The goalkeeper slowly opened his eyes and turned to the side to see that Mateo was still fast asleep.
<Good morning, Dave>
'Morning.' The goalkeeper replied before slowly getting up from his bed.
After that, he slowly turned his gaze to the clock to see that the time was just hitting 7:00 AM.
The match today was starting by 1:30 PM and that meant that there was not going to be any training session before the match, all they had to do was have their breakfast and start getting ready to move out.
Norman had already filled them in on the formation, tactics, and the players who were going to be starting but he told them that he was going to let them know if he decides to change anything.
[ Quest ]
[ Do not concede more than nine goals in the nine pre-season matches ]
[ Progress: 6/9 goals conceded ]
[ Matches left: 02 ]
'The maximum amount I can concede in these last two matches is three, if I concede more than that, the quest will be over for me.'
<And you don't want that to happen>
'Yeah, it's never going to happen.'
The goalkeeper made his way into the bathroom and brushed his teeth really quickly before making his way out of the room to go for a quick walk outside, Mateo was still sleeping by the time he left the room but just a few seconds after closing the door, the winger slowly opened his eyes.
The goalkeeper met their coach Norman in the hallway and after exchanging greetings with him, the two made their way into the elevator as he also happened to be heading downstairs.
There was a few seconds of silence between them after the elevator closed up and began to move them downstairs.
"You've been doing great, Dave," Norman said.
"I know that but still we've lost two matches." The goalkeeper said.
"Yeah, but have you forgotten that we've won three and drew too? We even had a three-match winning streak which was broken by Barcelona on Thursday." Norman expressed. "We're doing fine so far, losing is also part of the game and besides those, we escaped a possible trashing from Barcelona."
"Yeah, that match could have gone differently in a lot of ways."
"If it weren't for you then that trashing would have happened," Norman said. "I don't know what you're doing, Dave but keep doing it as long as it's not something bad, you've become a formidable goalkeeper and you will be very essential to everything we're going to do next season."
"I'll try my best, coach." He replied.
As soon as those words left his mouth, the ding sound from the elevator was heard to notify them that they had reached the bottom floor and after that, the elevator opened up for them to step out.
"Speaking of formidable." Norman continued speaking as they made their way toward the exit. "I haven't really gotten the chance to properly examine Alexander's skill so far in this pre-season tour, do you mind stepping down so that he can play the whole game against Wolfsburg today?"
'He wants me to step down? But if I miss a single match or don't play up to forty-five minutes in a match, I'm going to fail this quest.'
"But he's been coming in to replace me a lot, why don't you just replace me with him as soon as the second half is about to kick off?" Dave said.
"I just want him to play till full-time today," Norman said.
"I understand what you're trying to do coach but I don't really want to be left out of any match, I'll be glad to have forty-five minutes," Dave said.
"So, you don't really feel like being left out of the match." The coach said.
"No, you can give him ninety minutes in the charity match against Supreme United but I don't want to be left out of any of these last two matches." The goalkeeper said.
"You're really persistent," Norman said. "Very well then, you'll start the match and be taken off in the sixtieth minute, as for what've you asked me to do in the charity match, I don't think I can do that."
"Thanks, coach, you're the best." He said before running off in a different direction.
Norman kept his gaze on him until he took the right turn and disappeared.
"A new era." He muttered before he turned and began to head in the other direction.
______ _______
The time displayed on Dave's watch just as he stepped down from the bus was 12:01 PM
They had arrived at the Reale Arena early but that didn't mean they had any time to waste.
They quickly made their way to the locker room and changed into their training outfits before making their way to the pitch to find out that Wolfsburg players were already warming up there.
"Why do the opponents always have to arrive before us?" Mateo said as he stepped onto the pitch with Dave and his other teammates.
"It's quite odd but it's not like we got here late or anything, let's just go start warming up," Dave said before he began to make his way toward the goalpost on their side.
Most of his teammates had gone clear of the goalpost area to do something else that didn't involve the ball but Dave was still there, he had a lot of balls at the edge of the box now and was hitting the crossbar with every single kick from there, his accuracy was already good enough from far away so there was no doubt that it was going to be superb from this close.
"You know for a goalkeeper, your accuracy is top tier."
The goalkeeper slowly turned to see a Wolfsburg player standing there.
A blonde man who was neither pale nor huge, he just had a good body and seemed to be a bit muscular.
"You practice shooting a lot I see." He said.
"You're Michael Anderson," Dave said.
Michael Anderson, one of Wolfsburg's most formidable players. He didn't have any weak foot and because of that, he could efficiently switch from right wing to left wing and he was also a pretty good striker.
"Yeah, and you're Dave Richards, right?" Michael said.
"Yeah." The goalkeeper replied with a nod.
"I've heard quite a lot from you, what you did against Manchester United, how you almost scored against Moreno from the goalpost and that goal against Eibar from the center of the pitch was out of this world." Michael expressed. "A goalkeeper who is not only formidable between the sticks but also formidable with shooting coupled with wonderful accuracy, you're a rare one, Dave."
"Thank you."
"I know this is just a friendly match but I am sure going to celebrate wildly if I manage to score against you." He said. "Well, I have to get back to warming up now, see you later, and don't forget, I asked for your shirt first." He added before running back to the other side.
<He's a nice guy>
'Yeah, people like that are usually formidable in the field of play, I'm giving myself a personal quest.'
<And what is that?>
'To stop him from scoring against me by all means, there's no reward but I have to do it.'
****
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.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnovel(.)com