My Goalkeeping System

The second half was about to resume and the players were making their way into the pitch now.

"Welcome back everyone, the second half of the game is about to kick off, we're just waiting for all the players to be on the pitch and that referee's whistle," Jim said.

"There have been no changes from both sides during the break," John said.

"Well, that's a surprise because I expected a few changes, especially from the hosts," Jim said.

Unique FC players were all on the pitch now except for Carlos who was standing beside Norman on the sideline.

"Remember Carlos, if you can't penetrate them, shoot from outside the box, you have to learn how to do that," Norman said.

"Okay, coach," Carlos said with a nod before quickly making his way into the pitch.

The players were all ready on their sides now with Nico standing over the ball at the kick-off spot waiting for the referee's whistle.

It didn't take long before the referee blew his whistle and he quickly rolled the ball to the midfielder behind him.

"Alright we are set for another forty-five minutes, the goal deficit is still very much there, the question now is if we're going to get an equalizer and dramatic comeback from the hosts or are the guests going to clinch on to the lead?" Jim said.

"Litno FC has been the all-round better side so far and unless Unique FC can do something about that, I don't see them winning this one," John said.

"My thoughts exactly," Jim said.

Dave expected to see either Mateo or Ferran or even both of them in the pitch for the beginning but none of them were there and he was quite disappointed to see that.

"Is he planning to lose this match on purpose?" Dave asked with a pondering look on his face.

"Hey, calm down," Emma said.

She went behind him on the couch and stuck her legs out beside his in a way that she was sitting behind him on the couch with her arms wrapped around him.

"This is a nice view for me don't you think?" She asked after placing her head on his right shoulder.

"Yeah," Dave said, smiling at her.

"Maybe he knows what he's doing." She asked, turning her gaze to the screen.

"Maybe?" Dave said with a puff. "I hope he knows what he's doing."

"Besides I don't think there's any way that he's not going to bring in Mateo and Ferran." She said,

"I know but I'm just worried that he may bring them in late when they will not be able to do anything," Dave said with a worried expression on his face.

Unique FC had gotten possession a few minutes of Litno FC keeping it away from them.

Minino was being pressed by two midfielders who didn't want him to cross over so he had no option than to quickly move back and pass the ball to Pirlo who had moved closer to him to receive it.

Pirlo quickly passed the ball to Norman who slowly pushed the ball forward as he properly scanned the area for a proper cross.

He found Edward in space in the left midfield position and quickly crossed the ball to him.

"Long ball to Edward."

The midfielder in charge of marking him had quickly closed up on him as soon as he received that ball and he had been forced to roll the ball back to Jonas.

"I still can't believe coach didn't put in Roland after all the mistakes he made in the first half," Dave muttered under his breath.

"Huh?" Emma said. She sounded tired like she was about to fall asleep.

"Nothing," Dave replied.

"Okay."

Aima had the ball at the edge of his box with two of the opposition players heading toward him.

He sent the ball to Alexander who acted under pressure and quickly sent the ball out of the area.

"You should expect that given the fact that he is young and inexperienced, this is the first time he's playing on a big stage like this. He didn't get this much exposure in the last match where he was on the pitch for less than four minutes and didn't touch the ball." Jim said.

Minino had risen high to win the ball which Alexander had sent out to nobody in particular.

He brought the ball down with some neat skill before passing it to Harry on the right.

Harry didn't even move that much with the ball before passing the ball to Minino who had quickly moved past the player marking him to meet the ball at the other end.

Despite finding his way past the player, he still couldn't get past because there were other players in front of him but he didn't want to go past them.

Carlos was already waving for the ball and without hesitation he quickly rolled the ball to the wing that was in space now.

The opposition players had all raised their hands to call for an offside but there was no response from the linesman or referee as the winger kept racing down the wing.

"He's on side and this can mean something promising for them here." Jim said.

He stopped at the edge of the line just before the ball could go out for a goal kick and quickly rolled it back to make a cross into the box but before he could do that, one of the opposition defenders marking him jumped in and brought him down with a sliding tackle.

He got possession of the ball and was about to start a counter-attack with it when the referee blew his whistle while pointing at the spot for a foul.

"That is definitely a foul," Jim said.

"How nasty was that challenge because Carlos seems to be rolling on the floor here?" John said.

There was no exaggeration there as Carlos was rolling on the floor with his right hand placed on his face.

Carlos had picked up an injury from that tackle but it didn't look like the referee was going to show any card to the player responsible; the host players didn't think that was fair as they were gathering around the official to complain.

The medical staff quickly made their way to Carlos to check what was going on with him

"Edward really wants the referee to show Levi a card, all the players have stopped but he's still following him," Jim said.

The referee had gotten quite annoyed by the way Edward was following him and Edward was going to go in for that as he quickly turned and showed him a yellow card.

"And there's the first booking of the night," Jim said. "Edward Stark, booked for trying to convince the referee that his decision wasn't right."

It didn't look like Carlos would be able to continue as a stretcher had been brought in to carry him out, he couldn't even get up.

"Oh, Carlos is being carried off the pitch now after sustaining a surprisingly serious injury," Jim said.

"And that guy didn't get a card," Dave said with a surprised expression on his face.

"Norman is going to have to replace him quickly and it seems like he's getting the player ready as we can see Christian Merino and Mateo Smith standing beside him," John said.

"He's finally decided to bring on Mateo," Jim said.

"Finally," Dave said with a sigh of relief.

The official responsible for substitutions raised his board to show the number seven in red and the number sixteen in green.

That was Marino's cue as he quickly made his way into the pitch to replace Carlos.

After that, he raised his board to show the number twenty in red and the number ten in green.

"And now, Ina Shaw will be coming off for Mateo Smith," Jim said.

Ina made his way out of the pitch and after shaking hands with him, Mateo quickly made his way into the pitch.

Despite the fact that the team was losing, the youngster received a standing ovation from the fans who were happy to have him on the pitch.

With Mateo on the pitch now, there was no doubt on who was going to take the freekick for the foul which had happened a little close to the edge of the box.

The referee had drawn a line for Litno FC to form their wall of three players with the other players running around inside the box.

"This is a very close free kick, can Mateo put it in and pull one back for his team?"

"You can do it, Mateo," Dave said with his hands crossed against each other.

The youngster stood over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he let out a deep sigh before taking two steps backward.

He closed up on the ball again and quickly sent the ball flying into the box.

Almost everyone expected him to play it directly to the goalpost but he had decided to cross it.

"Oh, he's crossed it," Jim said.

The ball flew high past everyone and was heading toward Merino who was standing away from all the players because of something like this.

He quickly brought down the ball with his chest and drilled a shot low into the bottom right-hand corner.

"Merino shoots! Merino scores!" Jim screamed.

The fans burst into cheers as the right winger quickly rushed to the net, picked up the ball, and started running toward Mateo.

"What a goal! What a cross from Mateo! They've finally pulled one back and it's just one goal in it now." Jim said.

"All he needed was to make the necessary changes, just brought on two players and they've already made the difference," John said.

"Yeah!" Dave screamed, causing Emma to quickly shoot her eyes open with a startled look on her face.

"What? What? What happened?" She asked quickly looking around.

"We've pulled one back," Dave said not even realizing that he had just woken her up.

"Oh." She said with a calm voice this time before returning her head to his shoulder. "In case you guys get that equalizer, please don't scream."

"Huh?" Dave said, turning his gaze to her, that was when he realized that he had been sleeping.

"Okay." He said before turning his gaze back to the screen.

With the addition of Mateo and Merino, they had finally pulled one back and with fifty-nine minutes showing on the clock, he was confident that that equalizer was going to come soon.

****

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.