My Goalkeeping System



It didn't take long before the area where Mateo fell became crowded by players from both teams and just as expected, Minino was making a big deal out of it.

Mateo on the other hand was slowly being helped up and after that, he was asked if he wanted to come off and his answer was a clear no.

The medical team had to be stopped from coming onto the pitch because now, it didn't look like Mateo needed their attention.

"Well, it's a good thing that Mateo can still hold his ground on the pitch, his team will need him to hold on much longer.

The referee had to give a foul for that challenge against Mateo and that meant that the away side had the ball back in their possession now.

"It's still just fifty-nine minutes on the clock so there's still a lot of time left for a lot to happen," Jim commented.

Unique FC moved the ball around the pitch swiftly to keep it away from West Ham United players who were chasing them aggressively.

"I feel like that penalty kick is still haunting Filipe, if he had scored that, then they would just need one more goal to equalize but I guess that wasn't meant to be." Steve expressed.

"Yeah, I was shocked by how Dave was able to catch the ball like that, I have never seen a goalkeeper catch a ball like that without it slipping off the hands for a brief moment." Jim expressed. "It was like he was sure of where he was going to place it before he took the shot."

"Yeah, he went straight for the ball but that's something he's been doing for a while with saving normal shots, I guess he's slowly learning how to do that with penalty kicks," Steve said.

Unique FC were still moving the ball around here and they were doing quite a good job of keeping it away from West Ham United.

"Well, it looks like Unique FC are just looking to drag out the match here."

Minino got his foot on the ball and just before Sunblade could get to him, he pushed the ball back to Martinez who immediately sent it flying over to Mateo with his first touch.

Mateo neatly brought the ball down neatly with his feet and just before both of the players closing down on him could get close enough to him, he sent the ball rolling back to Roland.

"Roland."

Roland got his foot on the ball and quickly took off down the middle with it, he wasn't able to get far with it though, and had to send it rolling to Minino to avoid losing it.

"Minino."

Minino got his foot on the ball and just before the player close to him could attempt to take it from him, he immediately sent the ball rolling to Merino.

"Oh, it looks like they're finally pushing forward."

Well, that plan was scrapped immediately as Merino sent the ball flying back to Adolf after he almost lost it near the edge of the box.

"Oh, never mind."

What Unique were doing here was a direct attempt to frustrate West Ham United and it seemed to be working quite well because with each passing moment, the home team became more aggressive with the way they were chasing the ball.

Adolf sent the ball rolling to Ferran after moving a little forward with it.

"It's still quite surprising to me how a team that the majority of people thought were going to struggle in this group has gone on to dominate the group, they just need this win to solidify their qualification to the next stage and they are on the right track of doing that." Jim expressed.

"Well, to be honest, I believed that this group was going to be tough but still, I didn't count them out, I knew they had what it took to survive this group stage." Steve articulated.

"Well, you thinking that the group would be hard for them was wrong."

"Yeah, you can say that again."

Merino brought the ball down with his chest before quickly taking off down the wing with it.

"Looks like they've finally made up their mind to attack."

He was about to push the ball out for a goal kick when he quickly sent it flying into the box.

The ball was sent flying close to the goalpost and the goalkeeper didn't hesitate to take his chance in punching it out.

The ball was sent flying toward Ferran who was dragged down by Sunblade before he could do anything with it.

"That's a foul."

The referee blew his whistle before quickly making his way to the midfielder to show him a yellow card.

"That's the second booking of the game and also West Ham United's second booking of the game."

Sunblade laughed at that as he helped Ferran get back up on his feet.

"Well, Unique FC now have a free kick from a pretty good position," Jim commented. "They added another free kick taker in their roles last week in the person of Dave, now they have Mateo, Ferran, and Dave so who's going to take it?"

"Don't bother, we all know Mateo's going to take it, he's clearly better than Ferran, and whether he's better than Dave is debatable since the goalkeeper has only taken one free kick which now that I think about it gives a hundred percent conversion." Steve expressed.

Just like Steve said, it looked like Mateo was going to be the one taking the spot kick because he was the one standing over the ball now.

West Ham had already formed their wall with everyone else running around outside and inside the box.

"Well, Mateo's free-kick ability is superb, let's see what he can do with this one."

The referee made sure that everything was ready before blowing his whistle and now it was up to the winger, it was time to see what he could do with this one.

After hearing the whistle, he took in a deep breath and slowly let it out before taking three steps backward.

After that, he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost with his right foot.

"Mateo!"

The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost and it looked really close, but the goalkeeper was able to get the tip of his glove on it right in time to send the ball over the bar and out for a corner kick.

"Oh, that was so close," Jim commented. "Well-placed free kick from Mateo, but the goalkeeper was equal to it."

"Yeah, and now West Ham United have a corner kick to deal with."

Ferran was standing over the ball in the corner spot while waiting for the referee to blow his whistle.

The referee made sure that everything was ready before he blew his whistle.

As soon as Ferran heard that, he quickly closed up on the ball from where he was standing and sent it flying in.

The ball was nodded back by one of the defenders towards Sunblade who didn't hesitate to send it flying toward Filipe to start a counterattack.

Unfortunately, Martinez was right beside Filipe and he did well to get possession of the ball and send it rolling toward Dave who was quite a distance away from his box now.

The goalkeeper quickly pushed the ball forward, and just before Filipe could get to him, he fired the ball toward the goalpost with as much shot power as possible.

"He's gone for the shot!"

Arnold had to quickly return to his goalpost and he had his gaze on the ball which was heading toward the right side now.

He dived toward the ball to push it out, but that was a mistake as the ball ended up hitting one of the defenders in the area before rolling off toward the middle until it rolled into the goalpost.

"Oh, my goodness! He has done it again!" Jim exclaimed as Minino quickly rushed to the goalkeeper and dragged him down.

"Looks like he just scored his first goal of the tournament," Steve commented. "For a goalkeeper, he's scored quite a good number of goals this season."

"You can say that again, this is his fourth goal this season, and scoring more isn't out of the question."

The fans were going wild now and most of them were even chanting the name of the goalkeeper.

"At this moment, I think it's fair to say that Unique FC are definitely going through to the next round of the tournament," Jim said.

That goal was the last piece that was needed to shatter West Ham United's spirits as they were no longer able to do anything to make up for the deficit, even with the eleven minutes of added time.

With that eleven minutes now gone, the referee blew his whistle thrice to bring the match to an end.

"There's the whistle!" Jim exclaimed. "West Ham United bow their head in disappointment as Unique FC jump in jubilation. The fans can't contain their happiness because the Bilbeth Premier League side are now through to the next round of the Europa Conference League."