Football is partly a mental game, and what a fascinating part it is. An exultant Mitch Langerak used the term “mind games” again and again at Bayern Munich last month. Mind games this, mind games that, Dortmund’s Australian keeper said, as he made sense of the game that was. He had, after all, just spooked four dual World Cup and Champions League winners at the penalty spot, securing a win that booked his side a place in the final of the German Cup.
“I have my own little techniques about how I went about things,” he told Guardian Australia after the match. “I didn’t stand in the goal, I left it open as long as possible. A few mind games. It’s all part of the shootout and a bit of luck was on my side. Today our day was also my day.”
He was Nadal-esque in his time wasting. He faffed about for so long before the first shot that Philipp Lahm, the man who lifted the World Cup less than a year ago, looked sheepish. The Bayern captain’s name translates as lame, and after his effort the sold-out arena could have been forgiven for screaming the word as passionately as they had in the pre-game introductions.
As if mimicking his captain, Xabi Alonso’s eventual shot also went sailing towards the hot dog vendors, and he too fell on his backside. The theatregoers gasped. The Bayern ultras howled. The visiting supporters, already the loudest group in the stadium, went next level. Oh, the humiliation. There was either a banana skin on the spot or the mind games were working.
“It was a bit strange when the boys shot so wide,” Langerak said. “But that happens.” Statistics show that once it happens a couple of times, it’s more likely to happen again. So it was that Mario Götze, scorer of a World Cup-winning goal, couldn’t get his shot past the dawdling, then stutter-stepping and shape-throwing, Langerak, who shoved the ball clear of goal with both hands, then raised a finger to the heavens. Had Götze’s two team-mates scored, the shot would have, empirically speaking, been almost unstoppable.
“Mitch, you are the greatest! Mitch, I love you! Mitch, I love you! Mitch, I love you!” Dortmund’s cup legend Norbert Dickel could be heard screaming on the radio. “My Australian hero! How hot is that, then!” Langerak would later respond that he hopes he can give Dickel the same feeling in the final.
A parry from Manuel Neuer kept his side alive, then the world’s number one keeper stepped up to the spot himself. It was keeper versus keeper, and Langerak was in no rush to oblige his counterpart. The puzzled referee produced a yellow card as Langerak took his place but the Australian kept his eyes firmly on the man ahead of him.
Neuer, his big mitts still on, ran in. Langerak dived right. The ball went straight. The crossbar rattled. “Berlin! Berlin!” chanted the yellow corner of the stadium. “We’re going to Berlin!”
The miss made it 4-0 to Langerak. That’s also, coincidently, his winning record against the Bavarians. This in a period where not winning the treble is viewed as a critical underachievement in Munich. A game against Bayern is always special – for Langerak, especially so. His Bundesliga debut was at the Allianz Arena. He then played them in the cup final. Then the Supercup final. His heroics last month meant his team can farewell their beloved departing coach, Jürgen Klopp, with another trip to the capital.
Klopp once said he had been expecting a “beach boy from Australia” when they signed Langerak, but instead got a “really hard worker” and a “born fighter”. Ned Zelic, the last Socceroo to make this big an impact at Dortmund, said earlier in the season that Klopp wouldn’t let Langerak go easily. But with Klopp now soon departing, the question is: how does Langerak fit into the plans of the successor, Thomas Tuchel - if at all?
Ron-Robert Zieler (Hanover 96), Timo Horn (FC Köln) and Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt) have all been thrown around as possible signings in the off-season. Langerak seems unphased. “I think it would be wrong [to have a plan], because every week things can change. I just play when I play and hopefully I can make a good impression. I’m pleased with my work over the past few weeks, and hopefully this will continue. Hopefully I will continue to play.”
Like Klopp, he hasn’t been in contact with Tuchel to talk about next season. “We have to focus on our remaining games,” he said at the start of the month, “and what happens next season, we have to see.”
But Klopp’s advice to his successor is that the team’s weaknesses lie elsewhere. “Everything goes well for Mitch, and that’s because he always puts in. Borussia Dortmund has had many problems in the past, but never a problem with our goalkeepers, and that is the best news for the new trainer.”
Yet despite the uncertainty, Klopp’s departure could also be the break Langerak needs. Ever since that debut in Munich, fans in Dortmund have been waiting for Langerak to assume the number one position. He has seen a little more game time this season, but the big break has never come.
Langerak is one of Australia’s most-decorated players. Yet despite winning two Bundesliga titles, a German cup, two German Supercups, the Asian Cup, and an Australian double (let alone being involved in a World Cup and a Champions League final), he has played in barely a few dozen games.
The 26-year-old has spent so long on the bench that it is starting to define his reputation. “One step away from number one,” was a headline used years ago to describe the young Queenslander’s exciting career prospects. The unfortunate reality for him is that despite everything – his immense talents, his teams’ successes, his positive attitude and year after year of hard work – that headline applies almost as much today as it did back then.
Goalkeeping is often said to be the loneliest of positions, fostering its own unique psychological dilemmas. But spare a thought for the eternal back-up keeper. “I don’t think there are any number two goalkeepers out there loving life,” English keeper Richard Lee once told the BBC. Lee spent most of his 20s kitted up with nowhere to go at Watford. He describes a tortuous existence in which the team’s success brought little personal satisfaction, where self-confidence was undermined and emotions like frustration, guilt and discontentment were common.
As important as he knew his role was, it was neither fulfilling nor motivating. He left for a lower-tier club out of fear he’d end up as “that 40-year-old guy in the pub telling his mates ‘I could have, should have, would have.’”
It’s a familiar story although Langerak still has a long way to go for that to happen. But his gamble to stay as the back-up keeper at Dortmund rather than the number one position at a smaller club effectively cost him Australia’s number one position when Mark Schwarzer retired – and in a year when Australia would travel to the World Cup and host the Asian Cup, no less.
For club and country, his career prospects are jammed in a pincer movement, caught between the experience of Dortmund’s Roman Weidenfeller (aged 34) and the rising talents of Socceroo Mat Ryan, who at just 22, is already keeper of the year in Belgium. With rumours Weidenfeller could be sold at the end of the season, Langerak’s gamble could still pay off big time. It means the next year is likely to be a defining one for the Australian.
“I’m happy with how things are going,” he says, “and hopefully I can continue on this path. Look, in the future we’ll see what happens, but I’m very happy, and hopefully I can continue to improve and continue to get games.” Amiable and obliging, he’s not one to lay down ultimatums. When asked how much longer he can afford to wait it out on bench, he only says that he has no expectations.
A German colleague told me Dortmund are blessed to have Langerak. “He always steps up when they need him.” Blessed, yes, but for how much no longer? His loyalty – he now even speaks German very well – has been costly for him in the national team, and there’s little more he can do to prove himself at Dortmund.
“Real Love” is Dortmund’s slogan. If Langerak does go, for whatever reason, Dickel won’t be the only one left with a broken heart.
