My Goalkeeping System

After telling his players everything that they needed to know about his new tactics, the players began to make their way to the pitch as it was almost time for the second half to kick off.

"Welcome back everyone, the second half is about to kick off as we can see the players making their way to the pitch now," Jim said as the players made their way to the pitch. "One thing I learned from a couple of Unique FC\'s matches last season is that they come into the second half looking better than they were in the first half."

"Well, let\'s see if they can replicate that here today," Steve said.

Since Unique FC were the ones that started the match from the kick-off spot.

Hans was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee\'s whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he sent the ball rolling to Henrique who quickly sent it rolling back to Felix.

"There\'s the whistle and we are on the way," Jim said as soon as the referee blew his whistle. "FC Basel didn\'t make any changes but it looks like Norman isn\'t happy with the way his team played in the second half which is expected, Frankie just came on to replace Fredinho."

"There\'s no way he would play Frankie upfront when there are other forwards in his squad, so that means he\'s cutting one man from the front and putting him in midfield, he just changed formation." Steve expressed.

He was right about that, Norman\'s plan was to change formations just before the second half kicked off, and in other to do that, Frankie needed to come on and Fredinho had to go off.

Now they were playing with the four-four-two formation, Frankie, Ferran, and Minino were up front as the attacking midfielders and Martinez still had the role of the defensive midfielder.

"It\'s a shame how there are strikers in the squad and Norman decides to use two wingers up front in this formation," Jim said.

"Well, when the wingers are better finishers than the strikers you have to do it, he has to make decisions that will benefit the team not just some specific set of players," Steve said.

FC Basel were still with the ball here. They were passing it around looking for a way through but the midfield was beginning to get a bit suffocating for them and the reason for that was Frankie who had the players around him on the edge whenever they got the ball.

The player was aggressive in chasing the ball until he finally succeeded in dispossessing Felix of the ball.

"Frankie is quite the character, putting that much pressure on Felix and getting the ball off him without a foul," Jim said.

As he got hold of the ball, he pushed it to Mateo who quickly sent it back to Ferran with his back heel before continuing his run forward.

"Thanks to Frankie\'s aggressiveness Unique FC have the ball now."

Ferran pushed the ball to Minino who lobbed the ball over the player right in front of him to get the ball to Merino who quickly took off with it down the wing.

He tried to dribble past the left back there but there was a better option as Minino called him from behind to give him the ball.

He didn\'t hesitate to send the ball back to Minino who quickly sent it flying over to Mateo with a lobbed pass.

"Another successful lobbed pass from Minino."

Mateo got hold of the ball and allowed it to bounce on the floor once before he sent it past the right back trying to stop him and quickly zoomed past to get to the ball and dribble past the center back who had already closed up on him.

"Mateo, woah!"

Unfortunately, he wasn\'t able to get past the other defender who sent the ball flying away from the box.

"Danger cleared, oh, wait, it\'s not over yet."

The ball was sent flying toward Merino on the right and the winger was glad to receive the ball in such an open space with almost everybody in the box.

He brought the ball down with his chest and pushed it a little forward as he was about to do something.

"Looks like he wants to go for a direct shot, Merino!"

The winger didn\'t hesitate to pull his left foot back and send the ball flying toward the top right-hand corner but Filip was there right on time to push the ball over the bar.

"Nice save from Filip, it wouldn\'t take too much to guess how that could have ended differently," Jim said.

"Yeah, great save but now they have a corner kick to deal with," Steve said.

Ferran was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee\'s whistle, and as soon as he heard it, he took a deep breath as he took two steps backward, before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying into the box or to be precise, he went directly for goal.

The ball curved toward the left side of the goalpost as it got into the box, but it ended up hitting the post and was immediately cleared by Filip who happened to be in the area.

"Oh, my goodness, Ferran almost scored from the corner spot," Jim said, sounding quite shocked.

Filip wanted to start a counterattack with that clearance but it failed as Frankie was in the right spot to get that ball, and without hesitation, he sent it flying back to Dave.

He could have passed the ball to anyway one up front to start the flames of attacks again, but he knew what his goalkeeper could do.

"Well, this isn\'t the Unique FC I saw in the first half, I think if Norman started Frankie in this match, he wouldn\'t be two goals down now." Jim expressed.

Dave had the ball under his foot now and Felix knew best to stay right on his goal line in a situation like this.

Dave knew that a direct kick was going to fail, but that wasn\'t the only thing he could do.

He scanned the area and spotted Mateo coming out from the box, he seemed to be in an offside position and waited until he was right out of the offside position before he sent the ball flying to him.

The left-back quickly rushed to try and stop him, but the winger brought the ball down with his chest and quickly put it through the defender\'s legs to get through him and now he had free space to run down the wing but he wasn\'t completely free as everyone else was hot on his trail from the other side.

"Mateo\'s through, this could be that moment."

The winger raced into the box but before that, he took note of how everyone was focused on him and how he was going to put that to proper use.

With everyone focused on him, Ferran was free right at the edge of the box, and just before Mateo could get to Filip, he sent the ball rolling back to Ferran who quickly fired it toward the right side of the goalpost.

Filip tried to stop it but it was just impossible.

"They\'ve finally done it, they\'re back on leveled terms again, what a magnificent strike from Ferran to put that away!" Jim exclaimed.

"Yeah, that was a well-taken strike but you have to give Mateo his credit, he dragged everyone away like a magnet dragging pieces of metal with it, that\'s how Ferran was able to get that much space."

"Well, they know how dangerous he is with shots, that\'s why they were after him like that, they just didn\'t know that he also has the instincts of a sharp playmaker and it came through for him."

***

Mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.