“Crystal clear foul”
Red discussion about BTSV professional: referee expert classifies the scene
12/01/2025 – 10:29 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
This scene divides opinion after the game: Robin Heußer from Eintracht Braunschweig brings down his opponent in a promising situation. Was it red?
Important liberation for Eintracht Braunschweig: BTSV celebrated a deserved fourth win of the season (2-0) on matchday 14 against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, improved to relegation place 16 in the 2nd Bundesliga and is now level with the saving bank.
However, the game at the Eintracht Stadium on Hamburger Straße could have taken a different turn early on. A scene in the 32nd minute of the game is being hotly debated on social media: When the score was 0-0, after a long ball deep in Eintracht’s half, an aerial duel broke out between BTSV professional Robin Heußer and Lauterer’s Naatan Skyttä.
Heußer is the last man to win this and maneuvers the ball back to keeper Ron-Thorben Hoffmann. However, he also has his hand on the opponent and brings him down. Referee Timo Gansloweit waves away and indicates that Heußer played the ball. The video assistant does not intervene.
This sparked a lot of discussion on social media. Many observers see a clear emergency brake and are calling for a red card for the Braunschweiger – or at least that the video referee takes care of the matter.
At “Bild”, ex-referee Manuel Gräfe classifies the much-discussed scene. He also recognizes that Heusser played the ball in the situation. “However, in the situation before he headed the ball, the Braunschweiger had already grabbed his Lauterer player by the neck – by the shoulder – and then clearly jerked him around.”
It’s clear to him: “If I were to first play or head the ball and then hit the opponent, it might have been allowed to happen. This is a crystal clear foul that should have been punished.”
However, Gräfe himself would not necessarily have given a red card for the offense. “As a decision itself, a free kick and at least a yellow card would have been the right decision,” he says.
He also understands that the video referee didn’t get involved. Because: It is unclear whether Kaiserslautern’s Skyttä could have safely controlled the high ball and thus freely headed towards the BTSV goal.
“In this respect, small residual doubts remain,” says Gräfe. “And if you already have these residual doubts on the field, then you shouldn’t intervene as a video assistant. It’s about the crystal clear, obvious, uninterpretable, wrong decisions.”
Eintracht, who have already received six expulsions this season, escaped without penalty. Then Max Marie (34th) and Erencan Yardimci (49th) completed the deserved victory. This should provide the necessary impetus in the relegation battle for the games in the run-up to Christmas. We continue next Sunday with a home game against 13th place in the table. Holstein Kiel.