The referee blew his whistle as Fredinho quickly rolled the ball to Minino who didn''t waste any time passing it to Norman before one of their opponents got to him.


    "The game is set, the race for the conference league spot has begun, can Unique FC pull through just like they have done for seven straight matches now, or are they going to get pummeled by Lesica United once again?" Steve said.


    "It''s not just about pulling through, Jim, they have to win the match in order to achieve their purposeing into this match this afternoon," Steve said.


    "I know, Steve, and to be honest I think Lesica United have a better chance of winning this one, they have Okafor back and look at what they did to Razid FC on Sunday night and the fact that Mateo Smith is out injured makes things more difficult for the home side, it''s unfortunate that he had to get injured before their most important match of the season," Jim said.


    "Let''s watch and see what happens."


    Unique FC were dominating the match in terms of ball possession like they always did but so far, they hadn''t been able to create anything.


    Ferran received the ball back from Merino after a failed attack and now they were pulling the ball to pull out Lesica United yers and then start attacking again.


    "Minino," Jim said as Minino received the ball from Norman.


    Minino tried to push forward with the ball but there wasn''t much space for him but that wasn''t a problem as he had a lot of passing options.


    He found Edward in space on the right side of midfield and quickly crossed the ball over to him.


    "Crossing the ball to the other side, switching the point of attack," Steve said.


    Edward was free when Minino crossed the ball but now that the ball was flying over to him, a yer was heading toward him at full speed.


    His instincts kicked in as the midfielder jumped high and nodded the ball to Rnd before the yer could get to him.


    "Edward must be like, ''That was close''," Jim said.


    Rnd trapped the ball with his left foot and without wasting time, he quickly cut into the middle with the ball.


    "That boy really loves cutting into the middle," Steve said.


    "And whenever he does that, something dangerous happens," Jim said.


    Rnd''s


    past a yer before he could do anything to stop him and just before he could get to another yer waiting to stop him, he passed the ball to Ferran who had shifted a little to the right to give Rnd space to run.


    Ferran received the ball from Rnd, and the midfield dynamo didn''t have any ns of stopping the momentum Rnd had created as he quickly dribbled past the midfielder heading toward him, and was now running toward the eighteen-yard box.


    "Ferran''s still going," Jim said.


    Ferran got close to the box and feigned shooting at the yers before sending the ball back to Rnd with a backheel pass.


    Rnd knew what he needed to do as soon as he received the ball as he quickly found Fredinho making a run into the box and quickly sent the ball to him.


    "Oh, he''s found Fredinho in space but he''s not exactly in space," Steve said.


    Fredinho had a defender marking him but the striker didn''t fidget as he quickly pushed the ball forward with his pace advantage and just before the ball would roll out for a goal kick, he lobbed the ball into the box.


    Luckily for Unique FC, the ball came flying toward an unmarked Rnd who quickly sprang up to meet the ball with a header.


    "Rnd!!" Jim eximed.


    The goalkeeper was glued to the spot as the ball hit the crossbar and fell over for a goal kick.


    "Oh, it hit the crossbar!"


    The fans let out loud gasps after witnessing that clear chance go to waste like that.<novelnext>  </novelnext>


    "No!" Rnd screamed before stomping both his feet on the ground.


    "Just like Mateo would always say, you''ll get it next time," Merino said before tapping Rnd on both of his shoulders.


    "The youngster was so close to scoring his second goal of the season after starting the attack with a brilliant run, that would have gone down as a really memorable goal," Jim said.


    "Yeah," Steve said.


    The clock was showing twenty-five minutes and so far there had been nothing from either side so far.


    Okafor received the ball on their side of the pitch and without hesitation, he quickly passed the ball to their central midfielder.


    "Okafor had only seven goals before going down with a one-month injury and on his first match since returning from injury he made his goals eleven with a four goal brilliance against a Razid FC side that has been pretty solid this season," Jim said.


    "Okafor is a force to be reckoned with but his only problem is that he gets injured easily," Steve said.


    Lesica United were dominating the game now and they were doing a really good job of keeping the ball away from Unique FC yers.


    The left-back received the ball from a cross and quickly pushed it to the left midfielder who had Minino on him.


    Minino tried to dispossess the yer off the ball but he was swift enough to turn away and pass the ball to their central midfielder who quickly sent the ball to their right winger.


    The winger quickly got past Rnd with an overhead flick leaving the left back to eat the dust but Rnd wasn''t going to back down after that humiliation as he quickly chased the winger down.


    "Lesica United are building something dangerous here," Jim said.


    Rnd couldn''t get to the winger on time as he quickly crossed the ball into the box but the cross wasn''t much of a threat as Pirlo headed it out of the area.


    "Nice clearance from Pirlo but it''s not over yet," Jim said.


    The ball fell to the feet of Okafor outside the box as Adolf quickly made his way to him and tried to pull him down with a sliding tackle but the striker quickly grabbed the ball with both feet and jumped over.


    "It''s Okafor and he''s got a clear sight of the goal now!" Jim eximed.


    "Oh no." Dave gasped.


    The striker readied his leg to fire the ball as Dave quickly read where he was going to ce the ball.


    He sent the ball flying toward the bottom right side of the goalpost and Dave had almost dived to that side until Aima put his leg on the way and deflected the shot to the left side.


    "Not this time." The goalkeeper muttered under his breath as he quickly dived toward the slowed-down ball, caught it with both of his gloves, and fell to the floor breathing heavily.


    "Oh, what a save from Dave!" Jim eximed. "Unique FC''s ball ma turns up again."


    "Nice save Dave," Adolf said after getting closer to the goalkeeper.


    ''That was close.''


    <Yeah, really close>


    ***


    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.