John McGinn was one of the smartest players on the pitch.
For the first forty minutes, McGinn had been mentally mapping Sheffield United's defensive structure.
He noticed that Chris Wilder's backline was severely overly-centralized.
All three center-backs were permanently glued to Tammy Abraham, terrified of the striker's aerial threat.
But because Sheffield's wing-backs loved to bomb forward to join the attack, massive pockets of space were being left completely exposed on the flanks.
So, when Theodore's line-breaking pass found McGinn out wide on the right, the Scottish international looked up and saw absolutely miles of green grass in front of him.
McGinn didn't hesitate. He dropped his head and drove furiously toward the penalty area.
Panic rippled through the Sheffield defense.
Their left center-back, Jack O'Connell, desperately rushed out of the central block, attempting to close the angle and halt McGinn's advance.
But O'Connell severely underestimated who he was dealing with.
McGinn didn't try to finesse his way past the defender. He transformed into an absolute battering ram.
Dropping his shoulder, McGinn braced for impact and took the physical challenge head-on.
O'Connell bounced off him like a ragdoll.
The robust Aston Villa midfielder violently shrugged the center-back off and charged into the box.
With the angle finally open, McGinn unleashed an absolute thunderbolt with his left foot.
BOOM!
The shot was terrifyingly powerful. Dean Henderson threw himself across the goalmouth, his gloves managing to bat the ball away.
But the sheer velocity of the strike was too much for the keeper to hold.
He parried it straight back into the meat of the penalty area.
Coincidentally, the rebound fell directly into the path of Tammy Abraham.
Faced with a golden, point-blank opportunity, the striker didn't choke.
He calmly opened his hips and struck a beautiful controlled right-footed volley before the scrambling defenders could even react.
Smack.
The ball rippled the back of the net!
Dean Henderson lay spread-eagled on the grass, utterly helpless.
2-1!
"In the dying moments of the first half, Aston Villa turns it completely around!" Zhan Jun roared from the Dongqiu broadcast studio.
"Tammy Abraham bags his 20th goal of the season, putting him second in the Championship golden boot race!"
Villa Park absolutely exploded.
Tens of thousands of home fans threw their arms into the freezing air, the stadium violently shaking as a deafening chant of Abraham's name echoed through the stands.
The 2-1 scoreline held for the remaining three minutes of stoppage time.
When the referee finally blew his whistle for halftime, the home side jogged down the tunnel with all the momentum.
During the fifteen-minute break, the Chinese sports site Dongqiu rapidly published their halftime report.
It immediately went viral.
Aston Villa Lead Sheffield United 2-1 at Halftime!
17-Year-Old Chinese-Descent Prodigy Theodore Bjorn Shines!
Halftime Stats: 4 Tackles | 5/5 Duels Won | 88% Pass Accuracy | 2 Pre-Assists.
[Video Clip: Theodore Bjorn's Duel Highlights! Defensive Prowess on Full Display!]
The comment section turn into a warzone of hype.
@RedDragonFC: "I can't believe this kid is one of ours! His physicality is absolutely explosive! He's throwing grown English men around like they weigh nothing!"
@TacticsNerd: "The Championship is the biggest meat grinder in Europe, and a 17-year-old is treating it like a playground. He feels zero pressure."
@VillaFanAsia: "I thought he was an attacking mid?! I never expected his defense to be this violently good. He's single-handedly shutting down Sheffield's counter-attacks."
@EPLWatcher: "Twenty years of watching English football telling me right now: this kid could start for a relegation-battling Premier League team tomorrow."
...
Aston Villa Home Locker Room.
Despite the roaring comeback, the atmosphere in the locker room wasn't entirely celebratory.
Dean Smith stood in front of the tactical board, looking visibly frustrated.
After forty-five minutes of intense observation, Smith had diagnosed the exact reason their offense looked so toothless for the first half-hour.
The issue was Theodore.
Yes, the kid had played out of his mind defensively, racking up crucial tackles and completely neutralizing Sheffield's transition game.
But because Theodore had dropped so deep to play as a defensive pivot alongside Jedinak, Villa had entirely lost their creative engine in the final third.
They were sacrificing his elite, 99-rated passing vision just to win the ball back.
It was a waste of a weapon.
"Listen up!" Dean Smith barked, silencing the room.
He pointed his marker dead at Theodore.
"Bjorn! What the hell are you doing playing like a center-back?"
Theodore blinked, wiping sweat from his forehead with a towel.
"When we go back out there, you are moving back up the pitch!" Smith ordered, aggressively drawing an arrow on the whiteboard, pushing the #33 magnet straight up into the number 10 role.
"Do not get sucked into our defensive third! Let Jedinak handle the dirty work in the back. I need you orchestrating the attack. Use your vision. Break their damn lines and help us kill this game off. Understood?"
Theodore nodded, his eyes hardening. "Don't worry, Coach. Leave the final third to me."
...
Fifteen minutes later, the whistle blew to restart the war.
Dean Smith's tactical adjustment was immediately apparent.
Just three minutes into the half, Theodore found himself receiving the ball high up in the attacking third.
Instead of instantly looking for a long pass, Theodore decided to test his defender.
He dropped his shoulder and aggressively dribbled forward, instantly drawing the panicked attention of Enda Stevens and John Fleck.
As the two Sheffield players furiously collapsed on him, Theodore saw the gap.
He slipped a rapid, ground-level through-ball straight through the center, trying to perfectly thread the needle to McGinn in the penalty area.
But he miscalculated.
While his long-pass was a god-tier 99, his through-ball attribute was only 68.
The pass was slightly under-hit.
Sheffield's veteran midfielder, Mark Duffy, who had wisely dropped deep into his own box, stretched out a leg and successfully intercepted the pass.
"Ah, poor weight on the pass," Zhang Lu noted on the broadcast. "He overestimated the window."
Duffy took a touch, looked up, and prepared to launch a devastating long ball to spark a Sheffield counter-attack.
But before Duffy's foot could even connect with the ball, a shadow violently eclipsed him.
Furious at his own mistake, Theodore had instantly triggered a hyper-aggressive counter-press.
Relying on his elite physicality, the teenager launched himself into a perfectly timed sliding challenge, cleanly sweeping the ball right off the veteran's toes before the counter could even begin.
"And he instantly redeems himself!" Zhan Jun shouted. "If Duffy gets that ball out, Aston Villa is in massive trouble! But Theodore Bjorn's work rate is relentless! He makes the mistake, and he fixes it himself within three seconds!"
Five minutes later, the ball found its way back to Theodore's feet in almost the exact same position on the edge of the penalty box.
This time, Fleck and Norwood aggressively stepped up to mark him, desperate to block any central passes.
Theodore glanced into the box.
Abraham was the only Villa shirt in a sea of red and white. If he forced a pass centrally, it was guaranteed to be cleared by the towering center-backs.
So, he didn't force it.
Using Xabi Alonso's elite football vision, Theodore completely shifted the point of attack.
He whipped a sharp, pinging pass all the way out to the left flank, finding Anwar El Ghazi hugging the touchline.
It was a brilliantly smart choice.
By utilizing the maximum width of the pitch, Theodore forced Sheffield's compact penalty-box defense to physically stretch outward to cover the threat.
The moment El Ghazi received the ball, the Sheffield right-back and right center-back panicked and shifted aggressively toward the flank to close him down.
A massive, glaring hole opened up in the half-space!
Without hesitating, El Ghazi tapped the ball straight back to Theodore.