My Goalkeeping System-Chapter 557: Counterattack

Dave didn’t need to worry about that for too long as it was soon proven that everything that both of them noticed had also been noticed by Norman.

For ninety minutes, they played with just two players up front in an attempt to suppress Norlin FC’s midfield with their numbers.

Unfortunately, that didn’t work very well after Lopez entered the pitch.

Now the coach was completely switching the formation back to four-three-three.

Mateo was immediately moved to the left wing and Merino had to stretch down the right wing.

Ferran pushed further up in a central attacking midfield position with Minino and Frankie both supporting him in midfield, while also being in good positions to help out the defence at any moment.

There wasn’t much to change about how the defence was structured; the only change was that Norman wanted to make two changes.

The first one to go was Jonas who had been exhausted by ninety minutes of football. He had no complaint. There were a few mistakes but he had honestly done his best so far.

The next person was Aims who was replaced by Codex.

The defender knew that he could no longer handle the intensity of the match going into this stage, and someone like Codex, who had the strength and speed to compete with the opposing attackers, was needed, so he didn’t complain.

________ _______

"Welcome back, everyone. The first fifteen minutes of extra time are about to commence as we can see the players making their way to the pitch." Jim articulated. "Both sides have made a few changes to their squad going into this stage."

While Unique FC brought in two fresh legs to help their defence, Norlin FC made an offensive substitution.

Their left winger, who hadn’t had the best of nights, was subbed out for a thirty-four-year-old winger named Terry Madon.

This was a player who had spent most of his time this season on the bench starting only a few times. However, he wasn’t one to be underestimated.

Despite only starting a few games of just seven this season, the winger was still able to become one of the leading top scorers with seventeen goals while providing six assists.

Some might say that it wasn’t really anything impressive, as that was just the second division, but those who had seen him play might not completely agree with that opinion.

Terry, with the number twenty-seven printed on the back of his shirt, was hopping in anticipation near the kick-off spot as he and every other player on the pitch waited for the referee’s signal.

It didn’t take long for the referee to blow his whistle, and as soon as he did, Sai Ahmed sent the player rolling to Dennison who quickly pushed it back to the player behind him before Gregory could get to him.

"There’s the whistle, both teams have thirty minutes to prove themselves or else everything will have to be left in the hands of the penalty shootout. I surely hope we get to see plenty of interesting scenes in these thirty minutes." Jim articulated.

"I have a feeling that there will be plenty of interesting scenes to come," Steve commented.

The match had barely entered the second minute when Lopez played a beautiful through pass to Dennison who swiftly got past Frankie to receive the ball with his left foot.

Seeing that he had yet to stabilise himself properly, Roland dashed out in an attempt to steal the ball.

Dennison had no interest in trying to outrun a speedster like him, so before the young left back could get to him, he rolled the ball toward the middle to get it to Sai Ahmed, who had just gotten away from Minino.

"Oh, Unique FC has danger lurking in front of their box."

Sai Ahmed had to act quickly as he knew that escaping from Minino was only temporary, so before the midfielder could catch up, he spotted Terry, who was in between Norman and Adolf.

He wasted no time sending the ball into the box, expecting Terry to meet the through ball before the goalkeeper or anyone else could.

As expected, Terry reacted fast enough to get the ball before the defenders or anyone else could.

"Oh, Terry’s through on goal. Can he put it away?!"

Unfortunately, before the winger could even pull the trigger, the ball was quickly swept off his feet, and the sliding tackle also knocked him down in the process.

"Oh, Codex with a timely intervention!"

The Norlin FC players and fans were hoping that the player would call that a foul and award them a penalty but there was no reaction from the referee.

Actually, everyone could see that that was a clean tackle from Codex so there wasn’t much controversy there, but people would always hope.

Codex’s sliding tackle sent the ball flying toward the left, and Norman wasted no time dashing toward it, an opposing player hot on his trail.

"It’s quite surprising how Unique FC’s defence was opened there; they will have to be more careful with the gaps they leave," Steve commented.

Norman got to the ball in no time and quickly sent it rolling to Dave.

"And the ball is now in possession of the goalkeeper."

Seeing that Dave couldn’t pick the ball up as it was a back pass from his teammate, Sai Ahmed, alongside the player who had been chasing Norman earlier, dashed toward him.

Dave didn’t fret, swiftly getting past Sai Ahmed with a quick feint toward the left.

"Oh, Dave, that’s a dangerous game to be playing in front of your goalpost at this stage of the game." Jim couldn’t help but say.

Dave was well aware of that but he wouldn’t have done it if he wasn’t sure he would be able to get past him.

Getting past Sai Ahmed, the goalkeeper spotted Mateo racing down the left wing and wasted no time sending the ball flying to him.

"Dave, trying to find Mateo with the long ball," Jim commented. "Unique FC about to commence a counterattack."

The winger had a player running in front of him trying to keep him contained and stop Unique FC’s counterattack. But how could it be that easy for just one player to stop Mateo?

With a neat first touch, the young winger brought the ball down and continued moving. There were already opposing players rushing toward him from the back and a few from the side, but he was only interested in moving forward, right.

With the ball now in his possession, he increased his speed and closed up on the defender right in front of him.

While still on the move, he feigned quick left and right movements before putting the ball through the confused player’s legs and rushing past him to get to the ball and continue rushing toward the goalpost with it.

"Wonderful movement from Mateo and now there’s just two players between him and the goalpost."

With Mateo rushing toward them at full speed, the two defenders shook.

One of them rushed forward to stop Mateo while the other one pulled back to provide cover.

He hoped his teammate would be able to stop Mateo and save him the trouble.

Unfortunately, that prayer wasn’t answered as it didn’t take long before he saw Mateo leaving his teammate in the dust.

"That’s number two and now there’s just one more between him and the goalpost!"

In a desperate attempt, the player rushed toward Mateo to forcefully get him off the ball.

Mateo could tell what he was thinking, so he had no intention of facing him head-on.

Right on the edge of the box, he swiftly pushed toward the right with the ball before firing toward the bottom right corner.

"Mateo shoots!"