The constant jokes about being a) the worst ever team in the Bundesliga after seven games and b) without a win in 28 years at this level, a manager who seemed no longer sure whether he was still up to the job, and a first ever top-flight derby against Wolfsburg on Saturday … it was all too much for the Braunschweig supporters.
Five hundred of them decided that they had no option but to descend en mass on Eintracht’s training ground on Wednesday to put a stop to the malaise. The players and the manager, Torsten Lieberknecht, could hardly hear their own thoughts, let alone each other, as the fans made their feelings heard with incessant chants.
Security did not have to intervene, however: the supporters were cheering on their men, in a symbolic demonstration of their support. “The way this club has presented itself has made a good impression on a global scale,” said a thankful Lieberknecht, perhaps ever so slightly over-optimistic about the newly promoted side’s international appeal. “I’ve been touched. I certainly won’t resign.”
The next day, Lieberknecht sent the video-analyst David Lehmann to spy on his opponents at their open training session. There weren’t many Wolfsburg supporters present – they were probably too busy preparing their impressive choreography and a banner that read “Welcome to the football suburb of the region for a taster course in the Bundesliga.” The two Lower Saxony cities are only 25km apart.
The Volkswagen-owned club manufactured a special shirt (with a charity in place of the carmaker’s logo) and their coach, Dieter Hecking, did his best to pay his respects to the more storied but much poorer rivals – “This is a real derby and special game for us” – and you know what had to come next: Braunschweig closed down the middle with three holding midfielders and counter-attacked with real incisiveness to beat Wolves 2-0. It was their first Bundesliga win since 1 June 1985, a bleak streak of 10,353 days.
“I feel shit, we know how much [this game] meant,” said the VfL keeper Diego Benaglio. “We lost a game that we weren’t allowed to lose,” said the sporting director Klaus Allofs. “This is a huge disappointment, especially for our fans. We’ll have to live with that for the next six months.”
Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung castigated the team as “Derby-Deppen” or “derby idiots” for not creating a single proper goal-scoring opportunity and lacking fight. Maybe they had been just a little too confident: at the final whistle it transpired that the stadium announcer had pre-prepared a table that showed Wolfsburg with three more points on the board.
“I believe that the whole of Germany is a bit happy for us,” said Eintracht’s Mirko Boland, not unreasonably. Lieberknecht, who has brought new and useful phrases to the Bundesliga jargon – he once referred to Braunschweig as “not a piss club” and called an opponent’s successful shot a “fuck-ball” – looks certain to stick around a little longer after this historic triumph.
Whether his team will be able to get this kind of result against sides like their next round opponents, Schalke, remains to be seen but Lieberknecht has done more in six months (with promotion and a win at Wolfsburg) than any Braunschweig coach in the last 30 years, and the club know it. On Sunday their sporting director, Marc Arnold, confirmed that they would continue working with the 40-year-old “100%”, even if they get relegated.
Talking points
• Dortmund were absolutely superb in the “Borussenderby” at Mönchengladbach. The home side were almost swept away by wave after wave of black-and-yellow attacks, only their goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen managing to stand his ground. Jürgen Klopp’s team notched up 17 shots on goal in the first 45 minutes to Mönchengladbach’s one, and even confounded the expectations of their coach.
“We prepare for every match conscientiously but this dominance was [seen as] impossible in all of our analysis,” said Klopp. The statement was not informed by pride but sorrow. Despite playing what Klopp described as “an extraordinarily good away game”, Dortmund had somehow slipped to a 2-0 defeat when the final whistle came. “It was a miracle that we went into the break at 0-0,” said Gladbach manager Lucien Favre.
It kind of was, really. Wondrous things continued to happen in the second half too, as Dortmund continued to press and the Foals rode their luck. And then, in the 80th minute, Havard Nordtveit managed to sneak into the Dortmund box and was felled from behind by Mats Hummels. The Germany defender was sent off and Max Kruse converted the penalty with his first shot on target. It was only the third time that the home side had been able to get past the 18-yard-line. Four minutes before the end Raffael made it 2-0. “This game is a contender for the top three most undeserved, needless and most unfortunate defeats,” Hummels wrote on his Facebook page.
BVB’s afternoon went from bad to worse when Nuri Sahin was diagnosed with ligament damage in his right foot. He will miss the Champions League trip to Arsenal. Klopp has a “Sechs-Problem“, wrote Bild in view of the lack of cover in defensive midfield – the position is known as “No6″ in Germany – but with a bit of luck, the medical department will be able to help him out.
• “It felt as if they had one player more on the pitch,” Micah Richards said in midweek. “It felt as if they had two players more,” Stefan Reinartz said on Saturday. All their perceived numerical superiority came to little in the end for Bayern Munich at the Bay-Arena, however, as they could only draw 1-1 against Leverkusen. “This makes my heart bleed, it feels like a defeat,” said Thomas Müller, who’d missed the best of two dozen excellent opportunities.
“This is not normal. Usually you win this game 3-1 or 4-1,” said Franck Ribéry. Toni Kroos, Bayern’s goal-scorer, called the result “a catastrophe”.
For Süddeutsche Zeitung it felt “like a bizarre joke that this match ended as draw”. But nobody saw the funny side. The Leverkusen players went on a lap of honour but they were too exhausted to truly celebrate. “If I had to play this way every week, my passion for football wouldn’t exactly increase,” said Simon Rolfes. The Leverkusen captain had spent the entire 90 minutes chasing after the Bayern players, who were in a league of their own in terms of movement and passing. Philipp Lahm was Munich’s most proficient passer with 102 passes – Leverkusen’s best player in that department, Ömer Toprak, managed 19.
Sidney Sam had capitalised on a single lapse of concentration from Manuel Neuer and the Reds’ defence to equalise within a couple of minute of Kroos’s goal but on the whole this had been autobahn football from the Bavarians without any oncoming traffic. A late push from Ribéry on Jens Hegeler on the edge of the box might have provided an even more grotesque punchline but Knut Kircher, perhaps mindful of an early unpunished foul on Müller, waved play on. The point was enough for Bayern to take top spot. It was their 33rd unbeaten league game in a row.
• Younger readers will find it incongruous, but there used to be a time in the 1980s and early 90s when having your wife as an agent was de rigeur for German footballers. These strong-minded, invariably big-haired and heavily shoulder-padded women were often praised as “really tough” negotiators by chairmen and general managers but strangely failed to pick up any additional clients, despite all their expertise. In Kerstin Lasogga the Bundesliga now once again has a Mrs looking after her man in a professional capacity, albeit with a twist: the 41-year-old is the mother of the HSV striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga.
“If you listen to Mutti, you don’t make mistakes,” said the 21-year, who is on loan from Hertha BSC. Lasogga’s last-minute switch to the northerners – the midfielder Per Skjelbred went the other way – nearly fell through when Mrs Lasogga hung up on Oliver Kreuzer, the Hamburg sporting director. Thankfully, an agreement was found.
On Sunday, Lasogga scored the fastest ever hat-trick in a Bundesliga away game (three goals in eight minutes) to help his side beat Nürnberg 5-0 at the Frankenstadion. “He’s the best role model,” said Bert van Marwijk. “He runs a lot and is very strong.” Van Marwijk has picked up four points from his first two matches and, hey presto, HSV are only five points away from a Champions League place (but still 15th). Even Rafael van der Vaart has taken time out from his busy private schedule and started playing well again.
• For Nürnberg, it was the heaviest home defeat in 29 years. “Brutal,” was the coach Michael Wiesinger’s verdict. The 40-year-old admitted that he had had to “question myself” after presiding over eight games without a win. Wiesinger added that he understood angry supporters who called for him to be sacked: “I don’t have any convincing arguments at the moment.”
The sporting director Martin Bader refrained from giving him the vote of confidence. “This is not a black-and-white situation,” he said. The countdown to a Lothar Matthäus interview expressing interest starts … now.
Results: Hannover 1-1 Hertha, Wolfsburg 0-2 Braunschweig, Schalke 4-1 Augsburg, Leverkusen 1-1 Bayern, Mainz 2-2 Hoffenheim (the former Barnsley goalkeeper Heinz Müller had a hand – a head, actually – in an injury-time equaliser for the Tuchel team: he jumped incredibly high to nod down a header from a corner – Yunus Malli found the net), Gladbach 2-0 Dortmund, Stuttgart 1-1 Bremen, Nürnberg 0-5 Hamburg, Freiburg 1-1 Frankfurt.
*http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGV40ke-4JV3v7FnKB6hZ9sKUQ5LQ&url=http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/07/braunschweig-first-bundesliga-win-1985
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