Things could have been devastating for Unique FC without that goal from Dave because right now, the referee's whistle pierced through the air with that high-pitched sound for the third time to finally bring the second to an end.
"There's the whistle, it's supposed to be over but it's not over, Unique FC managed to get that equalizer and now they'll go into extra time," Jim commented as the players slowly made their way down the tunnel.
"Well, this has been something, Unique FC did everything they could possibly think of in this half but all they were able to get out of it was that wonderful free-kick goal from Dave which kept them in the game." Steve articulated.
"The goalkeeper saved them once again just like he came on at the last minute to do against Dynamo FC but this time around it won't really matter unless they win this match."
When Steve said that Unique FC did everything they could possibly think of to seal the game in this second half after that goal from Dave, he wasn't trying to exaggerate it, Unique FC really did put the pressure on Spree City in this half but they just couldn't put the ball in the goalpost.
That was mainly because Spree City switched to an almost completely defensive style of play after that goal from Dave.
It looked like they were bent on taking the match to extra time and maybe their ultimate goal was to get the match to go into penalties but that would be stupid considering the fact that Unique FC had the best goalkeeper in the league by miles this season in their team, so maybe all they just wanted to do was take it to extra time where they would try to do something.
However, there was no guarantee that they would be able to do anything in both halves of extra time and if the match ended up going to penalties then the odds would be stacked against them.
Unique FC players were in the locker room now with a lot of them drinking from their water bottles.
Norman was in the room as expected but this time he wasn't standing in front of them and was sitting on the seat a little to the right beside the board.
"So, it has finally come to this." He muttered with his hand on his chin.
He stared at the wall on the other side for a while before quickly turning his gaze back to the players.
"Listen up, everyone!" He shot up with an assertive voice just to make sure he gets the attention of all of them.
"Don't go out there thinking that because we have Dave we'll be safe if this match goes into penalties, Dave is not invisible, no goalkeeper is invisible, especially during penalty shoot-outs, everything can go wrong during penalty shootouts and besides Dave's only job is to try and stop the ball not take your penalties which some of you might end up missing!"
"I think coach really hates penalty shootouts." Minino leaned closer to Ferran to whisper.
"Yeah, and it's understandable," Ferran whispered back.
"We have to do everything we can to crack them open and make sure that this match doesn't go into a penalty shootout, or maybe we won't need to try so hard to crack them up, I'm sure they know that the game into penalties has a high chance of not favoring them." The coach hypothesized as he paced up and down in front of the players.
'I have never seen him get this wary before.'
'Yeah, that's a nice way to put it but I don't think there's any reason to worry, well, there is a little reason to worry but we'll still pull through.'
"That's it!" Norman announced with a spark of hope in his eyes as he came to an abrupt halt in front of the board. "So, they're planning to go all out in this part of the game and run away with it, I see." He added this time with a calm voice as he slowly turned his gaze to the players.
"Looks like he got something," Minino muttered.
"Welcome back everyone to this drawn-out match, the first half of extra time is about to kick off as we can see the players from both teams making their way to the pitch now," Jim announced.
"This is going to be a battle of endurance, who will hold out longer and come out on top or will it go into a penalty shootout which I would honestly love to see since the match has already gotten to this point."
"Yeah, but I'm not sure they would want that, especially Spree City."
Fredinho had to be substituted for Fred during the late stages of the second half so Fred was the one standing over the ball in the kick-off spot now.
The referee made sure that everything was in place before he blew his whistle, and as soon as the striker heard it, he quickly sent the ball rolling to Minino who didn't hesitate in pushing the ball back to Luis Roberto.
"The first fifteen minutes is on the way."
Unique FC were not attempting to make any quick forward movement with the ball but they knew they had to strike fast because they simply had no time and unlike the second half, Spree City players were being really aggressive with the way they were chasing the ball now.
Luis Roberto sent the ball rolling to Aima who had to quickly send it rolling back to Dave just before Felix could get to him, as soon as Dave got his foot on the ball, he quickly sent it flying out toward Mateo just before both Felix and Jelani could get to him.
Mateo had to nod the back toward Roland because Jamie was just too close and he wouldn't have the time to properly trap the ball.
As soon as Roland got his foot on the ball, he quickly sent it rolling to Ferran who quickly began to push forward with it.
He found Mateo down the left and quickly sent the ball rolling to him.
Mateo was able to evade Jamie as he took a turn toward the middle and got past the center back in his way with a nice footwork and get off a shot toward the right.
The ball just had a little bit of elevation to it but the goalkeeper was able to get to it and hit it out with both of his gloves.
Fred was able to get to the rebound just before any of the defenders or the goalkeeper could get to it, but he ended up blasting it over the bar.
"Oh, and he sends it over the bar, that was supposed to go into the net."
Fred was quite frustrated after missing that chance as he could be seen pulling his shirt up to cover his face before pulling it down to show that frustrated look on his face.
"Another terrible miss from Unique FC, I'm starting to doubt their ability to capitalize on this one," Steve commented.