My Goalkeeping System

The referee blew his whistle two times to signal the end of the first half as the players immediately stopped what they were doing and put whatever they were planning to do on hold before making their way toward the tunnel.

"And that's the end of the first half," Jim said. "Both teams have put in great effort to get a goal but their finishing has let them down so far, the closest chance for a goal was the penalty from Kim which Dave Richards didn't have any problem stopping."

"This is the first time since the last two seasons that Unique FC are ending the first half of a match without conceding any goal, some would say they are starting to look tough but I would say it's been all Dave Richards so far," Steve said.

"Yeah, if he had not saved that kick from the penalty spot, they would have been one goal down by now," Jim said.

Right now, Unique FC players were in their locker room where Norman was trying to figure out how his players had wasted so many chances in the first half.

<I think they're playing well, Ferran should have scored two goals by now if he had taken his chances well and Mateo's finishing seemed to have taken a hit too after that rough challenge against him>

'Yeah.'

"Ferran, Mateo, Fred, Merino, I don't know what's going on but it seems you guys have forgotten where the goalpost is, all those chances and you let them go to waste," Norman said. "If we had the same Dave we had at the beginning of the season up to the middle, we would be losing this match by now."

<True>

"Their defense isn't that hard to break, you've certainly been finding the gaps but it's like you just don't know where to score, start aiming for the goalpost, and remember that this match plays a role in determining if we would make that conference league spot," Norman said before turning his gaze to Minino. "And you, don't always pass the ball short to Ferran or Merino, try to upset them a little by playing long balls into the box from far out and Fred, I want you to be there to finish or you can just lay it back to any of the wingers or Ferran."

"Okay, coach." Minino and Fred said in unison.

After talking to them about a few other things which needed to be improved in the second half, he left the locker room to allow them a little rest with no talking before the second half kicked off.

"The players have gotten enough rest, and it is now time to resume what has been a very tight game so far," Jim said.

The players were applauded by the fans as they matched into the pitch for the second half of the match.

"Unique FC have been more deadly in possession and in front of goal and if they can just work on their finishing, I'm certain they will get a goal or two before the end of the match," Jim said.

"Yeah, but if Lave City also ups their game, that's going to be hard, let's just hope this half doesn't end in a goalless draw," Steve said.

After all the players were on their side in their different positions, the referee blew his whistle for Lave City to start the match from the kick-off spot.

They passed the ball around in their own half as Unique FC players tried to take the ball from them.

"We are on the way in the second half here, which side will be the first to break the deadlock?" Jim said.

It had been five minutes since the match had begun and so far, no Unique FC player had touched the ball.

"Lave City trying so hard to keep hold of the ball," Steve said.

"Yeah, but all they've done so far is pass it around in their own half," Jim said. "They need to get it forward and draw Unique FC players out if they want to do something meaningful."

The left midfielder received the ball from one of the center-backs and after pushing forward a little, he crossed it over to their right forward but that hadn't gone as he planned as Roland quickly intercepted the ball with a high jump and brought it down with his head.

"Nice interception from Roland and now it's a scramble between David and Ferran," Jim said.

The ball had fallen toward the central midfielders from both teams and after a tussle from the both of them, Ferran emerged victorious with the ball before passing it back to Adolf who had gotten closer to him.

"Ferran comes out on top with the ball."

Adolf laid the ball off to Merino who passed it back to Ferran before Ferran sent it to Mateo.

Just like that, the string of passes had begun and Lave City players knew it was going to be a long time before they got possession of the ball again, that is if Unique FC decided to delay their attack.

Merino's plan to break the defense had failed as he quickly played the ball back to Fred before the defenders got to him.

There were a lot of players blocking the striker's view of the goalpost before he received the ball and knowing that a shot wasn't going to work, he decided to pass the ball to Mateo.

"Mateo."

Mateo tried to find someone in the box but looking at the way Fred was being marked, he knew he wouldn't be able to do anything so he passed the ball to Edward who in turn sent it back to Roland.

Roland rolled the ball along with him while he moved forward knowing that a player was making his way toward him, he had something up his sleeves.

He used the speed of the player that was heading toward him against him as he quickly zoomed off past the player and was now heading down through the middle.

"That's wonderful from Roland Ryle," Jim commented.

Roland laid off the ball to Ferran just before he could get to him but he didn't stop there as he continued running toward the edge of the box.

"I think this is one of those Unique attacking moments from Unique FC," Steve commented.

Ferran returned the ball to Roland after the wingback had gotten to the edge of the box.

There were players rushing toward him to try and dispossess him but before they could get to him, he found Mateo open at the edge of the box on the left side and played a short pass to him.

"Mateo."

Mateo didn't even think twice about it before pushing the ball toward a little with the tip of his left boot and then curling a shot toward the top left-hand corner with his right foot.

"Mateo!" Jim exclaimed.

The goalkeeper dived toward the ball just as it zoomed past him but it didn't look like he was going to get his hand to it.

Nevertheless, that wasn't a problem as the ball banged on the crossbar before falling toward a Lave City player to make the clearance.

"Oh, no, it hit the crossbar."

"Crossbar, crossbar, crossbar," Dave mumbled before punching the right crossbar of his goalpost.

That clearance had gone toward the right and just before it could fly off to the sidelines, Minino got hold of it and quickly pushed it forward.

"Try to upset them a little with long balls from far out." The midfielder muttered before sending the ball into the box.

"Minino's sending the ball back into the box, he's saying it's not over," Steve said.

Ferran happened to be the one in a good position to get the ball but he wasn't alone as Naim Tilli was directly behind him.

The two rose high to meet the ball but Ferran had mistimed the elevation of the ball as Naim was the one who got his head to the ball but his header had gone in the wrong direction.

He sent the ball toward his own goalpost as it bounced on the floor before rolling into the goalpost from the bottom right-hand side while the goalkeeper was glued to the middle.

"Goallllllll!!!!! It's finally in the back net!" Jim exclaimed with very high enthusiasm.

"That was a very terrible mistake from Naim," Steve said.

The goal had come from a mistake but a goal was a goal and every goal needed to be celebrated.

Instead of running off to the sideline to celebrate the goal, the players crossed their arms around each other and formed a circle right in front of their opponent's goal post while they watched with devastated looks on their faces most especially Naim who was sitting in front of the goal post now while biting his lower lip in anguish.

Of course, their fans were going wild, yes it was an own goal but it would have happened if Minino had not played the ball into the net and Ferran had not put pressure on Naim like that.

"Unique FC have finally gotten the first goal of the night from a terrible mistake from Naim, will they be able to hold on to this lead and possibly extend it or will Lave City have something to say about that goal, the clock is showing fifty-seven minutes so there's a lot of time left to do a lot of things."

****

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.