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PROMPT POST 1
Please make sure you've read the rules post first, and play nice!
Flat comment page here just to clarify, as a few people have been asking, art fills are also very much welcomed!
Please make sure you've read the rules post first, and play nice!
Flat comment page here just to clarify, as a few people have been asking, art fills are also very much welcomed!
A series of emotions (ranging from shock to gratitude to horror to vindication) washes over Mesut’s face. Miro shakes his head. “Don’t think that this is somehow your fault,” he says, frowning. “They did what they thought was right, and there are always other people who can take their kicks.”
Mesut’s brow furrows in concentration and mild frustration. “Did whoever tackled me get carded as well?”
“Yes. Heitinga.” He relaxes visibly at this pronouncement and Miro slips a hand into his loose grip.
“Stop worrying,” Wohlfahrt says as he returns to their corner of the stadium behind several safety mats. “Unless you’d like to pass out, Mesut-then please, by all means, proceed with your little game of twenty questions.” Miro has to duck to tuck his smile away.
“I just want to know what’s going on,” he protests, “considering I was half-conscious for the last-I don’t even know how long I was passed out.”
“Not important,” Wohlfahrt sing-songs merrily. “Now, if you’re good, I’ll let you stay until the end of the match, and then we’ll get you to the emergency room.”
“Is that wise?” Miro whispers loudly. “He has a broken arm and a concussion-”
Wohlfahrt crosses his arms and gives him a pointed stare. “Tim and Josef have to clean Thomas and Basti up, and if I leave with Mesut now and something happens during the shootout, then things would be even worse than they are now. Would you really want him to go now, not knowing?”
Miro mutters something offensive about doctors underneath his breath and Wohlfahrt grins, pats him on the shoulder and turns back to face the game.
one.
Penalty kicks are strange, tricky things. As the window of opportunity to score another goal dwindles, that one thought weighs heavily on Manuel’s mind. The goal seems to loom large and empty behind him, and when those three, strident whistles blow and the game ends, a sharp light-headedness descends upon him, accentuates the buzz of vuvuzelas.
You never get used to it, he thinks. The slight shaking in your hands, the stars exploding behind your eyes, the fact that you are not expected to save these goals. The continuous string of tips Jogi spills into your ear about each player the Dutch might send up, the sweat that pools in between your palms and the worn-out gloves you pull on. You never get used to it, no matter how well you do at Schalke or in Bundesliga or in the other knockout stages.
Philipp tries to give him an awkward pep talk after Germany wins the coin toss and chooses to shoot first, but the whistles are blowing again and his words are lost in the midst of everyone moving down to the center of the field.
ten.
It’s stupid and juvenile and he should be better than this, but the missed penalty kick against Serbia is still hanging around in the back of his head, throwing him off his game. Everyone knows he’s had a terrible season with Bayern and a mediocre one at best with Köln in the past year, but Lukas likes to think that he came to the World Cup with something to prove and that he’s sufficiently proved it to them.
And yet the failed goal still stings, and here is a chance to redeem himself, to do something for his team on his own. They say that penalties undermine the spirit of the game, that the beauty of teamwork has no place to shine when it’s one-on-one, striker against goalkeeper. But something Jogi told him four years ago comes back to him now, carries him as he strides slowly to the penalty area to open the shootout, to take the first kick.
There is immense trust involved when taking a penalty, Lukas. Your team is relying on you to fool the keeper, to sink the ball into the net. When you kick, kick for Germany-not for yourself, not for your own satisfaction, not for the number of goals you might attain in your career.
Choose a corner, Lukas, choose a side, choose the middle road, if you really want to, if you think you can get the ball into the goal that way. Just know that when you shoot, you have the full support and encouragement and fervor of the whole team behind you, no matter what happens. Make your choice and follow through, put all your strength and focus and desire and skill in that shot. All you can do afterwards is hope for the best.
Lukas kicks.
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