Chapter 288 Too Defensive

The players from both teams were now on the pitch warming up as the stand was slowly getting filled up by fans from both teams.

Dave was among the people in the stands, he was sitting in a place elevated a little with Emma so that they would be able to see everything from there but the place wasn't that high and so far no one seemed to have taken the seats around them until….

A blonde-haired goal walked past them and just before she could sit down on the seat in front of them, she slowly turned.

"Hey, it's you." She said with a warm smile on her face before she quickly got closer to the two. "Mr. Dave."

Dave looked quite clueless as he was trying to remember where he met her and who she was.

<Purple gloves, eleventh birthday>

'Oh, yeah, the girl at the airport at Lospeno.'

"You're…the girl from the airport at Lospeno, right?" Dave said before quickly putting on a smile.

"You remembered me." She said with a little giggle.

"Of course." The goalkeeper replied. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not alone, I'm with my cousin." She whispered before she quickly observed the area to see if she would spot the cousin whom she was clearly hiding from.

"I see." He said before turning his gaze to Emma. "Hey, Emma, you remember the girl I told you about? The one I met at Lospeno airport."

"Oh, you mean the one who received the purple gloves from her mom on her eleventh birthday just like you did, only that yours wasn't given to you on your birthday." Emma expressed.

"She's your girl…I mean wife, right?" The blonde-haired girl asked.

"Yeah," Dave replied with a nod.

"Hello, Mrs. Richards." She said after turning her gaze to Emma.

"Oh, hello, dear, what's your name?"

"Serene."

"Oh, Serene, that's a beautiful name," Emma said with a smile on her face.

"Thank you," Serene said. "Um…I heard my cousin say something about you being pregnant, is that true?"

"Yeah," Emma replied with a nod.

As soon as she confirmed that, the little girl quickly drew closer to her.

"That's great, so is it a boy or a girl?" She asked abruptly.

"It's only been a month so I don't know yet," Emma replied.

"Oh, so that's why your tummy is still flat."

"But I want it to be a boy," Emma said.

"A boy would be nice."

"I want it to be a girl," Dave said.

"Oh, you two have different preferences but whichever one it is you guys will love him or her, right?"

"Why not?" Emma replied.

"Serene!" A voice yelled from the upper part of the stands as the little girl quickly turned her gaze to the area.

"I think I have to go now, bye Mrs. Richards, bye Mr. Dave, hope your leg heals fast, I would have loved to see you in the goalpost tonight." She said as she made her way up.

"Bye." The couple said before turning their gaze back to the pitch.

"She's quite the hyperactive one," Emma said.

"You got that right," Dave said.

"I wonder if we'll have a child like that." She said before placing her hand on her belly.

"If that's what you want, then you'll be the one to chase her around the house." The goalkeeper said before he relaxed his head in his seat and slowly closed his eyes, but those eyes were not allowed to remain shut.

"Why would I do that when you're here and who said anything about the child being female?"

"Hey, calm down, you were the one that brought it up."

_______ _______

The players were all ready for the match now and were waiting in the tunnel with the children mascots waiting for the signal for them to start making their way to the pitch.

Unique FC players were putting on their normal home jersey which was orange with black polka dots with the goalkeeper's kit being lemon green while Dynamo FC were putting on their away jersey which was a white jersey with black designs that covered almost half of the shirts while the shorts were mostly black with white designs, the goalkeeper's kit was blue with little patches of black.

It didn't take long before they were given the signal to start making their way to the pitch and just as they stepped out of the tunnel, the fans began to cheer them on.

"Welcome everyone, it's your regular commentator Jim Waterson and joining me in the studio as always to offer his expert analysis and opinion is Mr. Steve Waterson," Jim said.

"Hello, everyone, it's really nice to be back here again," Steve said.

"We have quite the match-up here today," Jim said. "This has to be the best match of matchday six."

"A match between the current second and third-placed teams on the team, yeah, it's sure going to be a battle here tonight." Steve expressed.

"Yeah, but Unique FC sure doesn't have their full force, Dave Richards sustained an ankle injury on Wednesday and will probably be out for a week or so and that means Unique FC will have to tackle things without one of their if not their most impactful player but the same can't be said for Dynamo FC.

"They have no injury issues so far but that doesn't guarantee them scaling through this one easily given how their last match ended."

"If Unique FC wins this one, they may overtake Supreme United who have a match tomorrow, but if they lose, Dynamo FC will scale above them and they'll drop to fourth or fifth place. A draw will keep both teams safely in their positions for today until Troham United plays tomorrow."

Dynamo FC won the coin toss which meant that they chose the goalpost on the left and were going to be starting the match from the kick-off spot.

"Dynamo FC scored two goals in their first and only victory of the season so far, Unique should definitely watch out for him," Jim said.

"Yeah, and Dynamo FC should also be wary against Mateo Smith, the youngster was a menace against Black Roz FC and he's managed to grab a goal in two consecutive seasons, he has two goals this season just like Frank James, the only person who has more is Roland Hills with four." Steve expressed. "One thing's for sure, the golden boot race this season is going to be heated."

"Yeah."

While Unique FC were playing four-three-three, Dynamo FC were playing five-four-one and it wasn't just the normal formation, they had three defensive midfielders and only one attacking midfielder along with the striker, it looked like their main focus for this match was defense but everything doesn't always seem to be the way it looks.

Frank was standing over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he quickly pushed the ball to one of the defensive midfielders.

"That's the whistle and we are on the way," Jim said.

Frank quickly shifted a little to the right as soon as he sent that ball back and just as he zoomed past Martinez he received the ball back from his teammate and drilled it low toward their striker right toward the edge of the box.

"A quick attacking move from the hosts."

Before the striker could get to the ball, Adolf got to it with a slide and pushed the ball to Alexander before the striker tripped on him and fell.

"But there's no way they're going to get past Unique FC that easily."

"It's always nice to try a move like that from the start but now they've lost the ball."

"Is anything the matter, babe?" Emma asked after noticing that her husband seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

"No, it's nothing." He said before shaking his head. "It's just that they seem to have too many people at the back, three defensive midfielders and five midfielders, it's like they're planning to defend throughout the game."

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure your teammates will be able to pull through."

"I hope so."

'I hope coach will be able to see through this.'

****

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.