My Goalkeeping System

"Hey, Dave! Mateo over here!"

Just as they stepped onto the pitch, Sofia started yelling their names while waving toward them but that wasn\'t enough.

"I can\'t believe you guys actually came." She said with a bright smile on her face after getting close enough to them.

"Well, today\'s going to be our last free day before we leave here so our coach told us to get a little breather before the last two matches," Dave explained.

"Last free day? When are you guys leaving?" She asked before turning her gaze to Mateo.

"Um....we\'ll play against Real Sociedad on Sunday and then leave on Monday." The winger said.

"Oh, well, never mind that, come there\'s something that I want to show you." She said before grabbing Mateo by his arm and pulling him along with him.

Dave watched them until they got to the middle of the pitch before he began to make his way to the area.

Unlike the last time they were here, the girls\' coach was here today and he was really glad to have them there.

"Hey, come on, I\'m sure I can stop it."

Right from the start, the team\'s goalkeeper, a tall girl who happened to have dyed her hair pink had been pestering Dave and just wouldn\'t leave him alone.

"Are you sure you can stop it?" Dave asked after letting out a deep sigh.

"I know I can." She said.

"You sure have a lot of confidence in yourself." He said. "Moreno and Frank, those two world-class goalkeepers had trouble taking care of my shots, you know."

"I know but I have a feeling that I will be able to do it." She said.

\'Since when do people become able to do something just by having the feeling that they can?\'

<At least she has confidence in herself, something you\'ve lacked for a very long time>

\'You don\'t always have to say something whenever I make a comment, you know.\'

"Fine, just head to the other goalpost, quickly." The goalkeeper said before he picked up the ball lying on the floor and began to make his way to the goalpost going to do it.

"He\'s really going to do it," Sofia said.

"Yeah," Mateo replied.

"Wow, Sofia, have you always been this touchy around guys?"

"What are you talking about, Miranda?" She said before turning her gaze to Miranda and that was when she realized that she had both of her hands on Mateo\'s shoulder.

\'Oh.\'

The first thought that came to her mind was to quickly remove her hands from there and quickly apologize but just as she was about to take her gaze off Miranda, something different came to her mind.

Instead of removing her hands, she slowly relaxed her head on his shoulder to complete what her body had been trying to do subconsciously.

"What\'s wrong, Miranda?" She said with a smug look on her face.

The only thing Miranda could do was pout with an unpleasant look on her face and once she got that reaction from her, she quickly got off Mateo\'s shoulder.

\'That was a bit stupid.\'

She expected Mateo to be mad or at least have a stunned look on his face but there was no reaction from the winger as he still had his gaze on the pitch.

<So, you\'re going to go full power on her>

\'That\'s the essence of it, if I don\'t, the shot won\'t really have that much power and she\'ll probably end up saving it.\'

<Yeah, I guess so>

The goalkeeper dropped the ball at the edge of the box inside the eighteen-yard box and slowly took four steps backward before he quickly sent the ball flying toward the goalpost.

The ball was flying directly toward her at first, but just as it got closer, it quickly curved a little to the left, she dived toward the ball with both of her hands but she wasn\'t able to get a hand to it as the ball flew past her gloves and smashed into the back of the net.

"You\'ve got to be kidding me." One of the girls standing by the side said with a shocked expression on her face.

"He actually scored from the goalpost."

"The shot power is understandable but that level of accuracy is out of this world."

"If he attempted it at Camp Nou and put Frank Christensen to the test then this small pitch is nothing for him," Sofia said.

"He did it at Camp Nou?"

"Yeah, and at the Reale Arena a couple of times, he scored against SD Eibar from the middle of the pitch."

"And he\'s supposed to be a goalkeeper?"

After hearing that from Sofia, the girls who didn\'t know about it before slowly turned their gaze to Dave with amazed looks on their faces.

"Hey," Dave said before squatting in front of the girl who was still sitting on the floor after failing to stop Dave\'s shot. "You did pretty well to get your dive right toward the ball, but you dived a bit too early, that\'s why you weren\'t able to get the elevation right, or maybe you just weren\'t able to jump high enough."

"Even if I had gotten my hands on it, I wouldn\'t have been able to push it out anyway." She said.

"That may be true but you would have been happier if you had gotten your hands on it, wouldn\'t you?" The goalkeeper asked.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"You\'re a great goalkeeper, just keep building yourself and you\'ll be able to stop shots like that in no time."

"Thank you, I\'ll keep working on myself." She replied with a nod.

The training session lasted for an hour and just a few minutes after that, almost all the girls were gone.

"Are you guys going back to where you\'re staying?" Sofia asked as both of them made their way toward the exit.

"No, not really, we\'ll take a walk around and see if we can see something interesting although we\'ve seen almost everything in this area." Dave expressed.

"Maybe I can help you with that." She said.

"Huh?" Dave said before the both of them turned their gaze to face her.

"I grew up here so I know every single place around here and even a little beyond, there\'s a certain interesting place that I think you guys will like to see." She expressed.

"Really?" Mateo said.

"Yeah, follow me." She said before she walked past them and began to walk ahead of them.

________ ________

The first ball came rolling toward the bottom right side of the goalpost and he quickly dived toward it and kept it out with the tip of his glove.

The second one was sent toward the bottom left side and he quickly dived toward it and kept it out but the third one wasn\'t so easy.

The ball was sent flying toward the top right-hand side of the goalpost but he didn\'t even bother diving toward it because he knew he was never going to get to it on time to keep it out.

"You\'re starting to get the hang of it, you can now keep out two balls within the time interval of two seconds, you\'ve done it consecutively for ten tries to show how you\'ve mastered it but we can\'t really call it mastering it until you can keep our three, isn\'t that right?" Catherine articulated.

"I\'m trying my best here, Catherine."

*****

New year mass release goals.

A magic castle= one extra chapter.

Two magic castles= two extra chapters.

Mass release for goals met last month will still be rewarded on the due dates.