My Goalkeeping System

421 Unexpected Quest

The day for the face-off between Unique FC and S.S Lazio was finally here.

The pitch was empty for now but the stands were slowly getting filled up with fans, fans from both teams.

The whole area was starting to get lively as the players from both teams were getting ready to come on the pitch for the pre-match warm-up.

The last time they faced each other, Unique FC players had to take a trip to Italy to face them, and today, it was the Lazio team that came over to Bilbeth to try and get their revenge.

Inside Unique FC's locker room, the players had already gotten ready to start heading off to the pitch but before they could do that, Norman had something to add to everything he had already told them.

"You have to remember that we have to win this match to finish in first place and go straight to the next round, if we finish in second place, we'll have to face any one of the dropouts from the Europa League and we know we don't want that. So, remember everything I told you and make sure we beat them just like we did in the away match." He articulated.

After saying all that, he gave the players the thumbs up, and without hesitation, they started making their way to the pitch.

They arrived on the pitch just a few minutes before Lazio players did and just like when they met during their last match, someone like Andrea was happy to meet his opponents.

He didn't hesitate to make his way to Mateo who seemed to be discussing something with Dave.

"Hey, Mateo and Dave." He greeted as soon as he got close to them.

"Oh, hey, Andrea," Mateo said with a little wave.

"Hey, Andrea," Dave said with both of his hands still in his pockets.

"I see you guys have been trashing teams in the competition, can't say I'm really surprised after what you did to us."

"We're just doing our best," Mateo said with a shrug. "You guys are also in a pretty good spot now too."

"Yeah, but we have to beat you guys to guarantee our qualification to the next round and that's why we're here today."

"Yeah, we're also here for the same reason," Dave said.

"Uhu." The Lazio winger said with a smile. "Anyway, I have to run now, see you guys in the moment."

"Alright."

Andrea Enzo was one of the Lazio players who was quite fluent in English so he didn't really have any trouble communicating with Unique FC players for the other players who couldn't understand or speak English the language barrier was there.

But it's not like they need to understand each other, they're not teammates after all.

"Here goes everything!" Roland yelled before he raced toward the ball which was sitting on the edge of the box and fired it toward the goalpost.

The ball was sent flying toward the right side of the goalpost with a little bit of elevation.

It really looked like it was going to go in, but just before that could happen, Dave got the tip of his glove on it and pushed it further for it to hit the post and roll out.

"Pretty nice shot, Roland," Mateo said as he made his way to the left back.

"Yeah, but he still saved it."

"That's okay, Dave's not someone you can score against easily, just being able to make him stretch himself should be enough approval for you.

'Maybe that's because we haven't really faced any tough teams in a while but then again, I don't really feel the need to use it like I used to, even in tough matches, I feel like current stats would be enough to take care of things if the baseline isn't just keeping clean sheets.'

<Oh, is that so?>

With the scheduled match time now getting closer, the players had to make their way down the tunnel to get ready for the match.

After getting to the locker room, Unique FC players changed into their custom-made home kit for the Europa Conference League, the orange plain kit with black outlines.

Dave's kit was black but with orange outlines, just the opposite of the kit the rest of the players were putting on.

After changing into their kit, they made their way to the hallway where they met up with Lazio players.

They were putting on a white kit whose upper part seemed to have a little shade of blue to match their blue shorts, and as for their goalkeeper, he was putting on a lemon green kit.

The players stayed there for a while before they were finally given the signal to start making their way to the pitch.

The stands were filled with fans from both teams now, and as soon as the players stepped into the light, things started getting lively.

Most of the lively atmosphere was coming from Unique FC fans obviously but Lazio fans also looked pretty decent.

"Welcome everyone, it's your favorite commentator Jim Waterson back here again and with me today, I have Steve Jefferson as always."

"Thank you, Jim, and welcome everyone, it's always nice to be here to talk about these matches and share my thoughts with all of you."

"Yeah, it's always nice. Anyway, Europa Conference League football is back and today we have the two best teams in this group so far going up against each other." Jim expressed. "Last time, Unique FC proved their dominance by destroying Lazio four goals to nothing and they did that away from home. Today Lazio visits them and I cannot even begin to imagine how this match will turn out."

"Well, all the odds are pointing toward Unique FC coming out on top just like they did last time but then again after that loss against the Bilbeth Premier League side, they've done quite well to retain a spot in second place so there's a chance that they could take Norman's side by surprise," Steve reported.

"Well, both sides would be happy with a draw especially Unique FC but I'm pretty sure neither of them wants that which is the reason why I feel like this match is going to be pretty interesting."

After shaking hands with each other, the captains of both teams made their way to the officials for the coin toss which Unique FC ended up winning.

"None of the sides have taken a major injury hit, Frankie may be considered a heavy injury hit if you consider the amount of work that he puts into each match but they still have Martinez so their squad is still in good shape," Jim commented.

"Yeah, but now they don't have a good backup for that position."

Fredinho was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle, and while the referee was making sure that everything was ready, the commentators decided to go over the formations for both teams.

Surprisingly, Norman decided to go with the four-four-two formation for this match and his decision was to roll with three attacking midfielders instead of two just like he did in their last match.

Another weird thing was that he wasn't starting Mateo as a forward like he would normally do.

The two forwards he was using in the match were Fredinho and Merino.

He had Mateo in the left attacking midfielder position, Ferran in the center, and Minino on the right.

In defense, he had his starting defense because he couldn't afford to mess up there.

Lazio were rolling with the same formation but they were staying on the safer side with two defensive midfielders and two attacking midfielders.

"Well, it looks like Norman's plan is to strike Lazio fast with his offense, but then again, if he wanted to do that why not put Mateo up front?"

"Yeah, I've never seen Mateo start in midfield it's weird but then again, he has the making of a great midfielder, let's see how this turns out for both teams."

The referee was about to start the match and so far Dave had not received anything for his match quest.

'What's going on, Catherine?'

<Umm…I don't know, maybe it's just a little delay>

'A little delay? The match is about to start.'

<Don't worry, it will come>

[ Quest received ]

[ Quest type: Conjoined ]

[ Keep a clean sheet without the system's aid ]

[ Get a seven-plus rating without the system ]

'What's with these without the system quests?'

[ System shutdown ]

As soon as that message appeared the system screen slowly disappeared like a television turning off due to a sudden power outage.