My Goalkeeping System

'I don't know, should I play it short, long, or go for goal?' Dave was panicking in his mind with the ball trapped under his feet.

<You have only one minute left before it's over, a short pass won't do any good, going for goal isn't a good option either as your shot power isn't that great and shot accuracy will be really off in a situation>

'So, you're saying.'

<Yes, go for long ball, find a teammate and offload the ball to him!> Catherine screamed in his head.

The goalkeeper quickly scanned the box and found the right place to send the ball and just before the players could get to him, he sent the ball flying into the box.

"He's sending into the box."

There were a lot of players in the box with two different purposes in mind, to get the ball in the net or out of the area.

The first player miscalculated the ball and had it flying past him and now it was just between Adolf and a Lesica United defender.

Adolf got his head to the ball before the player pushed him off.

"Adolf!" Jim exclaimed.

The ball bounced on the right side of the goalpost as the goalkeeper raised his hand to keep it out but he seemed to have miscalculated it as the ball flew past his arm and fell into the back of the net.

"I can't believe it! They've done it! They've put it into the back of the net! They've gotten that winner!" Jim screamed. "And who else than super captain Adolf?!"

Adolf took off to the sidelines as all his teammates including Dave chased him down until they caught up to him and pulled him down.

If the fans had gone wild for that equalizer, they were going crazily wild now.

"They have defied the odds! Proven all the haters wrong!" Steve exclaimed. "Surely now they have won the match."

"That goal was superb but talk about that pass from Dave, that goal wouldn't have happened if it weren't for him," Jim said. "What an iconic moment this must be for him, setting up Adolf to score the goal which secures their spot for the conference league next season."

"It's amazing how he has three assists this season and in his career and they all happened in a space of seven matches, setting up Mateo Smith to score twice, and now he's set up Adolf to score what would go down as an iconic goal in what will go down in the history of Bilbeth Premier League as one of the most iconic matches," Steve said.

"I knew you could do it," Emma muttered as her face suddenly lit up with a bright smile again.

"It's nice to see you smile like that again," Matthew said, smiling at her before he slowly turned his gaze back to the pitch. "That was a pretty nice goal, this kind of moment is one of the reasons why I love this sport."

"Me too," Emma muttered.

Lesica United players and fans had devastated looks on their faces, they never expected it to end this way, they never expected Unique FC to strike them like this.

Okafor was standing over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle but he knew it was no use because as soon as would pass the ball to anyone, the match would be concluded, the added time had already been exhausted even before that ball fell into their goalpost.

The referee blew his whistle and as soon as Okafor passed the ball to the player closest to him, the referee blew his whistle thrice to mark the completion of the match.

The home fans and players burst into cheers of joy as soon as they heard that whistle.

"Looks like that's it, a well-fought battle between the two teams but at last, the most determined to get the win got it," Jim said. "Lesica United fought hard but Unique FC wanted the conference league spot more and they fought harder for it, every ounce of energy was spent and at last they are going to be back on one of the big stages of European football once again after six years."

"The players and fans are really hitting in the celebration," Steve said.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Mateo screamed.

The winger was about to try jumping on the bed with his condition when his mother suddenly entered.

"Hey, stop that." She said before quickly making her way to him to pull him down. "You know you can't be doing something like that in your condition."

"I know," Mateo said before slowly sitting down on his bed. "But we just qualified for the conference league."

"Wait, you guys won?" She said before turning her gaze to the television to see Unique FC players celebrating. "Who scored the goal?"

"Adolf but it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for that wonderful pass from Dave." He said.

"Dave?"

"Yeah, you should have seen the goal, I'm surprised you didn't hear me screaming after it went in, I could swear I was too loud, even for myself." He said.

"I went out to get something." She said.

"Oh, okay."

"I have a feeling that this Unique FC side will surprise us next season," Jim said. "That's all for today and we'll see you next time, goodbye."

Unique FC players were still celebrating with the coach and staff when Dave broke free from the crowd to make his way down the tunnel but before he could take a step further, he felt someone tap him from behind.

He quickly turned back to see Okafor standing behind him with a smile on his face.

"Hey." The striker said.

"Hey," Dave said.

"You really put up a good show today, to be honest, I wasn't expecting much from you after what happened last night but you completely surprised me today, that pass that led to the goal broke my spirit but I couldn't help but appreciate it." The striker said.

"Thanks, you were also awesome today," Dave said.

"Thank you, so do you mind swapping shirts with me?" The striker requested.

"You want to swap shirts with me?" Dave said as he never believed that this day would come so soon, the day someone would ask him for a shirt swap.

'I never expected my first shirt swap to be with one of the most prominent players in the league and he's the one asking.'

"Sure," Dave said before he slowly pulled off his shirt and by the time he was done, he could see that Okafor had removed his own too.

"Here," Okafor said before taking the goalkeeper's shirt and handing him his own.

"Thank you," Dave muttered.

"Till we meet again, Dave," Okafor said before quickly making his way toward the tunnel.

"My first shirt swap." The goalkeeper muttered looking at the number nine on Okafor's shirt.

"Dave!"

The goalkeeper turned to see Emma quickly heading toward him and as soon as she got close to him, she wrapped her arms around him in a warm hug.

"You did it, you finally did it." She said.

Dave didn't reply immediately as he slowly turned his gaze to his teammates.

"We did it, all of us." He said.

***

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If we can hit 1000+ privilege unlocks before the end of this month, I'll do five chapters mass release on any day between the 20-25th of January.