Chapter 459 On The Verge
Mateo was standing over the ball in the penalty spot with his gaze on the goalkeeper and everyone else behind him.
"This is their chance to pull one back, a step toward not losing this match, can Mateo pull it off?"
The referee made sure that none of the players were encroaching into the box before blowing his whistle and now it was time to see how this was going to turn out.
Mateo closed his eyes and let out a deep breath before slowly taking two steps backward.
"Hey, you know no one's going to do anything to you if you just blast it over the bar, so just do it, I know where you're going to put it anyway."
Victor was trying to get into his head as he jumped up and down on his goal line, but the winger wasn't even paying attention to what he was saying.
His only focus was the goalpost and that was where he had his gaze as he quickly closed up on the ball.
He got his foot on the ball and while Victor went toward the right, he sent the ball right in through the middle with a lob.
"And he sends it in with a classic panenka."
Mateo didn't rush to the side to celebrate or anything, he just pointed to the sky with both of his index fingers as his teammates closed up on him.
"Trying a Panenka when your team is two goals down now that's something I would never do if I were a football player, Victor could have just stood there and caught but he pulled it off and now they're just one goal down with fifty-nine minutes on the clock." Steve expressed.
Unique FC fans were all chanting the name of their club, they knew they still had hope and they were going to continue cheering on their team because they believed that that second goal was coming soon.
The match continued after that goal with Dynamo FC getting through to their side with a nice build up but the shot from Damian ended up flying over the bar.
Compared to the first half where Dynamo FC dominated the game most of the time, Unique FC were dragging them around in this half.
The home team had five players in midfield against the four that they had, but they were still outclassing them.
Merino was the link up to everyone and he was doing his job pretty well.
However, that problem of finishing was still there, Fredinho had gotten a couple of chances that he failed in finishing and even Mateo got a chance inside the box and although he had a player right in front of him, he could have scored from the left there but he ended up firing it straight into the goalkeeper's hands.
Dynamo FC also got a couple of good chances but most of them were blocked by the defense and the few that managed to get through to Alexander, he was able to save.
The match had just entered the sixty-ninth minute now when Dynamo FC won a free kick twenty-five yards away from the goalpost.
Frank was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle with his gaze on Unique FC's wall at the edge of the box.
"A good opportunity for Dynamo FC, can he put this away and put Unique FC's hope of an equalizer farther away from them?"
As soon as the referee was sure that nothing was out of place, he blew his whistle, and now it was time to see what the attacking midfielder could do with this one.
He slowly took three steps backward and then took in a deep breath and let it out before closing up on the ball.
As soon he got to the ball, he lifted it with his feet and sent it flying toward the goalpost with a thrust of force.
"Frank!"
The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand corner of the goalpost.
He was aiming right for the angle but Alexander was swift enough to get the tip of his gloves on it right on time to send it over the bar.
"Oh, what a save from Alexander!" Jim exclaimed.
"This kid is quite quick on his feet, Unique FC may not need to bring in a new goalkeeper if Dave leaves," Steve commented.
That was a spectacular save from the youngster and his teammates were quite glad he was able to save that and some of them had to go pat him.
Dave couldn't help but put his hand together after witnessing that save from the youngster.
'He has the potential of a great goalkeeper.'
<Yeah, he just lacks experience and a few other things but the core is there>
'Yeah, but I still want to be in the match.' He replied before turning his gaze to Norman who was standing up ahead.
Damian sent the ball flying in from the corner spot as soon as he heard the referee's whistle.
It was sent flying to the middle where Conrad and Minino contested for the ball in the air.
The striker ended up being the one to get his head on the ball.
Alexander was on the left side of the goalpost when he sent the ball flying toward the right so there was no way the goalkeeper was going to be able to get to it on time but there was no need for that because Adolf was just there to nod the ball away toward Norman Kole who immediately sent it flying far away from the goalpost.
"That was a close call from Adolf, they don't want to go two goals down again and they're fighting for it but will they be able to get that equalizer before the final whistle?"
The answer was probably no because the match had just entered the eighty-first minute now and Dynamo FC were still leading two goals to one.
Unique FC were starting to get really aggressive with them and were starting to press really high against them so instead of trying to get a third goal, they decided to put almost everything they had into their defense.
Yes, they were parking the bus.
Everything Unique FC tried to get that equalizer failed even though the match was starting to look one-sided now.
Norman had already made some changes like bringing in Martinez to replace Henry, Pirlo to replace Aima, and switching to the four-three-three formation which was focused more on offensiveness but nothing was working and Mateo was also failing to bring in that individual brilliance that they needed right now.
"The clock is ticking away and Unique FC are still behind, they are on the verge of losing another game against Dynamo FC."
Norman was standing in the technical area with a furious look on his face when he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder.
"What is it, Dave?" He asked with his gaze still on the pitch.
"Come on, coach, we're going to lose this match, the match is almost over. Just put me in, I know I can do something to spark things up." The goalkeeper pleaded.
"And what if you get hit on the head or something? That's something that I cannot risk."
"Come on, I've already told you, I'll be careful and I won't even be playing for long anywhere."
"But…."
"Coach please, just trust me, I have a plan or we'll lose this match."
Looking at the condition on the pitch, Norman couldn't agree more.
"Okay, Dave." He said before letting out a sigh. "Start warming up, once the ball goes out of play you're going in."
As soon as the goalkeeper heard that, his face brightened up with a smile.
"Thank you, coach." He voiced before rushing off to the side to start his warm-up.
"Would you look at that, Dave is warming up on the sidelines, Norman's finally bringing him in," Jim commented.
"Imagine bringing in a goalkeeper when your team needs an equalizer in the last minutes, but then again, Dave isn't just any goalkeeper."
"Yeah, I have a feeling something's about to happen."