My Goalkeeping System

"Yeah, he was offside," Jim said with his eyes fixed on the screen in the commentary room which had a paused footage of Felix's foot being a few inches offside just before Kelano crossed that ball.

"They are going to have to try again," Steve said.

The match had entered the twentieth minute now and still, there has been nothing from both sides so far.

Mateo has been looking for a way to break up their defense and play the ball through to anybody in a nice position but so far all his attempts have proved futile.

The left winger received the ball from Ferran and after trying to confuse the right back marking him and get past him without being exactly successful, he passed the ball to Fred.

Fred feigned shooting at the player in front of him before rolling the ball back to Ferran with a backheel pass.

Ferran didn't wait for the ball to get close as he raced toward it and lobbed it to Merino on the right wing.

Merino ran forward deep into the area and when he couldn't get rid of the players trying to take the ball from him, he quickly cut back and crossed the ball into the box.

Fred was in the right spot at that exact time and rose the highest to meet the ball with a header.

"Header!"

The ball went straight toward the goalkeeper who couldn't deal with it as the ball bounced on his shoulder and fell off right in front of the goalpost.

"Nice save but it's not cleared yet."

Mateo happened to be the closest Unique FC player at that time but there were also two Spree City defenders close to the ball.

All three players rushed toward that ball but the two defenders seemed to have underestimated what Mateo could do as the left winger slid toward the ball before one of the defenders could kick it out.

The defender had kicked his leg instead as the winger fumbled the ball into the back of the net.

"Fumbled into the net, it's a goal!" Jim exclaimed.

Mateo quickly got up from the floor and raced toward the sidelines to celebrate the goal as his teammates rushed toward him.

The crowd was going wide now as they didn't expect Mateo to put that away like that.

"To be honest Jim, I never expected him to put that away," Steve said.

"Me too, I never expected him to slide but if it's a goal Unique FC needs, Mateo Smith would do anything to get it," Jim said.

'Yes! Yes! Yes!' Dave screamed inwardly as he raised his hand in celebration of that goal.

<If I were your coach, I would switch to a defensive style of play and then you guys can find ways to turn defense into attack because those guys look really dangerous whenever they're attacking>

'Yeah, but I think coach knows the right thing to do after now.'

"Unique FC are now ahead after a remarkable goal from Mateo Smith in the twenty-second minute, there's still a lot of time left before we go, will there be a response from Spree City?"

Spree City were still in possession of the ball after the kick-off and so far they weren't looking desperate to do anything.

The right Midfielder received the ball from the right back and with Edward quickly racing toward him, he rolled it back to the center back who had gotten closer to him now.

The center-back passed the ball to the central midfielder who quickly sent the ball to Kelano.

Kelano had a lot of players coming his way to try and get the ball from him and that had caused him to pass the ball to the attacking midfielder who was running toward the eighteen-yard box.

The attacking midfielder moved forward a little before passing the ball to Kelano.

Kelano did some leg-overs in front of Jonas before quickly getting past the left back with a nutmeg.

"Oh, Kelano's through here," Jim said.

Kelano didn't waste time in crossing the ball to the attacking midfielder who was at the edge of the box.

"Something could happen here," Steve commented.

The Midfielder brought the ball down with his chest but before he could do anything, Adolf was already upon him and had almost dispossessed him of the ball.

The midfielder was able to hold his ground though as he quickly turned and passed the ball to Felix just before being brought down by Adolf.

"It's Felix!"

Felix raced toward the ball at the edge of the box and sent it flying toward the left side of the goalpost.

Dave dived toward the ball at the right time and with both of his hands, he pushed the ball out for a corner kick.

"What a save!" Jim exclaimed. "Dave Richards stepping up to stop what would have been a wonderful goal."

Adolf quickly rushed toward the goalkeeper and hugged him as soon as he got up from the floor as a few other teammates gathered around him.

That was a very crucial save and it was something they had to be grateful for.

Felix was staring at Dave now with a stunned expression on his face.

The moment he started racing toward that ball, he was confident that it was a goal, it has always been that way but something had changed today.

"Dave Richards was again proving that his current form is not a fluke," Steve said.

Emma was sitting in the stand with a black face cap on her face, after witnessing that save from Dave, a smile appeared on her face before she began to write down something on her jotter.

"Spree City have a corner kick now, one of their favorite set pieces, will they be able to conjure up something from this one?" Jim said.

A midfielder had stepped up to take the freekick now and all he was waiting for was the referee's whistle.

It didn't take long before the referee blew his whistle. He hesitated for a while before crossing the ball into the eighteen-yard box.

"They all have their heads up for a clearance or a possible goal," Steve said.

Felix used Aima's shoulders to thrust himself up and nod the ball toward the top right-hand corner.

"Header!"

[ Ball magnet activated ]

Dave knew hitting the ball out was risky and trying to catch it was also risky for someone like him but he had something to make catching it less risky.

He dived toward the ball and with both of his hands, he caught it before dropping to

the floor.

"What a save!" Jim screamed.

Felix couldn't believe what just happened as he stared at Dave with a shocked expression on his face.

The goalkeeper didn't have time to stand around as he quickly ran toward the edge of his box and sent the ball flying to Mateo who was open on the left wing now with only one player in front of him.

"Oh, this looks dangerous!" Steve exclaimed.

Mateo was good in one-on-one dribbling situations so getting rid of the player with a nutmeg wasn't that hard for him and right now he was racing toward the goalkeeper with nobody around the area to stop him.

"Oh, Mateo's through and it's a one-on-one situation here."

***

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.