The referee was quite confused, so he had to go to the VAR monitor and see things for himself so that he would be able to make a good decision.
"Well, it was pretty close, I mean it clearly looks like it happened in there," Jim said.
After seeing things clearly for himself, the referee made his way to the pitch to make his decision.
It was almost inside the box, but Mateo was just outside the box when he was brought down and fell into the box and so the referee decided that it was not a penalty kick, it was a free kick just at the edge of the box.
"That's the right call, most referees wouldn't even bother to check that and just decide that it was a penalty kick which it clearly looks like so many people wouldn't complain unless they watched the replay carefully, I'm glad he checked well and made the right decision."
"Penalty or not, we are still leading and probably that goal may give us our second for the night." The goalkeeper muttered with his body relaxed against the right post.
<You have quite a lot of energy tonight>
'Well, I was out for quite a while.'
<You only missed one match>
'Exactly.'
Both Mateo and Ferran were standing over the ball as Lesica United formed their four-man wall inside the box so it was quite uncertain who was going to take the kick but the two knew who it was.
"So, who's it going to be, Mateo or Ferran?" Jim said.
"I think Mateo's the better free-kick taker, he has better technique and better accuracy, Ferran's accuracy isn't that bad either plus adding that enormous shot power of his does well in overwhelming the goalkeeper." Steve expressed.
"Yeah, if I were to pick one to take a free kick for me, I would pick Mateo but that doesn't really have anything to do with the situation as Ferran may be the one taking the free kick."
Once everything was set, the referee blew his whistle and now it was time to find out who was taking the free kick.
The two stared at the ball for a while before Ferran took off toward it.
It looked like he was going to kick it for a while before he jumped over it and moved out of the way for Mateo to quickly close up on it and curl it toward the top right-hand corner.
The ball moved so fast and smoothly that the only thing the goalkeeper could do was stand and watch as the ball flew into the back of the net.
"It was Mateo after! And boy what a magnificent free kick that was!" Jim exclaimed.
As soon as that ball went in, the winger turned to Ferran who let out a scream of joy before lifting him.
The fans were now chanting the name of the winger as they jumped up and down in the stands.
"Mateo Smith has given his team a two-goal lead as he gets his second goal of the night, what an inspirational player and to think that he's only nineteen years old." Steve expressed.
"Yes, yes! A two-goal cushion!" The goalkeeper yelled as he raised his right hand and kicked the car, he was very excited just like the rest of his teammates.
Lesica United players had devastated looks on their faces as they knew things had gotten really bad for them with twenty-five minutes already gone in the match.
"It's going to be quite hard for Lesica United to come back from this considering the way Unique FC are playing now and the way they are playing, they can't even get past their defense."
"I think this already obvious but I don't think Unique FC will be Unique FC without that youngster on the left wing," Jim said.
"Yeah, but he will want to leave for a better league soon, so I think it's best if Unique FC starts looking for a replacement now." Steve expressed.
The match continued with Lesica United trying to break through Unique FC's defense but just like earlier, that wasn't going as planned and the few shots which Okafor managed to create enough space for himself to shoot were all stopped by Dave, one of them was even close to going in.
The ball was drilled low toward the bottom left side while Dave was still on the right but the goalkeeper pushed himself to get there on time to push it out with the tip of his gloves toward Luis Roberto who pushed it closer for him to catch it before Jonathan got to the area.
'Second crucial save.' The goalkeeper said before kicking the ball out into the pitch.
Unique FC hadn't really gotten a clear chance against Lesica United after that second goal as Lesica United seemed to have tightened up a bit at the back but they got two chances which resulted in two shots off target, one from Mateo and the other from Fredinho.
The home side were the ones with the ball now and they were looking to start an attack.
The clock had just hit the forty-fifth-minute mark and the official with the board raised his board to show that three minutes was added.
"There's going to be just three minutes of added time," Jim said.
The attack was being led by Ferran who was pushing forward with the ball, but he was soon to have a confrontation as he got closer to the edge of the box, so he had to send the ball to Minino.
He could have done better with the pass as he ended up clumsily hitting the ball and making it easier for the central midfielder who was on Minino's trail to intercept it.
"Clumsy pass from Ferran, this could be costly."
The midfielder didn't even waste time before he sent the ball flying toward Okafor who had already gotten past Adolf and Pirlo and was heading toward the goalpost now with the ball on his feet.
All four defenders were close to the forty yards line area as Okafor had already gotten past them, they raised their hands to call for offside except for Roland who was racing toward Dave now.
"It's a one-on-one situation, Unique FC's whole back line is out of the way, this could be Lesica United's chance to pull back one," Jim said as the excitement building up in him was reaching the boiling point.
'Oh, no, this isn't good, what should I do?' The goalkeeper was panicking in his mind as Okafor approached him.
<You have a lot of things in your arsenal, you figure that out yourself>
'Oh, come on.'
Okafor had gotten close enough to the goalkeeper who had made up his mind to do something and was about to release the shot toward the goalpost when the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot where he was found offside before pointing back to their side of the pitch.
"Both linesmen had their flags up the whole time," Steve said.
Okafor was quite infuriated with that decision that he sent the ball flying into the goalpost anyway.
"He's angry, but I'm glad that call was made." The goalkeeper muttered before he crashed to the floor and let out a deep sigh.
'I was so close to using focus.'
<You weren't calm in any way so that would have ended in a bad way>
'Yeah, that was a close call.'
***
Mass release goals.
A magic castle= one extra chapter.
Two magic castles= two extra chapters.
