My Goalkeeping System-Chapter 556: Extension
"And we will be having four minutes of added time before this match goes to extra time. Can Unique FC make something out of this corner kick and turn things around?"
Well, they certainly hoped they could.
At the moment, Merino was standing near the corner spot with the ball right in front of him.
The stadium was especially lively at this moment, with the fans holding their breath in anticipation, and the box was quite rowdy with Norlin FC players either trying to push the Unique FC players into an unfavourable position or trick them into getting into an offside position.
It didn’t take long before the referee blew his whistle and Merino wasted no time sending the ball flying in.
"Can Merino pick out someone here and create a legendary moment ... .Oh, he’s going straight for goal!"
That’s right, instead of trying to pick out any of his teammates in the box, Merino decided to try something he had been practising for years and had gotten familiar with, scoring from the corner spot.
However, practice sessions were essentially different from an actual match.
"Off the post!" Jim exclaimed. "My goodness, what was that!?"
The fans nearly jumped out of their seats at that moment, and the Norlin FC fans couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of conceding a goal.
Sentes never expected him to try anything like that so he wasn’t really ready to respond to a situation like that.
The ball had just chipped off the side of the post, which was nearly in the post.
The ball bounced off to the side after that and Jason was fast enough, chasing after it and getting to it before it could go over the line for a free kick.
However, before he could properly control the ball he had already been cornered by an opposing player.
Fortunately, Frankie had moved closer to him so he could only carelessly flick the ball to him before sliding down under the pressure and slight shoving from the opposing player.
With just a few minutes of added time left before the match would go into extra time, Norlin FC were relentless with their pressing.
Just after Frankie got the ball, two players quickly dashed toward him, blocking any possible movement route, except backwards.
Frankie had no intention of engaging with any of them, he only cut a little to the right with the ball before he sent it flying into the box.
He had already spotted Gregory and Ferran in the box before he made that decision.
"Unique FC once again trying to pick out someone inside the box," Steve commented.
Frankie’s cross wasn’t really the best as it was intercepted by a defender who headed it back to get it out of their goal area.
Unfortunately, the ball ended up flying toward Mateo who was left unmarked near the edge of the box.
The ball had not even touched the ground when the young forward pulled his foot back and fired toward the goalpost.
"Mateo with a powerful volley!"
Sentes wasn’t able to react fast enough and could only watch as the ball flew past him.
Fortunately, it ended up hitting the crossbar before flying over for a goal kick.
Resounding sighs of disappointment swept through the stadium after seeing a good chance like that fly away. Some fans couldn’t help slumping down in their seats in dejection.
"My, my, Unique FC has not had the best of luck in this match." Jim couldn’t help but comment.
"That could have been a strong contender for goal of the tournament," Steve said.
"Agreed."
Emma was still watching the match in a somewhat leisurely mood when she saw the ball fly over like that and she couldn’t help but bite hard into the piece of apple that she had just placed into her mouth.
With a sarcastic expression, she looked down at her protruding stomach and clicked her tongue.
"Looks like your uncle has forgotten how to shoot."
If Mateo were present, he would argue that it wasn’t the case before going on to prove that he still knew how to shoot.
Unfortunately, after that volley, Norlin FC didn’t give him the chance to cause that level of trouble anymore.
They still couldn’t properly contain his playmaking abilities in midfield, and that would have been a good thing for Unique FC if Norlin FC hadn’t taken the precaution to go on full defensive.
This left the players on the receiving end of Mateo’s passes with little room to manoeuvre so the result was naturally unable to match the input.
"Ferran from thirty yards out!"
That would have actually been something if it hadn’t just flown over the bar with no chance of getting near the goalpost.
That was the last kick of normal time, four minutes of added time were long overdue, so the referee had to blow his whistle at this juncture.
"Well, that’s it, folks, ninety minutes are up and we still have no winner." Jim articulated. "This match has been quite the rollercoaster ride. The first half of the match had most of us thinking that Unique FC already had the match in the bag but then Norlin FC struck back hard in the second half of the match, silencing Unique FC and their supporters. The Bilbeth Super League first division side had to pull out their big guns to regain momentum. Still, they were unable to win it in normal time.
"Now the match is going into extra time, at the moment Unique FC are looking more optimistic but this is football after all."
Dave followed behind his teammates with a calm expression as they made their way down the tunnel.
At the moment, he was having a conversation with Catherine who was sharing some of her opinions with him.
<Keeping Mateo in midfield to control Lopez is good, but I think it’s a bit of overkill. With Minino around those quick legs of his won’t get to cause much trouble. Playing him wide as always will prove more effective if you guys want to win this match. Also, haven’t you noticed?>
’Do you want to say they’re not that good with defending down the flanks?’ Dave responded.
<Exactly! The few times that Merino tried stretching down the right flank produced decent results>
Dave turned around at that moment, and his gaze met Norman, who was walking hurriedly toward him. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
’I just hope the coach has thought of the same thing.’
