SC Freiburg is about to end its most successful season to date. We have traced the past nine months.
Brilliant start
The SC caught a season opener like a picture book. Twelve points from the first five games, that’s the balance. The newcomers Michael Gregoritsch and Ritsu Doan are well integrated and scored in the first match in the 4-0 win in Augsburg. With his two goals in the 1-0 wins in Stuttgart and against Bochum, Vincenzo Grifo demonstrated that he is a “difference player” for Freiburg. Downer: The 1:3 home defeat against Dortmund. An irregular goal puts BVB on the road to victory, although SC is the better team for long stretches. The sports club also has a bit of luck in the 3-2 win in Leverkusen on the fifth day of the game. But primarily the standard strength of the South Badeners and a very strong Mark Flekken lead to this important away win. “Leaders, leaders, hey, hey!” yelled the SC fans in the away section of the BayArena.
To Europe!
The SC will feel for the first time in September 2022 what the multiple burden in three competitions feels like. English weeks become routine for the players. In addition to everyday Bundesliga life (solid clean sheets against Mönchengladbach and Hoffenheim), there are international highlights such as the successful Europa League home start against Qarabag (2-1) and the sovereign away win in Piraeus (3-0). Newcomer Daniel Kofi-Kyereh plays his way into the team and proves his quality with the goals against Mainz (2:1) and Hertha BSC (2:2). Unfortunately, a cruciate ligament tear will throw him off track in February.
Kiliann Sildillia developed into a regular in the first half of the season as a right-back. But even he can’t prevent the first slap of the season: FC Bayern went 5-0 on October 16th. Just three days later, Freiburg delivers a remarkable cup fight to FC St. Pauli. The spectators in the Europa-Park stadium experience goosebumps and celebrate a 2-1 victory with two last-minute goals after extra time. Man of the evening: Matthias Ginter, who self-sacrificingly led his team to the round of 16 in the cup. In general, defense chief Ginter is one of the most important SC players of the season with his consistently good performances.
strong on the break
The sports club put on a hammer series until the early, World Cup-related winter break: Freiburg wins four out of five games, only the away game at strong RB Leipzig is lost 1:3. It is already clear: In this balanced league round, everyone can beat everyone else, favorite roles should be treated with caution. However, the SC always scores in this phase: both against the supposedly weaker teams (2-0 against Bremen and Cologne) and against the teams on an equal footing (4-1 against Union). The home win against the Irons on Matchday 15 becomes the “Vince” gala: Grifo scores a hat trick in the first half – also thanks to two converted penalties. Freiburg winters in second place. You won’t have to worry about the descent at the Mooswald.
There is no respite for five SC professionals, they travel to Qatar for the World Cup. The Japanese national player Ritsu Doan played a brilliant first half of the season for Freiburg.
In the winter of 2023, it will become clear to him: This constant stress does not leave a footballer untouched.
ups and downs
At the beginning of January, Kevin Schade left the club and switched to FC Brentford in the Premiere League for a record sum of around 25 million euros. After the training camp in Sotogrande, Freiburg first has to travel to Wolfsburg. The start to the year 2023 fails thoroughly: the guests in the Autostadt are shot down with 0:6. But Freiburg shows the right reaction. With a strong 1:1 against Frankfurt and a convincing 3:1 against Augsburg you make up for the defeat. But things aren’t really running smoothly at the beginning of the year. The 1: 5 in Dortmund means the second swatter within just two weeks. However, this should remain the last defeat for the next two months. The 20th matchday has a curious personality: Lars Voßler is on the bench as head coach in the derby against Stuttgart because Christian Streich saw the yellow-red card in Dortmund and is suspended. Vossler leads his team to a 2-1 home win. But the performance doesn’t look as confident as it did in 2022. The sports club is struggling, the game in Breisgau is subject to too many fluctuations. While an unforeseen winning streak between Nantes and Schalke boosted SC in the fall, it now lacks ease, especially in the offensive game.
A great opponent
On matchdays 21 to 26, the SC remains undefeated and scores important points in the fight for international places. Sometimes you fight your way to a 0-0 in Gladbach, sometimes you work your way to a 2-0 in Bochum. Annoying from Freiburg’s point of view: Two victories that were believed to be safe are still given away because SC conceded a late goal (against Hertha BSC and in Mainz, both 1-1).
Two highlights in the club’s history will fall in March of this year: Juventus Turin is the name of the big opponent in the round of 16 of the Europa League. After the 0:1 (through Angel die Maria) in the first leg in Piedmont everything is still possible for the outsider from Breisgau. But the second leg at the Europa-Park Stadium went to the disadvantage of the hosts: Manuel Gulde was sent off in the 44th minute for a handball with yellow-red, and Dusan Vlahovic converted the resulting penalty. In added time, Federico Chiesa increased the score to 0:2. The bottom line is that the SC sells expensive, but Juventus was a size too big for the Breisgauer.
Twice Bavaria
One of the emotional highlights of the season will take place on April 4th at 10:38 p.m. in the Allianz Arena in Munich: Lucas Höler runs up and shoots the ball from eleven yards up to the left and under the crossbar. The sensation is perfect, the sports club knocks out Bayern Munich 2-1 from the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup. This was preceded by a remarkable goal for the 1:1 equalization by Nicolas Höfler. Only four days later, the teams face each other again. FC Bayern wins the league duel 1-0. Freiburg’s run of twelve unbeaten home games is coming to an end – but in a way that is worthy of all honor.
Feines Finish
“Passion and intensity in the game against the ball” – because this central requirement is well implemented by coach Streich, the SC wins three in a row in April: in Bremen (2: 1), against Schalke (4: 0) and in Cologne (1:0). A high willingness to run and cleverness in front of the opposing goal pay off. However, three setbacks follow: two league defeats against RB (0:1) and Union (2:4) and before that the 1:5 disaster against Leipzig in the cup semifinals. Nevertheless, Philipp Lienhart and colleagues have raked in so many points in the past few months that they can celebrate returning to the Europa League early on – on the sofa at home because Leverkusen only draws against Stuttgart on May 14 and the SC no longer from can displace fifth place. Even the Champions League is still in there. Who would have dared to predict this at the beginning of the season?
#sensational #season