Chapter 65 Poor Defense

"He's one on one!" Jim screamed.

Mateo ran straight toward the goalkeeper who was already coming out to try and stop him and that was just what he needed, as soon as the goalkeeper was off his line he lobbed it toward the top right-hand corner.

"Mateo!!"

The goalkeeper jumped up trying to get a hand to it but his efforts proved futile as the ball went over him and bounced on the line before falling into the goalpost.

"Goalllll!!!!" Jim screamed as the guest fans broke into cheers and chants.

Mateo ran to the side screaming and then did a slide with his whole body before his teammates got to him and began to fall on his body.

"It's that Dave and Mateo combination again, we saw it last week in the match against Spree United, and we're seeing it again today," Jim said.

"What were they thinking leaving their back line open like that?" Steve asked.

"They didn't leave it open, Jamie was there to prevent anything like that from happening from the right but I guess Mateo was too hard for him to handle," Jim said.

"Yes," Dave said with a feeling of satisfaction and a smile on his face as he sat down in front of his goal post.

'Second career assist.' He said subconsciously before looking up to the sky.

<Second career assist, that's nice really nice but you know you still have an important quest to complete>

'I know Catherine, I don't have a two megabytes memory.'

<I was just saying in case there was any chance that you did>

'Hey.'

"He didn't have any assists coming into this season but after combining with Mateo Smith for the second time this month he now has two career assists," Steve said.

"Certainly this match didn't start in the way that I expected, it is Spree City zero Unique FC two," Jim said.

The match had once again kicked off after that goal with Spree City trying their best to keep the ball away from Unique FC and find a way to at least pull one back before going in on the break.

Off course, they had lost the ball a couple of times and during those times Unique FC had pushed forward with the ball.

They got two good chances during those attacks, they weren't clear-cut chances but they were good enough to get two more goals.

The first one was a lobbed pass to Fred at the edge of the box, players were coming toward him from behind so he went for an overhead kick which flew over the bar.

The second chance was a cross from Jonas on the left wing, the cross got fumbled out and fell to Ferran at the edge of the box, the midfielder didn't have a good enough space to shoot so he played it through to Merino who was making a run into the box now.

Merino had over-calculated the amount of shot power that he was going to need to get the ball into the net and when he hit it, the ball flew way over the bar.

'

"Oh, that was too much," Jim commented.

Spree City had also gotten their chances but it was three chances, two good chances, and one clear-cut chance.

The first one was from Felix from outside the box, it was a really good ball placed toward the left side with a little elevation but it was an easy save for Dave who dived toward the ball and with the help of his ball magnet got hold of it.

If it was the old Dave, there was a chance that that ball would have been fumbled into the net or pushed out for a rebound.

"Another nice save from Dave Richards," Jim said.

'You're not getting this ball past me, Felix.' Dave said subconsciously before getting up and rolling the ball to Norman on the right wing.

The second chance was even better, Kelano had crossed the ball to their left winger Torres who was at the edge of the box on the left wing.

The winger faked a shot to get rid of both Norman and Aima before shooting at the top right-hand corner.

"Torres!"

Dave happened to be there at the right time because if he wasn't he wouldn't have been able to do anything, he jumped high and with both of his hands, knocked the ball over the bar for a corner kick.

"What a save!" Jim exclaimed.

"I have to say, Jim, Dave is the reason why Unique FC are still leading, this match should have been leveled by now," Steve said.

"Yeah, he's turning into something," Jim said.

Spree City's best chance came from the corner kick which Jamie had gotten in a good position to head but Dave was there to deny as he had his hand out to deny him.

The ball hit his hand and bounced on the bottom right-hand crossbar before rolling off toward Torres.

The left winger could have easily put that away as the goalpost was empty at that time but his shot hit the bar and rolled out for a goal kick.

"Oh, my, how did he miss that?"

<Wow, now you're starting to make them be under pressure whenever they want to shoot at your goal post>

'Is that what happened?' Dave asked, getting up from the floor.

<If it's not then there was no way he could have missed that goal, you're doing great so far>

'I know.' Dave replied before catching the ball that was thrown at him. 'But I wish they could minimize the way those balls come in, at least until the second half.'

[ 39/100 Energy ]

[ 40% stamina remaining ]

The match continued and had entered the Forty-third minute when Ferran lost the ball in the process of crossing over to their opponent's side.

"That was clumsy from Ferran," Jim commented.

'',

The central midfielder raced toward the goal post with the ball before passing it to Kelano on the right wing.

"Spree City are trying to do something here," Steve said.

Kelano played the ball through before quickly running past Jonas to meet it at the other end.

"Oh, he's gotten past Jonas."

Kelano raced further down the wing with the ball as Jonas chased him down trying to stop him but before he could do anything the winger crossed the ball into the eighteen-yard box.

The ball was nodded back by Adolf and was falling toward Felix who didn't even wait for the ball to hit the floor as he sent the ball flying toward the right-hand corner.

"Felix!"

Dave was glued to the spot as the ball flew past him and smashed on the crossbar.

"Oh, it's hit the crossbar!"

"Yeah, but it's not out yet," Steve said.

The ball rolled off toward the side with Torres and Norman being the closest players to it.

The two raced toward the ball but Torres got to the ball first and with some neat body movements, he got rid of Norman and was now open on goal.

"Surely this is a goal!" Jim exclaimed.

Torres slotted the ball toward the bottom left-hand side of Dave's goalpost, the goalkeeper dived toward the ball and tried to reach it with his ball magnet but the ball seemed to be too out of reach for the skill to reach it.

"It's a goal! They've finally pulled one back!" Jim exclaimed.

There wasn't much of a celebration from Torres as he just stood there and lifted his hand to the skies before his teammates began to gather around him.

'At least it wasn't scored by Felix.' Dave said subconsciously as he picked up the ball. 'Oh, screw that.' He added before angrily kicking the ball into the net.

<Don't worry, you'll get your clean sheet one day>

'I know but I was feeling it in this match.' He replied before slowly sitting down on the floor.

"With just two minutes left on the clock, Spree City has finally pulled one back," Steve said.

"Unique FC has been poor throughout the match with Dave stepping up to make a good number of saves, if the defense doesn't pick up in the second half then this match is going to take on a whole new look even with Dave's heroics," Jim said.

"I agree."

****

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.