, manager Manuel Pellegrini kept shouting, trying to snap their focus back into place.
"Concentrate! The match has only just started! Build it slowly from the beginning!"
But Pellegrini's efforts barely landed. City couldn't settle. They started forcing attacks with rushed passes they never used in training.
Worse still, Southampton had a player completely dominating the midfield today. City were being rattled even more by the man who roamed the center, cutting out balls and pumping life into both attack and defense with calm, secure distribution.
Pellegrini's face hardened as he muttered the name.
"…Jung Hyuk."
Before the Manchester City fixture, Mauricio Pochettino had been stuck in a dilemma.
"What role do I give Jung Hyuk…?"
Hyuk could play central midfielder and defensive midfielder, and now attacking midfielder and winger as well. The question was how to use him most effectively.
In the end, he made the most efficient choice. Hyuk had been outstanding on the wing lately — but without him anchoring the midfield, Southampton's attack and defense both came unglued.
So for the Manchester City match, Pochettino decided to deploy Jung Hyuk as a central midfielder. Victor Wanyama would cover the defensive gaps in Hyuk's game, and Hyuk would be free to shuttle between attack and defense and run the team.
And Jung Hyuk scored twenty seconds after kickoff.
After that, he proceeded to overwhelm Manchester City's expensive midfielders and seize total control of the center of the pitch. It was a performance that surpassed even Pochettino's expectations — astonishing skill, astonishing impact.
And the surprises weren't finished.
"…What?!"
Pochettino's eyes went wide. Jung Hyuk was already starting to play beyond anything he had anticipated once again.