My Goalkeeping System

Unique FC were now three goals up with fifty-seven minutes on the clock.

There was a lot of time left for Lazio to make a comeback but it didn\'t look like Unique FC were going to make that easy for them as they seemed to have switched to a more defensive style of play.

They had not parked the bus yet and that was because Norman instructed them to only do that if Lazio got too aggressive or somehow managed to pull one back and because of how they didn\'t immediately park the bus, they were able to get a third goal.

Ryan was approaching Martinez with the ball now and it looked like he was going to attempt to dribble past him, but on second thought, he canceled that idea and sent the ball rolling to Zahid on the left.

"Zahid," Jim said as soon as he got his foot on the ball. "He has the most assists in the Serie A so far this season nine assists in eleven matches but he has been rather quiet so far in this match."

"Yeah, I\'m sure the fans would love to see a little bit of something from him."

Zahid was cornered by Norman now as he seemed to have moved the ball too far down the wing.

He tried to dribble past Norman but he wasn\'t able to outwit him so he decided to use speed.

With his speed, he was able to get past the left back just a little before he sent the ball rolling into the box toward Carrigher.

That could have been costly for Unique FC but Adolf was able to get to the ball from right behind Carrigher with a slide and that was all he needed to push the ball out for a corner kick.

"Nice defending from Adolf, that could have been costly," Jim commented.

"Yeah, and now they have a corner kick to deal with."

Carrigher was brought down when Adolf came from behind to prevent that chance.

He sat up on the floor immediately and raised his hand calling for a foul but the referee wasn\'t buying it, he was close to the area when it happened and he saw quite well that the defender got to the ball first.

Zahid was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee\'s whistle as the other players from both teams ran around inside the box.

\'In the past, corner kicks have always been the point where I get really nervous in a match, excluding penalty kicks of course.\' Dave said as he pulled down his gloves.

<And now?>

\'I say, bring it on.\'

After making sure that everything was ready, the referee blew his whistle and now it was over to Zahid.

The winger slowly took two steps backward and observed the movement inside the box for a while before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying in.

The ball was sent flying toward Carrigher, but before the striker could get his head on the ball, Dave got to it with both of his hands and punched it out.

"Dave steps up to clear the danger but it doesn\'t seem to be over yet."

Jim\'s reason for making that statement was that the ball fell toward a Lazio player who didn\'t hesitate in passing it to Ryan.

Dave was still trying to get up from the floor when Ryan sent the ball flying toward the farthest right side of the goalpost.

It only had a little bit of elevation to it but it was carrying quite the power.

Dave was caught off guard as the ball zoomed past him but luckily for the team, Roland was right there to block the ball with his right foot.

The rebound came rolling toward Ferran who didn\'t waste any time passing it to Dave so that he could pick it up.

He had to trap it with his foot before picking it up because of the backpass rule.

"Wow, that was really close, Ryan was really close to pulling back one for his team, but Roland said no." Jim expressed. "This is one of the ways Unique FC has been taking care of things, when Dave gets put in situations where he can\'t really do anything then the defense shows up to make sure they don\'t concede."

"Yeah, it\'s quite surprising how they were known for their bad defense last season but this season, they have the best defense in the Bilbeth Premier League, they have conceded the least amount of goals in the league so far just one less than Supreme United." Steve expressed.

"That was a really close one," Dave muttered under his breath as he slowly got up from the floor with the ball.

There was no chance for him to do anything cheeky, but still, he had to send the ball in.

<This team looks quite fit to perform even in the champions league, the only problem is the team rotation. Jonas is the only one available to replace Roland if anything ever happens to him, there\'s not really anyone in the team who can do what Mateo does and then there\'s the case of you and a proper goalkeeper….>

\'Yeah, I get your point.\' Dave said subconsciously.

He interrupted her before she could finish speaking.

\'The club just needs enough money to clear some debts and bring in a couple of good players and all that is going to happen soon.\'

<I wonder about that>

\'You know you seem to be talking quite a lot today, it\'s a little bit out of character for you.\'

<Fine, I\'ll keep quiet then>

\'No, that\'s not….oh, just forget it.\'

The match had just entered the eightieth minute now, and so far, Lazio had not been able to produce any goal.

They were being really aggressive forcing Unique FC to get more defensive to have a chance of keeping them at bay.

They still weren\'t parking the bus yet, but they were more defensive now while looking for ways to get through Lazio because this was the part where certain teams begin to make mistakes in matches.

Adapting a more defensive style of play now meant that Unique FC weren\'t attacking that much and Mateo didn\'t seem to be actively doing anything anymore besides passing the ball around whenever he got it.

The statistics board was proof of how aggressive Lazio had been so far compared to Unique FC.

They had twenty-seven shots so far in the game with twelve of them being on target while Unique FC had only nine with just five being on target.

Unique FC were the ones with the ball now after Edward got it off Carrigher with a smart move.

He passed the ball to Ferran who quickly sent it to Mateo who sent it straight back to him with a single touch.

"Looks like they\'re just planning to stall time, finally decided to park that bus, haven\'t they?"

They continued to pass the ball around like that with Lazio players chasing it until….

Mateo got hold of the ball down the left wing with the midfielder there quickly moving closer to him but that was a mistake on his side as the winger quickly cut back with the ball before zooming off down the middle.

"Mateo\'s making a move with the ball, what\'s he planning?"

After getting a little closer to the box, he sent the ball rolling to Carlos before making a quick run into the box.

Carlos moved a little forward with the ball before he quickly trapped back with it and passed it to Ferran who sent it floating in with his first touch.

He was looking for Mateo but unfortunately, he seemed to have overhit it as the ball was sent flying right into the hands of Jorge.

"That could have translated into something."

That match continued from that point till the ninetieth minute.

Eight minutes were added to the match and although there was practically no hope left for them, Lazio just got more desperate.

Andrea, who had been doing everything so far to make sure his team didn\'t lose, raced down the right wing with the ball and just before he could run into Roland, he sent the ball rolling to Ryan.

Ryan wasn\'t able to do anything with the ball though as it was quickly swept off his feet by Edward bringing him down in the process.

Whether that was a foul or not was debatable but the referee didn\'t blow his whistle so play continued.

The midfielder passed the ball to Minino who stretched it further toward Ferran.

Ferran moved a little forward with the ball before passing it to Mateo who quickly took off with it.

He raced down the wing before he quickly cut back with the ball and sent it rolling to Roland.

Nobody really expected the wingback to shoot from that position and distance but he did it anyway.

He fired the ball toward the top left-hand side of the goalpost with his left foot.

Jorge quickly dived toward the ball whilst he was a bit off balance and although he managed to get his hand on it, it was a tricky shot as the ball curled away from his hand a bit and hit the post before falling into the goalpost.

"I can\'t believe it, they\'re four goals up."

This time there was no yelling because he was really shocked.

There wasn\'t much of a celebration from Roland who just raised both of his hands before he began to make his way back to his side of the pitch.

Minino wasn\'t going to leave him alone, obviously.

"If I was told this morning that Unique FC would come to the Stadio Olimpico and destroy S.S. Lazio, I wouldn\'t believe it, it\'s a good thing it happened right before me," Steve commented.