It was quite absurd for Norman to not start any of his top chance creators who could step up in tough moments to score difficult match-winning goals.
The two were currently the team's leading top contributors with Mateo having a total of twelve goals and ten assists to make up for twenty goal contributions and Ferran having a total of fifteen assists plus eight goals to make up for twenty-three goal contributions.
'I am aware of that but Mateo was benched in the last match and we almost lost it because of that, why not bench Ferran just like he said and start Mateo? Why bench both of them?' Dave replied. 'You won't be able to blame injuries when you lose a match because you decided to bench your best players who are clearly fit for the match.'
'I just hope you're right about him having a plan and I hope it's not a plan that is guaranteed to fail.'
The goalkeeper viewed the lineup again to see if there was any other thing that he had not spotted and that was when he realized that another starter wasn't starting the match today.
Adolf was missing from the starting lineup with Pirlo Shrek filling his position now.
"I just hope he knows what he is doing," Dave muttered before slowly getting up from his bed.
'I'm going to have to eat enough food and get good rest to fill that back up again right?'
'Well, doing those things has never been a problem.' He replied before slowly making his way out of the room.
On his way down the stairs, he saw Emma talking to someone at the door, and by the time he had gotten down; she had already closed the door.
He stopped there after she slowly turned with the pizza package she was holding, that had just answered the question he wanted to ask.
"You ordered pizza?" He said with a surprised expression on her face.
"Yeah, I don't really have the strength to cook anything and besides the match will be starting soon."
"I'm not complaining, I'm just surprised, you usually don't like ordering pizza, it was understandable last night because of my condition but now."
"Well, this night will be the last for a very long while," She said moving toward the couch. "Unless I return to my apartment at Razid."
"Why would you return when you have a job in Unique?" Dave asked, moving closer to her.
"I haven't gotten the job yet and if I don't get it, then I'm going to have to return to my apartment." She said before dropping the pizza package on the table.
"That won't happen because you're going to get it, I'm sure of that," Dave said.
Catherine said sarcastically.
'There's something called positivity Catherine, you don't have to be an expert in a field to have it.'
"I hope so babe," Emma said before quickly making her way to the kitchen.
Dave sat down on the couch to watch the Pre-Match warm-up that was currently going on on the pitch.
Most of the Unique FC players were putting on their black training outfits with three orange stripes running down the middle while a few of them were putting on their green jackets.
Litno FC players on the other hand were putting on sky blue kits which served as their training kits.
He heard footsteps coming from the side and quickly turned to see Emma returning with two glasses of orange juice in her hands.
She slowly placed them on the table before sitting down on the couch beside Dave.
Dave smiled at her before turning his gaze to the items on the table.
He reached for the pizza package but before his hand to get to it, it got smacked away by Emma.
"What?" He said rubbing the affected hand with his left hand.
"You are not allowed to touch that until the match begins." She said,
"If you had any idea of what was going on in my stomach now, you wouldn't be saying this." He said with his gaze still fixed on its target.
"Well, nothing would have started going on down there by now if you had actually eaten your lunch instead of running off to checkout everything we bought on your own." She said, "You can have a glass of juice in the meantime if it's that intense."
She had a smile on her face as she said this but Dave was well aware that the second he tried to reach for that pizza his hand would get smacked away and he had a feeling that it was going to be quite intense this time.
'Waooh, that's evil and mean Catherine, you are an evil A.I.'
Dave chose peace over violence as he reached for one of the glasses of juice and grabbed it before returning his gaze to the television's screen.
The players had gone down the tunnel and headed to their locker rooms to get ready as they had less than twenty minutes before the match began.
Dave slowly took sip upon sip from the juice and by the time the players had started matching onto the pitch he had finished his glass of juice and quickly grabbed the other one on the table.
"You'll have to go refill that one when you finish it," Emma said before grabbing the empty glass cup on the table and quickly making her way toward the kitchen.
This was a home match for Unique FC, so the players were putting on the black home kit with the orange dotted designs while Litno FC players were putting on their sky blue away kit that had a large white water drop design placed a little down on it.
"Welcome to all our viewers from all around the world," Jim said. "Jim Waterson here and in the absence of my partner Mr. Steve Jefferson, joining me today to offer his expertise is Mr. John Trevor."
"Thank you, Jim, it is really an honor to be here with you to witness this match with you from the co-commentator's seat," John said.
The lineup for the home team popped up on the screen as the players lined up in front of the pitch.
Just like Dave had confirmed earlier, Unique FC were going to play under their normal formation of four-four-three with Norman Kole filling the right-back position, Aima and Pirlo as center-backs, and Jonas occupying the left-back position.
The midfield was led by Minino who was now in central midfield instead of the right with Edward on the left and Harry Norman on the right.
The attacking trio was led by Fred Miles in the striking position, Carlos Oman in the right wing, and Ina Shaw in the left wing.
Of course, Alexander Collins was the one between the sticks given the fact that Dave was out of the match.
"Norman left out two of his main stars in the starting lineup, I hope he knows what he's doing," Jim said.
"That's what everyone is probably thinking now," Dave said.
"What?" Emma asked before sitting down beside him with a glass of juice in her hand.
"Mateo's not starting and neither is Ferran," Dave said.
"That's not right," Emma said, turning her gaze to the screen to make sure that he wasn't bluffing. "This match could end in a way I didn't expect."
"Unique FC's last match could have ended badly for them but as soon as Mateo was brought in, the rhythm of the game had changed, Ferran was also crucial to that win, I'm sure the fans are already wondering why those two aren't in the starting lineup," Jim commented.
With Adolf also on the bench, Carlos had stepped up as the captain, and right now, he was standing in front of the referee with Litno FC's captain to go through the process of choosing their sides.
"Dave Richards made a collision with Sandro in their last match and suffered a concussion afterward, he's not part of the squad for today's match as sixteen-year-old Alexander steps up for the senior squad," Jim said.
"He only got to play for less than three minutes during the match against Ronino after Dave was taken off and that was too little of a time to see what he could do as he wasn't even able to touch the ball but today we're going to see what the youngster can really do."
Carlos was standing over the ball now waiting for the referee's whistle and as soon as he heard it, he quickly rolled the ball to Minino who was standing behind him.
Minino found Carlos making a run down the right wing and quickly crossed the ball to him but whatever they wanted to do had gone wrong as the opposition left back swooshed in at the right moment to steal the ball while it was in the air.
He quickly crossed the ball to their right winger who used a dummy to get rid of Jonas and was now making a run toward the eighteen-yard box.
"Unique can be in trouble here," Jim said.
The winger raced toward the box and just before stepping into it, he released a powerful shot toward the goalpost.
He didn't even stop to think about it. Alexander dived toward the ball which was heading toward the top left-hand corner, he had gotten a hand to it but it was just too powerful for him as it deflected on his hand, struck the crossbar, and then fell into the back of the net.
"What a shot! What a goal! He didn't even stop to think about that!" Jim screamed.
The guest fans erupted into cheers as his teammates quickly gathered around him to celebrate the goal.
"Oh my, the clock hasn't even hit the second minute and Unique FC are already behind," John said.
'That wasn't the way I envisioned the match to start.' Dave thought as he stared at his devastated teammates with a devastated look on his face.
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.