My Goalkeeping System

With Emma already off to work, Dave was once again home alone, today\'s training session was starting by noon so he had a lot of time left before the training kicked off.

He had gone to his gym to train a few minutes after Emma had left and after two hours and some minutes, he returned to the house.

[ 180/400 exp ]

He brought out his phone from his pocket to see that the time was 10:40 AM.

"I still have a lot of time left before I have to head to the stadium." He muttered before making his way up the staircase.

The first thing he did was take a shower so that it wouldn\'t be a problem for him when the time starts getting closer.

By the time he was done washing up and putting on his clothes, the time was already 11:10 AM.

"Fifty minutes more." He said before heading toward the table in the living room to pick up his car keys.

There was nothing for him to do in the house so his best option was to head to the stadium to start early training before the others arrived.

He arrived to discover that the parking lot was empty as expected but just as he parked his car and got down from it, another car entered the area, it was a black Audi RS7 and there was only one person in the squad who owned a car like that.

The car stopped just beside Dave\'s Toyota Rav4 before the door opened for Ferran to step down from it.

"Dave." He said, walking closer to the goalkeeper.

"Mate wasn\'t joking when he said you have a serious habit of over-punctuality," Dave said after the two shook hands.

"You can\'t blame me, I don\'t really have anything to do all day besides training, and coming here is a big part of it," Ferran said.

"Oh, I see," Dave said with a nod.

"Now, let\'s go inside and see if we can get ahead with a few drills before the others arrive," Ferran said before quickly walking off toward the entrance to the stadium.

"Yeah," Dave said before following him from behind.

Ferran had started his training by running a few laps round pitch and after watching him complete the first and second one, Dave decided to join him on the third one.

After completing a few more laps, they switched to stretches and after that, Ferran picked up a ball and began to jog it.

\'This will be a really good time to practice hitting the crossbar.\' Dave thought before making his way to the piles of balls to pick up five balls.

He dropped the balls in the usual spot where he had dropped the other ones to make sure that he got the quest.

He got the quest just like he expected but just like the previous attempts, he failed the quest as he had managed to hit the crossbar only once.

"Why is this so hard?" He said, gritting his teeth in frustration.

<Why don\'t you forget about the quest and get closer, that\'s the only way that you can increase your accuracy before trying a distance like this>

Dave didn\'t listen to her and tried to complete the quest again but just like his previous attempts he had failed the quest and this time without even hitting the crossbar once.

"You have good accuracy, your precision\'s just not good enough."

The goalkeeper slowly turned to see Ferran standing there with two balls in his hands.

He threw the first ball up and jogged it for a while before he sent it flying toward the goalpost.

The ball flew straight toward the top right-hand corner and smashed on it before falling over.

"I\'m not surprised," Dave said.

"I know you\'re not, anyone can do it." He said before dropping the other ball on the ground and trapping it under his boot. "I noticed you\'ve been trying hard to hit that crossbar more than once since the past few training sessions, are you planning on taking free kick duties off me and Mateo\'s hands?\'\'

\'\'No, I just want to improve my accuracy.\'\'

\'\'Long ball accuracy?\'\'

\'\'Yeah, that,\'\' Dave said.

\'\'It looks more like you\'re trying to improve your shot precision to be able to score goals from way outside the box,\'\' Ferran said.

\'\'Scoring goals is good for the team isn\'t it?\'\'

\'\'Yeah, but inasmuch as goalkeepers can score goals in certain situations, it is not their job on the pitch,\'\' Ferran said. \'\'I understand that you\'re training yourself to be a good ball-playing goalkeeper and improving in that area would be useful for you in the long run but what Unique FC needs at the moment needs a shot-stopper and sweeper keeper to stop all those shots and prevent deadly penetrations.\'\'

<He may have gotten you wrong on how frequently you\'ve been practicing it but he\'s right>

\'\'I\'m not saying you should stop trying to improve your ball-playing ability, I love how you have been able to provide Mateo with two important assists, I\'m just saying that you should focus on what is really important as a goalkeeper.\'\'

\'\'I understand what you\'re saying Ferran and I can assure you that I\'m focusing more on improving my shot-stopping ability,\'\' Dave said.

\'\'Okay, that\'s good,\'\' Ferran said with a nod.

\'\'So do you want to test me out from the penalty spot?\'\' He asked, pointing toward the goalpost.

\'\'Sure,\'\' Ferran said before kicking up the ball on the floor to catch it.

<What happened to completing the quest at all costs?>

\'I\'ll come back to that at the end of this training session.\' Dave replied, moving toward the goalpost

\'\'They\'re going to start arriving any moment now,\'\' Ferran said before dropping the ball on the kick-off spot.

He took two steps away from the ball before quickly closing up on it to send it flying toward the right side of the goalpost.

Dave correctly guessed where he was going to kick the ball but he was wrong in thinking that the ball was not going to come with any form of elevation as he dived toward the bottom right side of the goalpost while the ball zoomed past him from above and fell into the back of the net.

\'\'I see you want to develop the habit of over-punctuality that Ferran has.\'\'

The two turned their gaze toward the tunnel to see Mateo who was heading toward them now.

\'\'I don\'t think it\'s a bad habit,\'\' Dave said.

\'\'I never said it was,\'\' Mateo said. \'\'I\'m just wondering how long you will be able to keep it up.\'\'

\'\'Not for long,\'\' Dave said, shaking his head. \'\'This is a fluke.\'\'

\'\'I knew it,\'\' Mateo said before shaking Ferran\'s hands and bumping shoulders with him, after that, he walked to Dave and repeated the process.

It didn\'t take long before the other players began to arrive and just before the time hit 12:15 PM, Norman and everyone else that made up the coaching staff were available on the pitch.

As always, he talked to them about a few things concerning the upcoming match and the training focus before the training session officially kicked off.

The training session was a short one just like Norman said and had only lasted for two and a half hours before the players returned to their locker rooms to get informed on the match tactics and the players who were going to be starting.

After that, the players were allowed to return home, and just as they were doing that, Dave had returned to the pitch.

He walked straight to the balls he had placed in rows in the normal spot before going down the tunnel.

"Just like I said Catherine, I must complete this quest at all cost." He muttered with his gaze on the goalpost.

****

Hope you enjoyed the chapter?

If I get up to a hundred golden tickets before the end of the month I will release six chapters on the first of December.