Two second division teams are already in the semi-finals of the DFB Cup, now a third division team could join them: 1. FC Saarbrücken can certainly expect to have a chance against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Wednesday evening (live ticker and full audio report on sportschau.de from 8:45 p.m.).
However, it cannot be said that the people of Saarbrücken are currently in the flow. As much as they enchanted Football Germany in the cup with their historic triumph in the second round against Bayern Munich (2:1) and then against Eintracht Frankfurt (2:0), there is still very little going on in the league.
Last Friday (February 2nd, 2024) the Saarlanders had a match with the second representative of Borussia Dortmund, which reflected a lot from their entire season. Rüdiger Ziehl’s team was in the majority for 82 minutes because BVB defender Falko Michel had seen red very early on.
Nevertheless, Saarbrücken fell behind and then launched an attack for almost the entire game with very little penetration: it wasn’t until the 86th minute that Manuel Zeitz managed to equalize 1-1, but that didn’t help the club much further: it was fine in the table even ultimately falling one place to twelfth place. So you can beat Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt on individual evenings, but everyday life is difficult, the climb is no longer an issue around Ludwigspark.
Four times against the last team – four times no win
For Borussia Mönchengladbach that means nothing on Wednesday. At most, the risk of embarrassment is a bit greater than against the third division 12th team. leaving sounds embarrassing. But it’s not that unlikely, because against Bayern and Frankfurt the Saarbrücken team showed how extremely disciplined they can defend, how willing and strong they are to run and how hard they can push themselves to the point of total exhaustion. These are all characteristics that Gladbach almost traditionally don’t like in an opponent.
The “Foals” see themselves as a team with a footballing approach. Working through primary virtues and coaching phrases like “finding the game through the fight” was not their thing at all under Adi Hütter and then under Daniel Farke. Things haven’t gotten any better under Gerardo Seoane. The table constellation in the Bundesliga in the first half of the season alone had the great gift in store for the Borussia team of being able to play against a last-placed team four times: Both Darmstadt 98 as well as 1. FSV Mainz 05, 1. FC Köln and Union Berlin were at the time of their duels with Gladbach in 18th place. The team from Lower Rhine did not win a single one of these four games.
Shine against opponents who play along
Alassane Plea, Manu Koné and Florian Neuhaus can shine against teams like VfB Stuttgart (3-1 on January 14th). But just when this success was refined a week later and the focus was once again directed towards the top half of the table, a 1-2 defeat against the football workers of FC Augsburg followed.
Seoane is in a quandary. The job description when he took office in Mönchengladbach did not at all envisage stripping this team of its footballing strength, on the contrary: those responsible for the sport expected the ex-Leverkusen coach to provide aggressive pressing, intelligent switching behavior and, after winning the ball, waste as little time as possible until the goal was scored.
See you again after seven months
Seoane explains the whole thing like this: “We have a club philosophy. We want to try to play constructive football. But it’s not about having possession of the ball. I like my team to find a solution as quickly as possible when they have the ball to move forward .” To do this, he demands of his professionals: “It’s not just about strength in duels against the ball, but also with the ball. We have to assert ourselves there too.”
Not long ago, the Gladbach team briefly showed how this works in Saarbrücken. On July 22nd last year, Borussia made a stopover at Ludwigspark on the way to their training camp at Tegernsee. They got off to a furious start and led 2-0 after ten minutes through Tomas Cvancara and Nathan Ngoumou.
80 minutes Object lesson
Afterwards, they experienced exactly what they were likely to experience again on Wednesday: a tough, resilient collective that was very good at taking away the opponent’s desire for beautiful football. The remaining 80 minutes went to 1. FC Saarbrücken with a 1-0 win, which means they have enough visual material to prepare themselves perfectly for 13th place in the Bundesliga. to prepare.