My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 351 The Audiz Derby: Kick Off

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"I guess we're here," Dave said as soon as the bus pulled up beside Supreme United's stadium.

The players got off the bus with whatever they came with before making their way into the building.

They had already been there a couple of times, so they knew where to find the locker room.

The players still had a lot of time left before they could make their way to the pitch for the pre-match warm-up.

"Mateo, do you remember what happened in the first minute of our first leg against Supreme United last season?" Ferran asked with a little chuckle as he slowly sat down.

"I don't want to talk about that," Mateo said with his face slowly turning red in embarrassment.

"I haven't seen Mateo like that before," Gregory muttered as the topic seemed to have piqued his interest. "What happened?" He asked after turning his gaze to Ferran.

"Yeah, what happened, Ferran? I would like to know what was able to make Mateo's face turn red like that." Martinez said.

"Sure, I'll tell you guys, I was involved anyway so I don't need to ask for his permission," Ferran said.

"Involved how?" Martinez asked.

"Just listen. The match had just begun with the signal from the referee's whistle and as per custom, Roland had to pass the ball to any of his teammates and he chose Diego.

"Mateo along with me quickly closed up on him to try and dispossess him as fast as possible, but guess what happened?"

"What?" Gregory asked.

"Well, he nutmegged us both," Ferran said.

"Wait, he nutmegged the both of you and still got the ball?" Martinez asked.

"Yeah," Ferran replied with a nod.

"Wow."

"And the funniest part is that as soon as he got past us, Mateo crumbled to his knees as if he was suddenly pushed down by a force from above." The midfielder said before bursting into a feat of laughter.

"Oh, come on," Mateo said before slapping his palm into his face.

"That was quite embarrassing, but it was nothing compared to what I went through in that match," Dave said.

"I know coach said a lot of things about this Diego and how he's even deadlier than Roland with the ball, but it looks like I have to take him way more seriously than that," Martinez said.

"Yeah, you have to, don't let your guard down around or something terrible is going to happen," Ferran said.

"I'll do my best," Martinez replied. "He didn't do anything special during the Charity Cup match but maybe he was holding back to get us to lower our guard in this match."

"Yeah, do your best but I don't think you'll be doing much work anyway because I have a way to hold him down," Minino said.

"Please don't do any stupid, Minino." Ferran pleaded.

"Where's that coming from? Since when was I known as someone who does stupid things?"

As soon as he asked that room, the whole room went silent as everyone pretended not to have heard what he asked.

"Oh, you guys, so you all think I do stupid things!"

After spending some time in the locker room, the players put on their training outfits and made their way to the pitch for the pre-match warm-up.

Mateo and Dave along with Gregory were the first players to make their way out of the tunnel, and that was when they ran into Roland who seemed to be heading down the tunnel at that time.

"Oh, hey, there Mateo, Dave, and this new player that I have never seen." The striker said as soon as he spotted the three.

"Hey, Roland, umm…this is Gregory, he just got promoted from the academy, he's a striker," Mateo said introducing the young striker to him.

"Oh, a new striker, welcome to our world buddy, you look like someone who has a lot of potential," Roland said.

"Thank you, that means a lot coming from you," Gregory said as a smile suddenly appeared on his face.

<Looks like he really looks up to Roland compared to the strikers in your team>

'Well, there's no rule saying you must look up to the players in your team who play similar positions, so, it makes sense that he looks up to an elite striker like Roland.' Dave replied.

Roland smiled back at him before turning his gaze back to Dave and Mateo.

"You guys are doing quite great this season, you weren't even close last season but now you're in the title race." The striker said.

"Yeah, a lot of things have changed and we're happy for where we are now," Mateo replied.

"I am really glad to see you guys making a difference and maybe now we can finally have an Audiz derby that isn't one-sided."

"Um….I don't know, the Charity Cup match was pretty one-sided in a way to me." Dave said with a little shrug.

"Yeah, you're not wrong, but I think this will be the real test for you guys," Roland said.

"A test? Sure, we've already beaten you once and I'm confident we can do it again." Mateo said.

"Ha, we'll see about that," Roland said as he walked past the three to continue his walk down the tunnel. "See you guys on the pitch."

"He's pretty nice and friendly compared to some of the players I've met before," Gregory said.

"Yeah, he has a nice personality," Mateo said.

p?nd?---no??1,?o? "I'm glad he's like that." The young striker said.

"But don't be fooled, he's nothing like that on the pitch, when he's on the pitch, the only thing he cares about is scoring and scoring alone."

"I know, it's like that for every striker," Gregory replied with a warm smile.

The warm-up session lasted for a while and with just forty minutes left before the kick-off, they all made their way down the tunnel to get ready for the match.

This was an away match for Unique FC, so they were going to bed putting on one of their away kits, and the one they chose today was the kit that was just a reverse of their home jersey.

Their home jersey was orange with black polka dots and that meant that the reverse was going to be black with orange polka dots.

Dave on the other hand was putting on a black kit with just two curved orange designs on the front.

After getting ready, the players made their way to the exit where they met up with Supreme United players.

It was a home match for them so they were putting on their home kit which was a red shirt and shorts with very well-detailed black outlines running around the edges while their goalkeeper was putting on a black kit just like Dave.

It didn't take long before the players were given the signal to start making their way to the pitch, and as they did that, the commentators gave their introductions and greetings.

"I have a feeling that this is going to be the best Audiz derby in the history of the league," Jim said. "I know almost everything points toward Supreme United winning, but I don't think it's going to be that easy."

"Well, football is an unpredictable game so I can't really say, but yeah, I get the feeling that this is going to be a pretty interesting match," Steve said.

The captains of both teams made their way to the match officials for the coin toss, and at the end of the day, Unique FC ended up winning the coin toss.

Norman was playing with his standard formation. He had Mateo, Fred, and Carlos up front.

The midfield had Ferran, Martinez, and Minino and finally in defense, we had Roland, Adolf, Pirlo, and Norman Kole.

Supreme United was playing with the normal four-three-three formation and upfront they had Carlos, Roland, and Diego their deadliest front three.

[ Quest received ]

[ Keep a clean sheet in this match ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +300 exp ]

[ +6 stat points ]

[ +70 skill upgrade points ]

'Clean sheet, oh boy, this is going to be hard against Supreme United, the rewards even say everything about the level of difficulty.' Dave said subconsciously as he made his way to his goalpost.

<Yeah, but don't forget you'll be getting extra stat points from me if your predictions turn out to be correct>

'Yeah, I hope they turn out to be correct.'

Fred was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle.

He was glad that Norman had finally decided to start him in an important match, and the fact that this match had such a high level of importance, and yet the coach decided to start him made him want to prove himself and show everyone that he was a great striker.

It didn't take long before the referee blew his whistle, and as soon as he did that, the striker quickly pushed the ball to Minino who quickly sent it rolling back to Martinez.

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

Unique FC just passed the ball around for a while until the fourth minute when Minino decided to make a bold move.

He received the ball from Martinez before quickly zooming past Felcao who was heading toward him at the exact time.

"Wow, he's gotten past Felcao, what's he scheming?"

After getting past Pelcao, he spotted Mateo making a run down the left wing and quickly sent the ball flying over to him.

The winger had the right back heating toward him at the exact time but he had a cheeky plan.

He waited for the ball to get closer before he lifted his right leg and sent it over and past the wing-back at the same time as he ran past him, and just before the ball could hit the floor, the winger struck it with his right foot and sent it flying toward the goalpost with a powerful shot.

The ball was sent flying toward the top left-hand corner as Perez dived toward it, but he wasn't able to get to it on time as the ball ended up hitting the angle created by the crossbar and post before falling into the goalpost.

"Oh, my goodness. WHAT WAS THAT?!"