The beginning of 2009 was perhaps the happiest time for Jin Hayes. He was successful in love and invincible on the pitch.
In Round 18 of the Bundesliga, Borussia Dortmund had just defeated Bayer Leverkusen 2‑0; in Round 19, Borussia Dortmund played away against Cottbus and swept them 3‑0 as well.
Jin Hayes orchestrated an attack in both the first and second halves.
In the first half, he broke into the penalty area to deliver a lethal pass. Jakub Błaszczykowski's shot was saved by the goalkeeper, but Alexander Frei scored the rebound, breaking his goal drought.
In the second half, it was Jin Hayes again, driving down the flank to the goal line and sending a cut‑back pass. Błaszczykowski was extremely fast, rushing into the box and hitting a low shot against the post; Mario Götze scored the rebound from the other side.
Even though Jin Hayes had no goals or assists, he still received the highest rating of 1 point for the match.
"14 Consecutive Wins! The Youth Storm Intensifies, Sweeping the Bundesliga!"
"After defeating Cottbus 3‑0, Borussia Dortmund has secured 14 consecutive league wins! They are the team with the longest winning streak in Europe's top leagues this season!"
"Manchester United, the Premier League leaders, saw their winning streak interrupted today after being held to a surprise draw by West Ham. Perhaps the pressure from Borussia Dortmund caused the Red Devils to underperform. This season's surprise package has a chance to end Bayern Munich's dominance."
"We look forward to them maintaining this momentum in the Champions League knockout stages—"
Bild had almost become the 'Borussia Dortmund Daily,' praising them constantly over the last two seasons.
It couldn't be helped; even Bayern Munich, considered the 'King' of the Bundesliga, had a very difficult time in the Champions League group stage. Their combat effectiveness was quite worrying.
Werder Bremen was even worse, finishing bottom of their group and being eliminated. Only Borussia Dortmund was in high spirits, repeatedly defeating giants. They had also become the sole hope of German football in the eyes of Bundesliga fans.
On the Kicker Forum, the posts were all encouraging Borussia Dortmund. Among them were fans of Gladbach, Bayer Leverkusen, Mainz, Hertha Berlin, and more.
"Go Bumblebees! Try to help the Bundesliga secure 4 spots."
"Charge! BVB!"
"I have high hopes for BVB; their football is a joy to watch."
"Manchester United has Cristiano Ronaldo, Barça has Messi, Milan has Kaká, and we have Jin!"
In the past two years, as many big‑name stars like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, and Zinedine Zidane faded from the top tier of football, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kaká were recognised as the world's top three.
As for the fourth spot, opinions were divided. Some said Zlatan Ibrahimović, some said Andrés Iniesta, others said Xavi, Wesley Sneijder, Ruud van Nistelrooy, or Robin van Persie—many names failed to convince everyone and could not be compared to the top three stars.
Jin Hayes's sudden emergence was gradually moving him toward that fourth spot in world football. If Kaká hadn't previously won the Ballon d'Or, the Champions League, and league titles, Jin Hayes might actually have had a chance to slightly eclipse him.
Judging by performance in 2008 alone, Kaká really wasn't as dazzling as Jin Hayes. Jin Hayes's Borussia Dortmund had also become one of the most‑watched teams in the Champions League this season.
With three weeks left before the knockout match between Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal, Jürgen Klopp was also directing the team in full preparation. He even used Bundesliga matches as a training ground for the Champions League knockouts.
In Round 20 of the Bundesliga, they faced Stuttgart. Klopp used centre‑back Felipe Santana as a makeshift right‑back while also trying to play İlkay Gündoğan and Nuri Şahin together—a double‑playmaking defensive midfield setup, a dual‑core engine.
According to Klopp's deployment, this should have created powerful dominance. If you stop Şahin, you can't stop Gündoğan; it would always leave the opponent's defensive tactics stretched thin.
If the focus was on the two defensive midfielders, Jin Hayes would be free to roam and frantically seek opportunities in the final third. While the offence was strong, the defence appeared too flimsy. Stuttgart's passing could easily penetrate Dortmund's midfield and go straight for the throat.
"Hitzlsperger's through ball!!! Beautiful!! Neither Şahin nor Gündoğan could touch it!"
"Kalou! Dribbling into the box, a chipped pass to the left!"
"Mario Gómez!!! He's got it!"
"The home side, Stuttgart, opens the scoring!" 1‑0.
Borussia Dortmund found themselves trailing. The fans, of course, were not panicking; Dortmund was actually very strong when playing from behind. They were expecting a Jin Hayes‑style quick counter‑attack and a solo goal. Instead, they were met with bad news.
"2‑0!! Super Mario!"
"But this Mario isn't Götze on the other side, it's Mario Gómez! A headed goal!"
"Stuttgart is in excellent form today! Everything they try is coming off!"
"On the other hand, Borussia Dortmund is relying entirely on Jin Hayes's efforts; the others look like they've forgotten how to play football."
"The dual‑core in midfield hasn't enhanced their attack; instead, it has significantly weakened their defence—"
"Klopp is a very talented coach, but sometimes he likes to have these sudden 'brainwaves.' You never know if he's giving the fans a surprise or a scare."
Mehmet Scholl sharply teased the Dortmund manager, Klopp. Against a powerful top‑5 team like Stuttgart, testing out a new lineup was clearly not ideal. The team currently had an 11‑point lead, but that didn't mean they could stay ahead forever. There are too many variables at the end of the season.
If they didn't grab as many points as possible now, did they plan to do it when the schedule became congested?
They could have won against Stuttgart, but now they were on the verge of throwing the game away. Fortunately, the team was only two goals down; as long as Jin Hayes was on the pitch, there was hope.
"Now we have to see what Jin can do." Scholl had high expectations for Jin Hayes.
On the pitch, however, Jin Hayes was feeling very frustrated. "Why does it have to depend on me every single time? Do I have to carry this hard again?"
If his teammates had only been slightly lax before, then today, the entire Borussia Dortmund team was practically not human. Mats Hummels and Neven Subotić on the back line simply couldn't stop the aerial powerhouse Gómez, and the midfield duo was even more ridiculous; Gündoğan was sleepwalking the entire time, and Şahin had also lost his previous spark.
Götze was substituted after 60 minutes due to exhaustion; at 16, he was the best player on the pitch today. The forward Frei… forget it, Frei had been like this all season. Only the right winger Błaszczykowski could be somewhat relied upon for now; the few threatening attacks Dortmund had were all coordinated between Jin Hayes and him.
"Jakub Błaszczykowski!! A rapid dribble break!!"
"He cuts it back to Jin! Jin breaks into the box—a high‑quality cross!!!"
"Hajnal on the other side!!! He missed an open goal?"
Jin Hayes had already done 95% of the work; all his teammate needed to do was hit the target from in front of the goal to score. Who would have thought Tamás Hajnal would send a point‑blank shot into the stands. Even Jin Hayes could only sigh in despair. "I didn't even take the shot myself, and you went and wasted it?"
If he had known everyone's shooting was going to be this ridiculous, he would have taken the shot himself.
Even the guest commentator Oliver Kahn could see it. "I think, although Jin's shooting is usually a bit eccentric—the simpler the shot, the less likely he is to take it. But now, he needs to shoulder the team himself and become the team's finisher!"
Kahn was also calling for Jin Hayes to take the shots himself.
"Damn it!" At the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart, Jin Hayes suppressed the feeling that his chest was about to explode. This was definitely the toughest match he had played all season.
The facts once again confirmed one thing: football is a team sport of eleven people. A single person's brilliant play can influence the situation and make them a hero, but in most cases, it's very difficult for one person to truly change a team.
Clearly, everyone was off-form in this away game. It wasn't that they weren't trying, but on a professional pitch, any minor gap will be infinitely magnified. The 14-game winning streak, combined with the huge 11-point lead, had given everyone a mindset of 'we'll win even if we just mess around' or 'it doesn't matter if we lose one.'
Under this mindset, an 85% Borussia Dortmund performed significantly worse than their previous 95% state. Even with Jin Hayes exploding at 120% of his form, it was difficult to create a real threat even after dribbling past several players in the final third.
It was finally at the very end of the match, in the 85th minute, that Jin Hayes found a counter-attacking opportunity and sprinted 60 meters with the ball.
"Jin is so fast! He leaves Sami Khedira behind!! A Marseille Turn, and he's past Thomas Hitzlsperger too!"
"He nutmegs two players in a row while being double-teamed!! Jin is in the box!!"
"Jakub Błaszczykowski is making a run on the other side. Will Jin pass—no!! He chooses to go around the goalkeeper!!"
Amidst the commentator's excited roars, Jin Hayes faced the veteran goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. A left-foot elastico fooled Lehmann into diving for the save, but he actually pulled the ball back and turned with a heel flick, accelerating past him to the front of the goal.
Seeing this, the Stuttgart defenders didn't even bother to chase anymore. Watching Jin Hayes reach the goal line, he unleashed a powerful shot into the net as if venting his anger.
"That goal!!! A classic Jin-style solo run!!" Commentator Mehmet Scholl was stunned. He had never seen Jin Hayes play with such explosive tension. Before, he was an elegant dancer on the pitch, a graceful player. Today's Jin Hayes was a beast—relentless and driven.
Perhaps sensing Jin Hayes's anger, the Borussia Dortmund players suddenly woke up, and Jürgen Klopp also timely subbed on the captain, Sebastian Kehl. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time left. Just as Borussia Dortmund found their form in stoppage time, the referee blew the final whistle.
"The 14-game winning streak is over! The 25-game unbeaten run across seasons is also over!!"
"Stuttgart was clearly the better side today! They played their hearts out to defend their home ground."
"However, Borussia Dortmund fans don't need to worry. From the manager's lineup to the players' performances, today was unsatisfactory—"
"Losing might be a good thing; it can serve as a wake-up call for the young players. Otherwise, a youth storm caught up in a winning streak might go off the rails in the most important matches."
"Today, only Jin was still giving his all; his individual breakthroughs remain the Bumblebees' sharpest weapon."
"As Bundesliga teams study him more and more closely, this weapon might gradually be countered by more defensive tactics."
"I hope these boys can learn from this, pull themselves together, and show better competitive form in the future!"
After the match, commentator Scholl spoke at length with much emotion. He really wanted Borussia Dortmund to become better. Winning and losing are normal; they just need to adjust.
"Additionally, today's Borussia Dortmund finally let me see that they are normal humans. Otherwise, I really would have thought these young people were robots. I believe the fans are much more at ease now."
In the away locker room of the Mercedes-Benz Arena, the atmosphere after the loss was low, and the entire Borussia Dortmund team was in silence. Jin Hayes stood alone in the quiet stadium tunnel, reflecting on and reviewing this defeat.
He had previously been satisfied with his technical and physical abilities, believing that as long as these two were invincible, he could run riot on the pitch.
Jin Hayes had overlooked a problem. Given Borussia Dortmund's form in this match, they should have been defeated 3-0 by Stuttgart. That final goal shouldn't have happened at all.
He had relied entirely on his exceptional talents to defy the odds and force a goal, helping Borussia Dortmund save face. He really had pushed himself to the limit. But Jin Hayes wasn't satisfied; he wanted more.
"No matter what I have to sacrifice, can I get a more reliable finishing ability in return?" Inside, he seemed to have a faintly familiar feeling. A certain vibration seemed to start from his legs and spread all over.
Could it be?