My Goalkeeping System



The flight to Rome was a bit of a long one given the fact that it took them two hours and twenty-two minutes to get there.

Once their plane got into Rome, it landed at the closest airport to the Stadio Olimpico, the Rome Ciampino ( CIA ) airport.

As soon as the plane stopped moving, the players alighted from the aircraft and were now standing beside it with their pieces of luggage as they waited for the bus that was going to come pick them up.

"The weather here is quite pleasant," Merino said before taking a deep breath.

"Yeah, it's always like this during this period, if you came here around July or August, you wouldn't call the weather pleasant." Martinez expressed.

"Oh, well, then I'm glad we had to come now."

"I guess for most of you, it's your first time in Italy," Martinez said.

"Yeah, it's my first time," Dave said with a nod.

"Me too," Mateo said.

"I've been here on a vacation before but it's my first time coming to play a match so it is also some kind of new experience," Ferran said.

It didn't take long before the bus that was supposed to pick them up showed up and after everyone hopped on, it started making its way to where the players were going to be staying for the night.

Dave didn't bother trying to look out the window throughout their short trip to the hotel as he seemed to be discussing something with Catherine in his mind.

'You know, Catherine, I've figured out a way to put all my stat points into good use.'

<And what is that?>

[ Unused stat points: 14 ]

'Since shot stopper and the other two attributes that I am going to unlock in the future eat up a large amount of energy over a small period of time, I've decided to focus on getting my energy level up for now.'

<I see, so, you're finally thinking outside the box>

'Now's not the time, Catherine. Anyway.'

[ +7 stat points added to Energy ]

[ 151/151 Energy ]

<If you're focusing on getting it up why not just add everything to it?>

'I would love to but my strength and endurance are quite behind compared to my dexterity, it would be okay to leave them like that for a while but for the goalkeeper I'm aiming to become, it's best to keep things a little close if not balanced.' He replied.

By the time they got to the hotel, the sun had almost completely set.

The players made their way inside the hotel and to their rooms which had all been booked in advance.

Once again, the players had to share rooms and as always, Dave was sharing a room with Mateo.

Just like the other ones they've shared in the past, this one also had two beds placed opposite each other and the room had a neat interior design unique to Rome.

After dropping their stuff in the places they found suitable enough to drop them, Dave stretched both of his hands before turning his gaze to the door.

"Hey, what do you say we go check out the Stadio Olimpico?" He asked after turning his gaze to Mateo.

"Right now?" Mateo replied before sitting down on his bed.

"Yeah, right now," Dave said with a nod.

"Um…I don't think I can go." The winger said before placing his hand on his right ankle. "I don't know if it's because of the type of exercise but my ankle hurts."

"Your ankle?" Dave said before quickly getting closer to him as the expression on his face suddenly turned into a serious one.

"It's nothing serious, it's just a little pain, I'm sure it will be okay after a while."

"Are you sure it's nothing serious?"

"Yeah, it's nothing serious, trust me." The winger assured him.

"Okay, I just hope it's not something that will affect your performance tomorrow or end up translating into an injury."

"None of that is going to happen, don't worry, Dave."

"I hope so," Dave said before turning his gaze back to the door. "Well, since you can't go, I guess I'll just have to go see it alone."

Mateo didn't say anything and just kept his gaze on him until he left the room and closed the door.

As soon as Dave was gone, his phone which was lying on the bed began to vibrate.

He quickly turned to check who was calling him and let out a deep sigh as soon as he saw who it was.

Dave was about to enter the elevator and head down when he heard footsteps behind him and quickly turned around to see Carlos making his way to him.

"Oh, Carlos." The goalkeeper said as soon as he spotted him.

"Dave, where are you heading?" He asked.

"I want to go check the Stadio Olimpico out, what about you?"

"Well, this is quite the coincidence, that's where I'm also heading right now," Carlos replied.

<Looks like you got something to go with you>

"That's cool, I was looking for someone to go with and it looks like I found one," Dave said before pushing the number one button to open up the elevator. "Let's go."

The two entered the elevator and began making their trip down.

Carlos was one of the players who didn't really enjoy conversations unless it was something important which was why Dave didn't bother saying anything to him now that they were in the elevator

He was on his own most of the time, but he didn't really have any trouble with anybody and would help out whenever he was asked as long as it was something reasonable.

Being thirty-one years old made him ten years older than Dave and given the fact that he had been in the club for quite a long time, he was the team's second captain after Adolf.

After getting to the bottom floor, the two made their way out of the building and we're now walking down the street to get to the stadium.

Compared to Switzerland, Rome's nightlife didn't really look that impressive but there were still a lot of people walking around and the streets looked really lively.

They were welcomed by the staff there as soon as they entered the building and one of them had to take them to go see the stadium.

They were walking down the hallway when they ran into someone.

A man who looked to be in his early twenties, he had a finely chiseled body but he didn't look that muscular.

He also gave off the aura of someone who would be really chill.

"Oh, hey, Romeo." He said, waving to the staff as soon as both parties ran into each other.

"Andrea? I didn't know you were still here." Romeo said.

"I just wanted to practice for a little while longer today since I didn't really have anything important to do at home," Andrea replied.

"Andrea, you mean Andrea Enzo?" Dave said before turning his gaze to the player.

"Oh, and you must be Dave Richards, right?"

"You know me?" Dave asked, sounding quite surprised.

"Of course, I do, after what you did against FC Basel and how you guys knocked them out, there's no way I wouldn't know you plus I like to do a little bit of research about the dangerous opponents of any team I'm facing for the first time." Andrea expressed before turning his gaze to Carlos. "You're Carlos, right?"

"Yeah," Carlos replied with a nod.

"It's nice to meet the both of you." He said before shaking hands with the both of them.

"Nice to meet you too," Dave said.

"You know I was expecting to see Mateo when I saw you since the both of you are together most of the time but I guess he's not here."

"Oh, Mateo, he just wants to get a proper rest for tomorrow," Dave said.

"Oh, I see, I guess I'll have to wait till tomorrow to meet him, and speaking of rest, I think I should go get a proper rest before I break down, see you guys tomorrow."

After saying that, he quickly ran off down the hallway until he disappeared.

<He's quite friendly>

'Yeah, I like him already.'

It didn't take long before the two got to the stadium and Dave had only one word to say as soon as he stepped into the area.

"Wow!"

He had seen better in Spain but that didn't mean the Stadio Olimpico wasn't a stadium to be marveled at, and also the fact that the last stadium they had been to outside Bilbeth was quite small compared to this made it even more impressive.

The Wondanimo stadium only had a roof that could cover the main stands but this stadium had a roof that covered everything.

"Stadio Olimpico, home to S.S. Lazio and AS Roma," Dave muttered as he looked around the area.

The Stadio Olimpico was shared by Lazio and Roma just like Dave said and although it looked quite impressive and large, it wasn't the largest stadium in the league.

That title belonged to another stadium in the league that was shared between two teams, a stadium shared by the Milan brothers.

The San Siro, home to Inter Milan and AC Milan.

[ Advance Quest received ]

[ Score from your goalpost tomorrow ]

'Oh, dear.'