My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 539: Second Strike

The day everyone had been waiting for was finally here, a clash between two teams that were good enough to make it to the last eight.

Now, it was going to be one or the other; only one of them could advance to the last four.

That said, this was only the first leg, so there was a chance that today's result wasn't going to determine how everything would end up in the end.

The match was set to kick off by 3:00 PM and by 2:30 PM, the stadium, although not completely filled, was filled with a lot of people.

The atmosphere was pretty nice with a bright sky and the gleaming sun illuminating the beautiful greenery that was the pitch.

The players were already done with the pre-match warm-up and were getting ready in the locker room now.

This was an away match for Unique FC so they were going into the match with their second kit.

The black kit with orange polka dots and Dave as the goalkeeper was wearing a lemon kit.

By the time they were done dressing up, it was time to head out.

The players met at the tunnel entrance to line up alongside Real Sociedad, who were in their home kit and were looking quite hyper for the match.

'It's almost time.' Dave said inwardly.

Almost as soon as that thought passed through his mind, the players were giving the signal to start making their way to the pitch, and without hesitation, they did as they were told.

The stands were mostly filled with Real Sociedad fans, but there were still a good number of Unique FC fans who made the trip to support their team.

"You can't really tell the outcome of this match just by looking at the strength of the teams on paper, right, Steve?" Jim inquired.

"Yeah, while a team's strength on paper can give us a bit of perspective on what their performance level will look like, Unique FC were able to comfortably make it out of a group with really tough opponents so you can't really say." Steve articulated.

With the usual formalities between the players and the match officials done, the captains met in front of the officials for the coin toss.

Real Sociedad ended up winning the coin toss, so they had the first choice and were going to be starting the match from the kickoff spot.

[ Ongoing quest ]

[ Prevent Merino from scoring against you ]

Dave kept staring at that quest message as he made his way to his goalposts.

'Catherine.'

<Yes>

'A part of me feels like I got this quest because the system was hurt by Merino's words but…'

<What?>

'A part of me also feels like getting this message means that he will be especially dangerous on the attack today.'

<Merino is known to be a very dangerous midfielder and arguably the best midfielder in Laliga this season so I would very much expect him to be a threat to you today>

'I have to brace myself then.' Dave responded inwardly before taking a deep breath.

Unlike Unique FC, Real Sociedad were going into the match with the four-four-two formation and as expected, Merino was playing as the sole attacking midfielder with everyone else backing him up from behind.

Other than Merino, the rest of the midfield was quite decent, and their attacking duo was nothing to joke about. Otherwise, they wouldn't have made it this far in all competitions this season.

The match was set to kick off now as Real Sociedad's main striker, Larick, with a number nine below, could be seen standing over the ball alongside a midfielder, their number seventeen, Nunez.

With everything ready, it didn't take long before the referee gave the signal for the kick-off, and as soon as he did, Larick quickly sent the ball rolling to Nunez.

"There's the kickoff, and we are on the way."

Real Sociedad were not quick to make a move and just passed the ball among themselves as Unique FC pushed them deeper into their own half.

It wasn't until they started getting a bit too close to their box that Merino decided to do something about the opposing side's aggressive pressing.

Receiving the ball from the midfielder toward his right, the midfielder pushed a little forward with it.

Ferran charged toward him at that moment in an attempt to get his team their first possession of the ball.

However, that didn't seem to have turned out so well for him as all it took to get past him was a fake shot and a quick cut toward the left.

"Oh, that was clean, Ferran won't be forgetting that anytime soon."

Getting past Ferran, the midfielder pulled his foot forward and sent the ball flying up ahead in an attempt to get it to Nunez, who was pushing up ahead.

Unfortunately, Minino caught the gist of the whole thing and quickly closed up on the midfielder before the ball could get to him.

Using his airborne powress, the midfielder was able to get to the ball ahead of the opposing player, and he headed it toward the left in an attempt to get it to Mateo.

However, his header turned out to be a bit sloppy, giving Larick the chance to steal the ball away before it could get to the winger.

"Larick!" Another Real Sociedad midfielder called to the forward as soon as he got his foot on the ball.

The player had the name Emerson above the number twenty on his shirt.

Larick didn't hesitate in sending the ball to Emerson, who was in the middle near the kickoff spot.

"Larick." Explore stories on m,v l'e-NovelBin.net

However, just before he could do anything with the ball, he was held up by Unique FC's Merino who suddenly jumped in from the side.

"It's a struggle between Emerson and Merino for the ball."

Having the bigger build, Emerson was able to force himself away from Merino with the way, and being aware that he wasn't exactly clear of the midfielder yet, he quickly flicked it forward to Nunez, who had Minino on him.

This time the Real Sociedad player was the one to win the aerial.

The midfielder had seen Merino run past him a moment before the ball got to him, so he decided to head it forward in an attempt to play the attacking midfielder through.

That ended up working better than he anticipated as the ball ended up sloping past Adolf just as Merino got past him.

The defender raised his hand to call for an offside, but there was no response from the referee or linesman as Merino brought the ball down with his chest and kept moving.

"Lovely pass from Nunez, surely Merino can make something of this!"

Unfortunately, he couldn't, as Frankie, who had been hot on his trail from the right, closed up on him before he could reach the D box.

Frankie was well known for his clean tackles, and this time there was no mistake from the midfielder as he pulled in front of Merino with his right foot and neatly swept the ball off his possession.

Everything didn't end there, though, as Larick quickly dashed forward to grab hold of the loose ball. However, he wasn't able to complete that goal as Roland got to the ball just a second before him, and just to ensure safety, he sent it flying out for a throw-in on his first touch.

"Marvelous reaction from Unique FC to nip that in the bud," Jim commented.

"Yeah, it's always nice to have someone like Frankie who can run back and make that save with minimized risk," Steve added.

"Good job," Adolf said, patting Frankie on the head.

The midfielder responded with a nod and a smile before moving toward Merino to make sure he didn't get the ball from the throw-in.

"That was a close one," Dave muttered before taking a deep breath.

<Where did all your confidence go?>

'I'm confident I can save normal shots within my saving capacity, not one-on-ones, especially not against someone like him who rarely shoots carelessly.'

The game was still in motion but the ball wasn't back on the pitch yet as Nunez was finding it difficult to throw it to anybody in a decent position as they were all tightly marked at the moment.

In the end, he gave up and threw the ball to their right back, who decided to do something interesting the moment the ball dropped on his feet.

A single touch was all he needed to send the ball flying to Larick who had Minino behind him at the moment.

"A quick long ball to find Larick."

Utilizing his quick thinking, the striker left Minino helpless as he quickly brought the ball down with his chest before using his back heel to nutmeg the midfielder.

"Oh my goodness."

Giving the ball a little push just before Frankie could close up on him from the side and Adolf from the front, the striker decided to try something from thirty yards out.

Pulling his right foot back, he launched the ball forward, aiming for the top left corner.

"Larick!"

There was quite a lot of force behind that shot but thankfully for Unique FC, Dave was able to get to the ball just in the nick of time with the tip of his gloves.

That was enough to derail the ball toward hitting the crossbar.

"Oh, that's wonderful from Dave!" Jim screamed. "You can always rest assured when you have this man in between the sticks!"

The rebound flew toward Luis Roberto who wasted no time heading it away.

However, his attempted clearance ended up dropping on the chest of Merino on the edge of the D box.

"Oh, they might still have a chance!"

Quickly drifting away from Aima toward the right and leaving him to kick nothing but air, Merino fired toward the goalpost, aiming for the furthest point of the bottom right corner.

"Merino with the second shot!"

This time there was nothing Dave could do because no matter how fast he was, he just couldn't get to a shot that fast after making that first save.

He could only watch the ball fly into the goalpost in the middle of his dive.

"Goooaalllll!!!" Jim screamed. "You don't make a clearance mistake like that with Merino around."

The midfielder couldn't even move from his spot as his teammates gathered around him screaming in jubilation.

The fans were also jumping and screaming, most of them chanting the name of the attacking midfielder.

[ Quest failed ]

That message popped up for Dave as soon as that ball went in, and he had been staring at it for a while now.

'Why do I feel like this was inevitable?'