Drawing Blanks – March 2023

After remaining unbeaten in February, we entered March in a confident mood with some potentially favourable fixtures alongside a couple of very important ones – all of this being done in the continued absence of top-scorer Jannik Mause, the main man still struggling for fitness after his injury.


Our first opponent were fellow shock-troops TSV Steinbach Haiger, promoted from the Regionalliga like ourselves and, also like ourselves, found them comfortably ensconced in the upper reaches of the table.

Despite the home advantage, the impact of not having Jannik back meant that our attack didn’t have the cutting edge we needed for this game, evidenced by both their goalkeeper getting MOTM and the game finishing in a rather disappointing goalless draw.

Firing Blanks.

Hot on the heels of the draw with Steinbach at home was a trip to Eintracht Braunschweig, who were looking to complete a league double over us after convincingly beating us at Tivoli earlier in the season.

The biggest boost for us was that Jannik Mause made his long-awaited return to the side, slotting into his preferred role as an Inside Forward on the left wing.

Mause’s influence upon his return was felt pretty much from the first whistle as his trickery on the wing and vision allowed him to break into the box and tee up an effort for Dennis Dressel that smashed against the inside of the post before going out for a goal kick.

The hosts created a couple of clear cut chances of their own through their full-backs, but they weren’t able to hit the back of our net and for the second game in succession, we drew a blank.

The match with Saarbrücken, an utterly crucial one if we were to reel in the top three* for a chance at automatic promotion, is a crucial one, and having two goalless draws and a star attacker battling to shake off rust is certainly not ideal heading into it.
Nevertheless, we were at home and the Tivoli crowd has seen more ups than downs this season in terms of attacking performances – even though five of our six league defeats have come on our own patch.

And concerns we were about to add another L to the column were there early doors as the visitors struck the woodwork from a corner after just seven minutes before Marco Müller cleared the danger.

Müller was once again the man to thank four minutes later when his timely flick of his boot ensured that Gnaase’s shot was deflected away from goal when it looked certain that the away side were going to score.

The visitors could be forgiven for thinking that our goal was living a charmed life as a curling shot from Jacob beat Joshua Mroß all ends up – only for the effort to strike the post and our (relieved) goalie was able to collect the ball.

Just shy of the half hour mark, it was our turn to threaten but good work by Falcao to play in Selim Gunduz was undone by smart defending from the visitors as the Brazilian’s cute reverse pass was intercepted just before Selim could get a shot away.

The hour mark passed and once again, the visitors were close to opening the scoring, Gnaase with a speculative flick volley that sailed harmlessly wide of goal, but Joshua Mroß wasn’t to know that.

In the 77th minute, after taking a fair battering, we withdrew Falcao for Jannik Mause in the hope that he could inspire us in the final quarter of an hour.

Within five minutes of his introduction, he did what all star men do and made the difference, latching onto a long ball forward from Dennis Dressel against a tiring Saarbrücken defence he took one touch to steady himself before rifling home into the top left-hand corner of the goal.

Just three minutes later and we doubled the lead when the provider for the first goal, Dennis Dressel got in on the act.

Played in by first goalscorer Mause, he dribbled on before coolly slotting home into the bottom-left hand corner from the edge of the box, it was lift off at Tivoli in such a pivotal game!

After that burst, the visitors were clearly floored and we even had time to add a third against our shellshocked opponents, Jannik Mause capping a stunning return to form off the bench with a second goal of the game.

Turning two Saarbrücken defenders, he latched onto Julian Schwermann’s pass before smashing the ball into the bottom-right corner.

Perhaps we might get more than the playoff after all…

Late Show.

Months ago, the prospect of facing Duisburg to close out March after a big win to reel in the automatic promotion contenders seemed mouthwatering, but things have changed and the hosts came into the game on a long unbeaten run that had propelled them from near-certainties for relegation to relative safety.

It was certainly a game to approach with a degree of caution despite the fact we’d broken our duck of not scoring in the previous game, a statement victory that gave us cause to believe we can challenge for automatic promotion to the second tier to go along with a strong away record.

In the end the hosts created more clear cut chances, while we had come the closest to scoring and thus it was rather fitting that, like the other games before the Saarbrücken one, ended goalless.

A month of not conceding, albeit with three goalless draws mean we’re sitting fairly pretty with a lot of teams behind us hoping we slip up.

We play Aue (A) and Zwickau (H) in April, two huge matches that will certainly determine how the season shakes out, there’s also a possiblity (probability) that Bayern II will have won the league by the time we face them and any points there could be crucial too.

Also, next month we have our Mittelrheinpokal semi-final, making the trip to the West German capital to take on a Bonn side who gave us some bother in the league last season.

Until next time, folks!


Marc

Cat And Mause – October 2022

After September ended on a sour note with a bruising defeat at home to Braunschweig, the onus was on us to regroup when we took to the field for our first game in October away to Saarbrücken.

The hosts have had something of a checkered past, having at one stage been exiled to France as part of the post-WW2 occupation and even competing in the first-ever European Cup in the 1955/56 season as champions of the short-lived independent nation of Saarland.

They were last in the second tier in Germany in 2005/06, which was the season that Alemannia won promotion to the Bundesliga for the most recent time, both ourselves and Saarbrücken have had a few more downs than ups lately, so it was no surprise that this meeting would end up being one with plenty of drama.

Still, without Christian Gartner, Dino Bajric continued in the middle of the park, but any suggestion that the influential Austrian would lead to a continued downturn were somewhat wide of the mark when, after a bright start, we took the lead in the third minute through yet another strike from Falcao.

Bajric’s pass through the middle found Falcao, where he unleashed a stunning strike from fully 30 yards into the top corner to silence the home crowd.

After taking the lead and having the majority of the chances, indeed, the only clear cut chance of the game, we dropped off dramatically.

The hosts clearly sussed that we could be got at, similar to how we were picked apart at home last week – and they found an equaliser with 15 minutes to go through Sebastian Jacob.

A quickly taken kick out from our own corner by their ‘keeper left us flat-footed as they raced down the right flank where Eren Dinkci’s effort was blocked, but back they came down the opposite side then back to the right-winger where he crossed for Jacob in acres of space to head home.

Buoyed by their equaliser, and our profligacy, it seemed like the game would only go one way and we would see it out in haphazard fashion.

That was until the third minute of stoppage time when we followed one demoralising defeat with another one.

A throw-in wasn’t adequately cleared and the cross in was overhit, leading to the players leaving in embarrassing fashion where Scheu rescued it and crossed for Tobias Jänicke volleyed home.

Saarbrütal.

A timely international break after two poor results allowed us to have a look at what we were doing and have a look at free agents who could possibly come in and add a bit more quality.

This led to the signing of central midfielder Dennis Dressel, former of FC St. Pauli on a deal until the end of the season with an option to extend further if need be.

Dennis hasn’t played much so far this season, but he did manage five assists in 22 games for FCSP in the 2. Bundesliga during 2021/22 so there is a lot of hope behind him filling in any potential gap Christian Gartner may leave in that position through both his current injury and any transfer interest.

After impressing in training during the international break, an international break that saw Scotland lose 3-0 to Albania, by the way, he was given a start in our next league match at home to the struggling MSV Duisburg.

The first-ever Bundesliga runners-up sacked their manager after their most recent league encounter, a 1-0 defeat at home to Carl-Zeiss Jena and were in the process of appointing former German international hero Torsten Frings as manager, thus the team at Tivoli was being taken by Celtic icon Marvin Compper.

Watching on from the stands, Frings was given an idea of how much of an uphill struggle it could prove to be for him as we came out flying, keen to banish the memories of those two horrific defeats.

Just three minutes were on the clock when Falcao threaded the ball through to Hamdi Dahmani, who looked up and slid in Jannik Mause, who took one touch before sweeping the ball into the back of the net.

Mause would prove to be too hot to handle for the visitors and with a quarter of an hour played, he doubled his tally and our lead.

Once again, he was played in by an intricate Hamdi Dahmani through the ball before smashing the ball low and hard into the bottom right-hand corner of the Duisburg goal.

Old habits proved hard to kill off and despite having the lion’s share of the ball and the chances early on, the visitors halved the deficit soon after we made it 2-0.

Aziz Bouhaddouz showed great strength to hold off three of our defenders before finishing with aplomb from outside the box.

Concerns from the two previous games came back to haunt, but Jannik Mause was on hand to ensure there would be no third consecutive collapse as he completed his hat-trick with three minutes of the first half remaining.

After getting up highest on the edge of the six-yard box for a Marco Müller cross, he drove the ball home for his treble.

And Mause wasn’t done with his victims there, as in the early stages of the second half he added his – and our – fourth.

Latching on to a searching pass from Julian Schwermann, Jannik timed the run to perfection and finished down a tightening left channel.

A much-needed reaction to two bad results, while Torsten Frings has his work cut out.

An Absolute Duing.

Two games into October and we had been at the extreme ends of the metrics with the collapse against Saarbrücken and then comprehensively defeating Duisburg, it was no surprise that our trip to Magdeburg posed a lot of questions.

Sitting second bottom of the league with one win all season so far, it was a match we approached with caution, especially given our penchant for dominating games and suddenly losing cheap goals.

The good news for this one, though, was the return from injury of Christian Gartner, slotting back into the midfield.

The first real opportunity went the way of the hosts, Obermair running onto a deep cross from Max Dittgen only for his header to sail wide of Joshua Mroß’s goal.

It was clear that was when we should have woken up and taken them seriously as with their next attack, Connor Krempicki opened the scoring with a stunning strike that could have been defended to a much higher standard.

It was a lovely strike that crashed in off the crossbar, but the through ball to Krempicki wasn’t remotely well-defended, nor was Krempicki as he doubled back onto his stronger foot to curl the shot beyond Mroß.

Fortunately for us, we were able to respond quickly in a game that was turned into a slog by a poor side desperate for a positive result.

Coming to our rescue was, you guessed it, Jannik Mause, racing on to a lovely through ball from Dennis Dressel to equalise.

We were behind for only three minutes, thankfully.

A fairly dismal day that we could feel that we edged was capped off in the late stages of the second half when Falcao had the ball in the net only to be denied by a late linesman’s flag.

Not great, lads.

Offering something different to our very up and down league performances was a trip to Cologne for the next round of the Mittelrheinpokal where we took on local side Worringen in our bid to successfully defend our crown.

A much-changed side took to the field for the match with a debut for Luca Sirch, a recent signing to shore up defensive numbers, as well as rare starts for Tim-Sebastian Buchheister, Oluwabori Falaye, Marcel Damaschek and Jannis Held.

The heavily-rotated side didn’t take long to assume control of the game as Oluwabori Falaye and Tim-Sebastian Buchheister grabbed the rare opportunity of a start with a goal each to put us 2-0 up after 13 minutes.

Falaye was slid through by Dawid Krasucki before gently slotting home with a placed shot from an angle while Tim chested down a long ball forward from Dennis Dressel before sliding the ball beyond the home goalie as he rushed out.

The hosts would pull a goal back before the break only for Julian Schwermann to head home to make it a two-goal cushion once again.

As the game wore on, more recognisable faces came on for the fringe players, and it was that man again, Jannik Mause who put the gloss on the scoreline to send us through to the next round by four goals to one.

Easy Street.

The month ended with us facing a recently-relegated Erzgebirge Aue side on a Friday night.
Early season predictions had us struggling and thus nowhere near the top, a win for us here would put us in fifth place with the rest of the league playing over Saturday and Sunday, so it would look really good for us for a wee while at least.

With the majority of the first-teamers rested for the cup tie with Worringen, they made their return for this game, with Jannik Mause aiming to keep up his scintillating run of form this month.

And after five minutes, he duly delivered as he combined well with Hamdi Dahmani to blast the ball home after some brilliant ball carrying from Dennis Dressel in the middle of the park, the former St. Pauli man has fit like a glove in recent weeks, and it showed with his integral work for the first goal.

Fast forward exactly half an hour and Jannik was at it once again, this time combining with Sel Gunduz on the right before stroking the ball home calmly like that Polish lad at Bayern does two leagues above us.

Falcao added a third in the 51st minute, Mause unselfishly turning provider to square the ball inside the box for the Brazilian to score.

An xG of 3, three clear-cut chances and a 3-0 win, you cannot get any better than that to sign off the month.

So far, so good…right?

That result, coupled with others a day later, means that we end October sitting in fifth place (see above)

Due to the current situation at the top with the Reserve sides of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, is good enough for a playoff for promotion to the second tier who finish third from bottom in that division.

I think we are just a little bit ahead of schedule for any of that chat, but to be thriving (so far) instead of struggling is brilliant so far with Bayern II visiting us at Tivoli in November.