Chapter 522: First Strikes

"Matip!"

Aima's slide right at the edge of the box resulted in nothing as the ball flew past him from the attacking midfielder's foot, spraying the water on its surface on his face as it headed straight for the goalpost.

In a desperate attempt to make sure Dave would have no chance to stop his strike, the midfielder aimed for the top right corner.

He got everything right, because the way he fired that left the goalkeeper glued to a spot, however, there was no need for him to dive in the first place as the ball ended up hitting the crossbar before flying over for a goal kick.

"Oh, that should have been in the back of the net." Jim bellowed.

"Yeah, he even had Dave pinned to a spot, that would have been such a majestic goal but his finishing was just off by a tiny fraction."

Watching his effort go to waste like that, the midfielder sighed in frustration to kick the floor, a splash of water along with it.

"Well, there's still a lot of time in the game so they might get more chances like that. However, I have a feeling that one might come back to haunt them later."

Yeah, there was still a lot of time left in the game, it had only been seven minutes since the match kicked off.

Unique FC had not even been able to do anything with the ball before their opponents pulled off what just happened, courtesy of Frank getting past Roland to receive Connell's through pass and whip it in for Matip near the edge of the box.

That was a close call but Dave, his teammates, coach, and everyone else there to support Unique FC that evening were glad that that one just flew over.

'That would have been a big problem.' Dave said inwardly as he dropped the ball on the edge of the smaller box.

<Yeah, given their defensive capabilities, I doubt they'll let up easily after grabbing an early lead>

'Well, you can never tell with football but it's better to be safe than sorry.'

He slowly took two steps backward before he quickly closed up on the ball and sent it flying into the pitch toward the right in an attempt to find Minino.

The midfielder had to contest for the ball with the defensive midfielder behind him, however, he was able to get his head on it first, and without hesitation, he nodded it to Norman who pushed a little forward with it before he sent it rolling to Ferran before Frank could cut in from the side.

Who wasn't going to take his chance with someone as dangerous as him, especially not near his box?

"Unique FC finally getting a proper feel of the ball, but they're playing it safe for now."

Connell charged straight toward Ferran as soon as he got his foot on the ball but the midfielder was fast enough to cut out of his path before sending the ball to Roland who had covered up down the left flank with a flick.

"Roland."

The fullback quickly took off with the ball, racing down the wing in an attempt to cover as much ground as possible.

He had just crossed the halfway line with the ball when the other defensive midfielder tried to cut him off from the side but the fullback was quick to react, pushing the ball back with his back heel before the midfielder could engage with him.

Ferran was right behind him to receive the ball, and as soon as he got his foot on the ball, he lobbed it forward, getting it over Connell and onto Mateo's foot.

"Mateo."

Paying heed to the coach's instruction, Ferran quickly stretched down the left flank, pushing forward with Roland behind him while Minino stretched out toward the right, making sure not to stray too far as he had Connell on him.

While they were doing this, Mateo quickly pushed forward with the ball, easily escaping the defensive midfielder who made a quick attempt to drag him down from behind.

"Oh, Unique FC are pushing forward here with Mateo in the lead, can they make something out of this?"

The center-backs were already strategizing ways to stop the attacking midfielder in their minds as he drew closer to them. They were aware of just how dangerous he was with the ball so being rash was not an option.

However, just before Mateo could get to them, he cut to the left and played Ferran in with a through ball from the top.

The midfielder was able to swiftly get past the fullback to get his foot on the ball and although the defender raised his hand to call for an offside, there was no reaction from the referee or the linesman. It looked like he was kept just on side by the fullback's left foot.

Seeing that his plea yielded no result, the defender quickly charged toward the midfielder just as he trapped the ball.

Speedily rushing the midfielder worked in the midfielder's favor as he was able to quickly pull the ball back, allowing the defender to just slide by, and with him out of his way at the moment, he dinked it into the box in an attempt to get it to Fred who had dragged himself a little to the left away from the defenders.

"Oh, it's looking shaky for Dynamo here."

Fred would have been able to get a clean header there but one of the defenders was able to get in on the action just in time to disrupt his flow, causing the blow to glide off the striker's head, bouncing toward the edge of the box down the middle.

"Oh, it's a loose ball inside the box."

The other center-back quickly closed up on the ball in an attempt to clear it, but before he could pull that off, Mateo broke free from Connell's grip to get the ball off his shooting path with his left foot.

"Just need to take the lead." The youngster breathed.

"Nice intervention from Mateo, can he find the net?!"

Forcing his way through like that forced him to lose a balance a bit and with both Connell and the center back already on him, he had no choice but to take his chance under that circumstance.

"Mateo!"

He pulled his left foot back and struck the ball just before he could hit the wet floor, aiming for the bottom right corner. However, his attempt didn't look the least bit threatening as it ended up slowly rolling out for a goal kick not even getting close to hitting the woodwork.

The reaction from the crowd was resounding gasps but some of them applauded the work the youngster put in to get in that position and create that chance for himself afterward.

"Oh, that could have been so far but it looks like Mateo didn't have the proper footing to take that shot."

"Come on." Mateo sighed as he slowly sat up on the floor.

He found a shadow looming over him, and when he looked up, he found Connell offering him a hand up.

"Thank you." He uttered as he took the midfielder's hand.

"We're only fifteen minutes into the game but both sides have already made their presence known with two off-target attempts at goal. It's always nice to see two teams proving to each other that they're no pushovers in a game." Jim articulated.

"True but pushover or not, one side will have to concede in the end."