The referee blew his whistle twice to bring the first half to a close with the scoreboard still showing zero goals to one.
"What a first half that has been," Jim said. "Both sides fought so well and it was quite unfortunate that Unique FC had to concede a penalty which Okafor didn't have any problem putting away as Dave was glued to the spot.
Will Unique FC be able to pull a comeback in the second half because if they don't do anything about that goal deficiency then they can just kiss that Conference League Spot goodbye?"
"They've been the better side so far and like you said that penalty was unfortunate for them, um….I think we're going to see something entertaining from them in the second half." Steve said.
The stars table showed that Unique FC had fifty-nine percent ball possession while Lesica United had forty-one percent ball possession in the first half.
The hosts had played six shots and none of them had been on target while the guests had played five shots and gotten three of them on target.
Unique FC had a total of three hundred and twenty-six passes completed so far while Lesica United had only managed to complete two hundred and forty-seven passes.
Unique FC players were all in the locker room now, sitting on their various seats with Norman standing in front of them and the coach didn't have a very pleasant look on his face.
"You guys have tried, defensively only, what's with the sloppy passes, Ferran, have you forgotten how to pass?"
"No, coach," Ferran muttered.
"Then what is going on, our midfield mostly controls the game since all the matches we've played in this unbeaten run of ours, what is going on with you guys? Now you need Roland to be constantly moving into the midfield positions to do your work for you." Norman said.
"And don't any of you dare tell me that you're not used to the formation because there's nothing complicated about this formation given the fact that I have a very good tactic to go with, a tactic you guys have failed to implement so far."
"I'm just saying but the match would have still been even if the referee had not given that absurd penalty," Fredinho said.
"No, we would be leading by now if you had taken all the good chances that you were given, three good chances and you blew them over the bar, you guys weren't even able to get a shot on target in the first half!" Norman said, breathing heavily.
"I understand that you're angry coach as you should be but now's not really the time to scold anyway, if you have anything to say to us, say it," Adolf said.
There was a little moment of silence in the room before Norman slowly raised his gaze to the players.
"Alright, listen carefully everyone because I am going to only say this once." He said.
The break was over now as the players slowly made their way to the pitch to start the second half.
"Welcome back everyone, it looks like the second half of the match is about to kick off," Jim said. "The battle for the conference league spot, Lesica United are currently leading but we have high hopes that Unique FC will be able to put up a nice show for us."
"Remember what I told you," Norman said to Adolf and Ferran as the two responded with nods before making their way onto the pitch.
"Looks like there's going to be no change from either side," Steve said. "Looks like Norman still has faith in his current eleven's ability to deliver."
Okafor stood over the ball waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he passed the ball to the player closest to him.
"That's the whistle, the second half has kicked off," Jim said.
The guests passed the ball around trying to find an opening while Unique FC players were looking for a way to gain possession of the ball.
The second half was three minutes gone and so far, no Unique FC player had been able to touch the ball.
One of the center-backs received the ball from Okafor after the striker was relentlessly chased down by Ferran and had no option but to pass the ball back.
The center back pushed forward with the ball a little before he sent it flying toward their right winger on the right wing.
"Oh, no you don't," Roland said as he quickly rushed toward the player and sprang up to meet the ball before he did.
"Aerial duel here between Roland and Tenin," Jim said.
Tenin was caught off guard as Roland brought the ball down with his head and pushed forward with it a little before passing it to Edward who quickly rolled it to Ferran.
Lesica United's defense had been drawn out a bit and now it was time for the midfield dynamo to strike.
Merino was already in position and all he needed to do now was lob the ball to him and that was exactly what he did.
"Oh, Merino's through here!" Jim said with a tone of excitement.
The defenders were caught off guard as Merino was already past them with the ball so they did the only thing that could possibly save them in a situation .
"Offside!" The four of them yelled before raising their hands but there was no response from anyone as Merino was still heading toward the goalpost for a one-on-one situation.
"He's one on one surely!"
The goalkeeper left his line to try and stop the winger and that right there was where he killed himself, Merino slowed down for him to get a little closer before he chipped the ball over him.
The goalkeeper tried to reach for the ball but his effort was futile as the ball flew over him and bounced on the goal line before flying into the goalpost.
"Oh, he's put it away, nicely done like a hot knife slicing through butter," Jim said.
"They've finally gotten that equalizer," Steve said. "Quite earlier than I expected."
The home fans let loose their cheers and chants of joy as Merino ran to the side and jumped up, and as soon as his feet touched the ground, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
His teammates had quickly gathered around him now but they all seemed to have forgotten the fact that the referee had not blown his whistle and the linesman on the sidelines had his flag raised.
"What's this? It's an offside?" Jim said.
The referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot where Merino was when he received the ball before pointing toward Unique FC's side of the pitch.
"What the heck?!" Edward yelled before making his way to the referee, in no time, about five other Unique FC players had gathered around the referee.
"Why don't you go check the VAR and confirm things because I think this decision is absurd?" Edward said.
"And who are you to call my decision absurd?" The referee said before bringing out a yellow card from his pocket and showing it to Edward.
"Another yellow card from another confrontation," Jim said.
'It looks referee's got some kind of agenda against us.'
"So I did that celebration for nothing," Merino muttered to himself as he walked away from the area so that the free kick from the offside could be taken.
The goalkeeper stood a little distance away from the ball waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he quickly raced toward the ball and sent it flying into the other half of the pitch.
This time Tenin was the one who won the aerial duel between him and Roland as he quickly brought the ball down with his chest and rolled it to the midfielder who didn't waste time to send it to Okafor.
Aima quickly raced toward the striker to try and bring him down but the striker neatly got rid of him with a nutmeg and now it was all up to Adolf and Pirlo but he wasn't planning to dribble them two as he quickly pulled his leg back and sent the ball flying toward the goalpost.
[ Ball magnet activated ]
Dave quickly dived toward the ball heading toward the top right side of the goalpost but the ball was way stretched off the limits of his gloves and his ball magnet wasn't able to do anything as the ball fell into the back of the net.
"I can't believe it! Okafor has just doubled it for his team with a banger from outside the box!" Jim screamed.
Okafor let out a scream as he ran to the sidelines and did a slide before his teammates began to gather around him.
"He has once again proven why he is called the African sniper," Steve said.
'Isn't it time to activate the attribute yet!' Dave screamed inwardly as he punched the floor in frustration.
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.