My Goalkeeping System

The match had entered the twentieth minute now and so far Unique FC were the ones bossing the match.

Their string of passes was neat and organized, keeping Eibar from touching the ball while slowly advancing toward their goalpost.

They were playing well but they had not been able to get any good chances as they seemed to get choked up anytime they entered their opponent's box.

They had managed to get three shots which were all off-target including the first shot from Dave.

Eibar on the other hand had not been able to fire any shot at their opponent's goalpost, they hadn't even had the ball long enough to do it.

Martinez received the ball from Roland and ran through the middle to cover the free ground and just before clashing with an Eibar player, he turned to the right and passed the ball to Frankie.

"Frankie."

Frankie moved forward with the ball a little, dragging two players with him, and just before they could make contact with him, he passed the ball to Martinez.

He quickly got past the player in front of him with a neat nutmeg and sent the ball rolling to Carlos on the right wing.

"Oh…..that was neat from Martinez," Jim commented.

Carlos tried to get past the left winger who was trying everything possible to stop him from getting past him.

He struggled with the defender and had almost lost the ball to a throw-in against him but he was quick enough to pull the ball back and that was when he broke free from the defender and sent the ball to Fred who was right at the edge of the box now.

"He's broken free and he's sent the ball to Fred who seems to have enough space to do something here."

Fred received the ball, and just as he was about to turn with the free space he thought he had, he was brought down right at the edge of the box under a reckless challenge.

The referee didn't need to check twice before blowing his whistle.

"Oh, he's been brought down, is it a penalty? It sure looks like one." Jim said.

"I don't think it was a penalty, I don't think the point of contact was inside the box," Steve said.

Steve was right, it wasn't a penalty but it was a very good chance for them to take the lead as scoring a free kick from that close was one of the things Mateo had been practicing after recovering from his injury.

Mateo was on the pitch now after Merino had sustained an injury in the twelfth minute of the game from an aggressive tackle from Eibar's right midfielder, the player was shown a yellow card but Merino had to leave the pitch limping and was quickly replaced by Mateo who felt sorry for his teammate but was glad that he didn't have to wait till the second half to be part of the match.

"It's not a penalty kick but it's still a massive chance for Unique FC to take the lead and I don't think there's any doubt about who's going to be taking it given the fact that Ferran isn't on the pitch at the moment," Jim said.

SD Eibar had set up their four-man wall inside the box with a couple of players from both teams moving around in the area and Mateo standing over the ball.

"Mateo Smith played seven free kicks for Unique FC last season and ended up converting three of them, he has a good free-kick conversion ratio, let's see if he can convert this one," Steve said.

"If he scores this, it will mean that he has consecutively scored in all their matches so far," Jim said.

The winger stood over the ball with his hands on his waist waiting for the referee's whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he slowly took two steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball.

During a free kick, the thing that comes to almost everybody's mind is to go from the top, they seem to forget that you can go from below too and Eibar had just made the mistake of forgetting to put someone below on their wall.

The winger sent the ball flying toward the left bottom angle and luckily for him none of the players in the box were able to make contact with the fast-moving ball.

The goalkeeper seemed to have gotten a bit confused and by the time he dived toward the ball, it was too late for him to get his hand on it and all he could do was watch as the ball entered the net just before he hit the floor.

"Oh my goodness! He actually put it in from below and I thought he was going to go from the top!"

Unique FC fans broke into cheers after witnessing that goal from Mateo but the winger didn't do any big celebration, he just pointed up with a bright smile on his face before his teammates began to gather around him.

"He has done it again, he scored against Manchester United, he scored against Benfica and now he has scored against SD Eibar, what a player," Steve commented.

"To think that he's just nineteen years old and has become a very important player for Unique FC," Jim said.

'I think we're going to win this match.' Dave said subconsciously.

<Don't get too confident and comfortable, you don't think you guys are the only team that can turn into a completely different team after the first half do you?>

'I know, I never said I was going to get comfortable because I knew we were going to win, the goal is to get as many goals as possible and prevent the ball from going into this goalpost.'

The match continued and Eibar pulled a quick attack from a tiny space they discovered in Unique FC's defense but the ball ended up flying over the bar with Dave holding onto the right post.

"There were a lot of ways that could have gone right, that was a waste but it's a good thing to get their first shot of the game even though it was off target," Steve said.

"Hey, Roland!" Dave called as he pushed the ball to the edge of the box inside the eighteen-yard box.

"Yeah," Roland replied.

"I'm going to give you the ball now, just stretch it toward the edge of the box for me okay."

"Okay," Roland replied.

As soon as he said that, Dave passed the ball to him and he quickly set it up for him nicely near the edge of the box.

Dave didn't hesitate as he quickly raced toward the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost.

"Oh, it's Dave with one of his impossible shots again!" Jim exclaimed.

The ball was sent flying toward the right side of the goalpost with a curve.

"Not this again." Eibar's goalkeeper muttered before gritting his teeth.

He dived toward the ball and was only able to get the tip of his gloves on it and the speed of the ball didn't give him the chance to push it properly but that small was all that was needed to push the ball a little up to hit the crossbar.

The ball hit the crossbar and the rebound was sent flying toward the edge of the box right down the middle.

"Wonderful save from Mikoviç but they have to clear their line quickly now.

Fred and a center-back were the main contenders for the ball and it looked like Fred was going to get there first until the defender extended his legs with a slide and sent the ball rolling to his goalkeeper.

"That's nice thinking, if he hadn't done that, Fred would have surely finished that," Steve said.

"Yeah," Jim said. "I never thought I would see a goalkeeper become a serious nuisance to his fellow goalkeeper from his own goalpost."

"His accuracy is mind-blowing, I think he has put a lot of work into this, at this point he might as well become a striker."

"That guy's not normal," Mikoviç said with his gaze on Dave.

*****

New year mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.

Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.