The first goal of the month of the new year has been determined. Christian Flath from FSV Luckenwalde wins in January. His directly converted corner kick gets almost 100,000 votes.
The directly converted corner is a category that cannot really be described as such when it comes to goal of the month, because in 53 years of this competition only two goals have been scored in this way.
Strangely enough, none of them are from Eintracht legend Bernd Nickel, who can boast of having scored directly from all four corners of what was then Frankfurt’s Waldstadion. The first TdM was scored in this way by Julian Schuster from SC Freiburg in April 2011, and just eight months later Christian Clemens from 1. FC Köln was awarded for a directly converted corner in December 2011.
A perfect hit
Christian Flath is now third in the group. Luckenwalde was 0-1 down in the Regionalliga Nordwest against the heavy favorites from Cottbus when Flath grabbed the ball at the right corner flag in the second minute of stoppage time. What the fans see in the Walter Seelenbinder Stadium can be described well in one word: perfection. The Luckenwalde captain hits the ball perfectly, the left spin: perfect, the height: perfect, the trajectory: perfect and in the end the ball hits the top left perfectly.
The wind helped
“It wasn’t intended that way,” Flath honestly admitted after his goal. “I saw that Cottbus was still unsorted and I wanted to take advantage of that. And then the wind did the rest and it fell in perfectly.”
Whether God, chance or the wind helped or not doesn’t matter when it comes to the goal of the month. In the end, what counts is people’s enthusiasm for a hit and the fact that they vote for it in large numbers. Flath’s directly converted corner meets both criteria and is therefore absolutely deservedly the goal of the month for January 2024.
Source: Red/Markus Wessel