That goal from Mateo was what you would call a desperate attempt to make sure his team was leading before the halftime break and it sure worked out for him.
"Mateo Smith sure is making his mark this season, he now holds the record for the longest scoring streak scoring for seven consecutive games." Jim expressed. "Another star in the making."
After that goal, Spree City started to look a bit lackluster and would have given the ball away for another goal if the goalkeeper had not intervened quickly to clear the.
Unique FC dominated the game for the few minutes left until the referee blew his whistle to bring the first half to an end.
"There's the whistle and that is the end of the first half," Jim said. "Both teams fought well and created good chances but in the end, it was Unique FC who made good use of one of their chances to get a goal, the first half comes to an end, Spree City nill, Unique FC one."
The players quickly made their way down the tunnel and straight to the locker room to have a little rest before the second half.
Norman went down the tunnel first and was already waiting for his boys in the locker room before they entered.
He went around and gave each of them a handshake before walking back to where he was standing.
"Good job guys, I wasn't particularly impressed with the way you guys played, you lacked decisiveness apart from Mateo and that was why he scored, but we have the lead and that's all that matters." He expressed. "Now, I know what most of you are thinking, we have the lead and they're one man down so the second half should be a walk over, if you think like that, we're going to lose this lead and maybe even lose the match, and what a shame it would be to have a team with ten men make a comeback against us."
"Did you guys hear the coach? If that's what you're thinking then snap out of it." Adolf said to his teammates.
"Yeah, you have to go into this second half and play like they still have eleven men on the pitch, but, they're one man short and we're going to try and make good use of that." The coach. "I think you guys have already seen through what happened to Adolf and Mateo that they can be a bit too rough, so be careful, don't be afraid to take on a challenge but be careful."
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtAfter the coach told them a couple more things before the halftime break period got exhausted and they had to start making their way to the pitch.
Just as the players from both teams stepped onto the pitch, the fans began to erupt with wild cheers, Unique FC fans had been quite hyperactive since that goal from Mateo.
"Welcome back everyone, the second half is about to kick off as we can see the players making their way to the pitch now," Jim said. "This match could either become one-sided or become filled with jaw-dropping surprises, either way, it's going to be a good show."
"And by jaw-dropping surprises, you mean Spree City possibly making a comeback."
"Yeah, if that happens, the atmosphere is sure going to go wild given that they're one man short." Jim expressed.
"Yeah, but let's just watch and see how things turn out," Steve said.
Since Unique FC started the match from the kick-off spot in the first half, Spree City were going to be the ones to do it in the second half."
Felix was standing over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he quickly pushed the ball to Jamie who quickly sent it to Kelano before Mateo could get to him.
Now that the hosts were one man down, their coach had to remove one of the midfielders and put in another right back to strengthen his backline as he didn't want his defense to suffer but removing a man from midfield meant that Unique FC could comfortably control the midfield now and midfield was where they shined the most.
Spree City started the match with slow and progressive passes while looking for an opening to make that pass that would wreck havoc on Unique FC's defense.
Jamie switched to the middle to receive the ball back from Kelano, and without much thinking, he drilled the ball low toward Felix inside the box.
The ball got past Adolf and Aima and now all that remained was for Felix to finish but Dave rushed out of his goal right in time to catch the ball and move out of the way to avoid Felix making any rough contact with him.
"Oh, my, that was so close to being Spree City's equalizer but Dave Richards isn't going to make things easy for them I see."
'That was close.' Dave said subconsciously before he got up with the ball and sent it flying to Minino.
Just before leaving the box, Felix turned his gaze to him and smirked.
'I don't know what that's for but you're not going to do anything.' The goalkeeper said subconsciously.
Minino got hold of the ball and just before the midfielder right behind him could get to him, he passed the ball to Martinez who quickly raced through the empty space in the center of midfield.
"Martinez using that spacious midfield to his advantage."
Jamie quickly switched to the middle to try and stop the defensive midfielder, but all he needed to do was push the ball to Ferran who had to send it to Mateo to avoid losing it to Kelano who had already closed up on him.
"Mateo."
Mateo moved closer to the right and feigned shooting toward the goalpost before laying the ball off to Fredinho who found Merino closing up in the box and quickly laid the ball off to him with a through pass.
"Fredinho finds Merino in the box, this could be the second goal!"
The winger was in a good position to receive the ball, but just as he pulled his leg back and fired it toward the goalpost, the referee blew his whistle.
The ball bounced on the goalkeeper's hand and rolled into the goalpost, but it didn't matter as the linesman already had his flag up.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Looks like that won't count, the linesman has his flag up and the referee's not giving it," Jim said.
"He was offside, his right foot was offside just by millimeters, he could have avoided that, but that's the right call, no goal," Steve said.
The match continued till the sixtieth minute with none of the teams being able to produce anything as Unique FC were still leading.
Spree City's attack was finding it quite difficult to get through Unique FC's defense and Unique FC who didn't have that much trouble getting through were missing a lot of chances.
It was until the sixty-third minute that Spree City won a free kick right at the edge of the box after Felix was brought down by Adolf.
The challenge wasn't a nice one so the captain had to be shown a yellow card.
It looked intentional as revenge for what Felix did to him and maybe it was.
Right now, Torres was standing over the ball with his gaze on Unique FC's four-man wall inside the box which also had somebody under it, they didn't want to take any chances.
"A free kick in a very good spot, this might as well be Spree City's chance to level it," Steve said.
The referee blew his whistle as Torres slowly took three steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost from the top.
****
Mass release goals.
A magic castle= one extra chapter.
Two magic castles= two extra chapters.