My Goalkeeping System

6 Double Reward

Dave had already planned his weekend and the only plan he had made was to spend it with Emma and do whatever she wanted to do.

The two hardly spent time as a couple and this weekend he wanted to try and make up for it but this sudden change of plans seemed to have disrupted everything for him.

"Emma." He called looking into her eyes.

"It's okay, they need you at training and I don't really mind," Emma said.

"I really wanted to spend the whole today and the weekend with you," Dave said.

"A single morning training isn't going to stop that," Emma said. "Now eat fast so you can go get ready.

Dave smiled at her as he turned to he picked up his sandwich and ate it as fast as he could.

As soon as he was done with that he ran upstairs while Emma continued eating.

It took about thirty minutes before he came downstairs wearing Unique FC's orange sports trousers and a black sports shirt.

Emma was sitting on the couch in the living room and as soon as she spotted him coming down the stairs she picked up the black bag beside her and walked up to him.

"Here's your bag." She said handing him the bag. "Everything you need is in there.

"Ok," Dave said, taking the bag from her and hanging it over his shoulder.

"And here's your car keys," Emma said as she picked up the key from the small table and handed it to him.

Instead of grabbing the key, Dave had decided to grab her hands as he stared directly into her eyes.

"Dave you have training to catch up with," Emma said with a calm voice.

"Yeah," Dave said as he kissed her, took his car keys from her, and quickly headed for the door.

"See you later babe." He decided before closing the door.

Dave quickly headed for his car which he had driven into the flower around his house last night.

He hopped into the car started the engine and zoomed off heading for the Wondamino stadium in Vile.

The stadium wasn't that far so getting there with his car was quite a short drive.

He entered the halls and headed for the pitch to see that he was one of the first few people to arrive.

There were only three players present there on the pitch and the players being Adolf the captain, Ferran Phil, and the team's right winger Carlos Oman.

Dave slowly walked to them after taking a deep breath.

"Hi, guys." He said after pulling up in front of them.

Adolf was doing sit-ups, Carlos was stretching his legs while Ferran just stood there talking to Carlos about something before Dave arrived.

"How's it going, Dave?" Ferran asked.

"Good," Dave said.

"I already had my weekend planned before the coach called this morning with his change of plans," Carlos complained.

"And you think we didn't get the same call or had our weekends planned," Adolf said.

"We all did Carlos but this has to be something important for the coach to call all of us like this," Ferran said.

"Oh look, the basket arrived early today."

Dave turned to see Jonas approaching them with George following behind him.

"The man match is done Jonas, you can't change anything about it now," Adolf said. He was always stepping up to defend Dave.

"But we could have done something about it if this basket wasn't between the sticks," Jonas said as he walked closer to Dave while staring dead into his eyes. "That wasn't the only match we could have changed something about."

"Losing that match by a huge margin wasn't entirely his fault," Ferran said.

"Yeah we also made a lot of mistakes, can't you acknowledge that he managed to make some saves?" Carlos said.

"Useless lucky saves," Jonas said, walking away from his teammates. "I hope we get a replacement soon."

"What's wrong with Jonas?" Mateo asked.

He had arrived at the moment Jonas had stormed off heading to the other side of the pitch.

It didn't take long for the rest of the players to arrive at the pitch and then finally coach Norman.

All the players gathered in one spot as he faced them to address them.

"Last night's loss saw us drop to eleventh place with a minus two goal difference," Norman said with his hands behind his back.

"I know some of you will point the blame at one person but he wasn't the only reason, you lost your stride in the second half all of you and that's why you conceded a lot of goals.

"We lost our stride because there was no point doing anything when he had a basket between the sticks," Jonas said.

A lot of the players there felt the same way but Jonas was the only one who was showing his feelings toward the goalkeeper.

Coach Norman ignored Jonas' words as he cleared his throat and moved to the reason why they were all called here today.

"I know you all are wondering why I called you here this morning while you're supposed to be having your days off but like I said there has been a change of plans.

"UEFA has shortened our league games to finish in two weeks instead of four weeks and that means there will be a lot of jam-packed matches for us during these two weeks."

"We understand, coach, we need to start training early for those matches," Adolf said.

"Yes," Norman said with a smile.

The training began with the players running laps on the pitch before some of them began to stretch while they were doing so Dave decided to do something else.

"Hey, Mateo." He said as he offered the striker a hand up after he had fallen.

"Thanks, Dave," Mateo said after Dave had pulled him up.

"Do you mind practicing your shooting while I practice my keeping?" Dave asked.

Mateo stared at the goal post for a while before replying.

"Sure." He said with a nod.

The two walked towards the goalpost as Dave walked to stand in between the sticks.

"So do you want it on the penalty spot or away?" Mateo asked, holding the ball in his hand.

"Anywhere you want," Dave said.

"Okay, we will do some freekicks and then move to the penalty spot later," Mateo said as he dropped the ball a little distance away from the eighteen-yard box.

"Okay," Dave said, adjusting his gloves.

Mateo was about to kick the ball but stopped before his leg touched it as an idea popped into his head.

"Anything wrong?" Dave asked.

"Let's make a deal," Mateo said.

"A deal?"

"Yes, I am going to play five shots from this spot and if I manage to score more than two past you, you get to buy me lunch," Mateo said.

"And if I get to keep out more than two?"

"I get to buy you lunch," Mateo said.

"Ok," Dave said.

[ Quest received ]

[ You have been put to the test ]

[ Keep out more than two of Mateo's shots ]