Chapter 399 Who's Going To Take It?



The Sunglow United player was sent off immediately as expected but Frankie was still on the floor with the medical team attending to him now.

They tried all the basic methods but it didn't look like the midfielder was going to be getting up anytime soon.

In the end, he had to be carried off with a stretcher, their fans weren't happy about that and so were the players.

If Minino was on the pitch then something might have happened as the midfielder could be seen yelling from the sidelines.

Adolf had to go drag him back to the bench to prevent him from getting booked by the referee.

"Looks like Frankie is down with a serious injury and won't be able to continue, looks like Javier succeeded in taking him out with him." Jim expressed.

"He was the star of the match so far and I can see where the frustration came from for Javier but he didn't have to do it like that, now who knows how long the midfielder will be out at best just a few weeks or at worse a couple of months." Steve expressed.

"I don't know but the last time he got injured he was out for a whole month and it wasn't even this serious, I see him being out for a couple of months which is quite unfortunate for Unique FC."

After Frankie was taken off the pitch, Martinez came on to replace him.

Martinez being the starting defensive midfielder for the team wasn't as vibrant as Frankie but he knew how to do his job well and that was all he was on the pitch to do.

"Well, at least they've still got Martinez, but there's no one to back him up, I guess Norman will just have to switch formation whenever he plans on not fielding him." Steve expressed.

"That is a likely option."

<I hope he gets punished enough for that atrocious challenge>

'You mean a three-match ban?'

<You're not serious, I'm talking about five or six>

'Now, that's just too extreme.'

<He was too extreme>

The match continued after everything calmed down and Unique FC were the ones moving the ball around.

"Well, I don't think the value of the current squad on the pitch fell with Frankie leaving because Martinez is fairly on the same threat level as him if not better." Jim expressed. "If they really wanted to hit Unique FC where it hurt, then they should have gone for Dave instead of Frankie."

"Well, Frankie didn't allow them to get close to the goalpost so even if they wanted to, which is a bad thing for any team to think about, they wouldn't have the chance to." Steve expressed.

Unique FC were doing quite well in moving the ball around and keeping it away from Sunglow United players.

Their only problem was that they weren't finding it that easy to move it forward without running into any trouble.

Harry received the ball from Martinez down the right and just the midfielder there could get to him, he pushed the ball back to Martinez who sent it rolling to Jonas.

They weren't finding things easy at the moment but Sunglow United were one man down now so there had to be a leakage somewhere.

The right winger quickly rushed toward Jonas to try and sweep the ball off his feet, but just before he could get to him, the wingback sent the ball rolling to Pirlo who immediately sent it flying over to Fred near the center of the pitch.

Fred brought the ball down with his chest and two players immediately ganged up on him, but before any of them could take the ball from him, he sent it rolling forward with a backheel pass for Edward who just moved past him to get to it.

"Nicely done by Fred."

Edward quickly moved forward with the ball before pushing it to Carlos who attempted to get past the left back before he turned and sent it rolling back to Harry.

"Back to Harry, they're finally breaking in."

One of the players from behind quickly rushed toward Henry to take the ball from him, but the midfielder did quite well in evading him before pushing the ball to Martinez who had joined the attack now.

Martinez got a touch on the ball before he sent it rolling it to Fredinho.

Fredinho used the speed of the ball to get past the right back before he sent the ball rolling into the box directly toward Fred.

Fred got his foot on the ball fast enough and he didn't hesitate to fire the ball toward the right side of the goalpost.

The ball had no elevation to it, but the goalkeeper was fast enough to get to it right in time to get his hand on it and send the ball rolling over the line for a corner kick.

"Oh, that was so close."

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

Nothing came out of that corner kick as Harry sent it flying in too close to the goalkeeper who rose up to catch it.

Sunglow got the ball back from that and pushed as fast as they could but that resulted in them losing the ball to the defense.

Aima pushed the ball to Luis Roberto who immediately sent it rolling to Harry.

Harry quickly took off with the ball as two Sunglow United players chased him down from behind and just before the one coming from the front could get to him, he sent the ball rolling to Edward.

Edward got hold of the ball and moved further a little before he sent the ball rolling to Fred.

Fred trapped the ball with his feet before he sent it rolling to Carlos before making his way into the box.

Carlos got hold of the ball and raced down the wing with it before he sent it flying into the box.

The ball was headed back by one of the midfielders and was sent flying toward Martinez who brought it down with his chest and was about to fire it toward the goalpost when he was tackled by one of the defenders.

The referee had no choice but to blow his whistle but the defender escaped getting booked.

"That's a foul, Unique FC now have a scoring opportunity from the edge of the box," Jim commented.

"Yeah, but the question now is, who's going to take it? No Mateo, Ferran, or even Minino."

The other players wanted Martinez to take it because from the assessments in their training sessions, he had the better free-kick ability among all the on-field players but he didn't think he was the best person to take it among all the players on the pitch.

The midfielder quickly turned toward their goalpost where Dave was currently standing and began to yell his name.

"Is he calling me?" Dave muttered as he slowly stepped out of the box.

<Yeah, maybe he wants you to take the free kick, get going>

'Okay, okay, I'm going.' The goalkeeper said subconsciously as he began to make his way to the area.

"Wow, looks like they're calling Dave forward to take the free kick."

"Well, that's something I expected them to do against Frono FC when Mateo and Ferran weren't on the pitch," Steve commented.

"Why haven't I ever thought of this before, Dave could be a really good free-kick taker, I mean he scores from his goalpost." One of the fans in the stands said and the other fans around him couldn't help but agree more.

"Are you sure you want me to take this?" Dave asked with his gaze on Martinez.

"Yeah, I know you can do it, buddy." The midfielder said and gave him a tap on the shoulder before moving to the side a little.

Dave was the one standing over the ball with his gaze directly on the goalpost, he wasn't even thinking about the four-man wall inside the box.

'When I started my career as a goalkeeper, I never thought I would get the opportunity to take a free kick.'

<I think you should save that for when you score the free kick>

'Yeah, you're right, it's not guaranteed but I'll try my best.'

At that moment, the referee blew his whistle and now it was up to the goalkeeper to show everyone watching what he could do with a free kick.

"Now, let's see what Dave can do, I mean we've already seen what he can do from the goalpost, but how well can he handle a free kick?"

The goalkeeper slowly took three steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost right over the wall.

The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost and although the goalkeeper dived toward it, he wasn't able to get his hand on it as the ball hit the angle between the post and crossbar before falling into the goalpost.

"Oh, my goodness! What was that?!"

"He just smashed it right into the goalpost," Steve commented.

Dave had no idea exactly how to celebrate as his teammates swarmed up on him and dragged him down.

Mateo along with the other players on the bench quickly got up as soon as that ball went in and Minino didn't even care as he rushed into the pitch to celebrate with his teammates.

"I guess that confirms our thoughts on how good Dave is with free kicks."