My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 403 The Match Had Only Just Begun

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Mateo woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and better than he did when he went to bed last night.

He stretched himself for a while before changing into something that would make it easier for him to run.

After that, he grabbed a glass of warm water before leaving the house to go on his morning run.

It took about twenty minutes for him to get that over with and return to the house.

His runs were always super early in the morning and he would either wear a hood or a scarf to cover his face and prevent anyone from spotting him, and that worked quite well for him.

Now that he was back in the house, he went straight to the bathroom to brush his teeth and after he was done with that, he decided to do some cleaning.

It took him about fifteen minutes to finish cleaning the whole area.

Now that the cleaning was done, he decided to make something for breakfast.

He was still in the middle of cutting the vegetables when someone suddenly knocked on the door.

At first, he didn't hear it clearly so he ignored it, that was until the person knocked again and this time it was considerably louder.

"Who could that be now?" He said with a hiss before dropping the knife.

He wiped off the little particles of water on his hand with a clean cloth before he made his way to the door to open it.

He opened the door to find the only person he didn't want to see that morning standing there.

"Hey," Amber said with a little wave as soon as she saw him.

"What do you want?"

"Hey, that's not the way you say hi to a friend."

"Just tell me what you want, I'm busy right now," Mateo said not even giving a thought to what she just said now.

"Fine, if you insist." She said before raising what she was holding closer to his face.

It seemed to be some kind of pack covered with black nylon.

"What is that?" He asked with a confused expression on his face.

"Can't you smell it?" She asked, to which Mateo replied with a shake of his head. "Oh, well, these are freshly baked cookies, I made them for you this morning."

"You made them for me?"

"Yeah." She replied with. "Can I come inside?"

Usually, after asking that question, he would shift to make way for her to enter the house, but this time, he didn't even bother moving.

It was at that moment that Amber realized that everything wasn't exactly okay because that cold expression on his face wasn't really something she was used to seeing until today.

"Hey, what's with that look on your face, did I do anything wrong?" She asked.

Mateo didn't say anything for a while which made her even more worried.

"So, now you've decided to ask the important question."

"Important question? What did I do, did Sofia tell you ... .oh."

Realizing what he was talking about, she folded her lips before shifting her gaze away from him a little.

"I'm sorry about that, but I didn't think you would get angry over it."

"You picked up my call without my permission, why wouldn't I get angry?"

"Are you sure it's not because Sofia was the one calling?"

"So, that's what you think? You know I dislike people who don't respect other people's privacy, I dislike people like that a lot." The winger said.

"So, you dislike me now?"

"For picking up my call while I was out, yes but I expected a reasonable apology from someone like you not just stupid assumptions regarding why I was really angry, this conversation is over, I have to go finish what I'm doing, you know none of this would be happening if you just told me about it when I returned but you kept quiet and acted like nothing happened."

"Hey, don't you think you're making a big deal out of this? I already said I was sorry, and I am really sorry."

"Maybe I am but it doesn't matter, I have to go finish what I'm doing now."

"Hey, at least take…"

She wasn't able to finish that statement as he quickly closed the door.

"The cookies." She muttered with a sigh before biting her lower lip. "You should have handled that properly, Amber."

'People who don't get angry easily are quite the character when they do.'

______ ______

The match between West Ham United and Unique FC had already kicked off here and so far, none of the sides had been able to make an impact.

It wasn't snowing at all when the players arrived at West Ham but just before the match kicked off, it began to snow, it wasn't a heavy snowfall though so it was okay.

The temperature was chilly though so all the players on the pitch were putting on long sleeves with Mateo slapping on a pair of gloves for the first time in a while because he just didn't like the cold.

In terms of possession, Unique FC were controlling the game but West Ham United were doing quite well in holding them down and preventing them from taking the lead.

"Winning this match will guarantee Unique FC a qualification to the knockout stages and for West Ham, it will just mean that they still have a chance to make it to the knockout stages." Jim expressed. "The home team are obviously the ones who need the victory most but what's it going to be?"

Unlike their last meeting where Norman had to bench a few of his star players, this time he was starting them all because he needed to win this match and get that guarantee to the next stage because the least place where they could possibly end up after winning this match was second place.

Mateo brought the ball down with his chest and moved down the wing with it a little before pushing it back to Ferran who immediately sent it rolling to Minino.

Minino pushed forward a little with the ball and just before the player heading toward him could get to him, he turned and sent the ball rolling to Ferran who sent it flying over to Merino with his first touch.

Merino brought the ball down with his chest before attempting to get it past the left back with an overhead kick, but that failed as the defender sent the ball flying out for a throw-in.

The winger quickly picked up the ball and threw it to Minino before any of the opponents could react.

"Unique FC are still lurking around their box here, West Ham United have the careful here or something might happen," Jim commented.

Minino sent the ball rolling to Martinez who had closed down the middle now.

Martinez got his foot on the ball and feigned firing it toward the goalpost to startle the player right in front of him, and that worked quite well for him as he got past the player before pushing the ball to Mateo.

Mateo got his foot on the ball, but before he could do anything with it, it was swept off his feet by the right back who sent it rolling out for a throw-in.

That looked like a foul right there and Mateo raised his hand to alert the referee but it didn't look like he was going to give it.

The ball was thrown in by Ferran who threw it toward Mateo, but the winger had to immediately send it rolling to Roland because he wasn't in a very good position.

"Roland's with the ball now, what's he going to do?"

The left-back moved a little closer to the box before raising his hand.

That was the signal for Mateo and anyone else in the area to get inside the box.

The winger quickly made his way inside the box as the left back immediately sent the ball flying in directly toward him.

Mateo was going for a slight dive to be able to get his head on the ball right on time but that didn't exactly work out for him as one of the defenders inside the box was going for the ball right at that time but he was using his foot.

Mateo ended up making contact with his foot before he could make contact with the ball and it wasn't his head, it was his face.

As soon as his face made contact with his boot, the winger let out a scream before crashing down to the floor right inside the box with his hands on his face.

The referee had to get involved immediately as he blew his whistle before making his way to the area.

"Oh, dear, that doesn't look good."

"He smashed his boot right into his face."

The referee had to immediately show the defender a yellow card even though Unique FC players were arguing that he deserved a red card, and of course, Minino wasn't taking things lightly with the person responsible for the foul.

Before the medical team could arrive, Ferran checked on Mateo along with his teammates to see that the lower part of his face was covered with blood and it was all coming from his nose.

"Unique FC have a penalty kick now which is something good for them but it looks like they don't even care about that at the moment they're all just so worried about Mateo." Jim expressed.

"Well, with his face like that, being able to continue the game may be unlikely for him and the match had all just begun.