Chapter 10: There Has To Be A Winner

"So, you've already met Jasper?"

"Yeah, we seem to be in the same house." Eric nodded.

"Hm, so you're in green house."

"Yes."

"The lo…"

"What?" Eric asked.

"It's nothing." She smiled as she shook her head.

She said it was nothing, so Eric had no choice but to take her word for it, albeit halfheartedly.

"I'm guessing your brother is in the same house." She said, her gaze now fixated on the pitch.

"Yes." Eric responded slowly shifted his gaze to her as he tried to make out what her face really looked like under that big cap.

In the end, he gave up and returned his attention to the ongoing match.

SS3 had very clearly been the underwhelming side since the start of the second, but at the moment, it seemed like that had been reversed completely, with their opponents now the ones struggling to contain the barrage of attacks furiously being sent their way.

Evan's idea of putting more effort and creativity into cutting off their direct link to the goal had worked magnificently so far as Chika was no longer seeing the space to create his magic.

Seeing how aggressive while also being super creative SS3 had gotten, their juniors decided to park the bus and just see the match through to the end.

This made things a bit more difficult for the seniors, but with Evan on their side, nothing was impossible. Well, getting through wasn't impossible.

However, no matter how much they tried they just couldn't find the back of the net, not with their opponents putting everything they had into defending and their goalkeeper suddenly turning into prime Neur.

Evan put in the most effort out of all his teammates getting four more shots on target after his near post miss. Unfortunately, the goalkeeper was equal to all those shots, getting to each of them every single time albeit barely.

Time passed on with the match still locked in the stalemate, and now they were in the last minute of the game or, to be precise, the last minute of the three minutes of added time.

SS3 had one more chance to put this match behind them as a victory, they had gotten a free kick just close to the edge of the box.

The senior team didn't really have a designated free-kick taker, or to be precise, their designated free-kick taker was currently absent, so they were discussing among themselves to figure out who was going to be taking the free-kick.

"Why not just let Evan take it?" Chima suggested after an argument almost broke out between two of their teammates.

Evan tried his best to stay out of it but now they were all looking at him.

"You guys saw his goal; he's arguably the best shooter we have here, so let him take it." Chima insisted.

Hearing that, the two who were arguing felt defeated and let out sighs of defeat.

"Yeah, you're right." Their voices resounded in unison.

Evan didn't have any complaints; in fact, he also believed that he should be the one to take it, but he didn't say anything because he didn't want to start any argument.

With the question of who was going to be taking the free kick settled, SS2 set up their four-man wall inside the box.

To keep their opponents guessing who was actually going to be taking the free kick, SS3 had one more player standing over the ball alongside Evan, their striker whose name Evan has learnt to be Tochi Onyedikachi.

Staring at the ball, the young winger had one prevailing thought in his mind.

'I wish Eric was here.'

The referee blew his whistle just after that, and the next second, Evan zoomed off toward the ball.

The plan was to keep their opponents guessing so some of them thought he was going to jump over the ball and then Tochi would take it, but to their surprise, he ended up connecting his left foot with the ball as soon as he got to it, swiftly sending it over the wall toward the goalpost.

He wanted to make it as difficult as possible for the goalkeeper to save so he aimed for the top left corner, and although he succeeded in keeping the goalkeeper pinned to a spot, his effort ultimately failed as the ball smashed into the crossbar before flying over for a goal kick.

A series of loud gasps quickly swept around the pitch as Evan let out a sigh of defeat.

Their last chance had gone to waste, that could have been the moment that would have made the greatest comeback in the history of New Horizon class matches, but it was not meant to be.

There was nothing else left for the referee to see so he proceeded to blow his whistle thrice to officially bring the match to an end.

"I guess that's that." Eric sighed before turning to the girl. "None of us ended up winning the bet so…"

"Normally, that would be the case." She interjected.

"Huh?"

"Normally, the match would be called a draw and things would end there." She continued. "But in a match between these two classes, they don't take a draw for an answer."

Eric quickly turned back to the pitch to see the players gathered in front of the goalpost on the other end, getting ready for a penalty shootout.

"Hmm. Okay, I understand that but shouldn't they go to extra time first?" Eric asked, turning to her.

"That's not really possible now. They've taken up too much time already, and there's another class match coming up." She responded.

"Oh."

"So, you see, the bet is still on."

"And you're sure you don't want to call it off?"

"Call it off?" She replied, looking a bit confused.

"Yes." Eric nodded. "You know a match is officially declared a draw when it ends like this? A penalty shootout is just a way to inevitably choose a winner; that's why it's only used in cup tournaments since there must be a winner in those. But in league games, a draw is left as that."

Eric seemed to have gone on a rant there and by the time he was done, it didn't look like she was listening anymore as she had her gaze fixated on the pitch.

"Hey."

"I know what you mean." She responded before slowly turning to him. "But I think this also needs to have a winner."

Getting that response, Eric couldn't help but let out a deep sigh.

"You understand that I made that suggestion because of you, right?"

"Well, that was sweet of you." She smiled before turning back to the pitch.

"It's confirmed, total weirdo." He muttered under his breath.

Back on the pitch, the penalty kick was set to kick off as Emmanuel could be seen standing on the centre of the goal line, his gaze fixated on the SS2 player standing over the ball on the kickoff spot.

Almost all the spectators were gathered on that side of the pitch now, watching keenly.

With everything set, the referee blew his whistle, giving the penalty taker the go signal.

He was already a good enough distance away from the ball, so all he did was close up on the ball, and with his right foot, he struck the ball, aiming for the left side with just a little bit of elevation.

Unfortunately, Emmanuel was onto him, diving right for the ball and pushing it out with the of his gloves.

Their supporters burst into cheers at that wonderful save as their opposition let out sighs of exasperation.

With his part in the first penalty shootout done, Emmanuel slowly walked off to the side while waving at his teammates who were smiling and clapping.

Next up was SS3's striker, who was standing over the ball now with his gaze on the opposing goalkeeper, who was jumping up and down on his goal line.

At the referee's signal, he slowly took two steps backwards before quickly closing up on the ball, aiming for the bottom right corner.

He wanted to keep it as far away from the goalkeeper as possible but that didn't seem to work out the way he wanted.

Superbly quick on his feet, the goalkeeper dived toward the ball, stretching his hand toward it to push it out just before it could cross the line.

The SS2 supporters quickly sprang up in cheers as Onyedikachi turned away with a sigh while shaking his head.

"Well, that's an interesting start to the shootout," Eric commented.