My Goalkeeping System

Chapter 414  Close Strike

Mateo had to be taken off the pitch to get medical attention, and while he was receiving treatment, the game had to continue.

The winger seemed to be doing okay at least as he was sitting on the floor with a cotton wool on his mouth.

Natasha was right in front of him because she was the one taking care of the situation.

"I think I'll take that out now." She said before slowly removing the piece of cotton wool from his mouth. "I think that should stop the bleeding."

A part of the cotton wool was covered with blood and she had to throw that into the small waste bin beside her.

Mateo didn't say anything as he proceeded to place his hand on his jaw.

"Are you still feeling pain down there?" She asked.

"Yeah, and it feels like it got worse as soon as you removed the cotton wool." He replied.

His words were a bit muffled because of the discomfort he was feeling in his mouth now.

"Can I have a piece of that?" He asked before pointing at the pack of cotton wool she had with her.

"Yeah, sure." She replied before cutting out a piece and giving it to him.

As soon as Mateo collected the piece of cotton wool, he slid it into his mouth making sure that it was touching the spot below his teeth. Just as he suspected, placing it there sort of worked in calming the pain down, but now he couldn't even talk anymore.

"I know you want to go back to the pitch again but please be careful because if you get hit there again, the best case scenario is you just losing a tooth, worst case scenario you may lose more than one tooth and that's not even all." She explained.

After listening to what she just said, Mateo replied with a nod before he got up from the floor and made his way to Norman.

The game was still going on on the pitch with Unique FC trying quite well to put without Mateo on the pitch at the moment and Tereville City trying everything they could to get that equalizer.

It was pretty obvious that they were making quite the against Unique FC and had managed to get them into pretty tough situations a couple of times but the defense came through most of the time and the one that came really close to becoming a goal, Dave was there to grab right on time.

The away team's right winger got hold of the ball near the edge of the box and tried to force his way past Roland but the left back didn't give him the chance to do that and ended up sending the ball out for a throw-in.

That was the cue for Mateo to rejoin the game as the referee had to stop Tereville City from taking a free throw in.

"Look what we have here, Mateo Smith is rejoining the game, and what is that in his mouth?" Jim questioned.

"That looks like a piece of cotton wool, he's probably keeping it there because of the bleeding." Steve expressed. "It's a good thing for his teammates and the fans that he's able to continue, that hit on his jaw looked quite serious."

Obviously, the Unique FC fans were all cheers as their wonder kid rejoined the game, he was the one who gave them the lead after all.

With Mateo now on the pitch, the game could continue.

The winger was standing outside the sidelines with the ball as he tried to find someone who wasn't being marked to throw the ball to.

Unfortunately, all his teammates that were in good positions were being marked so he had to send the ball to the midfielder on his left who quickly sent the ball flying in toward the box with his first touch.

The ball wasn't able to get into the box though as Mateo who was right at the edge of the box was able to nod it away toward Minino before that could happen.

"Already got his first touch since rejoining the game," Jim commented.

Minino quickly took off down the wing as soon as he got his foot on the ball but he had to trap back soon as his path was quickly blocked by two players.

He passed the ball to Martinez who quickly sent it rolling straight to Ferran as soon as he got his foot on it.

"It's sad to find out that we won't be seeing Frankie for a while now, he is the only person besides Martinez who fits in that defensive midfield position, and what makes him better than Martinez, in my opinion, is that he can cover more ground within a short amount of time and can fill many roles at the same time, he makes things easier for Unique FC with his versatility." Jim articulated.

"You said everything, I'm sure the team and the fans miss him, but that said, they still have a pretty good team without him," Steve commented.

Unique FC had just won a free kick now after Fredinho was brought down right at the edge of the box.

The players argued that it was a penalty but the referee insisted that it happened outside the box and gave a free kick instead.

"So, are you going to take it?" Ferran asked as soon as he got close to Mateo.

"I want to, but…how about we let Dave take this one?" The winger mumbled.

He wasn't really mumbling but the piece of cotton wool he had in his mouth made it seem that way.

"Dave? Are you sure about that?"

"You saw what he did with both of the free kicks he took against Sunglow United," Mateo said.

There really was no reason for him to explain things to him.

"I guess you make a good point." The midfielder said before he turned toward Dave and began to wave both of his hands.

<Looks like they're calling you up to take the free kick>

'Yeah, I can see that.' The goalkeeper said before he quickly began to make his way to the area.

"Oh, looks what's going on here, they're calling Dave to take the free kick, it's time for the goalkeeper to show us what he can do with a set piece once again."

"Makes sense, he did not disappoint with the two he took against Sunglow United."

Dave was standing over the ball now after getting to the spot, he had his gaze on the four-man wall inside the box with the only thing he was waiting for being the referee's whistle.

The referee made sure that everything was ready and as soon as he was done with that, he blew his whistle.

"That's the whistle, let's see what the goalkeeper can do with this one."

As soon as Dave heard the whistle, he slowly took three steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and fired it toward the goalpost from the right.

Everyone was expecting the goalkeeper to go from above but he decided to go from below.

He aimed right for the bottom corner and that could have been a really neat goal, but the goalkeeper was able to get to it right on time to disrupt the direction of the ball with the tip of his glove, and just before Merino could get to the rebound, the defender there got to the ball and sent the ball flying out for a throw-in.

"Oh, that was so close, neat save from the goalkeeper but Dave's accuracy is so on point."

"Precisely, I've never seen a goalkeeper with so much accuracy in his feet, and to make matters worse for his opponents he has just the right amount of shot power to back it all up. If he wasn't so passionate about being a goalkeeper, he would make a pretty good midfielder or forward." Steve expressed.

Dave had to quickly return to his goalpost after failing to put that away, it was a good thing that throw-in wasn't against them or else something interesting might have happened now.

<I told you to aim upward>

'Maybe that could have worked but there was no guarantee that it was going to.' The goalkeeper replied subconsciously.

<You see, this is why I don't really like sharing my thoughts with you in these types of situations>

'Hey, calm down, it's not that deep, it's not like I missed the goalkeeper was the one that stopped it.'

<And that's why you should have aimed upward>

After that attempt from Dave nothing really flashy or noteworthy happened again, it went back to both teams trying to outsmart the other and not shooting carelessly.

They did miss a couple of chances but most of them were easy shots that the goalkeeper didn't have any trouble stopping.

They continued like this until the five minutes of added time got exhausted and the referee blew his whistle to bring the first half to an end.

"Well, that was quite a first half, Mateo sacrificed his jaw to get that lead for his team and since then it's been twists and turns between both teams, an interesting one and I can't wait to see how they're going to approach the second half."

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