My Goalkeeping System

The players were all in the locker room now with Norman standing in front of them and let's just say that he didn't have a pleased look on his face.

"What the heck happened out there?" He inquired. "You guys are playing like a bunch of Sunday league players, I know they're tough but you're not even trying.

"I know it's just a friendly match but even friendly matches deserve to be taken seriously, especially against a team like this, I don't even know what to say but you all should be thanking Dave, he was the only one who did his job perfectly in this first half, the rest of you were just getting pushed over and stepped on, zero impact on the pitch.

"My midfield is known for controlling the game even when we're losing, but what the heck is going on with you guys today? What happened to your runs and dribbles, Mateo? Have you forgotten how to trap the ball, Fred? And Carlos, it seems like you haven't fully recovered from your injury.

"I don't even want to talk about the defense because you guys have been absolutely horrible so far."

"We understand, coach," Adolf said. "We've made a lot of silly mistakes which could have easily turned to goals if it wasn't for Dave but you have to also understand that your tactics aren't working that much, we need a change of tactics and maybe a more defensive formation."

"I was getting to that, Adolf." The coach said. "I've already figured it out but I'm going to be making a lot of changes and since this is a friendly match, I can even change the whole squad."

After going through the new tactics with the players, changing the formation, and changing half of the players who played in the second half, it was now time for the players to start making their way to the pitch for the second half.

"I have to say, Dave, you've really surprised me so far in this match, all those saves were awesome, and making them against players like Nolan, Rivaldo and Maldini even makes them more awesome, you've improved like really improved." Mateo expressed as he walked toward the tunnel exit with the goalkeeper.

"Well, all I needed was to apply a little hard work to my life," Dave replied.

"Yeah, and it's working superbly for you."

"Welcome back everyone, the second half is about to kick off and the players are making their way into the pitch now," Jim said. "The first half was completely dominated by Manchester United but despite all their super efforts, they weren't able to get the ball into Unique FC's goalpost all thanks to the heroics of Dave Richards."

Unique FC had switched to a defensive formation now, they were playing with the five-three-two formation now and for the changes Norman made, Jonas had to make way for Roland, Aima had to come off for Pirlo, Carlos was replaced by Merino, Harry Norman had to make way for an extra defender who was Areola and Fred Miles had to come off for the academy graduate, Gregory Stone.

Mateo had to pull back to Harry Norman's position on the left side of midfield while the attack was now being led by Gregory and Merino.

"Looks like Unique FC's manager has made a lot of changes to his side while there have only been two changes from the Manchester side," Steve said.

"Let's just hope that these changes are enough to give us a little bit of competitive action, not the one-sided match we saw in the first half," Jim said.

Rivaldo was standing over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he quickly passed the ball to Nolan who didn't waste time in passing it to Maldini.

"That's the referee's whistle and the second half has kicked off," Jim said.

For the first five minutes of the game, Manchester United did their possible best to prevent Unique FC from getting possession of the ball but so far, they had not been able to penetrate their new defensive line.

"If it was in the first half, the Manchester side would have already found their way past Unique FC's defense but it looks like the Bilbeth Premier League side have made an improvement defensively."

"That's something to be glad about at least," Steve said.

After trying to find his way past Adolf and failing even almost losing the ball in the process, Nolan had to send the ball back to Maldini who quickly sent the ball flying over to Rivaldo who seemed open for a second until Pirlo popped up from nowhere and stole the ball in mid-air.

"Pirlo has stolen the ball for his side, their first touch since the start of the second half."

The center-back was chased down aggressively by Rivaldo who wanted to win the ball back by all means but after moving forward with the ball a little, he passed the ball to Minino before Rivaldo could get the best of him.

Minino maneuvered his way past both of the players who tried to take the ball from him with a neat dribbling combination before passing the ball to Ferran.

"That's nice from Minino," Steve said.

Ferran trapped the ball and paused for a while waiting for the player heading toward him to get closer and as soon as he did, he quickly got rid of him with a three-hundred-and-sixty rotation before offloading the ball toward Mateo who was making a run toward the left wing now.

"Unique FC are starting to cook up something here," Jim said.

Mateo had a couple of players heading toward him from behind and from his front but just before he could get to the ones he was heading toward, he crossed the ball over to Merino on the other side.

Merino caught the ball with a neat trap and without any form of hesitation, he sent the ball flying to Gregory who had managed to break free from the player who was marking him inside the box.

"He's sent it in!"

The ball seemed to have been affected by the wind somehow as it moved off Gregory's direction and bounced on the head of the Manchester United player before falling off at the edge of the box.

"Oh, it's fallen off at the edge of the box," Steve said.

Ferran and Alberto were the closest to the loose ball but Ferran had the superior speed and was able to get to the ball but he had to send it to someone fast before the defender did something to bring him down.

He was able to catch a glimpse of Mateo making a run into the box and with his back heel, he sent the ball to the winger before Alberto could try to drag him down.

"Mateo."

Mateo quickly got rid of the player heading toward him with a nutmeg and now it was all him and Moreno.

"Mateo's through."

The goalkeeper left his goal line to try and stop him with a sweep but that was all the winger wanted as he quickly lobbed the ball over the goalkeeper before he could get close to him.

"Mateo!"

There was nothing the defenders in the area could do as the ball flew over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

"He's done it, he's finally done it! Unique FC has finally gotten the first goal of the match!" Jim exclaimed.

Mateo had been brought down by Patti Moreno in the process of his slide but he quickly got up from the floor and pointed toward Ferran before quickly making his way to him.

He gave him a double-high five before the midfielder grabbed him by his head.

"Who would have thought that after that horrible performance in the first half, Unique FC would be the ones to open the score just eleven minutes into the second half!" Jim exclaimed. "That was magisterial from Mateo and you can't forget about that superb pass from Ferran."

"Yeah, it looks like they've stepped up their game in this second half just like we all wanted them to," Steve said.

"Yes, yes, yes!" Dave exclaimed. "We're leading against Manchester United, we just have to maintain the lead now and win this game, a win against Manchester United will be wild."

<Yeah, but you know that's going to be tough, right? Now that you guys have scored against them, they're going to get really serious>

'Then we also have to up our seriousness.' The goalkeeper replied before joining his hands together.

****

New year mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.

Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.

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