My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 343 A Must Win Match

Dave had his dream control Activated the whole night but Catherine didn't show up to help him with anything, he was half expecting it though.

'Wow, Catherine, you're really serious about giving me the silent treatment this time around.' He said subconsciously after slowly opening his eyes, he wasn't really expecting any response from her, and he didn't get any from her.

He slowly turned to the side to see that Emma was already gone from the bed something quite rare since he made getting up every morning for a run a habit.

"Maybe I got up too late." He muttered before he picked up his phone to see that it was just 5:55 in the morning. "Oh, I wonder why she's getting up this early today."

After saying that, he sat up on the bed to pick up his running boots where he usually left them beside the bed only to realize that they weren't there.

'Okay, what's going on here?' He said subconsciously with a confused expression on his face. 'Is she trying to stop me from going out for my morning run today?'

Just to be completely sure, he searched the room thoroughly but he still wasn't able to find the boots, so he decided to head downstairs to see the type of trouble he had woken up to this morning.

Just as he began to make his down the staircase, he could see her sitting on the couch in the living room with her head down as if she was trying to pick something up from the floor, it was after he got closer that he was able to see that she was trying her boots, not just her normal boots, her running boots that she hardly ever wore.

"Um…what are you doing?" Dave asked as soon as he got a little closer to her.

She paused for a while before she slowly raised her head to reveal the bright smile on her face.

"Oh, hey, good morning honey." She said.

"Good morning, um…what are you doing?" The goalkeeper asked again.

"What does it look like? I want to exercise with you today." She said before bringing her head down to finish tying her boot.

"Exercise with me?"

"Yeah, I just want to run with you and…." She suddenly paused before pushing his running boots to him with her foot. "You're looking for these, right?"

"Yeah, why did you take them?" He asked as he bent over to pick up the boots.

By the time he got up, she had a wide smile on her face but she didn't answer the question.

"You know what, never mind, I'll go upstairs and change into something more suitable for running." He said before quickly making his way upstairs with the boots.

It didn't take him long to get changed, and by the time he was downstairs again, she was already waiting for him at the door.

"Hey, we're going to have to take the forest route from the start, I don't want to be crowded by people when you're with me," Dave said as soon as he got close to her.

"That's very considerate of you, sweetie, but you should try to keep up, I may trip and fall. You wouldn't want that to happen would you?" She said before quickly running off.

"Hey, wait, what do you mean by trip and fall!"

He had to shut the door quickly and go after her.

"You better not fall." He muttered under his breath as he went after her.

_______ ______

The match against Ronino FC was scheduled to kick off by 7:00 PM and that gave Norman a lot of time to go through things with his boys.

They had five minutes left before noon, and right now, all the players were gathered in the locker room as the coach was going to reveal the formation, starting eleven, and tactics.

"As always, we'll be using our standard formation for the main starting eleven but I am going to make a couple of changes to the ones who will be starting, first, Frankie will be starting in the defensive midfield position," Norman explained.

"I wanted a position a little upfront but this one works too," Frankie muttered.

You could tell by the expression on his face that he was really excited.

"Up front, Mateo will be on the left wing, Fredinho will be in the striking position and Merino will be starting on the right. The attacking midfielders will be Ferran and Minino and, the back line will have Luis in the right back position, Adolf and Aima in the middle, and Roland on the left, we all know who the goalkeeper is."

After going through the starting eleven and formation, it was now time to talk about tactics.

"The last time we played against Ronino FC, we barely managed to grab a win, you could say we had a little bit of luck on our side that day, but this time, I want us to win comfortably." Norman expressed. "Winning this match will put us ahead of Dynamo FC in the title, I believe that alone should tell you guys that this is a very important match.

"Now, I'll do my best to help you guys with all I know and I'll leave it to you to show them what you can do on the pitch."

It took quite a while for Norman to finish filling them in on the tactics and after that, it was time for the players to head home and prepare for the match.

Most of the players had left now, but Dave was still in the locker with his gaze on one of the lockers but looking at him, you could tell that his mind was somewhere else.

Mateo had just returned to the locker room after going out to ease himself and was surprised to see that Dave was still there.

He stood at the entrance for a while waiting for the goalkeeper to notice, but he never turned his way so he had to go to him.

"Still thinking about yesterday's topic?" The winger said after sitting beside him.

"Oh, Mateo." The goalkeeper was quite surprised as he turned to his teammate. "When did you get here?"

"I've been standing at the entrance for a while now but your mind seemed to be occupied with something else that you didn't notice." Mateo expressed.

"Oh." He said before slowly bringing his head down. "Yeah, I guess I was lost in my thoughts."

"Is it about what you told me yesterday?" Mateo asked but there was no response from Dave.

The room was silent for a while before the winger decided to say what he wanted to say.

"You know if you keep thinking about it, it's going to affect your form in the match, to be honest, this isn't something you should even be thinking about." The winger said.

"What do you mean?" Dave asked before slowly turning his gaze to him.

"You have a goal and two assists so far this season, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, it's a surprise that even Ferran doesn't have that kind of stats so far this season, so let me ask you a question. Who is more unique, a goalkeeper who can score an assist or a midfielder who can also do the same thing?"

"Well, since the goalkeeper has the lowest chance of scoring and assisting among all the players on the pitch, it's the goalkeeper." The goalkeeper replied.

"I think you have your answer there, I'm not telling you to not change positions if you want to, all I'm saying is that you are very unique goalkeeper and I think anyone who had a dream of becoming a goalkeeper would be happy with that accomplishment." He expressed.

"Hmm, you make a good point, thanks, Mateo."

"Don't mention it." The winger said before getting up from the seat. "I have to get going now, please don't get distracted during the match."

"I won't, bye."

Mateo responded with a nod before making his way out of the room.

'I was just trying to get Catherine to talk, but thanks for the advice, Mateo.' The goalkeeper said subconsciously before raising his gaze to look at the ceiling. 'You're still not going to talk.'

_______ ______

The match was about to kick off as both teams were lined up in the tunnel waiting for the signal to start making their way to the pitch.

Ronino FC were putting on their new away Jersey which was made up of a blue shirt with three curvy white stripes and plain white shorts and as for Unique FC, they were putting on their signature home jersey orange and black.

It didn't take long before the players were given the signal to start making their way to the pitch.

The commentators did their introductions as usual and now it was time for the coin flip.

"You know, Steve, Unique FC vs Ronino FC has always been tough, both teams managed to grab a win against each other last season, Ronino FC's win was obviously the more convincing but that match wasn't easy for them in any way." Jim expressed.

"Yeah, but you know Unique FC is a way better team now, they are in third place and looking to use this match to climb above Dynamo FC on the table, Ronino FC aren't doing that badly to be honest but they are in ninth place with just eleven points this season, of course, all that might not mean anything but if we consider what Unique FC has been doing this season and how Dave Richards has not conceded a single goal so far, I think they have the clear advantage." Steve expressed.

"I think so too, Steve, but we'll have to wait and see what happens, this is football and as we all clearly know, anything can happen," Jim said.

Ronino FC ended up winning the coin flip and that meant that they were going to be the ones to start the match from the kick-off spot as they chose the left side.

[ Quest received ]

[ Make sure to keep a clean sheet in this match ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +70 exp ]

[ +1 stat point ]

[ +5 skill upgrade points ]

'That's strange, I've been cleaning sheets all these while and now I get a match quest about only keeping a clean sheet and the reward is also poor.' Dave said subconsciously as he made his way to his goalpost.

Ronino FC used the four-five-one formation the last time they faced Unique FC but today, they were playing with a plain four four two formation to make room for their newly signed striker to play alongside Sandro.

Sandro was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he quickly pushed the ball to his closest teammate.

"There's the whistle and we are on the way."

The ball was quickly pushed to Zen by the midfielder who Sandro passed the ball to and without giving much thought to it, the midfielder sent the ball flying over the top toward a player with the name Xavier written above the number fourteen on the back of his jersey.

"Ronino FC going for a direct attack here."

Xavier got his foot on the ball and just before Luis could get to him, he pushed the ball to Sandro who fell right inside the box just after making slight contact with Adolf.

The defender raised his hands to claim his innocence but the defender but the referee wasn't buying it as he blew his whistle and pointed to the spot for a penalty kick.

'It hasn't even been a minute and my quest is in danger.'