My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 358 Ten Stat Points

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"You guys are doing superbly so far," Norman said with a bright smile on his face.

All the players were in the locker room now and as always, Norman was standing in front of them because he had something to tell them even if he didn't have to.

"Dominating the match doesn't mean you have to let your guard down, they almost pulled one back with a penalty and they have a lot of time to equalize the whole thing in the second half." He said with his arms crossed behind him.

"Um…it's possible but I don't think that's going to happen to us," Adolf said. "Mateo wants his first hat trick of the season so I don't think he's going to cam down, Fred also wants to score more goals, the midfield is doing their best to help them, Dave is doing his best from the goalpost and as the defensive leader, I will make sure that nothing gets past us easily. Don't worry, coach, there's no way we're drawing a third match in a row, we're already winning this one and we'll see it through to the end." He expressed.

Saying that seemed to have calmed Norman's mind from whatever he was thinking, but he still had something to tell them.

After telling the players everything he wanted to tell them, it was now time for them to start making their way to the pitch so that the second half could kick off.

"Hey, Dave."

The goalkeeper quickly turned around after hearing his name to see Martinez standing there.

Mateo wasn't with him this time because he had to go ease himself.

"Oh, hey, Marts, any problem?" He asked.

"No, there can't be any problem when we're winning a match by a three-goal margin," Martinez said as both of them slowly made their way toward the exit. "Um….I just wanted to say that it's quite rare to see a goalkeeper who can dish out the kind of thing you dish out on a regular basis."

<This again?>

"I know you love this club but you should really consider moving to the English Premier League or Laliga at the end of the season, your career would surely blossom in any of those leagues." The midfielder said before running off into the pitch.

He didn't even give the goalkeeper the time to say anything before leaving like that.

Dave didn't say anything and just let out a sigh before continuing his walk to the pitch.

"Welcome back, everyone, the second half is about to kick off as we can see the players from both teams making their way to the pitch now," Jim announced. "The first half was pretty entertaining but one-sided, let's see if this will be any difference."

"I doubt it will be but it sure would be nice to see Junami United fight back a little," Steve said.

'One criterion has already been crushed, the second is still safe and the last one is definitely going to get crushed in this half.' Dave said subconsciously as he made his way to his goalpost.

<Considering how their only shot on target throughout the first half was only that penalty, you shouldn't be saying that with such confidence>

'Yeah, you do have a point, but our defense is going to loosen up and they're going to get a couple of good chances.'

<Huh?>

'Just watch, you'll see.'

<I don't really see that happening but, okay>

Unique FC were the ones who started the match from the Kick-off spot in the first half and that meant that Junami United were going to be the ones to do it in the second half.

Benson was standing over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he quickly passed the ball to the teammate closest to him.

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

They had to quickly move the ball back to avoid losing it to Unique FC, but it didn't take long before they returned it to the middle by passing it around.

Benson received the ball right on the Kick-off spot with Frankie quickly racing toward him to try and take the ball off him, but before the midfielder could get to him, he sent the ball rolling to the player on the right with the name Elvis written below the number seven on the back of his jersey.

They had already succeeded in drawing out the defense well enough, and now it was time to strike them.

The winger pushed the ball forward a little and acted like he was about to attempt dribbling past Roland before he sent the ball flying toward the box from the top as Benson zoomed past both Adolf and Pirlo who were both caught unaware.

"Uh oh, it's a one-on-one situation here," Jim commented.

You could tell the excitement in his voice was slowly building up.

"No, no, no," Dave muttered as he contemplated between rushing out or staying where he was as Benson raced toward the ball with the defenders and other players right behind him.

<Don't overthink things, just do something>

[ +10 stat points added to dexterity ]

[ Dexterity: 70 ]

Right at that time, Benson got his foot on the ball and pushed it into the box.

Dave quickly rushed out with a knee slide to stop him right at that time, Benson was quite shocked because he didn't expect him to be that fast.

Out of instinct, the striker tried to lob the ball over the goalkeeper, but Dave was quick enough to raise his hand right on time, but he wasn't able to stop it completely as the ball grazed past his hand and was now rolling toward the goalpost.

Dave quickly rushed toward the ball just as it was about to cross the line and with his left hand, he pushed the ball out toward Roland who didn't hesitate in sending it as far away from their goalpost as possible.

Junami United players gathered around the referee claiming that the ball had already crossed the line before Dave got to it but the referee didn't listen to anything they said and allowed play to continue.

"That was a very close save from Dave, that could have really gone in if he had been a second slower," Jim said. "He doesn't like seeing the ball go into his goalpost and he does everything possible to make sure that doesn't happen."

"Yeah, he now has a lot of what he used to lack, passion, it's good to see that," Steve commented.

<Wow, you just dumped ten stat points into dexterity>

'You asked me to stop thinking and do something and I did the best thing I could think of, what's wrong with that?'

<I never said anything was wrong with it, I'm just saying that I hope you will start adding stat points to your dexterity which is way high now, and focus on your strength and endurance which are just as important>

[ Unused stat points: 7 ]

'I know, I know, I won't be adding any more stat points to it.' He said subconsciously. 'My body sure feels lighter now after adding that amount of stat points.'

<It's expected, your speed has increased greatly>

The match continued with both teams trying their best to outsmart and strike their opponent.

Junami United were finding some spaces through Unique FC's defense to fire deadly shots toward the goalpost and although all those shots were on target, only one ended up being quite the threat to Dave.

An acrobatic kick from their attacking midfielder right from the edge of the box.

The ball was sent flying toward the right side with a little bit of elevation but Dave was able to get to it on time and hit it down for Adolf to get to it and clear it with a single kick.

Junami United had been able to get a couple of good moments against them but despite that, Unique FC were still tearing them apart.

Right now, Minino was racing down the right wing with the ball, and just as the player in front of him got closer to try and take the ball off his feet, he sent the ball rolling forward to Merino.

Merino caught hold of the ball and moved forward with it a little before he passed it to Ferran.

Ferran got hold of the ball and quickly cut past the player in front of him before he pulled his right foot back and fired the ball toward the goalpost.

"Ferran!"

The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost and it looked really close until the goalkeeper got to it with the tip of his gloves and sent it over the bar for a corner kick.

"Oh, what a save!" Jim exclaimed. "Ferran thought he had a goal but the goalkeeper was there right on time."

After seeing the goalkeeper stop that, the midfielder quickly made his way to the corner kick spot to take the corner kick.

"Yeah, nice save but let's see how they deal with this corner kick," Steve said.

After making sure that nothing was out of place, the referee blew his whistle, and as soon as Ferran heard it, he closed up on the ball and sent it flying into the box.

One of the center-backs got to the ball before Adolf and nodded it down for another defender who was about to turn around with the ball when it was quickly stolen off his feet by Mateo who dribbled past the goalkeeper before putting the ball into the goalpost.

"He made that look simple! What a way to score his second hat trick of the season!"

Mateo didn't celebrate that goal that much as he just pointed to the sky before his teammates began to gather around him.

"And not only that, he has now passed Roland with a goal to become the league's current top scorer," Steve commented.