Chapter 359 The Last Minute
Mateo had just scored his hat trick and Unique FC were now leading four goals to nothing, but the match was still going on.
Junami United knew that there was no hope left for them at this point, but they were still pushing, pushing themselves to try and pull one back at least.
That goal lowered their morale a bit though and that meant that things were a bit easier for Unique FC whenever they got the ball.
"With just thirty minutes left of normal time, this match is pretty much over," Steve said.
"Yeah, but I'm looking forward to more goals," Jim said.
Junami United were the ones with the ball now and they were slowly pushing it forward with their passes trying to find an opening where they could strike through but Unique FC weren't making things any easier for them.
Elvis received the ball down the right wing and just before Roland could run into him, he sent the ball rolling to Benson who quickly turned away from Adolf with it, and out of desperation, he fired the ball toward the goalpost.
The ball was sent flying directly toward Dave who didn't have any problem palming it down before catching it.
"That's not troubling anyone."
Dave quickly sent the ball flying out toward Ferran who trapped it with his chest and just as it was about to hit the floor he sent it flying over to Minino with an overhead kick.
One of Junami United's midfielders quickly rushed toward Minino to steal the ball from him at that time but he wasn't able to do that as Minino nodded the ball back to Ferran who sent it rolling to Mateo.
"Mateo."
Mateo tried to dribble past the player right in front of him before he changed his mind and sent the ball rolling to Fred.
Fred knew what the winger was scheming and quickly sent the ball back to him as soon as he got past the player in front of him.
"Back to Mateo, what's he planning?"
Mateo raced toward the right back without slowing down, he used the momentum from his speed to dribble past the defender and get into the box, but he wasn't clear yet as he now had two players pulling his shirt from behind.
Just before he was pulled down right inside the box, he sent the ball rolling toward Fred, but before the ball could get to the striker, one of the center backs got to it and sent it flying to the other side of the pitch and out for a throw-in.
"Looks like Mateo wanted to go all the way there before he was pulled down," Jim commented.
"That's supposed to be a penalty kick but it doesn't look like the referee's going to give it," Steve said.
"Yeah, and it doesn't look like Mateo cares."
The reason why Jim said that was because the winger was running back to the other side of the pitch now with a smile on his face.
The match had just entered the seventieth minute now when Norman decided to bring on a couple of players.
Roland was replaced by Jonas, Martinez came on to replace Frankie and finally, George came on to replace Fred.
Junami United also made a couple of changes.
Unique FC were already winning the match with just twenty minutes to go, so Norman found it necessary to bring out a couple of players and rest them for their match against Lazio on the sixth of November.
He wanted to bring Mateo out now but on second thought he decided to let the winger play for a little while longer.
With the new players now on the pitch, play seemed to have slowed down a bit for Unique FC but they were still controlling the game more than Junami United.
Jonas received the ball from Adolf after the center-back got it off Benson with a tackle.
Jonas got his foot on the ball and quickly raced down the wing with it before laying it off toward Martinez.
All Martinez needed to send the ball rolling to Ferran was a single touch and as soon as Ferran got the ball, he moved down the right with it before passing it to Minino who passed it to Merino with a backheel pass.
Merino moved a little forward with the ball before he sent it rolling to George.
The young striker had a lot of players clustered around him in no time so he had to push the ball back to Ferran who found Mateo cutting into the box from the left and sent the ball rolling to him.
The winger bodied the player marking him out of the way to get his foot on the ball.
"He's through, this could be his fourth!"
Just like Jim said, Mateo had a clear sight of the goalpost and knew every way to beat the goalkeeper from that position but just as he turned to the right, he found George in space as everyone else was heading toward him, that was when he decided to do something else.
He sent the ball rolling to George who was completely free now and the young striker didn't have any problem putting the ball away through the right side of the goalpost while the goalkeeper was glued to a spot.
"It's in! They've got the fifth one!" Jim exclaimed. "I thought Mateo was going to take that because he could have easily put it away from there but I guess he wanted to be the one to assist George's first goal for Unique FC."
"Yeah, that's a pretty nice gesture setting the youngster up for his first goal for the club and as far as Junami United, there's nothing to fight for anymore." Steve expressed.
George really appreciated that assist as the person he made his way to after putting it away was Mateo.
'We weren't even able to beat any team like this last season.' Dave said subconsciously.
<Yeah, because you guys weren't there then, this is just what it feels like to see a team improve>
'Yeah, the second criterion has been met a few minutes ago, I just need to end the match with a clean sheet and everything will be ticked green.'
<Right, don't slip off now or you'll miss it>
The match had just entered the eighty-fifth minute now when Norman decided to remove the rest of the players he wanted to remove.
Mateo was replaced by Carlos, Minino was replaced by Edward, and Ferran was replaced by Harry.
Harry received the ball from George and because of the player quickly heading toward him, he sent the ball rolling back to Jonas.
Elvis quickly closed up on the left back and instead of passing the ball to Dave or anyone else, he tried to dribble the winger and that was a big mistake.
It didn't take the winger long to get the ball off him but luckily for Unique FC, he seemed to have overhit the ball when doing that as Dave was able to get to the ball first and clear it before anything dangerous could happen.
"That was close."
<Clean sheet almost got blown there>
'Yeah, he shouldn't try things like that in front of the goalpost>
Unique FC held on to the ball until the ninetieth minute and now that five minutes had been added to the time, they started to push forward harder.
Edward got hold of the ball from Martinez and without hesitation he sent the ball rolling to Merino who quickly pushed it to George.
George found Carlos entering the box at that time and lobbed the ball over to him but the winger wasn't able to get his foot to the ball as one of the defenders got to the ball first and sent it flying out for a corner kick.
"It's out for a corner kick, probably the last moment of the match, can Unique FC get their sixth out of this?"
'There's only a few minutes left so I might as well try this.' Dave said subconsciously as he made his way toward the box.
<You do realize that this is very risky and could ruin your clean sheet goal?>
'I know, but none of that is going to happen.' The goalkeeper replied as he got in position inside the box.
"Looks like Dave wants to try his luck with this last corner kick," Jim said.
"It could lead to them getting scored but they're already five goals up so I don't think he will mind if he's doing something like this." Steve expressed.
Edward was standing over the ball in the corner kick spot now and as soon as he heard the referee's whistle, he sent the ball flying into the box.
It went straight through the middle and was nodded back by a Junami United defender.
The ball was sent flying toward Dave right at the edge of the box.
He brought the ball down with his chest before getting his right foot on it, but before that, he did something.
[ +2 stat points added to strength ]
He sent the ball flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost and although the goalkeeper was able to get one of his hands on it, it wasn't enough to stop it as the ball smashed past his hand and fell into the goalpost.
"Oh, my goodness, what was that?"
This time there was no shouting rather he sounded quite shocked.
"Did I just witness a goalkeeper score and assist in a match?" Steve muttered.