Unique FC were two goals down now with forty-nine minutes showing on the clock, and some of the players were already beginning to lose hope.
'Isn't time to activate the attribute yet?!'
'So it's now that we've conceded the second goal that you want me to activate it.'
Dave didn't say anything again as he slowly raised his gaze to see that his teammates were still with the ball.
[ Shot stopping attribute activated ]
[ All stats have received (+10) boost ]
"The hosts are still two goals behind and they are doing everything possible to pull one back at least," Jim said.
"The conference league spot just got farther away from them but still, anything is possible," Steve said.
"We just have to find the spaces and put them to good use," Minino muttered as he ran down the right wing with the ball on his feet.
A Lesica United player raced toward him but just before the player could get close to him, he turned and rolled the ball to Norman who quickly moved to the middle with the ball.
"Norman's left his position and is intercepting the opponent's half through the middle," Jim said.
Norman raced past a couple of Lesica United players before they could get a hold of him and just before he ran into another player, he passed the ball to Ferran who quickly turned to get rid of the player behind him and was now loose, running down the middle.
"This could be Unique FC's chance," Jim said.
Ferran continued moving down the middle as the three players currently at the back with Merino and Fredinho ready to run riot in their positions.
The midfielder passed the ball to Fredinho on the left side as the striker used a dummy to confuse the player.
The ball was rolling toward the goalkeeper and it was all a matter of who could get there first between Fredinho and the goalkeeper.
"Fredinho," Jim said with a voice of anticipation.
The striker raced toward the ball, it was a really close race but he had gotten to the ball first and touched it with his right foot before he was tackled down by him.
"Oh, he's been brought down by the goalkeeper inside the box," Steve said.
There was no one in the stadium who had not seen what happened there but still, the argument of who got there first was going to spring up very soon.
As expected, the referee blew his whistle for a foul and now everyone was waiting to see which team he was going to say the foul was against.
"He's probably going to make another biased decision, the man's got something against us, two of his biased decisions are the reason why we're two goals down now," Dave muttered before crossing his arms.
The goalkeeper paused as he could see the goalkeeper pointing at the penalty spot and just after doing that, Lesica United players began to gather around him.
"He gave us a penalty." He muttered.
'Or he's doing it to make everybody think he's not biased, he's probably going to make another biased decision to help them get the third goal but I won't let that happen.'
"Oh, it's a penalty for Unique FC," Jim said.
"Yeah, that is definitely the right call there because Fredinho certainly got to that ball first but still I can't help but feel that getting the penalty was planned by them," Steve said.
"Whether it was planned or not, they've gotten the penalty, a massive opportunity for them to pull one back," Jim said.
"So, you're going to take the penalty kick right?" Merino said, looking at Ferran.
"I'm not that great with penalty kicks, why don't you take it?" Ferran said.
"You want me to take it?"
"Yeah, buddy, I know you can put it away."
Merino quickly turned to see Fredinho standing behind him.
"You earned the penalty kick so get to take it now that both of our penalty kick specialists aren't here."
"Okay," Merino said with a nod before making his way toward the penalty spot where the ball was lying.
"Looks like Merino's going to be the one to take the penalty kick," Jim said.
Just as the referee was asking the players to get out of the box, the goalkeeper walked up to Merino and brought his mouth close to his ear to whisper something.
"They're depending on you to score their penalties now, you should just blast the ball away and save yourself the embarrassment of having your shot easily saved by me." The goalkeeper whispered before turning and making his way back to his goal line.
Merino didn't say anything as he watched him walk back with his main gaze on the name Carlo written on the back of his jersey with the number one below it.
After making sure that all the players were out of the box, the referee waited for about six seconds before blowing his whistle.
"There's the whistle, can Merino put it away and pull one back for Unique FC?" Jim said.
The winger stared at the ball before taking two steps backward and then taking in a deep breath.
Carlo jumped on his goal line as Merino quickly raced toward the ball and sent it flying toward the bottom left corner while Carlo dived toward the right side.
"He's sent the keeper the wrong way and it's a goallll!!!! Unique FC have pulled one back!" Jim exclaimed. "He was calm and composed enough to put it away like that, what a neat strike!"
Merino raised both of his hands to celebrate as Ferran and Fredinho quickly made their way to him and grabbed him before the rest of their teammates gathered around him.
"That was nicely done by Merino, it's Unique FC one, Lesica United two now," Steve said. "We have fifty-five minutes on the clock, there's still a lot of time for a lot of things to happen. Will Unique FC be able to make a full comeback or could it possibly end in a draw and see Unique FC miss out on the conference league spot? Well, there's still a lot of time left to find out."
After celebrating with his teammates, Merino slowly made his way to the goalkeeper who was back on his feet.
He stood in front of him for about ten seconds without saying anything.
"What do you want?" Carlo asked.
"Oh, nothing," Merino said, shaking his head. "I just came to tell you that you should have just gotten out of the goalpost in the first place and saved yourself that embarrassment."
That one hit Carlo had as he bit his lower lip and folded his left hand into a fist.
"What are you so happy about, we're still leading?" The goalkeeper said.
"That's true, but you're forgetting the fact that the match is over yet," Merino said before turning to start walking back to his side of the pitch. "Here's something for you to focus on, I've been in a lot of competitions and when people get cocky with me, they lose."
Carlo had a furious look on his face as he watched the winger walk away but beneath that anger, he was feeling something else.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter?
If we can hit 1000+ privilege unlocks before the end of this month, I'll do five chapters mass release on any day between the 20-25th of January.