Chapter 355 It Happened
That own goal was really something Unique FC weren't expecting, they were doing so well with their two-goal lead and now Supreme United needed one more goal to equalize.
It was likely that that equalizer was going to come now as Roland was standing over the ball in the penalty spot with all the other players behind him.
"I'm sure the players can't believe this is happening right now," Jim commented.
Just a few minutes after that own goal, Supreme United won the ball back and quickly began to move forward.
They did well in outsmarting Unique FC with their passes, and when the ball finally got to Roland in a good position inside the box, he was brought down by Adolf in an attempt to stop him and that was how they won the penalty kick.
'I didn't think we would come crumbling this fast.' Dave said subconsciously as he stretched both of his arms.
"Unique FC had full control over this match at some point, but it looks like they're finally going to get that equalizer. That said, it may still not happen given the fact that Dave stopped two out of the three penalties he faced in their last match." Steve expressed.
<What if you end up saving it?>
'That's what I'm looking forward to.' Dave replied.
<You know you've already failed the clean sheet quest, wouldn't it be wise to let him score and get the stat points>
'Keep quiet, Catherine, the most important thing is winning the match, you can hold on to your stat point a little longer.'
<Okay, if you say so>
The only thing Roland was waiting for now was the referee's whistle, and it didn't take long before he heard it.
He slowly took three steps backward before he closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost.
[ Ball magnet activated ]
Roland sent the ball flying toward the middle as Dave dived to the right, but fortunately for the goalkeeper, his legs didn't go too far from the center just yet and ended up making contact with the ball to block it from entering the goalpost.
Roland quickly rushed to the ball before Jan could get to it, and with a shot, he sent it flying out for a throw-in on the other side of the pitch.
The fans were quiet during that penalty take but now that it was saved and cleared, Unique FC fans burst into cheers of joy.
"Three penalties saved in just two matches, he's starting to become the master of stopping penalties," Jim commented.
"I never ruled this possibility out for a second, and now it looks like Unique FC still have the lead. But how long will they be able to hold down Supreme United with fifteen minutes of normal time left to go or will they be able to get a third goal and return to their comfort spot?"
<Wow, you did it>
'Yeah, but I was completely off the radar, if my legs didn't get in place right on time, they would be celebrating an equalizer now.'
<Yeah, but don't let your guard down, there's still a lot of time left for that equalizer to happen>
'I know, but it's not going to happen.' Dave replied.
Supreme United were still with the ball passing it around in their half looking for an opportunity to break through Unique FC but so far they had not been able to find any.
Foden received the ball in central midfield, and just before Martinez could get to him, he passed the ball to Diego who sent it rolling to Roland with a single touch.
"Roland."
Before Roland could turn around and do anything with the ball, it was quickly swept off his feet by Adolf who quickly got up from the floor and passed the ball to Ferran.
"Adolf has been giving Roland a lot of trouble since the start of the match and it doesn't look like he's planning to stop until the match's over," Jim commented.
"Yeah, he's the reason why Roland has looked pretty average this evening. It's surprising how a player of his caliber has only been able to get three shots so far and two of them were off target with the only one on target being the penalty kick that Dave just saved." Steve expressed.
"He used to be Unique FC's destroyer, but it looks like they've found a way to keep him contained with Adolf being the main part of it."
Ferran was moving down the middle with the ball now with Foden hot on his trail.
Just as Foden was about to catch up to him, he quickly paused, and while the midfielder was still trying to match his movements with the one he was chasing suddenly stopping.
Ferran got the ball past him with a neat nutmeg before he quickly moved a little further to the left found Mateo and sent the ball rolling to him.
"Oh, dear, Rosen's not going to be forgetting that soon."
Mateo moved toward the box with the ball, he quickly turned toward the middle and began to make his way down it along the edge.
With each movement he made, he feigned taking a shot causing the defenders to react in a lot of ways.
The funniest part was that he even didn't take any of those shots or attempt to dribble his way into the box and that was because he didn't want to do any of that.
It didn't take long before Gregory raised his hand toward the winger before making his way into the box.
That was what he was looking for as he quickly sent the ball rolling toward the young striker.
Gregory got his foot on the ball, but before he could do anything with it, it was quickly snatched away from his foot by Perez who wasn't ready to take any more chances.
"That could have been Gregory's debut goal, but it looks like Perez isn't taking any chances with him," Jim commented.
Perez sent the ball flying out as soon as he got up on his feet, but sending it toward Diego was a mistake as both Martinez and Roland ganged up on the winger and got the ball off him before passing it to Ferran who quickly stretched it to Mateo.
Mateo quickly zoomed off down the middle as soon as he got the ball with Foden hot on his trail from behind and just as the winger got closer to the box, he was dragged down by the midfielder from behind.
The referee didn't need to check or ask anybody since he was right beside them.
He blew his whistle before he made his way to the midfielder and showed him a yellow card.
"A yellow card for Foden which is well deserved because that pull was not cool, and now Unique FC have a free kick in a very good spot.
It was pretty clear who was going to take the free-kick as Mateo could be seen standing over the ball with no one else beside him, maybe that was because Ferran just didn't want to get involved with this one.
Supreme United set up their four-man wall right at the edge of the box with most of the players inside the box.
"Can Mateo convert this one and give his team that winning assurance once again? This will be his first hat trick against Supreme United if he puts it in."
After making sure that everything was as it was supposed to be, the referee blew his whistle and now it was over to Mateo.
The winger slowly took three steps away from the ball before he quickly closed up on it and sent it flying toward the goalpost.
"Mateo!"
The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost as Perez dived toward it at that exact time, but he wasn't able to get his hand to it as the ball ended up hitting the crossbar before flying over for a goal kick.
"Oh, crossbar," Jim said.
eαglesnᴏνel "It's quite surprising how close he gets whenever he misses a free kick, his precision is quite something else," Steve said.
Mateo stared at Supreme United's goalpost for a while with both of his hands on his waist before he let out a sigh and turned around.
The match had just entered the eighty ninth minute when Adolf wrested Roland off the ball right at the edge of the box preventing the striker from making good use of a very good scoring opportunity.
The defender quickly pushed the ball to Roland while he was still on the floor, and without hesitation, Roland sent the ball flying over to Minino.
Unfortunately, he seemed to have hit the ball with the wrong side of his foot as the elevation was just not enough and that made it super easy for Foden to pop up from nowhere and steal the ball.
"Uh oh, this doesn't look good for Unique FC."
Foden quickly pushed the ball to Jan who quickly found a way past Luis and sent the ball flying in.
Roland got his head on the ball but it ended up hitting the crossbar before bouncing off toward the right.
Dave quickly dived toward the ball to try and grab it, but Diego was already there and all he needed was the tip of his boot to send the ball over the goalkeeper and into the goalpost.
"It's in! I can't believe it but they pulled it off! They've gotten that equalizer with just four minutes of added time to go."
'I guess shot stopping attribute couldn't save me from that one.' Dave said subconsciously before putting his head down while he was still lying on the floor.
<Sweeper keeper would have done a better job>