Those two goals were what could be described as hitting them where it hurt.
Frono FC thought they were going to go in for the halftime break with the draw and then they could try and figure out a way to stop Unique FC from bullying them the way they did in this first half, but Mateo didn't give them that peace of mind of going in for the break on level terms as he struck twice to give his team a two-goal lead before the referee blew his whistle twice to bring the first half to an end.
"That's one way to retake the lead and it's not only taking the lead, they're two goals up now," Jim commented as the players made their way down the tunnel.
"Unique FC have already defeated Frono FC once this season, are we going to see Frono FC lose to Unique for the second time in a row?" Steve commented.
"Well, the possibility of that happening now is pretty high but you know, this is football, anything can happen in the second half. But, I think Unique FC aren't planning on throwing away this lead, considering how Frono FC beat them in almost all of their meetings last season, this could be their revenge."
Unique FC players were all in the locker room now with Norman standing in front of them just like always.
He had his arms crossed with an expressionless look on his face.
He kept his gaze on the players for a while before he finally decided to say something.
"Nice job with those last two goals, at least I can breath a little easy now." He said with his gaze on Mateo who responded with a little nod. "You guys played really well out there, but."
'There's always going to be a but.' Dave said subconsciously.
<Yeah, but there really is a but>
"They are playing really badly out there and we weren't even able to take a two-goal lead, we should be at least three or four goals up with the lackluster way they've been playing." Norman expressed. "We are winning now but who knows what they're going to come up with in the second half, I just hope they keep playing the way they did I'm the first half."
"Do you have any suggestions or ideas, coach?" Adolf asked.
"I always have those, Adolf."
"Oh…, yeah."
"Now to start, Mateo, I'm giving you a free role."
"A free role?" Mateo said before slowly raising his head.
"Yes, your main position is the left wing but if you see an opportunity to explore any position and do something from there then just go for it, I know you have what it takes." He explained.
"I'll try my best, coach." The winger replied with a nod.
<He should have done that a long time ago>
'Yeah, I agree.'
"Now for the other part, it's going to depend entirely on how much they improve in this second half, if there is no major improvement from them then we can launch this tactic with full effect as soon as possible."
Norman took the time to properly explain everything to them and now it was time for them to start making their way to the pitch.
"Alright, everyone, go out there and win this match, we're already winning it and we're going to see it through to the end!"
"Welcome back everyone, the second half is about to kick off as we can see the players making their way to the pitch now," Jim said. "The first half was pretty entertaining despite being almost entirely one-sided."
"Yeah, that early goal from Unique FC, then the equalizer from Frono FC, and then the equalizer from Frono FC. After that we got the struggles in between to see who would take the lead, it was mostly Unique FC struggling though, and then in the last minutes Mateo struck twice in two minutes to give his team a two-goal lead." Steve expressed.
"Well said, Steve. Now it's time to see who's going to come out on top in this round and move to the next round, looking at the scoreboard and in terms of gameplay, it's most likely Unique FC but this is football and anything can happen so we'll just have to wait and see." Jim expressed.
The players were all on the pitch now as Darwin was standing over the ball in the kick-off spot waiting for the referee's whistle.
It didn't take long for him to hear it as the referee blew his whistle as soon as he was sure that everything was ready.
"There's the whistle and we are on the way."
As soon as Darwin heard the whistle, he pushed the ball to the player with the name Cloud written above the number twenty-seven on the back of his jersey.
As soon as Cloud got hold of the ball, he pushed it to the player behind him with a backheel pass.
The player tried to shake both Martinez and Ferran who had quickly gone after him but he knew he would lose the ball if he kept up what he wanted to do so he passed the ball to. Seth.
"Seth."
Seth got hold of the ball and immediately sent it flying over to the other side with a lob.
"Sends it over to Torres."
Torres brought the ball down with a neat trap and just as soon as Henry was about to attempt to take the ball from him from behind.
He pulled the ball back and evaded the midfielder with a neat roulette spin.
"Oh, that was smooth."
After avoiding Henry, the winger quickly sent the ball rolling to Cloud who sent it rolling to Seth with the first touch.
Seth moved down the right wing with the ball, and just before he could run into Roland, he sent the ball flying into the box through the middle.
Darwin was heading into the box at that moment and getting the ball to the striker was his goal, but that didn't work out quite well for him as Dave quickly stepped up to grab the ball with both of his gloves.
"Dave intervenes and that ends there, Frono FC should have gone for a slower approach, to score against Dave like, you have to be tricky or get him in a one-on-one situation," Jim commented.
"Yeah, I've figured that long-range shots don't work against him anymore they used to work with almost a hundred percent effectiveness, but with the way he's improved, they just don't work anymore." Steve expressed.
The match continued with Unique FC being mostly on the passive side.
They weren't really doing anything impactful and just kept losing it to Frono FC with horrible mistakes.
At this point, it looked like they were doing it on purpose but why on earth would they be doing something like that in a match that they wanted to win by all means possible?
Despite constantly getting the ball from Unique FC's mistakes, Frono FC had not been able to do anything useful with it and ended up getting folded by the defense, the long-range shots were also stopped by Dave.
Right now, Unique FC were the ones with the ball and after receiving the ball back from Mateo, Ferran tried to move a little to the middle with it when it was quickly swept off his feet by Cloud who quickly got up with it and took off.
"Another clumsy mistake from Unique FC and Frono FC are back with the ball again."
Cloud raced down the middle with the ball before stretching it to Seth on the right.
Seth got hold of the ball and continued the race, but just before he could run into Roland he pushed the ball to Darwin who didn't hesitate in sending it to Torres.
Torres tried to get past Norman and when that didn't work out quite well for him, he sent the ball back to Darwin.
"They're trying to come up with something here."
Darwin stalled the ball in front of Adolf for a while before he found Seth attempting to get past Roland and quickly sent the ball flying over to him with a neat lob.
Things didn't go quite as planned as Roland ended up being the one to get his head on the ball.
He nodded the ball up toward Dave who did hesitate to step up and grab.
"Another danger averted but wait a minute…"
As soon as Dave caught the ball, he threw it up and sent it flying into the pitch toward Mateo.
"It's a counterattack, they're starting a counterattack."
Mateo brought the ball down with his chest a little close to the middle and all he needed to do was get past the player behind him.
That he did and got past the player with a neat backheel nutmeg.
"Oh, he's through here!"
There was another player trying to close up on him through the right, but the winger didn't care as he raced toward the goalkeeper and by the time he got close enough to the goalkeeper, the player had gotten quite close to him, but that didn't mean anything as the winger ended up lobbing the ball over the goalkeeper and into the goalpost before he could do anything about it.
"Goaallllll! They're three goals up now! It's Dave assisting Mateo again!"
For this one, Mateo had to go wild a little as he raced toward the sidelines screaming at the top of his voice and because of how fast he was running, he almost ran into the stands.
Of course, the ones who were in that part were happy to touch him and get him up close in their shots.
"Hattrick against Frono FC what a player."
