My Goalkeeping System



"That's his second goal in the match," Steve said as the winger raced to the sidelines before he was dragged down by both Ferran and Minino.

"Three goals up with twenty-plus minutes left to go in the first half, they are showing no mercy." Jim expressed. "Dave Richards has his third assist of the season and Mateo Smith is on his way to score his first hat trick of the season.

The fans were chanting and cheering for the players now and even some of the opposition fans couldn't help but admire that goal.

'An assist, that's one criterion in the quest crushed.' Dave said subconsciously as he jumped up and down inside his box.

<It's good to be happy about that, but you have to make sure to crush the other ones or it will all be in vain>

'I am aware of that.'

The match continued with both teams trying their best to get something.

Unique FC had already gotten enough goals to win the match but they were still fighting for more while doing everything they could to make sure that Junami United wouldn't score a goal against them.

At the start of the match, Junami United looked underwhelming in every aspect of the game and although they still looked underwhelming in attack, they were starting to pick themselves up in defense as they were no longer giving Unique FC that free space they had to run down their wings or through the middle and cause a lot of problems for them.

Fixing themselves up a little defensively didn't mean that they were now impenetrable as Unique players were still creatively finding a way to get past them but still, now that things weren't that easy for them, finding the back of the net had become a little tough.

Fred came really close to scoring his second goal of the day after he was set up right inside the box.

It was a neat pass from Mateo after taking on three players at once but the striker wasn't able to finish the chance as his shot ended up going directly toward the goalkeeper who didn't have any trouble stopping it.

"Oh, what a goal that could have been, that could have been their fourth, a fourth goal that was surely going to break the guest team's spirit," Jim commented.

The match had just entered the fortieth minute with Unique FC still passing the ball around relentlessly trying to find that fourth goal.

Minino received the ball from Frankie but because he had two players around him trying to dispossess him of the ball, he sent the ball rolling back to Frankie who pushed it forward a little before passing it to Mateo this time.

The midfielder on his side quickly rushed to him as the ball rolled toward him.

He was quite keen to take the ball off the winger, but all Mateo needed to take care of him was a dummy and as soon as he got rid of him, he passed the ball to Ferran.

The two played a couple of one-twos with each other before Ferran had to send the ball rolling to Merino.

"Merino."

Merino feigned shooting at the defender right in front of him to get him to turn his back before he quickly got past him and pushed the ball forward to Fred.

Fred quickly got closer to get hold of the ball fast enough, but just as the ball touched his feet, it was quickly swept off by one of the defenders.

Fred crashed to the floor and raised his hand calling for a foul but it didn't look like a foul to the referee and he wasn't going to call it no matter what and that he was right about.

Junami United were moving the ball forward now Unique FC hurried to get in their positions and stop them before their attack would become something dangerous.

They had gotten to the edge of their box now and were passing the ball around while looking for a way to get in and something but so far they had been unable to find a way in.

Pirlo quickly rushed out to try and stop one of their players after the ball was passed to him, and that was what they had been counting on as their striker quickly rushed in through the space Pirlo now had unoccupied.

The ball with the ball quickly sent the ball rolling to him with a backheel pass.

Out of desperation, Pirlo quickly turned around to try and stop the striker and that was what led to him pushing the striker down right inside the box.

The referee was right there and he didn't need to look twice before he blew his whistle and pointed to the penalty spot.

"Oh, Pirlo just brought down Benson right inside the box and it's a penalty for Junami United."

Minino, Merino, and Adolf quickly made their way to the referee to try and get him to reconsider his decision or at least go check VAR, but it didn't look like the referee wanted to do any of that and he wasn't going to do it.

<Looks like your quest is about to face its first major challenge>

'More like the ultimate challenge, this is the only thing that can decide whether I fail the quest early or not.' Dave said subconsciously. 'I just can't believe that we've managed to concede five penalties in just three matches.'

<Well, two of those were terrible calls from a referee who is supposed to be professional, but still, it's not like conceding three penalties in three matches is any good either>

"With this penalty, Unique FC have now broken the record for the most penalties conceded in three consecutive with the record being previously held by Dynamo FC, they conceded four penalties in their first three matches in the 2014/15 season campaign and although only one of those penalties ended up not going on, they still managed to lift the league title that season. I'm starting to wonder, does this mean something for Unique FC?"

"To be honest, this is a record that no team would want to break but Unique FC just did it in what is turning out to be one of their best seasons. I'm starting to wonder if this means something for them too but it might be the opposite given the fact that only a goal has been scored from the last four penalties they faced, Dave stopped the rest." Steve expressed.

The penalty was about to be taken as Benson could be seen standing over the ball in the penalty spot with his gaze on Dave who was just standing there stretching his fingers.

"Now that I think of it, Steve, Dave Richards is one of the few goalkeepers who doesn't care about playing mind games with the penalty taker during a penalty kick. Could it be that he is so confident in himself during penalty kicks that he thinks he doesn't need to do it?" Jim asked.

"I remember there was some time in the past when a rule was made prohibiting goalkeepers from doing that after a certain goalkeeper used it excessively to his advantage in a world cup tournament, many people weren't happy about that rule and in the end, it got canceled but limitations were put to prevent the goalkeeper from saying certain words. Maybe Dave's just the type of person who likes to do something like that or it may be what you said." Steve replied.

The only thing Benson was waiting for now was the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he slowly took three steps backward before he closed up on the ball and sent it flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost.

Dave dived toward the ball at that exact time and with just the tip of his glove, he was able to get to the ball and send it over the bar for a corner kick.

"Oh, my goodness! I can't believe he saved that!" Jim exclaimed with a shocked voice. "He's faced five penalties in his last three matches and he saved four of them, unbelievable."

"That's a new record," Steve said. "He now holds the record for the most penalty saves in a Bilbeth Premier League season and he may extend it further if they concede more penalties which I'm quite sure they wouldn't want."

The fans went wild after that terrific save from the goalkeeper and Minino couldn't help but make his way to the goalkeeper and grab him.

They couldn't celebrate that save for long because Junami United had to take their corner kick.

The ball was quickly sent in from the side, but because it was placed quite close to the goalpost with a desperate attempt to get a goal, Dave was able to simply jump up and grab it.

He quickly sent the ball out to try and set up Minino but he ended up overhitting the ball as it went straight for Junami United's goalkeeper.

At the end of the first half, none of the side were able to get a goal after that goal from Mateo but it was pretty obvious that Unique FC were happy with that scoreline so far.

"What a first half," Jim said before letting out a sigh.