My Goalkeeping System

"Mateo!"

Victor tried his best, I mean that much was obvious, but getting the tip of his glove on the ball was not enough to stop it as the ball ended up smashing past his hand to fly straight into the goalpost.

"That is just magisterial! This guy is unbelievable. Just when you thought Dynamo were about to make a possible comeback, he puts his team two goals ahead. Talk about defying the odds!"

The home fans were off their seats screaming louder than they did for the first and second goals while jumping quite wildly.

The away fans were obviously furious to see their team go two goals down but some of them couldn't help but applaud what the youngster managed to pull off.

"That's the first overhead kick Mateo Smith has scored in his career and he sure picked the right moment for it." Steve articulated.

Just like everyone else, Mateo was quite overjoyed with the way he was able to put the ball in as he could be seen in front of the stands, screaming with an expression of great joy written all over his face.

His teammates were right behind him, sharing in the celebration. Minino, although now on the bench, was just as eccentric as always, almost rushing to the other side to celebrate with his teammates.

"You would expect losing one player to demoralize Unique FC and make things easier for Dynamo but all it took was a few minutes to show that that isn't enough to shake them," Jim commented. "Dynamo FC will have to get their stuff together and figure out a way to use the hole currently in Unique's team against them. Otherwise, they'll have to accept a loss against a ten-man side."

<Looks like you guys still have a clear edge on this one>

'Yeah, falling back to defend is probably the best thing to do at this stage.'

<True, but that's entirely up to your coach to decide>

With the celebration now done, it was time to get back into the game as Damian could be seen standing over the ball in the kick-off spot waiting for the referee's whistle.

It didn't take long for the official to blow his whistle and as soon as he did, the striker sent the ball rolling to Connell.

"The game is back on the way here, Unique FC now have a clearer advantage against the away side but there's still a lot of time for Dynamo to get back into the game so it's too early to make any conclusions."

Given the fact that almost all the counterattacks from Unique FC courtesy of Dave cost them something in this match, the away side decided not to be too assertive with the way they attack and just slowly progressed toward striking range.

Unique FC were able to adapt comfortably to their change, Ferran pulling back on the left flank to help with defense.

Merino also had to pull back to help with defense, those were the instructions from Norman.

Now that they had a good grasp on the game, the coach wanted them to focus more on defending but he wasn't planning on parking the bus.

Despite Unique FC's extra efforts in defense, Dynamo FC were able to slip through a couple of times but they ultimately ended up getting stopped by Unique FC's last line of defense, Dave Richards.

This was the first time in a while that Unique FC were comfortably holding onto a two-goal lead against the Dynamo side in a match and they were enjoying it.

With the match almost at the seventieth minute, Noe raced down the right wing, an attempt to get past Roland with a showing of speed and ball control.

However, the fullback was the more experienced player even though they were technically age mates.

Handling Frank all day long was quite tiresome for him so dealing with this newbie was no problem for him.

A neat tackle was all he needed to brush the ball off the forward's feet and send it rolling out for a throw-in.

With the ball now out for a throw, Norman decided that it was finally time to bring in some fresh legs.

Frankie had been warming up on the sidelines alongside the other teammates so it wasn't a surprise when he came in to replace Martinez who was somewhat quiet throughout his time on the pitch.

What did surprise most of them was the coach bringing in Jonas to replace Roland just after that.

"It's been a while since Jonas got any considerable play time."

<Replacing Roland this early on might be a big mistake, he's the only one with the speed to keep up with the stuff they throw down that flank>

'True, but we'll have to believe in what the coach is doing and besides, having Frankie on the pitch now is going to change the tempo of our game.'

With the changes now complete, the game was to resume immediately with the throw-in that Connell was going to be handling.

Throwing the ball to Noe who was the closest player to him would have been easy if Jonas wasn't sticking very close to him.

Throwing the ball back to the free players on their side of the pitch would have been an easy fix but ignoring that, the midfielder decided to gamble on a bigger target.

Matip who was near the edge of the box had Frankie on him at the moment but he didn't care as he sent the ball flying straight to the midfielder.

Frankie tried to stop him, but being the taller player, the midfielder was able to get his head on the ball first, and just after bringing it down, he pushed away from Frankie a little, away from the box, before flicking it in toward the right, an impressive attempt to play Noe through.

The youngster was able to push past Jonas to get his foot on the ball but just as he brought it down, the fullback stretched his right leg to neatly get the ball off the youngster's feet.

He tripped on his leg afterward and was sent tumbling but there was no reaction from the referee as Jonas rushed to the ball before it could cross the line and sent it rolling to Frankie.

"That's wonderful defending from Jonas."

Matip quickly rushed towards Frankie as soon as he got his foot on the ball but feigning moving to the left before cutting to the right was all it took to get past him, and now he was racing down the middle with the ball, cutting past Connell who tried to double cross him with a neat body feint.

"Frankie's looking to kick off a counterattack here."

That was exactly what he had in mind, however, just before the midfielder could get to the halfway line, one of the defensive midfielders charged straight at him, pushing him down with his whole body to stop him from advancing forward.

Frankie was left on the ground as the referee blew his whistle before quickly rushing to the area, reaching for his pocket.

"Well, that was a desperate move."

Frankie did not seem to be in any pain but the defensive midfielder was shown a yellow card nevertheless and now Unique FC had a free-kick which had very little chance to cause any problem for Dynamo since it happened on their side of the pitch.

'Hey, are you thinking what I'm thinking?'

<Yeah, this is a good opportunity to try something interesting>