[ficlet] harder, better, faster, stronger
Title: harder, better, faster, stronger
Pairing: manuel neuer-centric
Rating: pg
Genre: slice-of-life, introspective
Warnings: n/a
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: five near-saves manuel neuer wanted to turn back time to fix, for pause. 660 words.
1. They pick up the lead against England in the first five minutes, but it shows later in the half that they're playing the favorites for the U21 tournament. He manages to save one of their better attempts at the seventeenth minute, but then at the half-hour mark, number 8 (Gardner, Manuel reads later on the back of his kit) is crossing it into the box and number 15 (Rodwell, Jack Rodwell) heads it in gracefully, past his sweeping fingertips.
It's a terrific goal, to be fair, but after the equalizer and through to the second half, the deadlock stays strong and both teams come away with a point. Horst says it doesn't matter-they've made it to the semi-finals, and if they bring their A-game, they can beat Italy-but there's still a bad taste in Manuel's mouth from tying.
(In the end, they win it all anyway. He doesn't concede against England in the final and they're too caught up in celebrations after the game to care about any mistakes they might've made in other matches on the way there.)
2. It doesn't matter that they tie with Côte d'Ivoire because of Lukas's final goal in the last minute, or that it's just a friendly-what matters is that Eboué's goal had been his fault, despite Jogi's attempts to convince him of the contrary. He never should have tried to kick it out, should've scooped it up with his hands so it wouldn't have deflected off the striker's abdomen to rebound into the goal.
3. If saving Jovanovic's shot somehow meant that Miro wouldn't have been carded, if it meant that Lukas wouldn't look like his life was over despite Bastian's vain attempts to reassure him, if it meant that disappointment wouldn't be drawn all over Jogi's face, then Manuel would have saved it a million times over.
4. He feels sick after the first half against England.
"It was a bad call," he shouts over the roar of the crowd, and Jogi's face is white, his lips pursed and brow furrowed. "I saw it-the ball went past the line but they didn't blow the whistle so I just kept on playing-coach, it was a goal-"
"Calm down," Jogi says finally, pressing a hand against his shoulder and giving it a little shake. "Listen, if the ref didn't call it then it's not our problem, okay? Just keep doing what you do best. You're not helping anyone if you aren't totally focused on the game."
(They end up winning 4-1 and so his fumble in the first half is moot. But it's the principle of the thing, really-he murmurs a quiet apology to Frank Lampard when he sees him after the game, one the striker graciously accepts.)
5. There will be World Cups to come for him yet, and on some levels Manuel thinks that it was good for him personally, at least, to not have won this time around: after winning, the only way to go would be down.
So it isn't some sort of self-entitlement thing that makes him regret letting in Puyol's goal at the end of the match against Spain. He wants to go back in time to change it because people like Miro and Arne and even Micha-people like them don't have as many years left as he does, and raising that Cup, sharing that glory and sheer happiness with them would've been the biggest honor of his career to date.
But it won't do to dwell on the past (there will be time to do that when he's older and wiser), and Manuel's too young to do anything but look to the future, to better days where he might win everything there is to win. He's only twenty-four, after all, and there will be years to come and tournaments to win and cups to thrust into the air, sparkling under stadium lights too bright to look at.
fin
Pairing: manuel neuer-centric
Rating: pg
Genre: slice-of-life, introspective
Warnings: n/a
Author: gdgdbaby
Notes: five near-saves manuel neuer wanted to turn back time to fix, for pause. 660 words.
1. They pick up the lead against England in the first five minutes, but it shows later in the half that they're playing the favorites for the U21 tournament. He manages to save one of their better attempts at the seventeenth minute, but then at the half-hour mark, number 8 (Gardner, Manuel reads later on the back of his kit) is crossing it into the box and number 15 (Rodwell, Jack Rodwell) heads it in gracefully, past his sweeping fingertips.
It's a terrific goal, to be fair, but after the equalizer and through to the second half, the deadlock stays strong and both teams come away with a point. Horst says it doesn't matter-they've made it to the semi-finals, and if they bring their A-game, they can beat Italy-but there's still a bad taste in Manuel's mouth from tying.
(In the end, they win it all anyway. He doesn't concede against England in the final and they're too caught up in celebrations after the game to care about any mistakes they might've made in other matches on the way there.)
2. It doesn't matter that they tie with Côte d'Ivoire because of Lukas's final goal in the last minute, or that it's just a friendly-what matters is that Eboué's goal had been his fault, despite Jogi's attempts to convince him of the contrary. He never should have tried to kick it out, should've scooped it up with his hands so it wouldn't have deflected off the striker's abdomen to rebound into the goal.
3. If saving Jovanovic's shot somehow meant that Miro wouldn't have been carded, if it meant that Lukas wouldn't look like his life was over despite Bastian's vain attempts to reassure him, if it meant that disappointment wouldn't be drawn all over Jogi's face, then Manuel would have saved it a million times over.
4. He feels sick after the first half against England.
"It was a bad call," he shouts over the roar of the crowd, and Jogi's face is white, his lips pursed and brow furrowed. "I saw it-the ball went past the line but they didn't blow the whistle so I just kept on playing-coach, it was a goal-"
"Calm down," Jogi says finally, pressing a hand against his shoulder and giving it a little shake. "Listen, if the ref didn't call it then it's not our problem, okay? Just keep doing what you do best. You're not helping anyone if you aren't totally focused on the game."
(They end up winning 4-1 and so his fumble in the first half is moot. But it's the principle of the thing, really-he murmurs a quiet apology to Frank Lampard when he sees him after the game, one the striker graciously accepts.)
5. There will be World Cups to come for him yet, and on some levels Manuel thinks that it was good for him personally, at least, to not have won this time around: after winning, the only way to go would be down.
So it isn't some sort of self-entitlement thing that makes him regret letting in Puyol's goal at the end of the match against Spain. He wants to go back in time to change it because people like Miro and Arne and even Micha-people like them don't have as many years left as he does, and raising that Cup, sharing that glory and sheer happiness with them would've been the biggest honor of his career to date.
But it won't do to dwell on the past (there will be time to do that when he's older and wiser), and Manuel's too young to do anything but look to the future, to better days where he might win everything there is to win. He's only twenty-four, after all, and there will be years to come and tournaments to win and cups to thrust into the air, sparkling under stadium lights too bright to look at.
fin