My Goalkeeping System

Dave woke up the next day feeling as energetic as ever, and to start off his day just like always, he ran a couple of laps around the house.

They had three days left before Olympique Lyonnais paid them a visit to finish what they started at home.

He had been thinking about what that match could turn into, he had been thinking about it a lot, just like his teammates, Norman, and the fans and to make matters worse, Mateo was looking doubtful for the match now.

The goalkeeper was slowly filling up his system with water from his water bottle as he made his way to the seat in front of his practice pitch, and as soon as he got there, he slowly sat down on it.

"I hope this fever doesn't persist today." He muttered before dropping the water bottle on the floor.

<His phone isn't too far away from him, I can check for you>

'You can do something like that?' He asked subconsciously with a confused expression on his face.

<You know I'm not just an AI so quit acting surprised>

'I knew that from the start, just wasn't sure, and you're not even an AI to begin with.'

<Oh, I wish they didn't take my laughter away>

'Huh? Who took away your laughter?'

<It's a long story, you won't get anything done if I start telling you about it now>

'Okay, just go ahead and see how Mateo is doing then.'

<Sure>

His head suddenly went quiet like Catherine moved out of it, and after a couple of seconds, he heard a ding in his head.

<I'm back>

'So, what's his situation?'

<Well, all I have is good news for you>

'Okay.'

<His body temperature is at thirty-seven point nine degrees Celsius at the moment, the fever is still strong but that's better than the number from yesterday. All he needs now is some rest and someone to make him something nice and hot to eat>

'I guess I should go pay him a visit this morning then.'

<You should hurry because he has already gotten up from his bed to do the things he does every morning and that's not good for him>

<Seriously?>

<Yeah, and you should also take your wife or that girl who likes fawning over him since Emma has a situation>

'The girl that likes fawning over him? You mean Amber?'

<Who else is there?>

'That's not a very nice way to describe someone, Cat, but I guess you're not wrong.'

<I'm completely right, she does… >

'That's enough chit-chat.' The goalkeeper interjected before getting up from the seat. 'I came out here to get some practice in not gossip with you.'

<It's rude of you to assume that I was about to start a gossip>

[ Stat points: 40 ]

[ Strength: 40 ]

[ Dexterity: 70 ]

[ Endurance: 46 ]

'I'll have to put these stat points to good use before the second leg against Lyon.'

<Ignoring me now, are you?>

'I guess having my dexterity that high wasn't enough to save us from that loss.'

<There's a reason why football is a team sport, if you throw the best player in the world into a very bad and disorganized team with poor management, he will be able to make some impact with his individual brilliance but if things don't change after his arrival, the team won't be able to move far despite having the best player in the world in their team.

<You did all you could do that day, the defense just wasn't able to keep up with them that well but things might be different this time around if the system doesn't start glitching again and yes, you might need to make use of your stat points>

'You know you didn't have to start a lecture, but thank you.'

<You're welcome>

[ +10 stat points added to Dexterity ]

[ +10 stat points added to Strength ]

________ ________

A couple of days went by and Thursday was finally here, Olympique Lyonnais were finally on the home turf of Unique FC to finish what they started at their home.

The atmosphere in the Wondanimo stadium was bustling as the home team were confidently cheering their team on hoping for a comeback while the away fans were nudging their team to finish the job.

Both teams were lined up alongside each other in front of the stadium now, Unique FC in their custom orange home kit and Lyon in their blue away kit.

Unique FC's goalkeeper was in a lemon green kit and Lyon's goalkeeper in a black kit.

"One of these teams will have to end their Europa Conference League campaign here, today and although everything is pointing toward Unique FC being the team to say goodbye, a comeback is still very much possible, and if they end up getting knocked out, they'll still be leaving in style with what they did during the group stage." Jim articulated.

"Well, if Norman tries something differently today, he might pull it off, he has the talent to do so, too bad Mateo's starting on the bench," Steve commented.

"Well, he was bound to start on the bench after what happened in their last match against Junami, I think the fans and his teammates are just happy that he is able to be a part of the match at least, there's a lot riding on this match so they need every help they can get."

The captains of both teams had to make their way to the officials for the coin toss after they were done shaking hands with each other.

Unique FC ended up winning the coin toss which was something good for them, starting for the ball though not that much of a big deal was enough to give them an early lead if they played their cards correctly.

"Just before the match kicks off, let's take a quick look at the lineups and formation and formation from both sides."

After an intense amount of studying and strategizing, Norman finally decided to use the four-four-two formation but instead of using one attacking midfielder or two attacking midfielder like he usually did, he decided to balance things out.

Ferran and Martinez were up front as the attacking midfielders and then, Martinez and Frankie were behind.

Their role in this match wasn't really that of defensive midfielders, Martinez was more of a central midfielder who didn't have the liberty of moving that far in to join the attack freely and Frankie was going to be playing more like a box-to-box midfielder, putting him behind was the trick he was trying to play.

All that said, Norman made sure to tell them to prioritize defending if it ever came to that.

Fred and Merino were up front as the attackers and then in defense, he had Norman, Aima, Adolf, and Roland.

Dave was the one in between the sticks as expected.

Lyon were starting with the same formation they used last week and the same starting eleven except that Duncan wasn't starting, the midfielder was being replaced by a player named Novich.

Unique FC players were quite relieved after finding out about this, Duncan was a menace against them in the first leg so having him sit out the first half of the second leg was a huge relief for them.

With everything now sorted, the players just had to get into their positions before the match kicked off.

[ Quest received ]

[ Keep a clean sheet ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +200 exp ]

[ +15 skill upgrade points ]

[ +10 stat points ]

[ +1 attribute point ]

'The fact that I'm getting all those rewards for just keeping a clean sheet tells me just how tough this match is going to be.'