Chapter 268 Trying To Break The Stronghold

The match was already nineteen minutes gone and so far, Unique FC were still leading, that opener from Merino was what one would call a banger and so far the guests were finding it pretty hard to get back into the game.

Black Roz FC had not been able to get hold of the ball until the kick-off which came from the goal scored against them and even after that, they weren't able to keep hold of the ball and lost it after an attacking attempt but they were able to get it back from Mateo who had almost given them another heart attack.

The winger who now had the role of a striker received the ball from the other side from Minino and quickly got past the player right in front of him with a neat body feint and nice ball control.

He dribbled past the second, third, and fourth player to get to the edge of the box, and just as he was about to shoot toward the goalpost, the ball was taken off his feet with a neat tackle from behind, he fell under the influence of that tackle and raised his hand to call for a foul but the referee wasn't going to listen to it.

Right now, Black Roz FC were still with the ball and they were still looking for a way to get past Unique FC's stronghold.

"Black Roz FC has been completely underwhelming in this match, I expected better from them but I hope they can find their form quickly and add a little bit of spice to this match," Jim said.

Black Roz FC were doing quite well in passing the ball around and keeping it away from Unique FC players, but they seemed to be doing so under pressure.

The attacking midfielder on the right received the ball back from the striker after failing to get past Jonas but that wasn't the only reason why he sent it back to him.

The midfielder moved the ball forward a little, and just before Frankie could get to him, he sent the ball flying toward the other striker on the left.

The striker quickly forced his way past Luis Roberto as the ball bounced at the edge of the box but Roberto seemed to have pulled his shirt to slow him down a little and before he could get to the ball, Pirlo had already gotten to it to quickly send it out for a throw-in.

"Nicely done by Pirlo there, that was quite a nice move to try and get past the host's defense but they're not going to make it easy for them," Steve said.

The throw-in was quickly taken as Black Roz FC tried to quickly attack with the opportunity, but with all their attacking options gone, they had to move the ball back.

"The funny thing is that Black Roz should be the ones putting pressure on Unique FC, they're with the ball and close to their box but Unique FC are the ones pressuring them and causing them to move back with the ball." Jim expressed.

"They're afraid of losing the ball because they know it's going to be hard to get it back, it's like the hosts are telling them, 'Move back with that ball now or I am going to steal it." Steve articulated. "Dave could even try watching a Netflix show back there, he's been untested so far and I don't think he's entirely happy about that."

Black Roz should have tried to put on a little bit of courage and attack fiercely when they got the chance but so far, they happened to lack that courage to attack or attempt to put Unique FC under pressure.

They were still passing the ball around trying to find an opening as Unique FC players chased the ball around to try and recover it.

Both of Black Roz's strikers, Aveiro Mir and George Savy have been quiet in the match so far and you couldn't really blame them since their midfield had been rendered incapable to produce anything for them like they did against Tereville United.

Both strikers were able to produce two goals each in the four-goals-to-one victory against Tereville and it was all thanks to the brilliant effort from their midfield but that didn't seem to be happening today, at least not yet.

Frankie had almost taken the ball off the attacking midfielder on the right side of the pitch but the player was quick to push the ball to the defensive midfielder behind him before he crashed to the floor and without thinking twice, he sent the ball back to defense.

"That was close, he had almost lost the ball to Frankie there," Jim said.

The right-back received the ball from the defensive midfielder and quickly sent the ball flying to the attacking midfielder on the other side.

The midfielder who had the name 'Mason' written on the back of his shirt above the number eight knew that Minino was heading toward him and waited for him to get closer before he flicked the ball with his back heel and nutmegged him.

"Oh, he did not just do that to Minino," Jim said.

Minino didn't waver from getting humiliated like that as he quickly turned and began to chase after the midfielder.

He didn't waver, but what Mason just did to him seemed to have provoked something in him.

The midfielder quickly got to Mason in no time and brought him down under quite a rough challenge.

"Minino's quite fast to quickly catch up to him, but he shouldn't have handled things that way," Jim said.

The referee blew his whistle before he quickly made his way to the midfielder and showed him a yellow card.

"No question about that, it's a booking, the first booking of the evening," Steve commented.

Minino didn't even complain about that and just used his hand to clean off the little sweat on his face before he began to walk away.

"I guess he doesn't like getting nutmegged like that, that's why he got a little rough with Mason in his desperate attempt to recover the ball but the thing is that when you do it to others you're going to receive it at some points during matches from other players." Jim expressed.

"Yeah, exactly," Steve said.

"Now, Black Roz FC have a free kick in quite a good spot, twenty-three yards away from the goalpost."

Unique FC had to form a four-man wall that consisted of tall players and those players were Ferran, Adolf, Merino, and Luis Roberto but they forgot to put someone below.

Aveiro Mir was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as the referee was sure that everything was set, he blew his whistle.

The striker stared at the ball for a few seconds before he quickly took two steps backward.

"This clearly could be their chance to get their shot of the game and they could make that shot a goal," Jim said.

Aveiro had his gaze below where he knew was free right from the onset and now that he had closed up on the ball, that was his focus point.

"Aveiro!"

He sent the ball flying toward the goalpost from there as the players forming the wall jumped up thinking that he was going from above.

The ball was able to find its way past them and toward the bottom right side of the goalpost, but before it could go any further, Dave was right there to stop it with both of his hands.

"His first real test in the match and he steps up to stop it nicely," Jim said.

"That was perfectly and smartly executed by Aveiro but it looked like Dave was way ahead of him," Steve said.

The goalkeeper knew about no player being below but he didn't inform his teammates about it because he had a hunch that Aveiro would strike from there and it looks like his hunch was right.

<Now's your chance, Dave!>

'Yeah.' The goalkeeper said subconsciously as he quickly got up from the floor and sent the ball flying toward Mateo who was heading toward one of the center backs who quickly moved back as soon as Dave made that save.

The defender's biggest mistake was approaching Mateo while the ball was still heading toward him.

"Perfect." The winger muttered as the ball got close enough at the same time the defender got close to him.

He quickly lifted his right back heel and used it to flick the ball over the defender before zooming past him to bring it down with a neat touch and after that, he zoomed off toward the goalpost.

"Uh oh, Black Roz are in trouble here."

*****

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.

Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.