Theo had no way to catch the ball directly.
Even with his body fully airborne, he could only struggle to tip the football over the crossbar with his fingertips.
Amidst the gasps of the fans, the football grazed the crossbar and went out.
Immediately after, the exclamations from the stadium and the commentator rang out.
“Ogilby has already stood at the penalty spot!” “He steps up!
He shoots!!!” “Theo has saved it!
He saved the penalty!
This is his second penalty save!
He is our Charlton Athletic penalty-saving expert!” Seeing Theo save another penalty, Cousins and Jenkinson rushed over to congratulate him immediately.
Theo greeted them, and then they prepared to defend the corner kick.
In the stands, because of Theo’s penalty save, the fans, regardless of whether they supported Theo, began to applaud and celebrate for Charlton Athletic and Theo.
After all, Theo was one of their own from the Charlton Athletic youth academy, so having performed well, he deserved some congratulations.
As the Charlton Athletic players returned to the penalty area to defend the corner kick, the referee signaled for Coventry to take the corner.
The Coventry players felt it was unbelievable that Ogilby’s penalty had been saved.
The ball speed was so fast, and the placement so tricky, that even top stars would have struggled to do better.
Yet, the opponent had managed to save it without leaving the goal line early to cause a foul, so they couldn’t protest for a retake.
Perhaps influenced by the previous corner kick, the ball speed this time was slow, floating straight into the six-yard box.
Theo didn’t even need to activate his skill; he just jumped lightly and caught it with both hands.
Seeing Theo catch the corner kick without any mishaps, the Charlton Athletic coaches on the sidelines finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The head coach also made a mental note about Theo.
He held a neutral attitude regarding the rivalry between Theo and Binks.
Although some voices from the club’s top management had influenced him, he wouldn’t unreasonably bench Theo.
He would always provide opportunities, but if you couldn’t seize them, then sorry.
The entire club was in turmoil, and now was a critical moment in the First Team’s path to promotion; interference would not be tolerated.
Theo’s ability to save penalties and one-on-one situations had already made Head Coach Damian Matthew consider promoting Theo to the Reserve Team and preparing to recommend him to the First Team manager, Coach Phil Parkinson.
The First Team had a specialized goalkeeper coach who could better evaluate Theo’s goalkeeping abilities.
As time passed in the match between Charlton Athletic and Coventry, the players’ movement on the pitch decreased.
In the 20 minutes that followed, both sides had some opportunities but failed to capitalize on them.
Theo, on the other hand, gained 4 points without even using any skills.
Winning today’s match was already a certainty.
In the 85th minute, Coventry committed a foul while pressing in Charlton Athletic’s backfield.
The referee awarded a backfield free kick to Charlton Athletic.
Eager to earn more points, Theo immediately went up to communicate with Morris, wanting to take the kick.
Morris was actually already immune to this behavior from Theo; after all, in a previous match, he had an ultra-long-range assist, and during the match against the Reserve Team, he also had an ultra-long-range lob.
After thinking about it, he agreed.
Regarding Theo taking this free kick, the head coach didn’t object; letting him try was fine, and if he could provide an assist, that would be great.
After all, they were a man down, and if they could produce another goal, they could secure the win today.
Since there was so little data on Theo’s previous matches, and he had come on as a substitute, Coventry didn’t pay much attention, assuming it was just a normal backfield free kick.
After all, a goalkeeper taking a backfield free kick and kicking long was one of the unique skills of a goalkeeper.
The whole team was only focused on the Charlton Athletic attacking players.
Seeing the captain step aside, Theo stood in front of the football.
He looked at the opposing goalkeeper’s position.
Perhaps to prevent a long kick and fearing that attacking players would charge directly into the penalty area, the goalkeeper was standing just outside the six-yard box, on the right side of the penalty area.
With a distance of 80 meters, he wasn’t worried about a lob shot.
After the referee blew the whistle, Theo ran up and kicked the ball with great force.
The football soared high into the air, flying rapidly towards the right side of the opponent’s goal.
Seeing the ball flying towards his left, the Coventry goalkeeper hurriedly ran back.
After running a couple of steps, he felt the ball was veering away from the goal, so he slowed down a bit.
But when the football flew over the penalty area line, it surprisingly carved out a subtle arc in the air, flying towards the goal.
The goalkeeper was shocked.
He accelerated and ran a few steps, but it was too late; the ball dove straight into the dead corner of his left goal post.
“Goal!” the football commentator on the scene roared.
“Goooooal!
An ultra-long-range lob!
And it’s a banana kick!
It’s Theo again!” “He scored a goal like this before in the match against the Reserve Team; I didn’t expect him to score an ultra-long-range goal in an official match too!
This is Theo’s first official match goal!
Let us congratulate him!
The genius from our youth academy!
He is!
Number 22!
Theo!” The Charlton Athletic fans in the stands, fortunate enough to witness this ultra-long-range goal, were singing and dancing.
It’s the 84th minute.
Leading 2-0.
Today’s match is in the bag.
Seeing the penalty duel, plus this 80-meter long-range lob that you rarely see in a lifetime—it was worth it.
When the referee confirmed the goal was valid and the Charlton Athletic players finished celebrating, Theo climbed up from the pitch.
He adjusted his clothes; Cousins had just tackled him to the ground, and then other players piled on.
There were too many people, and he couldn’t get up even if he wanted to.
He was covered in grass clippings.
Most importantly, during the chaos just now, some old rascal had poked at his crotch a few times.
“Damn it!
I hope you don’t feel inferior when you go back,” Theo thought viciously.
However, he was in a good mood right now; 3 points had been credited.
That gave him 8 points now, which was 8 attribute points—something that would take him several days of training to improve.
In the last ten minutes of the match, Coventry wanted to rely on their numerical advantage to claw back a goal.
But the entire Charlton Athletic team retreated to defend, and amidst the cheering of the home fans, they struggled to hold on to these hard-won three points.
Winning the match, the entire youth academy was very happy.
The coaching staff also took the afternoon off, and combined with Sunday, the entire U18 team could rest for a day and a half.
However, this happiness didn’t even last until the evening before the good mood was ruined by bad news from the First Team.
The starting goalkeeper Rob Elliot suffered a recurrence of an old injury during this afternoon’s match against Gillingham; he tore his groin and will be out for at least a month.
More importantly, they were held to a draw by the underdog Gillingham.
After a 0-4 crushing defeat to Millwall in the last round, they dropped points against another weak team.
Now they had fallen from second to fourth place, and their plans for direct promotion to the EFL Championship had been severely hit.
More importantly, the fifth and sixth-placed teams were in hot pursuit, with the gap within 3 points.
If they couldn’t even make the playoffs, then all the effort of the entire season would be in vain.
At 9:30 PM, Theo received a call from Head Coach Damian Matthew, notifying him to report to the First Team on Monday to serve as a backup goalkeeper and participate in the preparations for the final sprint of the EFL League One season.