Jin Hayes's towering header to score was the final straw that broke Atlético Madrid. They found that no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't stop him. Their defensive tactics couldn't have been any better. Even with two defensive midfielders and multiple teammates double-teaming Jin Hayes, he still managed to easily toy with them and break through.
Under the elegant footwork of back-heeled ball control, a turn, and a nutmeg, Maniche and Paulo Assunção, those defensive midfielders, were like enraged bulls. Jin Hayes was the matador with the red cape. With their mentality shattered, the iron-clad defense naturally cracked. As long as Jin Hayes was given a slight opening, he could endlessly create opportunities, giving Atlético Madrid no chance to breathe.
"Jin!! That touch was divine!!" Mehmet Scholl didn't know how many times he had exclaimed. Every time Jin Hayes handled the ball, he brought a new surprise.
In the 82nd minute of the match, Marcel Schmelzer directly sought Jin Hayes on the left wing. The fast-rolling ball came into the midfield. Maniche no longer dared to be overconfident, using his body to shield Jin Hayes and interfere closely. Even so, Jin Hayes could still handle it. The fast-rolling ball was hooked up by Jin Hayes's left foot, remaining still and stuck between his instep and ankle, causing Maniche's attempt to dispossess to miss completely.
Immediately the next second, Jin Hayes hooked the ball behind him with his left foot, letting it bounce lightly on the grass. From an angle Maniche couldn't see, he suddenly poked the ball to change direction. He unexpectedly pulled to the right, flashing past Maniche's defensive zone. Paulo Assunção, who had followed up, was already a step too late in his tackle; at the same moment he lunged, Jin Hayes had already changed direction a second time in mid-air.
An aerial sombrero—hooking the ball past his opponent—Jin Hayes once again broke out from the double-team. Within one match, Atlético Madrid's two defensive midfielders had been single-handedly torn apart by Jin Hayes countless times.
As John Heitinga frantically rushed out of the box to intercept Jin Hayes, Atlético Madrid's defense was already shattered. Jin Hayes only needed a delicate through ball to the left flank, and the surging Marco Reus had already burst into the penalty area to receive the ball, lifting his foot to shoot.
In a flash of lightning, the Jin Hayes–Reus connection scored again.
"Reus!! That's a goal!! Borussia Dortmund's attacking play breaks through!" "4 to 2!!"
From 1–2 to 4–2, Atlético Madrid, having conceded three consecutive goals, felt like they had fallen into an abyss. The young Sergio Agüero felt despair for the first time. The striker had fought tooth and nail to score a goals, but he couldn't stop the opponent's team from having a player playing like a god. Standing with his hands on his hips on the grass, Agüero watched Jin Hayes and his teammates celebrate, his eyes filled only with confusion.
The match entered injury time, 92 minutes. Atlético Madrid had already substituted Simão for young defensive midfielder Ignacio Camacho, hoping to use a frantically aggressive three-defensive-midfielder setup to limit Jin Hayes. But was it effective?
Jin Hayes executed three consecutive extreme changes of direction. He dipped his shoulder to the left and pushed the ball, then performed a sombrero to get past Maniche. On the right, he back-heeled the ball to change direction and evade Paulo Assunção. Ignacio Camacho rushed to tackle, but Jin Hayes poked the ball through his legs with the tip of his foot—another nutmeg. Seeing him dribble into the penalty area, the young and impetuous Camacho completely lost his temper. A reckless tackle from behind threatened Jin Hayes's ankle.
The referee's shrill whistle blew, pointing decisively to the penalty spot. No matter how much Atlético Madrid's players pleaded, it was useless. The referee even went up to Ignacio Camacho and mercilessly raised his hand to show a red card.
"Oh!! Poor Camacho—he just came on as a substitute five minutes ago and immediately receives a red card! He didn't even get to experience the game before being sent off!" "Borussia Dortmund get a penalty!"
Losing the match and losing face, Atlético Madrid's coach Javier Aguirre was already numb. Without waiting for the match to end, he lowered his head and walked straight back into the players' tunnel. Klopp next to him was stunned. "What a crazy second half—"
Alexander Frei converted the penalty, making it 5–2. Borussia Dortmund secured a big home victory. Half a foot into the Champions League group stage. At that moment, Atlético Madrid's players just wanted to go home. Staying in the Westfalenstadion for even a second was torture.
The four minutes of injury time weren't even fully played out when the referee blew the final whistle.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Beep—
"It's over! This crazy first leg of the qualifier has finally concluded!" "Goals, dribbling displays, comebacks and counter-comebacks, red cards, penalties!" "All the elements of a dramatic match are complete!"
"The man of the match is undoubtedly our young magician Jin Hayes. He is simply the soul of this black-and-yellow youth storm!" "All five goals are greatly related to him!"
Only now did all the German fans and commentator Scholl simultaneously breathe a sigh of relief. The pressure from Atlético Madrid before the match had been immense. The first half had even made people temporarily lose hope of winning. Thankfully, Jin Hayes stepped up. He led the black-and-yellow youth storm to rampage, completely crushing the Mattress Makers.
Due to excessive defensive pressure in the second half, Atlético Madrid had barely managed to organise any decent counter-attacks. Their two strikers could only come back to participate in defence, completely unable to unleash their powerful attacking prowess.
"I've figured out the characteristics of this young Borussia Dortmund team!" Scholl declared.
"Oh? How so?" Oliver Kahn played along.
"Klopp's Borussia Dortmund has offensive blood in its bones. Instead of retreating and waiting to die, it's better to attack. The best defence is offence."
Kahn nodded. From a tactical perspective, Jin Hayes leading the Dortmund players in a fierce attack had indeed suppressed Atlético Madrid. Young people thrive on momentum. No matter who the opponent was—even if Real Madrid or Barcelona had come—this youth storm would still choose to attack wildly.
With Jin Hayes's exquisite technique as the core, they stirred up a storm in the opponent's half. Kahn was increasingly curious to know what kind of waves such a team could stir up in the Champions League group stage. How far would they ultimately go?
"Excuse me, Jin, with such an excellent performance in the first leg of the Champions League qualifiers, can you foresee what kind of results Borussia Dortmund will achieve in the Champions League in the future?"
The excitement of defeating Atlético Madrid made Jin Hayes unable to be humble in the slightest. "Since we've come to the Champions League, just experiencing the group stage won't satisfy us. We will try to win against any opponent."
"Keep winning?"
"Keep winning."
Understood
These German journalists were very satisfied with Jin Hayes's answer. They could already imagine the headlines.
"Young Prodigy Leads Team to Reverse Atlético Madrid, Dortmund Aims for Champions League Title!"
"Jin Hayes: My Goal is the Big-Eared Cup"
"Dortmund to Contend for Title? 16-Year-Old Makes Shocking Post-Match Statement"
After a brief interview, Jin Hayes took off his jersey and draped it over his shoulder, planning to celebrate with his Dortmund teammates by circling the pitch to thank the loyal fans who had come to support them at the Westfalenstadion.
Near the players' tunnel, he ran into that Argentine youth.
"Jin, congratulations."
"Sergio, right?"
"You know me?" Agüero was slightly surprised; Jin Hayes seemed very familiar with him. They had only met for the first time. And before this, Jin Hayes was clearly the hottest rising star in Europe, while Agüero was relatively only slightly famous in La Liga.
"Of course. Want to swap jerseys?" Jin Hayes offered proactively. Previously, he had only swapped jerseys with Philipp Lahm. Jin Hayes still admired Agüero very much. This young man might not reach the heights of Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in the future, but he would at least be among the strong contenders for "the third-best player in the world."
Without himself in the football world, that was probably how the landscape would be. Now that he was in the football world, the prophecy might be rewritten. As for how exactly, Jin Hayes couldn't predict his own future, nor could he draw a conclusion.
In short, Jin Hayes's goal was to surpass the "duo of his generation." One king in the world was enough.
…
"Ole, ole ole ole! We're the champion! We're the champion!"
After the match, the crowd dispersed. After boisterous celebrations and spraying champagne in the dressing room, someone suggested going to a nightclub in Dortmund to celebrate. The result was an overwhelming positive response.
Everyone present was a hot-blooded young man, having just won an important match under immense pressure, and the primal energy within them was uncontrollable. They just needed an opportunity to completely vent it.
Generally speaking, coaches would try to prevent players from going out to party. Today was a special situation, so Klopp simply turned a blind eye. He even wanted to personally lead the team to have fun.
"Today, there are no rules! You deserve to be happy! Of course, after the break, you must immediately adjust your state. If anyone's performance isn't good, I will not be merciful when it comes to benching them."
The Dortmund players automatically ignored the latter half of the sentence. Together, they surged towards the nightclub in a mighty procession. As head coach, Klopp and assistant coach Željko Buvač still had some post-match review and summary work. They needed to organise the match content based on video footage as soon as possible, while the game was still fresh in their minds.
"Huh, why didn't you go with them?" Klopp suddenly noticed Jin Hayes, who had stayed in the dressing room.
"I'm only sixteen."
"Sixteen is fine too. You can't drink hard liquor in nightclubs, but you can drink beer, and you just need to leave before midnight." In Klopp's opinion, it was perfectly normal for someone his age to frequent nightclubs. Many girls who dressed glamorously and seemed mature were actually not very old. Otherwise, Ribéry and Benzema wouldn't have encountered the well-documented scandal around the 2010 World Cup.
It had become a common phenomenon for German high school students to frequent these establishments, especially among athletes. Many youth academy prospects had long been influenced and indulged in the debauchery under the neon lights. In such an environment, young talents who could remain clear-headed and disciplined were few and far between.
"Mainly, I'm not interested in these things."
"That's true. Your only interest is football." Klopp knew that Jin Hayes genuinely loved football. For him, it wasn't work, but a dream, a passion. Jin Hayes was simply every coach's dream player.
"Exactly! My eyes are only on football!" Jin Hayes's righteous demeanour made the coaching staff give him a thumbs up in approval.
Little did they know, just before Jin Hayes almost followed his teammates out, Anna's face had suddenly appeared in his mind. At that moment, Jin Hayes just wanted to go home as soon as possible and share the joy of victory with the Heinrich family.
…
In the Heinrichs' backyard, by the swing under the moonlight. Jin Hayes and Anna sat side by side; it seemed they hadn't sat alone together like this in a long time. Originally, Jin Hayes was sitting there alone, envisioning the new season, but Anna quietly slipped into the backyard and sat silently beside him.
After a moment of silence, Anna's lazy and pleasant voice broke the tranquillity.
"I just saw that the Dortmund players went to a nightclub to party. Why didn't you go?" Anna looked at Jin Hayes with curious, beautiful eyes.
Jin Hayes subconsciously wanted to say: "Because of you—I want to be with you." But the words that came out were: "I'm a bit tired. I wanted to come back and rest early."
"Oh." Anna was clearly a bit disheartened.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"Thank you for your sticker. It really brought good luck."
"It's nothing. I just made it casually." Anna responded blandly, but a faint smile crossed her pretty face as she looked down.
Jin Hayes clearly had many more things he wanted to say to her. He wasn't that kind of dense, straightforward guy either. He remembered chatting quite well with Anna back then; their relationship had progressed very smoothly at one point. But suddenly—
Hiss!!
Only at this moment did Jin Hayes realise a problem. What was the price of his physical enhancement? Could it be this? My ability to flirt!
"Goodnight." To avoid making the situation more awkward, and to avoid saying something too blunt, Jin Hayes quickly said goodbye and left, leaving Anna sitting alone on the swing.
"Hmm—Goodnight, Jin." Watching Jin Hayes hastily flee, Anna sighed softly. The fleeting hint of joy she had felt was once again left hanging. Only when Jin Hayes's figure completely disappeared from sight did Anna abandon her cool and aloof facade, stomping her small feet on the grass.
"Argh! What's wrong with me? Why do I keep thinking about this guy!"
Frank, after a day of work, had been leaning against the back porch, just lighting a cigarette. As soon as he lit it, he saw his sister's frantic behaviour. Coupled with Jin Hayes's hurried dash into his room just now, Frank had already guessed almost everything.
They're really awkward, just like those cheesy manga characters. Should I give them a push?
Frank was already impatient to speed up the plot and watch the grand finale in advance.