My Goalkeeping System

"That\'s the whistle it is all over!" Jim said. "It\'s quite hard to believe but Unique FC just came to the Stadio Olimpico and trashed S.S Lazio, I never ruled out them being able to beat Lazio but trashing them."

"I think Lazio players were way too lax with them, especially during the first half, their attack worked quite hard to get a result but the defense really didn\'t do much to stop Unique FC.

"That plus the fact that Unique FC put in a massive amount of effort in their defense to make sure that the home team didn\'t get the ball past them and it all worked out for them. They\'re at the top of the table with three points and four goals without any deduction."

Despite that terrible result, there were a couple of Lazio players who didn\'t storm off the pitch immediately and even took the time to catch up with some Unique FC players, exchange a couple of words and even shirts.

Andrea was even smiling as he spoke with Mateo while the two made their way out of the pitch.

As expected, Dave was speaking with Jorge now as the two slowly made their way to the sidelines.

"As a goalkeeper, you have one heck of a monstrous shot power even from that far," Jorge said.

The amusement he felt after facing that shot wasn\'t gone yet.

"Thanks," Dave replied with a smile.

"If you weren\'t also so good in goalkeeping I would have suggested that you change position.

<You know at first I thought he didn\'t come to meet you then because his English wasn\'t that good but I guess I was wrong>

\'Yeah, that\'s a relief.\'

"You know, you\'re the first person to factor in my goalkeeping ability when saying something like this. A lot of people just say that I\'ll be good on the field and that it would be wise to switch position." The goalkeeper said.

"Don\'t listen to them, you\'re a great goalkeeper, whatever you can do with your legs helps in making you a different kind of goalkeeper, a unique goalkeeper." Jorge expressed.

"I guess you understand because you\'re a goalkeeper too."

"Well, of course, I\'m aware that we get underrated a lot but I don\'t want to talk about that." He said. "Um…about that shirt I asked for during the warm-up session."

"Yeah, I almost forgot," Dave said before he pulled off his shirt to reveal the black vest he was wearing under.

Jorge also removed his shirt and exchanged it for Dave\'s.

"Thanks, Dave." He said before he began to walk past the goalkeeper. "I\'ll see you in Bilbeth. I\'m just a goalkeeper so I can\'t really say but I know things won\'t end like this next time."

"I\'ll be looking forward to it."

<This team has a different breed of players, talking to you like that even after losing four goals to nothing>

\'It\'s called good sportsmanship, Catherine, but still…you\'re right, they have really nice and friendly players.\'

"Alright, Mateo, I\'ll see you in the next one," Andrea said as he gave the winger a rub on the head before he turned around and quickly made his way down the tunnel.

Mateo didn\'t say anything and just let out a deep sigh.

"He seems to like you a lot."

He quickly turned around to see Ferran standing there with a blank expression on his face.

"Yeah, I\'ve never met a player who was this nice to me after losing the match," Mateo said.

"Yeah, it\'s quite odd, just be careful."

Mateo wanted to respond to that but Ferran didn\'t give him the chance as he quickly walked past the winger and made his way down the tunnel.

As expected, Mateo was announced as the man of the match at the end of the match and when he went down the tunnel, he was given his award.

The players were all back in the locker room now and that included Dave who was busy looking at his system.

[ Quest failed ]

[ You failed to score from your goalpost ]

[ Conjoined quest completed ]

[ You thwarted two counterattack opportunities ]

[ You made seven crucial saves ]

[ +2 attribute points received ]

[ +150 exp received ]

[ +3 stat points received ]

[ +5 skill upgrade points received ]

\'At least I completed the one with the most rewards.\'

[Post-match rewards ]

[ Nine crucial saves: +90 exp ]

[ Goals conceded (0): +150 exp ]

[ Match rating: 8.4 ]

\'I guess I played a very important role in keeping this clean sheet.\'

<Yeah, anybody would be able to see that>

\'The amounts of shots I had to face in this match was quite overwhelming, it\'s a good thing the ones that were really close to going in ended up going out.\'

The goalkeeper was still deep in his thought when Mateo suddenly pulled him closer to his body.

"Hey, Dave, smile." He said before raising his phone.

The goalkeeper had no choice but to smile but it was pretty clear that he was unaware of the winger wanting to take a selfie with him.

________ ________

The players made their trip back to Bilbeth that evening and ended up reaching their destination by 8:30 PM.

After reaching the stadium, the players made cars and drove home to get some rest just like they deserved after doing what they did today.

Emma was lying on the couch going through her phone when the door was suddenly pushed open by Dave who slowly walked into the house before closing the door.

She quickly sat up on the couch just to be sure it was him, and as soon as she saw his face, she crashed down back on the couch.

"Welcome back." She said with her gaze on her phone.

Dave didn\'t say anything until he got to the couch and sat down.

"How\'re you doing? I hope you didn\'t miss me too much."

"I was at work all day so, of course, I didn\'t."

"Oh, is that so?" Dave said before he leaned closer to her and took her phone from her.

"Hey, give it back." She said before stretching her hand to grab her phone but Dave wasn\'t going to let her take it that easily.

He raised his hand to put the phone out of her reach before pressing his body down in hers to prevent her from getting up.

"You seem to be in a bad mood tonight, did anything happen at work or are you on another mood swing?"

"Nothing happened at work, I don\'t why I\'m angry, it\'s frustrating." She said before shaking her head. "Please get off me."

"Mood swing." He muttered before slowly getting up from her body.

He also dropped her phone back on her body before getting up from the couch.

"Where are you going?"

"Oh, I\'m not going anywhere," Dave said before he dipped his hand into his pocket and brought out a small round case.

"What\'s that?"

"It\'s just a little something I bought for you." He said before handing it over to her.

"For me?" She said before taking it.

She slowly opened the case and picked up what was inside to see that it was a silver-coated necklace with a tiny heart-shaped crystal on the part that was meant to stick out.

"A necklace." She muttered.

"I know it\'s nothing special but I saw it in a glass showcase and thought it would look nice on you so I bought it." He expressed.

"Who said it\'s not something special, I think it\'s beautiful and besides, any gift from you is something special." She said smiling at him.

"Any gift?"

"Yeah, as long as it\'s something I can use or something we can use in the house." She said.

"Oh."

"Sorry about the way I acted earlier." She muttered.

"Don\'t worry about it."

"I know you must be hungry." She said before getting up from the couch. "I made something a few minutes ago."

After saying that, she quickly made her way to the kitchen.

Dave had to follow her because he was thirsty and needed to grab a drink.

Emma was standing near the microwave when he walked in so it was pretty clear that she was warming something.

"You know I watched the second half of your match today." She said as soon as she saw him enter the kitchen.

"You watched it at work?" Dave said before opening the freezer.

"Yeah, I had nothing to do at that time so I just watched it."

"Oh."

"You guys were pretty fierce, I wish you played like this against Supreme United, you would have won that match."

"Yeah, we\'ll keep that in mind for the next time we face them."

"The first round of the Bilbeth Super Cup is starting next week, right?"

"Yeah." He said as he slowly walked over to her side to grab a cup.

He had just finished pouring himself a glass of water and was about to pour it down his mouth when she opened the microwave.

"I forgot to tell you earlier, but my dad is visiting tomorrow." She said.

As soon as Dave heard that, he quickly spilled the water in his mouth before turning his gaze to her.

"Your dad?"

"Yeah." She said with a nod.

"Oh, do I have to be here?"

"Yeah, he picked tomorrow because he knows you don\'t have any match or training session."

"Oh."

<You know this is going to be a nice visit for him, it\'s been a while since you two have seen each other>

\'Yeah, and what about me? I don\'t think it\'s going to be a nice visit for me.\'