My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 374 Greedy Gamble

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Mateo was standing over the ball in the penalty spot with his gaze on the goalkeeper while everyone else was behind him outside the box.

"I don't think he's their standard penalty taker, but it looks like they're leaving this one to him," Jim commented.

The referee carefully observed everything and made sure none of the players were encroaching into the box before he blew his whistle.

"Jeremy has a good penalty save ratio in the league so far this season, saving two out of three penalties. Can he keep this one out?" Steve expressed.

After hearing the whistle, Mateo slowly took three steps backward before he slowly closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost.

That was a tricky penalty from the winger as he sent Jeremy diving the wrong way.

He fired the ball toward the right side with just a little bit of elevation while Jeremy dived to the left.

There was no doubt, the ball was in the goalpost now and it was a goal.

"Nice penalty from Mateo as expected, he sent Jeremy the wrong way and now Unique FC are one goal up," Jim commented.

It was quite surprising for him not to yell after a goal.

Mateo didn't celebrate that goal like he would celebrate any normal goal as he just jogged toward the sideline before Minino caught up to him but the midfielder didn't pull him down like he was known for and just put his arms around his shoulder.

"Unique FC are one goal up with barely twenty minutes gone in the first half, there's still a lot of time left for Villarreal to do something about it, this match could get really interesting." Steve expressed.

<That was a nicely taken penalty>

'Yeah, that was smooth, but if that was me, I would apply a lot of shot power so that even if he goes the right way, he won't be able to stop it.'

<Yeah, I'm sure you would and in the process, you'll end up blasting the ball over the bar>

'Hey, come on now, you know my accuracy is better than that.'

The match had resumed now with Villarreal passing the ball around looking for a way through.

For a team that had just conceded a goal, they were still playing with the same composure as when the score was even, maybe they just wanted to add urgency to their play yet because sometimes it creates mistakes that may even cost them another goal.

Conrad got hold of the ball from the left back and carefully evaded Ferran before passing the ball to Fraser.

"Fraser," Jim said. "Scored two goals against West Ham United to win his team that match, can he do something here today?"

Fraser moved a little forward with the ball before passing it back to Conrad who sent it rolling to their centre forward immediately.

He had the name Henry written above the number nine on the back of his jersey.

Henry caught hold of the ball and quickly sent it rolling to the left winger with a backheel pass.

Adolf was right behind him and he could have lost the ball if he didn't do that.

The winger had the name Antonio written above the number eleven on the back of his jersey and he had no chill.

As soon as he got his foot on the ball, he ignored Norman and stretched the ball toward the middle a little before he fired it toward the goalpost with a powerful shot.

"Antonio's going all out here!"

The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost but that wasn't a problem for Dave who dived toward it at the right time.

He had the speed so he wasn't really bothered as he wasn't caught off guard.

[ Ball magnet activated ]

He was going to stop that ball from entering the goalpost even without ball magnet, but he needed to make sure he caught it because of the quest.

"First save of the night and he does it in style," Jim commented as soon as Dave caught the ball and crashed to the floor with it.

'That's one one touch saves.'

"Yeah, that was a pretty neat save."

The first half continued with both sides not being able to pull off any goal.

But, looking at their chances, it was clear that Unique FC had been the better team so far.

The away side were able to make four scoring attempts with three of their shots being really close to going in.

The first close call was a shot from Ferran from outside the box that ended up flying off through the side and missing the goalpost by millimeters.

The second chance came from a corner kick, a nice header from Mateo that came really close to going in, but it ended up hitting the crossbar before going out for a goal kick.

That miss from the winger stirred up quite the sigh in the stadium.

The third chance was the least close to going in but it was a really impressive attempt.

Mateo dribbled his way past the right back before sending the ball in with a neat lob.

The ball was sent flying toward Fredinho who quickly rose up and sent the ball flying toward the goalpost with a bicycle kick.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have applied too much power to that shot as it was sent flying over the bar but it was pretty close to hitting the crossbar at least.

Villarreal were only able to come up with two goal-scoring attempts but they weren't really that good so Dave wasn't able to get another one-touch save.

The first one was what would have turned into a really good goal as Henry had gotten his foot on the ball right inside the box, but Adolf was able to get to him fast enough to deflect the shot with his foot and make it an easy catch for Dave.

The second one was what could be described as a desperate attempt from Fraser.

He sent the ball flying toward the goalpost after receiving it from Conrad and the ball ended up hitting the crossbar before going out for a goal kick.

Dave had learned a lot from this kind of situation so he was on the ball just to avoid any case of the wind suddenly blowing the ball into his goalpost.

With those attempts, the first half finally came to an end, the statistics board had quite a lot to say about which team was doing better than the other.

Unique FC had sixty-two percent ball possession ahead of the thirty-eight that Villarreal had.

They played six shots with three being on target while Villarreal had three with just one being on target.

Finally, the away side were able to complete five hundred and sixty-seven passes in the first half while Villarreal were only able to complete three hundred and ninety-eight.

That scoreline could have been more than one goal if the home side weren't doing such a good job of keeping Norman's boys at bay with their defense.

"That was some first-half performance with the only goal coming from a penalty, I just hope both teams step up their game in the second half."

Unique FC players were all sitting in the locker room now with Norman standing in front of them as expected.

"A one-goal lead, not really what I expected but it's good that we're leading, I'm just glad they're not as aggressive as Lazio," Norman said. "That said, you guys have not really been yourself up front, failing even to create in certain conditions."

After saying that, he paused and slowly looked around the room to observe everyone's faces before clearing his throat to continue.

"Still, you've managed to create a couple of good chances that you, unfortunately, failed to convert." He expressed. "They weren't able to do much in this first half but who knows how they're going to come into the second half."

"So, what are your suggestions coach?" Adolf asked.

"Well, all you have to do is strike them fast in the second half and get a second goal to break down their morale more then you can go on the defensive and take whatever they throw at you while looking for opportunities to counterattack," Norman explained.

"Strike them fast? You mean an all-out attack?" Mateo inquired.

"Yes."

"But that's going to leave us way too vulnerable at the back and anything could happen if there's a mistake." The winger said.

"I am well aware of that, but we'll have to take our chance and make sure not to make an opportunity, once you find the opportunity for an all-out attack just do it."

'This doesn't sound very good to me.' Dave said subconsciously.

<Yeah, this is a greedy move>

'Yeah, there's nothing wrong with the way we're playing, I'm sure we'll be able to get another goal if we continue playing in the balanced way we've been doing so far.'

<Well, it's a greedy move but it could also work, that said, at the end of the day it is still a greedy gamble that could be costly>