My Goalkeeping System

Lave City players had arrived with just fifty minutes left before the match began and after training on the pitch for about thirty minutes, all the players from both teams made their way down the tunnel to get ready for the match.

Emma was already on the pitch with a microphone in her hand just like she had said and just as Dave was about to walk past her, she waved at him with a smile on her face.

Dave returned the wave before heading down the tunnel.

"Do you know him?"

Emma almost jumped up in fright at the way his male Co-worker had sneaked up on her from behind.

"I've told you to stop sneaking up on me like that Matthew." She grumbled.

"Sorry," Matthew said, scratching the back of his head.

"That's what you always say and you will still say it after doing it again." She said,

"I promise this is the last time." He said.

"I hope you're not one of those people that doesn't understand the meaning of making a promise and goes around breaking them."

"No, I'm not." He said, shaking his head.

"Okay."

"So, do you know him?" He asked again.

"Of course, I know him, every Unique FC fan knows who he is," Emma said.

"I meant personally, I noticed you were smiling in a way when you saw him."

"Yeah, he's my boyfriend." She felt a little hesitant to say that.

"Boyfriend?" Matthew said as he felt a stinging pain in his heart. "I thought you were single."

"Why would you think that I was single?"

"I don't know, I just thought you were single." He said.

"Oh, I see."

"So, that's why you wrote all those nice things about him," Matthew said.

"No, Matthew, I wrote all those nice things about him because he deserved them," Emma said before walking away from him.

In the locker room, Unique FC players were all sitting on their seats as Adolf stood in the middle to give them a little word of encouragement before the match kicked off.

"We are all fighting for the same thing here, yes we had a rough start to the season but through our will and determination to fight, we have steered clear of the relegation spot and are now in a good position to fight for the UEFA Conference League spot.

"We haven't gotten this close to qualifying for a European competition in three years but I believe we can do it this season, Lesica United are three points ahead of us after drawing their match against Zilo FC last night, they also have the higher goal difference but I believe we still have the chance to qualify, the question is, do you believe?" He asked, looking at all the players.

"I believe," Mateo said before the rest of the players began to join in.

"Say it like you mean it!" Adolf yelled.

"We believe!" The whole team chorused.

"Again!"

"We believe!"

"That's the spirit." The captain said with a nod. "Now I know we lost our last match against Lave City but that one goal was a result of the mistake from my defense and although the defense may not be better now, we all can agree that we have a completely reformed goalkeeper between the sticks, our midfield is great and our attack is good, all we need to do is find a way to break them and we're good. Now let's go out there and win this match!"

"Yeah!" The players screamed as they all got up from their seats and began to make their way out of the locker room.

"If he can speak like this before a league match like this, I wonder how he'll speak before we head to the pitch to play a final," Mateo said as he walked down the hallway with Dave.

"We'll have to get to a final and see," Dave replied.

Unique FC players were putting on their orange jerseys with the black dotted designs while Dave was putting on the plain green jersey.

Lave City players on the other hand were putting on red jerseys with yellow stripes while their goalkeeper was putting on a plain red jersey.

"Welcome to our viewers from all around the world, we are all set for another night of entertaining football live from the Wondamino stadium," Jim said. "My name is Jim Waterson and joining me today to offer expert analysis and opinion is Mr. Steve Jefferson."

"Thank you, Jim, it is really an honor to be here once again to share my opinions on the match alongside you," Steve said.

The players were all lined up in front of the fans as the Unique FC anthem was played and after that, the players went around to shake each other.

Dave and the other players were standing by the side now as Adolf and Lave City's captain made their way to the referee for the coin toss.

"Unique FC are playing the four-three-three formation as always, with Roland, Adolf, Pirlo, and Harry in defense, Edward, Ferran, and Minino in midfield, and Mateo, Fred, and Merino in the attack," Jim said.

"He's finally everyone we know can impact the match in a positive way for them," Steve said.

That was the main reason why Dave seemed so motivated coming into the match, with Ferran and Mateo starting, he knew they had a very good chance of winning.

After the coin toss, both teams moved to their side, Unique FC moved to the left side while Lave City moved to the right side as the hosts were going to be the ones to start the match with the kick-off.

Dave stood in his goal line and did a few jumps before something popped up on his screen.

[ Quest received ]

[ Keep a clean sheet ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +100 exp ]

[ +2 upgrade to any chosen stat ]

[ New skill will be made available ]

"Clean sheet." He muttered.

<This could be your chance to get your first career clean sheet>

The referee blew his whistle to signal the beginning of the match as Fred quickly passed the ball to Minino.

"And we're on the way," Jim said.

Fred made a quick run down the middle as the ball was passed to Ferran who was going to attempt something here.

Ferran received the ball and without wasting time, he lobbed it to Ferran who just needed to get the ball under control and run past one more defender to be through on goal.

"What are Unique FC attempting here?" Jim said.

Unfortunately, Fred failed to bring the ball under control as it was quickly stolen by the player in front of him.

"Oh, that didn't quite work out the way they planned it," Steve said.

"No, it didn't," Jim said.

There was no space to start an attack but despite that, Lave City had a deadly plan up their sleeves that they needed to quickly execute.

The ball was played to the right midfielder who passed it to their attacking midfielder before making his way past Edward to receive it at the other end and now he had the space to do what he wanted to do.

He drilled a low pass to their center forward who was at the edge of the box and with a swift turn, the striker got rid of Pirlo and made his way into the box.

"Oh, this looks promising."

He was about to shoot on goal when Adolf quickly brought him down with quite a careless challenge causing the referee to quickly blow his whistle.

"Oh, it's a foul, it's a penalty," Jim said.

"The referee hasn't made the decision yet but I think that happened at the edge of the box," Steve said.

About five Unique FC players had all gathered around the referee to try and change his mind about that decision but despite all their talks, the referee walked away from them, blew his whistle, and pointed to the penalty spot for a penalty kick against them.

"Oh, it's a penalty kick," Jim said.

No card was shown to Adolf but the referee had made his decision on the outcome of his tackle.

"Quest failed loading," Dave muttered before letting out a deep sigh.

***

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.