My Goalkeeping System



With the match now concluded and everything that was supposed to come after it done, the players were all back to the locker to get some rest before they would change and start heading back to where they were staying.

It was already late at night, so they were going to spend one more knight in Villarreal and head back to Bilbeth the next day.

Tonight's victory, although not being a huge one in terms of scoreline, was a big victory because they were still at the top of the table three points ahead of both Villarreal and Lazio with their next opponent being West Ham United who were at the bottom of the table.

They were by no means underestimating the English side because the phrase, 'Anything can happen.' had been embroidered onto their head by Norman.

But still, them losing to both Lazio and Villarreal meant that they had a high chance of beating them, on paper at least.

A player like Minino took tonight's victory way too seriously and was making a ruckus about how they were going to go all the way in the tournament.

He obviously wasn't doing it alone but Dave didn't have any strength for that and neither did Mateo as they were both sitting on the bench with their gaze on the show happening in front of them, at least it looked like Dave had his gaze on them.

[ Quest completed ]

[ You completed five long passes ]

[ You made three one-touch saves ]

[ Quest rewards ]

[ +1 attribute point received ]

[ +3 stat points received ]

[ +6 stat upgrade points received ]

[ +150 exp received ]

'Cool, now can I see my post-match rewards?'

<Sure>

[ Victory rewards ]

[ Five crucial saves: +50 exp received ]

[ Goals conceded(0): +100 exp received ]

[ Match rating: 7.0 ]

'I guess this is the result of playing a boring game.'

<It's not your fault, Villarreal also played a part in making it a boring game>

[ 1950/1885 exp ]

[ Level up ]

[ Congratulations you have now reached level 12 ]

'I didn't even know I was about to level up.'

[ +2 stat points received ]

[ +1 skill point received ]

<It's going to take you a while to level up again>

[ 80/2015 exp ]

'Yeah, I can see that, but it will still happen eventually.'

<Yeah>

The goalkeeper checked a couple of other things in his system while talking to Catherine, and after he was done, he turned his gaze to Mateo to see that he happened to be lost in his thought.

It clearly looked like he had his gaze on the ruckus that was going on in front of him but Dave could tell from his eyes that his attention wasn't there at all.

"Hey." He said before giving him a little tap on his shoulder to call back his attention.

"Oh." The winger said as soon as Dave called him back from his thoughts.

He had to blink a couple of times.

"What's going on? I could tell you weren't paying attention to Minino's noise-making."

"Oh, you could see that?"

"Yeah, so what were you thinking about?" Dave asked.

"It's nothing serious, I was just wondering how far we could go in this competition, I'm confident that we're making it out of the group stage now but how far can we go after that?" The winger expressed.

"Well, that will depend on whether we finish or second and who we get as our opponent in the knockout rounds, finishing first should be our priority because I'm sure none of us wants to face those Europa League dropouts."

"Yeah, I thought so too."

"Umm….just don't think too much about it, we have a good if the not great team, it's going to get hard after the group stage but that's just how every competition is, we'll just have to keep pushing and improve in the areas we made mistakes in during the group stage matches.

"Winning the trophy is our goal and I believe we have what it takes to pull it off."

"Yeah, with our strength and skill and a little bit of luck on our side, the chance of us pulling it off is there," Mateo muttered.

"Yeah," Dave replied with a nod.

What Mateo just told Dave wasn't exactly what he was lying but still, he didn't lie to him.

He thought about what he just told Dave for a while before his mind was completely taken over by another thought.

______ ______

After spending some time in the locker room, the players along with the coach and other staff made their way back to the hotel where they were staying.

After returning to their rooms, they had to go freshen up to wash away the sweat from that game.

There was nothing wrong with them sharing the bathroom since it was nothing new to them but Mateo and Roland weren't feeling like it so they allowed Dave to go first while they got some rest.

"That was some tough match," Roland said before sitting down on his bed.

"Yeah," Mateo replied before crashing down on the floor with his head on his bed. "A lot of missed opportunities just like coach said but it's a good thing we made it out victorious."

"By the way…"

Roland wasn't able to finish what he wanted to ask as Mateo's phone which was lying on his bed suddenly began to ring.

The winger just stretched his hands and grabbed the phone to see that it was someone he was half expecting to call but he was a little confused about something.

'Why a video call?'

He didn't think too much about it though and just clicked the answer.

Just a second after doing that, Amber popped up on the screen of his phone.

"Hey." She said as soon as he picked up the call.

"Hey, how are you doing?"

"I'm okay, congratulations on your victory today."

"Thanks," Mateo replied with a smile.

He was seriously avoiding making long eye contact with her.

"I'm assuming there's no way you'll go back to Barcelona by this time, so where are you staying?" The winger asked.

"Oh, we booked a room at the Hotel Dona Lola, it was the last one so we got lucky." She replied.

"Did you just say Hotel Dona Lola?"

"Yeah."

"That's where we're also staying." The winger said.

"You can't be serious." She said with a shocked expression on her face. "Well, this makes things better."

"Huh?"

"I know you're tired, so you don't have to say yes, but could you come downstairs for a second, I want to um….give you something." She replied.

"What?"

"You'll have to come down and see for yourself."

"But, a lot of people were down there when we came in, I don't really have the strength to deal with getting clustered now."

"Don't worry, there's no one there right now," Amber replied.

"How are you so sure?"

"Because I'm there now, the only ones here are the receptionists."

"Oh."

"So, you're coming, right?"

"If there's no one there then I guess there's no reason not to."

"Great, I'll be waiting for you then." She said before ending the call.

"Was that that blonde-haired reporter?" Roland asked as soon as he was sure that the call was over.

"Yeah," Mateo replied before slowly turning his gaze to him.

"I knew something was going on between you two."

"Hey, hey, hey, nothing is going on between us, she just wants to give me something."

He was really quick to deny that.

"Yeah, and what type of girl just decides to give something to a guy?"

Mateo didn't know what to say at that point and just let out a sigh before slowly getting up on his feet.

"You can think whatever you like, but please don't let this escalate within the team." He said before turning his gaze to the door.

"Hey, you know I'm not like that, I don't go around talking about things that don't concern me." Roland expressed.

"Thank you," Mateo said before he opened the door and left the room through it before shutting it.

It didn't take him long to get downstairs with the elevator and it also didn't take him long to spot Amber sitting down in one of the seats in the reception area.

He was quite surprised by how there was literally no one there except the receptionists working behind the counter.

If there were two or three people there, he would have been a little cautious but since there was no one, he was able to comfortably walk to Amber.

"That was fast," Amber said as soon as he got close enough to her.

"Yeah, you said you were already done here, so I had to be fast." He said.

"Thoughtful." She smiled.

"So, what did you want to give me?"

"Hey, calm down, you're not planning on taking it and leaving immediately, why don't you take a seat and we have a little chat?" She said before patting the space beside her.

"Um….I don't really feel like sitting." Mateo said before shaking his head.

"And I thought you would be tired."

"No, I'm not." He uttered. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

"Sit down first, please."

She was still trying to convince him to sit down when someone suddenly walked into the hotel.

A blonde-haired girl who had her hair tied back into a ponytail.

She was putting on a black long-sleeved dress and had a white bag in her hand.

"What are you doing down here, Amber?" She asked as soon as she heard her voice, and when she got close, she saw who she was talking to.

"Mateo?" She said with a shocked expression on her face.

"Oh, hey, Sofia." The winger.

"You know her?" Both of the girls said at the same time causing their voices to resonate perfectly.

'I had my suspicion and it turns out I was spot on.'