My Goalkeeping System

The players were on the bus now heading back to the hotel and as always, Dave was sitting right next to Mateo who was going through his phone with his earphones in his ears.

Dave was also minding his business going through his phone until Mateo quickly pushed his phone right in front of him to show him a video, he also unplugged his headphone so that the goalkeeper would hear what was going on in the video.

Just five seconds into the video, the winger's phone began to vibrate, and quickly transitioned from the Facebook app to the call screen.

"So-fi-a." Dave slowly read out the name of the caller before Mateo slowly pulled his phone back and plugged in his headphones.

He slowly shifted away from the goalkeeper to the far end of his seat and turned to face the window before clicking the answer button.

"I didn't even get to watch the video." The goalkeeper muttered before bringing his phone back up to his field of view.

'Just show me my post-match rewards, Catherine.'

<Roger>

[ Victory rewards ]

[ Two crucial saves: +20 exp ]

[ Goals conceded(01) 0exp ]

[ Match rating: 7.9 ]

After looking at his rewards and taking a peak at his stats, the goalkeeper turned to Mateo to see that he was done with his call, he didn't need to look to know that as he knew he was done as soon as he stopped talking.

"I cleared the page by mistake and I can't seem to find the video again." The winger said as he scrolled through his phone.

"That's okay, I wasn't eager to watch the video anyway since I didn't know what it was about."

The winger slowly turned his gaze to him before turning it back to his phone.

"Okay."

Dave smiled at him before turning his gaze to his phone.

After returning to the hotel, the players had their dinner and now, it was time for them to get some sleep that only applied to those who were tired and not only wanted but needed to get a good night's rest, a few of the players were still awake and having fun.

Dave and Mateo were in their room lying on their bed, they talked about a few things together before the winger fell asleep and after a few minutes, the goalkeeper followed suit.

About five minutes into his sleep, the goalkeeper found himself in the endless white space with Catherine standing right in front of him.

"Hey, Cat." He said with a smile on his face. "So what's this special training of yours?"

"It's quite simple," Catherine replied.

"A special training but it's simple." The goalkeeper said with a confused expression on his face.

"I didn't mean it like that." She said.

The two suddenly found themselves standing on a football pitch but there were no stands and just as he turned back, a goalpost appeared behind him with him standing right in the middle of the goal line.

After that, his gloves, boots, and kit appeared on his body.

"What I meant by it being simple is the concept, the concept is pretty simple," Catherine said.

"Okay, so what's the concept?"

As soon as he asked that question, three random players appeared at the edge of the box with each one having a ball trapped under his foot.

"I don't think I've seen these players before." The goalkeeper.

"Yeah, you haven't because they don't exist." She said.

"They don't exist? Don't you think it would have been better if you had brought players that existed?"

"I don't think that's what you should be worrying about."

"Fine, go ahead and explain your simple concept then."

By the way, he was speaking, it was sort of clear that he didn't want to be here tonight but he had to be.

"The concept of the training is to test how fast your reflexes are, we are going to start with five seconds, these three players will fire threatening shots toward the goalpost and you have just five seconds to get ready for the next ball which will be sent toward the goalpost once the five seconds is due." She explained.

"Okay, so when are we starting?" The goalkeeper asked.

"Now." She said before tilting her glasses a little to the right.

The player in the middle was the first to send his ball flying toward the right side of the goalpost but luckily for Dave, it wasn't stretched that far so he was able to quickly knock it over the bar.

Before five seconds, he was ready for the next ball which was quickly formed toward the right side but this time from below, but he was able to get to it with both of his hands as it wasn't stretched that far from him.

The third one was the trickiest, it was sent toward the bottom left-hand corner but he seemed to have anticipated it on time and was able to push it out with the tip of his right glove.

"Your reflexes are quite fast but let's see if they're that fast, four seconds!" She yelled.

This one was trickier but the goalkeeper was able to keep them all out somehow.

"I see, your reflexes are quick enough to keep up with four seconds but let's see if they can keep up with three seconds."

Unlike the first two rounds, the player on the left was the first to shoot this time.

He sent the ball flying toward the right side with a little elevation and as expected for the first shot, Dave was able to get to it but the same couldn't be said for the other two.

The next one was shot by the player on the right, and he chose to send the ball flying toward the top left-hand corner.

Dave was able to get the tip of his glove on it but it wasn't enough to stop it from going in.

The goalkeeper was glued to the spot as the ball rolled into the goalpost from the bottom left-hand corner.

"Would you look at that? It looks like three seconds is your limit." Catherine said as she moved closer to him.

"At least I tried."

"Yeah, but we're going to keep practicing on this one now until you get it then we can move to two seconds and after that, a second." She articulated.

"Two seconds and a second?" He said with a shocked expression on his face.

"Yeah, that's why I called it special training."

"You should also add 'intense' to the name, I would be panting by now if this was happening in the real world." The goalkeeper said.

"Intense special training, yeah, that sounds nice." She said. "Remember this, for you to be able to react quickly and get the job done in situations like this, you have to stay focused, I hope all that training on staying focused paid off."

"Staying focused, huh." He muttered. "I think I can do it."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, two seconds and one second are going to be tough but I'll surely smash them."

****

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