My Goalkeeping System

The first goal of the match had arrived as early as the tenth-minute courtesy of Gregory.

Since then, Norlin FC had gotten a bit too aggressive with their attacks and as Unique FC didn't have their full fighting force, they appeared to be playing the passive game at the moment. That meant just waiting to deal with whatever their opponent would throw at them.

That said, they had not allowed Norlin FC in any jeopardising situations.

The second-division sides might have managed to create a couple of good chances, but the dangerous shots were all taken care of.

At one point, Sai Ahmed had almost scored from the edge of the box but Dave was fast enough to get to the ball with the tip of his gloves.

The ball flew toward Jonas who had no difficulty clearing it.

"Why do I feel like Unique FC had gotten a bit too complacent after that goal from Gregory?" Jim said. "It's like they're not even trying to win the match anymore, things might turn around if they don't regain their initial composure."

Jim wasn't just saying things, the match was currently in the twenty-eight minutes, and so far, Norlin FC had fifty-nine ball possession while they had just forty-one.

To add to that, Norlin FC had so far taken seven shots, four of which were on target; Unique FC, on the other hand, only had two shots from Gregory, both of which were on target.

The match was now in the twenty-ninth minute, and currently, a lot of Norlin FC players could be seen around Unique FC's box as they were trying to find their way through.

Sai Ahmed received the ball near the box arc but the intense pressing from Martinez forced him to push the ball back to the midfielder behind him.

The midfielder didn't take too many touches before sending the ball to the right winger, who was slowly closing up toward Jonas; he had to do that before Frankie got to him.

The winger had the number seven on the back of his kit with the name 'Dennison' above it.

"Dennison trying to take on Jonas here."

The winger slowly rolled the ball toward Jonas who was instantly on his guard, his head bent and his back arched back a bit.

"Come on kid, don't try to be brave," Jonas said while clicking his tongue, an eerie smile on his face.

The winger didn't respond and quickly dragged the ball toward the line.

Jonas, naturally quickly followed, stretching his leg in an attempt to trap the winger in place and take the ball from him or at least force him to send it out for a throw-in.

However, he was unaware that the young winger had already predicted his move.

Just as he stretched his leg, he quickly switched the ball, which was originally on his left foot, to his right foot and with the side of his back heel, he sent the ball past Jonas from in between his legs before quickly slipping past him from the right.

"Oh, my, that's something Jonas wouldn't want to remember."

Jonas was so infuriated that he charged toward the winger who was already closing in on the box.

However, before he could reach the winger, someone had already gotten to him.

Frankie had already anticipated that Dennison would get past Jonas before he actually did so he had moved closer ahead of time.

Just before the young winger could move into the box with the ball, Frankie slid in toward him, a well-timed attempt to get the ball off his feet.

Fortunately, the winger reacted on time, pushing the ball back a pit, and just before Frankie could get up on his feet, he had already sent the ball flying into the box.

He had been in a confrontation with Frankie a few times so far in the match and was aware that he was defensively more competent than the left back so the last thing he wanted was to be stuck in a tight spot with him.

Maybe Frankie's presence had someone to do with his cross turning into an error.

The youngster had unfortunately placed the cross too close to the goalpost which made it easier for Dave to rush out and grab it before anything could happen.

"Poor cross from Dennison and Dave grabs it."

Grabbing hold of that ball, Dave's lips deeply curled into a smile.

This was the moment that he had been waiting for.

Norlin FC had been pushing more bodies forward just for the purpose of effectively attacking them and he had been waiting for the right moment to punish them.

At the moment, the second-division side had all of their defenders on the halfway line.

They were pressing with the high line. But weren't they a bit too overconfident to be doing that against a team like Unique FC?

Before most of their players could react, Dave had already sent the ball down the middle.

His target, of course, was Gregory, the player who was right on the halfway line ahead of the two defenders spread out in front of him.

Maybe they thought they would be able to catch him in an offside trap if the striker decided to make any rash move.

What they didn't seem to have noticed was that the young striker was still on his side of the pitch when Dave sent the ball flying out. But he had also reacted faster than all of them.

The striker was now after the ball which was about to drop in front of him as the opposing players chased him from behind.

"Oh, what do we have here?!"

Seeing no hope in his teammates cleaning up this mess, the goalkeeper quickly rushed out to try and see if he could salvage the situation.

Staying in the goalpost and waiting for Gregory to close up might not have been able to help the situation but rushing out was clearly the wrong move.

Gregory got to the ball before the goalkeeper could; the ball had already bounced on the ground once, and before the goalkeeper could do anything, he quickly sent the ball flying over the goalkeeper.

There was nothing Sentes could do besides turning around to watch as the ball bounced on the line before flying into the goalpost.

"That is just marvellous! We all thought they were handing the game away but they've never stopped fighting! A wonderful goal from Gregory and an even more mesmerising pass from Dave; you never know what to expect from the goalkeeper."

The Norlin FC players all bowed their heads with downcast expressions as Unique FC fans screamed and jumped in the stands.

"That's Gregory's second goal of the night. He went quiet after that first goal but when the chance came calling, he showed us once again that this might just turn out to be his night."

Just after scoring that goal, the youngster quickly turned around with both of his hands in the air, a gesture aimed at Dave for providing the assist.

Henry got to him soon afterwards and effortlessly lifted him.

This was Norman's game plan, something he had not really tried fully with this Unique FC squad, counterattack.

This was the reason why they had let Norlin FC have more of the ball.

They had tried to execute it a couple of times after stopping Norlin FC's attack but the second division side had been able to stop them each time.

The most effective ones had been the first one from Dave, which almost led to a goal, and this second one, which would be a good reason for the Norlin FC coach to start rethinking his game plan.