My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 68 Escaped Again

The medical team seemed to have gotten Mateo's bleeding nose but nothing could be said about his mouth yet as it was stuffed with cotton wool.

The referee had not resumed the game yet as he was waiting to see if Mateo would return to the pitch soon or if Norman would make a change.

"You should wait for the bleeding in your mouth to stop or you can come off, that's the best thing to do." The female who was squatting in front of him said.

The winger didn't seem to agree to that as he murmured something through the cotton wool in his mouth and shook his head before getting up from the floor and running back onto the pitch.

"Hey, the cotton wool." She said but there was no response from Mateo who was already halfway into the pitch.

The fans were glad to see Mateo on the pitch after what had happened to him and you could tell how excited they were by the way they were clapping while chanting his name.

"Mateo Smith is back on the pitch, that's good news for them," Jim said.

"Yeah, but what's with the cotton wool in his mouth?" Steve asked.

"To stop the bleeding in his mouth maybe," Jim answered.

"If he's still bleeding then why return to the pitch?"

"That's the fighting spirit, he knows his teammates need him and he's not going to let a little wound in the mouth prevent that," Jim said enthusiastically. "And besides I don't see Norman complaining."

Norman wasn't complaining because he didn't see any reason to, the medical staff had complained to him about the way Mateo ran off and he told them to let it go.

During the little period, Mateo was out of the pitch, Norman had made two changes to the squad.

Aima had been brought off for Pirlo while Edward had been brought off and replaced by Alex Totti.

The Spree City manager made three changes during that period, one in his midfield and two in his defense.

With Mateo back on the pitch now, the referee resumed the game with a ball drop which Ferran had quickly stolen and passed back to Roland.

"I'm just glad he's okay," Dave muttered under his breath.

<You should be>

The clock was showing just one minute remaining before the match entered the ninetieth minute and Spree City were still leading.

They were with the ones with the ball now and it looked like they were trying to get forward and get one more goal as they were aware that that would completely break Unique FC players.

The official with the board raised his board as soon as the time hit the ninetieth minute. The board had the number nine displayed on it which meant that nine minutes had been added to the match after the ninety minutes completion.

"Nine minutes of extra time and Unique FC are still behind," Jim said.

The left midfielder was moving toward Edward with the ball and after trying to confuse him, he passed the ball to the central midfielder close to him.

The central midfield passed the ball to the Right midfielder who passed it to Kelano and then Kelano passed it to the other central midfielder who had switched to the role of an attacking midfielder now.

The midfielder got on the ball and feigned shooting at Pirlo before pushing the ball to the side and passing it to Torres.

Torres looked up to find someone but he had been a bit slow with his decision-making as Luis Roberto knocked the ball off his feet with a tackle and Roland swooshed in from behind to make an interception before the ball got to Felix.

"I've got to say, Jim, they've really turned up their defense after conceding that own goal," Steve said.

"Yeah, that has been their problem since the start of the match but it seems like they fixed it a little late," Jim said.

Roland quickly received the ball back from Ferran after passing it to him as the midfielder was being heavily marked.

Roland had been so keen on getting the ball forward that he left his wing position and was now in the central midfield position.

The left-back scanned the area before crossing the ball to Merino who wasn't exactly free on the right wing.

The wing forward trapped the ball and with a swift turn got away from the player trying to stop him.

He tried to cut through the middle but there was no way for him so he played the ball back to Minino who didn't waste any time in lobbing it to Mateo who had been quiet since he returned to the pitch with cotton wool in his mouth.

"Crossed over to Mateo," Jim said.

Mateo trapped the ball to find two players heading toward him.

The winger feigned passing the ball to Ferran before quickly making his way past both players with some neat footwork and ball positioning.

"He's away."

There were still players in the box ready to stop him but the winger didn't look like he was going to pass the ball.

One of the center backs quickly rushed toward him and tried to bring him down with a tackle but he wasn't going to let that happen as he pushed the ball to his right leg with his left leg and quickly got away from the defender.

"He's taking them all on, Mateo's still going," Jim said with an enthusiastic voice.

He combined his speed with his skill to get away from the last defender in front of him and get into enough space to shoot toward the goal.

"Somebody stop him!" The goalkeeper yelled.

The left-back plus a couple of other players were rushing toward the winger to try and stop him but he had already sent the ball flying toward the bottom left side of the goalpost.

"Mateo shoots!"

The goalkeeper dived toward the ball but he had miscalculated the elevation as the ball rolled from below his hands into the back of the net.

"Mateo scores!" Jim screamed. "Finally, he's gotten that equalizer!"

His teammates didn't even wait for him to reach the sidelines as they caught up to him down right at the edge of the box.

"The fans are going wild here, that was a marvelous goal," Jim said, he just didn't know how to describe it.

"That was some neat work from him there, it was risky to take on the players like that but it paid out well for him and his team in the end," Steve said.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Dave screamed from his goalpost.

He had been waiting for this moment and he was glad that it had happened with just four minutes of added time left.

<And once again you guys have escaped a defeat with a last-minute goal>

Emma didn't jump up with the rest of the fans after witnessing that goal but it put a bright smile on her face and she couldn't help the feeling of clapping in celebration of the goal.

With the celebration over now, it was time for her to return to what she was writing but before she could write anything, her phone began to vibrate in her handbag.

She opened her handbag and brought the phone out to check who was calling her only to see the word Boss displayed there as the phone continued to vibrate.

"Why is she calling me now?" She muttered before clicking the answer option.

"Hello, ma."

"Hello Emma, How's everything going so far?" A feminine voice asked from the other end.

"Fine, everything's going fine, great." She said, nodding her head nervously.

"Okay, have you decided which of the players you're getting an exclusive from after the match?"

"Exclusive? Ummm…."

"Let me give you options, you can choose from either Dave Richards or Mateo Smith."

"Ma…."

She wasn't even given the time to say what she wanted to say as her boss had ended the call.

"Exclusive with either my boyfriend or brother." She muttered.

The referee blew his whistle three times to signal the end of the match with the scoreboard showing three goals to three.

"What a day this has turned out to be." She muttered with a sigh before picking up her handbag and getting up from her seat.

***

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.