My Goalkeeping System

The room gave off a calm and refreshing atmosphere with the lights emanating from the lights on the ceiling brightening up the white walls.

Two beds were sitting a few distance away from each other on the far end of the room, a television hanging on the wall, and something that looked like a massage chair by the side.

Mateo was already in the room when he walked in, the winger was sitting on his bed trying to find something from his bag.

Dave didn\'t pay him any attention because of what was going on in his mind now and just made his way straight to his bed.

[ System is back online ]

\'Oh, dear.\' He sighed inwardly before sitting down on his bed.

<It\'s back online>

\'Are you sure you can\'t do anything about this, Cat?\'

<Maybe you didn\'t hear me the last time but this isn\'t a minor part of the system so, no>

"Tch." The goalkeeper blurted before crashing down on his bed.

"Huh?" Mateo muttered before slowly turning his gaze to him. "Did you say something?"

"No." He shook his head without even glancing at him.

"Okay." The winger replied before turning his gaze back to his bag.

[ System deactivated ]

\'Of all the places for the system to start a glitch of this level it had to be in a match like this, it wouldn\'t have been a problem in any other match even against Supreme United but this match.\'

<Yeah, you\'ll need the system in this match>

\'Is there a chance that it will stop tomorrow.\'

<Yeah, but that\'s about five percent>

\'Five percent, you should just say no because I know that will never be in my favor.\'

"Dave."

He had his eyes closed all these while but just as the call of his name pierced through his subconscious, he shot his eyes open to find Mateo leaning over him.

"I\'ve been calling for a while now but it looks like you fell asleep." He said before moving away from him a little.

"Oh," Dave replied before sitting up on the bed with his hand on his forehead. "Is there a problem?"

"No." The winger replied before shaking his head. "I just wanted to know if you were going to go check out the Groupama stadium?"

"Yeah, I guess I would love to do that, but." He sighed before crashing down on his bed. "I\'m not feeling that great."

"Huh? Is it a fever?" Mateo asked before putting his hand on his neck.

"No, it\'s not that, it would be terrible if something like that happened now, I just feel a little drained that\'s all."

"Oh, I see, I\'ll go check it out with Roland Merino then." The winger remarked before turning his gaze to the door. "See you later."

"Okay, have fun."

Dave kept his gaze on him until he left through the door and closed it. That was when he let out a sigh before turning his gaze away from the door and to the ceiling.

"Tomorrow\'s going to be pretty rough." He muttered before slowly closing his eyes.

________ _______

A couple of hours passed and the next day was finally here, the day everyone had been waiting for.

The match was set to kick off by 4:00 PM which was enough time for Norman to show the players every other thing that he needed to show them before the match.

Dave woke up half expecting the glitch to be gone even though he was aware that in this situation, that was just a fairytale wish.

The glitch was still up and going but the time between its deactivation and activation seemed to have gotten a bit longer and he made sure to take note of that.

A couple of hours passed once again and now there was only an hour left until the match kicked off.

That was the reason why the players from both sides were on the pitch now.

The Groupama Stadium was the third largest stadium in France even bigger than the Parc des Princes with a sitting capacity of about fifty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty-six, and just like all the stadiums they\'ve been to across Europe this season, it was a beautiful stadium.

Nothing could be said about their atmosphere because all the fans weren\'t there yet but it was going to be nice to see how they compared to Unique FC fans.

While his teammates were busy practicing their shooting and doing other stuff on the pitch, Dave was standing near the sidelines juggling the ball with his feet.

[ System is back online ]

\'Oh, brother.\' He sighed inwardly as soon as that message popped up in front of him. \'You know I would appreciate it if this system would stay deactivated till the end of the match so that I won\'t have to think about it, that or it comes back online and stays that way.\'

<Well, there\'s nothing I can do about that>

\'I know.\'

<But I do have some tips for you>

\'Tips?\'

<Yeah>

\'Okay.\'

<Firstly, I\'ll tell you the players to keep your eyes on. You have their striker, Mason Rod, he has thirty goals across all competitions this season and almost scored a hat trick against PSG in their last match, he has good pace, his shot power is great and his accuracy is really good, his ball control isn\'t that great though so keep that in mind whenever he gets the ball in a good position.

<Their right and left-wingers Antoine and Marcel respectively aren\'t that much of finishers but they\'re really good at finding their teammates in tight spots. However, they will finish good chances when it comes to them so keep that in mind.

<And finally their attacking midfielder Duncan, just make sure you\'re not way off your goal line whenever he has the ball>

\'Oh, I see, this is really nice of you, Cat.\'

<You\'re welcome>

\'At least knowing all of this will make things easier for me, I\'m surprised coach never mentioned any of this to me even after studying their play style.\'

<That\'s because he believes that you can handle yourself, his focus is on the defense not messing up and the attack and midfield not struggling>

\'Yeah, it makes sense when you put it that way.\' He replied before bringing the ball down to trap it under his foot.

_______ _______

The voices of the fans from both sides were going up breathing a very lively atmosphere into the stadium.

The stands were filled to the brim now as the fans were waiting for the players to start making their way out of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, the players were lined up in the tunnel waiting for the signal to start making their way to the pitch.

Unique FC were putting on their custom-made away kit, the black kit with orange outlines and an orange horizontal stripe a little below their logo.

Lyon on the other hand were putting on their home kit, a white kit with a red and blue strip running down the left side where they had their badge.

The players stayed there for a while until they were finally given the signal to start making their way to the pitch and just as they stepped out into the light, the fans erupted with cheers.

Jim and Steve said their introductions as the players made their way to the pitch to line up in front of the fans.

"The round of sixteen of the Europa Conference League is finally here and it\'s Lyon versus Unique FC. This match came with a lot of hype after the way Unique FC ended their group. A good number of people believe they will breeze through Lyon but with the French team\'s current form I think I can say that no breezing through will be done in this match or I might be wrong." Jim articulated.

"One interesting thing about this match is that both teams defeated their league leaders in their last league matches coming into this game," Steve commented.

"Yeah, and while Unique FC went on to become the new league leaders, Lyon are still in fifth place. Well, that\'s because they didn\'t start the season in the best way they could."

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

Adolf chose heads, and the coin ended up landing on heads after the toss, the Uniques were going to be the ones starting the match from the kick-off spot.

Everything was confirmed now and the players had to start making their way to their positions.

[ System is back online ]

[ Quest received ]

[ Make twelve crucial saves ]

[ Provide an assist ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ System deactivated ]

\'Well, that\'s quite the reward.\' The goalkeeper said subconsciously with a confused expression on his face.

****

I\'m sorry it\'s also one chapter today, I\'ll return to two chapters daily tomorrow.