My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 341 Crossbar Challenge: Time Quest

Supreme United destroyed Ballena United five goals to zero on Sunday to keep their spot at the top safe.

They had twenty-four points from eight matches, no dropped points so far unlike the teams below them.

After that match on Sunday, Dynamo FC faced off against Lesica United, and what a match that was.

It was a tough match, Okafor gave his team the lead as early as the twentieth minute.

Dynamo FC fought hard for an equalizer and right at the eighty-fifth minute, Frank found the back of the net from a free kick twenty-five yard out.

Both teams tried hard to get that winning goal but in the end, none of them were able to get it and the match ended in a draw.

That match saw them drop two points from a match since the start of the season and that meant that Unique FC who had a match in hand could overtake them if they manage to grab all three points against Ronino FC on Wednesday.

Tuesday came by pretty quickly and right now, Unique FC players were on the pitch having a training session.

They were doing stretches which was supervised by one of the coaching staff, and after that, they moved to the strategic parts of the training session.

They did a lot of that before they started practicing with the ball.

Dave and Mateo were passing the ball between each other now as they talked about a couple of things.

"Our last match against Ronino FC was pretty tough, I wonder if this one will be any different." The goalkeeper said before pushing the ball back to Mateo.

"That was then, we're a whole different team now, we've already defeated some of the good teams in the league this season but Ronino FC hasn't been doing that well, that's why they're in eighth place with the possibility of falling further down." Mateo expressed before quickly sending the ball back to Dave. "This is our chance to move to second place and become the closest team to knocking Supreme United off the top spot."

"Yeah, I know," Dave said before sending the ball back to him. "If we manage to beat Ronino FC tomorrow we'll move past Dynamo FC and top them with two points and will just be three points away from equalling Supreme United on points and as we may have it, our next match after facing off against Ronino FC will be against Supreme United."

"That's going to be a tough match," Mateo said before he sent the ball rolling back to him.

"Yeah, but I'm sure we'll be able to pull through," Dave said.

The team did some practice shots before Norman decided that it was time for them to take a short break.

While everyone rushed to the sidelines to pour some water into their system and sit down for a couple of minutes, Dave didn't feel that tired or dehydrated yet so he decided to do something while he was still on the pitch.

'It's been a while since I've tried a crossbar challenge during a training session.' He said subconsciously as he gathered six balls on the kick-off spot.

"Does that guy ever get tired?" Martinez asked from where he was sitting beside Norman Kole. "For a goalkeeper, I expected him to have low stamina, we've been running around for a while and he still doesn't want to rest."

"That's quite ironic given the fact that he used to have the poorest stamina among all the players on the squad," Norman said.

"Really? The guy who used to have the poorest stamina now has this kind of stamina, how is that even possible?"

"I don't know how he did it but after that match against Supreme United last season, I just noticed that his stamina started to improve and it wasn't long before his stamina got to a good level and his goalkeeping skills got good too," Norman explained. "It's like our team got better after he improved because we didn't lose any other match after that loss against Supreme United and we also ended up beating Lesica United to qualify for UEFA Europa conference league qualifiers."

"I see," Martinez said before turning his gaze to Dave who was standing over the balls he had lined up in other now. "But don't you think it's a little bit odd the way he rapidly improved?"

"If you're talking about doping, then you should know that he has already undergone a test for that and they didn't find anything, that cleared my doubt on that because I used to think that that was the case." Norman expressed.

"Yeah, I know, I was already part of the team when that happened, have you forgotten?"

"Yeah, it happened during the pre-season tour," Norman said.

"He's not doping, that's clear, I don't think someone like him can do something like that, but that doesn't mean his rapid improvement isn't suspicious."

Dave was standing over the lined-up balls now as he was planning to take them one after the other.

[ Quest received ]

[ Hit the crossbar with at least four balls ]

[ Duration: 20 seconds ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +20 skill upgrade points ]

[ +100 exp ]

[ +2 stat points ]

'I wasn't even thinking of a quest.'

<Well, you have one now so take care of it>

'Four hits in twenty seconds.'

<Get on with it, your time's going>

'Right.' The goalkeeper replied before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost.

The ball was sent flying toward the right side of the goalpost and ended up making slight contact with the crossbar before falling into the goalpost.

<Fourteen seconds left>

He quickly sent the second ball flying toward the goalpost down the middle but it ended up floating past the crossbar without making any contact with it.

<Twelves seconds, get the next one you still have to make three more hits>

He quickly got on the next ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost and this one ended up hitting the crossbar head-on before flying over the bar.

<Ten seconds, two more hits>

He quickly sent the next ball flying toward the right side and it ended up making slight contact with the crossbar before falling off to the side.

<Eight seconds, one more hit with two balls left>

He quickly got on the next ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost down the middle but that one ended up missing the crossbar entirely as it flew into the goalpost.

<Get on with the last one you have one five seconds left>

Dave was a bit hesitant to take that last shot because he knew that missing it was going to mean that everything he had done up to that point was in vain but still, not taking it was worse than taking it and missing it.

<Three seconds>

As soon as Catherine said that, he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the goalpost.

This time he decided to for the left side and for a second there it looked like the ball was going to fly over the bar because it was a lobbed shot but it ended up coming down right on time to make contact with the crossbar.

<Right on target>

"Yes." He muttered before crashing to the floor.

[ Quest completed ]

<You did it>

'You know, Catherine, I have never seen you be so enthusiastic about me completing a quest before.'

"At this rate, you might just become a midfielder or forward."

The goalkeeper quickly raised his gaze to see that the owner of the shadow lurking over him was the club's newly employee goalkeeping coach Mr. Lucas.

****

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.