Kickers Offenbach is still waiting for a win against a team from the top five in the Südwest regional soccer league this season. On Saturday, the front runner SC Freiburg II will be at OFC.
Offenbach – In the sixth attempt, the “top game curse” should finally be banned: Kickers Offenbach has not yet won a game in the Southwest Regional Football League this season against a team that currently occupies places one to five. There were three draws and two defeats, the most recent being 0: 4 at TSV Steinbach Haiger. And on Saturday (2 p.m.) championship leaders SC Freiburg II will visit Offenbach. Then what do the kickers have to do better? An analysis.
Defensive und Offensive: The Kickers owe their continued good starting position (third place, seven points less than Freiburg with one game behind) mainly to the defense, which is by far the best in the league in terms of the goals conceded. On average, OFC goalkeeper Stephan Flauder only has to reach behind him 0.7 times per game. In the top games, however, this value is significantly higher (1.6), whereby the 0: 4 in Steinbach naturally worsens the balance sheet.
The opposite is true for the offensive: 44 goals scored in 26 encounters (average: 1.7) are only the seventh best value in the league. In the five previous games against the “top five”, the Kickers only scored three hits, or 0.6 per game. Steinbach’s goalkeeper recently had a quiet afternoon. He was only challenged when Tunay Deniz tried from a distance.
Speed: The OFC has tempo deficits in some positions. Steinbach showed this again last. If the 0: 1, when Ronny Marcos was overrun on the left side, was due to a positional error, it was noticeable that the Mittelhessen bridged the center much faster than the Kickers. Tunay Deniz in particular often couldn’t keep up. Something similar was observed in the game at VfB Stuttgart II (2: 2). And now comes SC Freiburg II, who had given the Kickers huge problems in the first leg (2: 2), especially with their nimble outside attackers. It is important to stand close and help each other.
Aggressiveness: In Steinbach, the opponent immediately accepted the referee’s generous interpretation of the rules, while the kickers lamented several times and let the ball be chased away. Real aggressiveness only came with the substitution of Maik Vetter (73rd). Significant: Despite the clear defeat in this important game, the Kickers only received one yellow card.
Mentality: Although some fans had provided additional motivation with a banner (“Kickers – on to victory”), chants and Bengalos before the team left for Steinbach and the players had made each other hot shortly before kick-off, it was on the pitch not felt much anymore. Flauder conducted loudly from behind as usual, Mathias Fetsch partly from the front. That was it already. The Steinbach players (including those on the bench), on the other hand, celebrated every duel they won like the winning goal, while at OFC Florent Bojaj (who was replaced during the break) lamented with plenty of gestures early on, and the body language of others left a lot to be desired. It goes with the fact that, despite the demand, only Flauder and Lucas Albrecht, who was not deployed at all, answered questions from the media representatives after the game.
Cleverness: It is logical that the Steinbachers know their own place best, but does not explain why the Kickers did not manage to adapt to the external conditions for 90 minutes. After all, the wind was already blowing when warming up. It looked like a footballer who treads on the wrong footwear, but still doesn’t change his kicks. A lack of cleverness was not a problem for the first time: the Kickers conceded three of their four dismissals in duels with the top five. In the first leg against Steinbach (1: 1) Marcos got involved in a scramble for the ball, which his opponent used to provoke a red card. The compensation fell out of numbers. In Freiburg (2: 2) and in Ulm (0: 1) Davud Tuma and Luigi Campagna (now Stuttgart Kickers) behaved awkwardly after their warning and saw yellow-red. Here, too, a goal was scored.
Conclusion: The Kickers know that they have to do a lot better if they want to survive against Freiburg II. “We can do better and have the chance to learn from mistakes,” says Ramon Berndroth from the coaching team.
From Christian Düncher
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