Benjamin Sesko wasn't having the best of times.
After a prolific 2023/24 season, the Slovenian striker had rejected big money moves in the summer and opted to stay with RB Leipzig and develop. High profile misses at the Euros had seen his stock fall, and despite a decent enough scoring return this season, he wasn't hitting the same heights of last year.
A 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich before the Bundesliga winter break hadn't helped, nor had strike partner Xavi Simons' stunning return from injury as he scored twice to put Leipzig 2-1 up against Werder Bremen in their first game back. Sesko was in danger of being anonymous - and that's precisely when the best strikers explode into prominence.
It's 100 seconds into the start of the second half as Werder Bremen centre-back Niklas Stark receives the ball. With his team trailing 1-2 and the instructions of the half-time team talk given by his manager swimming in his head, he plays a first-time pass out wide to Mitchell Weiser on the right wing. Perhaps that explains why Stark's pass is ever so slightly under hit, necessitating Weiser to drop back to collect the ball.
Against most teams, that slight error wouldn't matter. Against Marco Rose's gegenpressing Leipzig, fresh from a break, it does. David Raum smells it as soon as Stark's pass is under hit - he rushes in to put the pressure on Weiser and it results in the winger playing a panicked pass to Jens Stage in midfield. Except this isn't as accurate as Weiser's finish from the goal he scored earlier in the game and the ball trickles to Sesko in the middle of the park.
"If you want to be top, and achieve the next level in every competition, the first touch is very important. If you have a good first touch, it gives you time and space. At the very top level, you don't have space, and you don't have time. That's something he still has to improve on."
Speaking to Transfermarkt in pre-season, Leipzig's new managing director of sport, Marcel Schafer sure had a strange way of thanking Sesko for rejecting the advances of top clubs in the world in the summer and signing a new contract (until 2029) with the club.
Not that Sesko was blind to his flaws, saying "I mean, that's why I decided to stay here. I know I have to develop more, and Leipzig is a good opportunity to do so. I feel like I have people backing me up."
Sesko's first touch hasn't improved a great deal in the three months since. The ball leaps a fair bit away from him, but thankfully he's in space, and his returning striker partner, Xavi Simons makes a run that takes a defender away, affording Sesko the time to correct his first touch. His second and third touches are far better, moving the angle towards goal and setting him up perfectly.
Simons is still there, on a hat-trick, asking for the ball to be played into space in the box, but Sesko has other ideas, with his eyes firmly on the ball. Poor first touches be damned, he's about to let fly with his fourth. The ball explodes of his foot with such velocity (126.4 km/h), it almost doesn't matter where he's hit it. This cannon cannot be stopped, and even though the ball flies about a foot away from Michael Zetterer in the Bremen goal, it's well past him before he can even move a muscle.
Zetterer is perhaps thankful that he didn't get near it, because had he done so, Sesko's strike would have probably taken his arm off. The strike is so pure that replays show there was no spin on the ball once it left the Slovenian striker's foot. The very definition of a thunderbas***d, the strike rises powerfully in the air and rockets into the top corner.
No one's going to be talking about Xavi Simons now. With one strike of his boot, Sesko has grabbed all of the headlines, and for the watching Red Bull head of global soccer, that's as heavy metal as it comes. The clubs will return for Sesko again in the summer, but Jurgen Klopp ought to do everything in his power to keep the Slovenian striker.
There aren't many strikers in the world who can change their fortunes, and that of his team with one swipe of the boot. Sesko can, and for that, he takes ESPN India's Moment of the Week.