Déjà vu
Remember Kenneth Wolstenholme and his famous 1966 WC commentary?
“They think it’s all over” – was what described Magdeburg’s fans after the 0-1 defeat in Oberneuland when the club’s deficit to the top spot had increased to 9 points. But then came the home game against TeBe Berlin who received a 7-0 thrashing a the hands of a rather listless FC Magdeburg side. Babelsberg’s draw against bottom-placed Goslar meant the deficit was reduced to 7 points, so there was a little hope glimmering there.
“It is now” – describes what Magdeburg’s fans must be thinking since yesterday 1515 hrs. The club had lost away at Meuselwitz, after dominating the entire match, but without scoring. Then came a penalty in the dying minutes, because of a clumsy tackle by right back Stephan Neumann. At the end of the season’s first half, Magdeburg are ten points behind. Not exactly an improvement over the one-point deficit from last season – and we all know where the club ended up then.
So, do you plan for another Regionalliga season now, or do you believe you’re strong enough to actually get those ten points more than the teams placed before you? Unless the club spend money on the defense which has turned out to be the Achilles’ heel this season, I don’t see how it would be possible to close that gap. I refuse to blame the offense for the way that some of our defeats were going, simply because 38 goals from 17 matches are good enough to win promotion, even though the distribution could be a bit more even. 18 goals conceded in 17 games, however, is unacceptable, if you want to finish first. And we all want that.
Apologies to Mr. Wolstenholme for using his quotes from a moment of triumph to describe yet another low point in the post-reunification history of 1. FC Magdeburg.
Meanwhile, the U23 team lead their league, and might actuall win promotion. Fat lot of good that will do.
In: FCM · Tagged with: defeat, FC Magdeburg
State of the Club
Since I last wrote, after match day 3, 1. FC Magdeburg have come through quite a development. New transfer Wolf is out until January, and the club signed Lars Fuchs from Jena as his replacement. This has turned out to be a good decision, as Fuchs has already scored 5 goals in the seven matches he has played in. As for the league position, Magdeburg have improved since day 3 when they were on 14. They are now on 8, but still with a 5 point deficit to the top spot, held by VfL Wolfsburg’s reserve team.
Most importantly, however, manager Baumgart changed his tactics. Instead of a defensive 4-2-3-1, Magdeburg now play a 4-1-3-2 that gives them more options in attack and is largely responsible for the 19 goals the team has scored so far. Unfortunately this change has also introduced some weakness in defense, so Magdeburg have conceded 13 goals so far.
The matches so far:
At home against Hansa Rostock II – 2–2
Magdeburg go one down after 38 minutes, then celebrate a late comeback with goals from Vujanovic and Watzka, only to concede a late equalizer off a free kick, after goalie Tischer and defender Prest miss the ball. The match is a glimmer of hope anyway after the abysmal performance against Türkiyemspor in the week before.
Away at VFC Plauen – 4–1
Magdeburg go one down again, after only 4 minutes, but this time the team manage a complete turnaround. By half-time the score is 3–1 to Magdeburg, another Vujanovic goal makes it 4–1 for the final whistle.
Home against SV Wilhelmshaven – 5–2
After this demonstration of strength, Magdeburg face Wilhelmshaven. They are third from the bottom and it only takes seconds for Magdeburg to take the lead. But within minutes Wilhelmshaven equalize and it looks like the match would turn into a nailbiter. Watzka scores to make it 2–1 at half-time, and in the second half Magdeburg get their act together, extending their lead to 4–1 before a defensive slip-up gives the guests their second goal. Marko Verkic scores in the final minute to make it a clear-cut 5–2.
Away at Babelsberg 03 – 2–3
In the following away match Magdeburg are punished for their defensive errors. Despite taking the lead twice, defensive slip-ups give Babelsberg three goals for the eventual win. The team had retreated too far, at times back to their own penalty area.
Home against Hannover 96 II – 4–2
The match against Hannover was a make-or-break affair. Hannover were in second place and a loss would surely have seen Magdeburg losing touch with the top teams. But despite their advantage in technique and table position, Magdeburg controlled the match from start to end. A furious first ten minutes saw both sides score off a penalty before the hosts took the lead with a Fuchs goal after thirty minutes. Until the 84th Magdeburg had extended their lead to 4–1, before another napping defender allowed Hannover to make it 4–2 for the final whistle.
Away at Hallescher FC – 1–1
Last week saw Magdeburg travel to their arch rivals in the south of Saxony-Anhalt. In front of more than 10,000 spectators the guests started well, but were reduced to ten in the 23rd after Daniel Bauer appeared to kick an opponent who had roughly tackled him. Bauer himself says he was unconscious following that tackle. Nevertheless he was given a two-match ban. After the red card hosts Hallescher FC attempted to control the match, but were largely unsuccessful. They took the lead with 30 minutes left on the clock, but around the 70th a firecracker landed right next to the linesman, thrown from the stands populated by Halle “fans”. It resulted in a five-minute break that brought Magdeburg some time to consider their options. Even though Magdeburg had largely contained Halle before the interruption, this became more obvious afterwards and eventually resulted in the well-deserved equalizer by a Watzka header off a Racanel corner-kick.
After nine matches Magdeburg still have every chance to win promotion, but good results from the next three games against dead-last Goslar, St. Pauli reservers and Hertha Berlin reserves are imperative before the matches against competitors Chemnitzer FC and VfL Wolfsburg reserves.
In: FCM · Tagged with: Baumgart, Hallescher FC, Summary
Crisis has come to Magdeburg
With Magdeburg as of yesterday having the third-worst start of the decade, the time has come to take a long hard look at the club in general, including management and the whole shebang.
Read the rest of this post »
In: FCM · Tagged with: analysis, Baumgart, Idiocy, Paul Linz, Regionalliga, Relegation, Youth team
The season has only just started
But you wouldn’t know that from reading FCM-related boards. Two draws from the first two matches of the new Regionalliga Nord season were enough to trigger the “this season’s over, we’ll never get promoted this way, sack the manager” gene in a lot of people.
Looking at it a tad more rationally, nothing’s lost yet — obviously.
In Lübeck, Magdeburg took the lead with 15 minutes to go, despite being a man down, but 7 minutes before the final whistle, Lübeck equalised with a 45-yard screamer. No way any goalie would have saved that one. Hence, despite playing badly for most of the 90 minutes yet still dominating the match in terms of shots on goal, Magdeburg came away with just one point. That is exactly one more point than the team won in Lübeck in the past season, but two points less than the team had after the first matchday in the last season.
Last Friday then saw the home debut of the reformed team against the reserve team of Bundesliga side Hamburger SV. The first half, admittedly, was abysmal. Three major and one possible minor issue prevented a better performance.
First and foremost, there were only ten players in the pitch for most of the time, because Catalin Racanel was mentally absent for large parts of the first 45. Secondly, Baumgart had started with a so-called double-six, that is, two defensive midfielders, both of which stood too deep, creating a huge hole in central midfield. Which brings us to issue number three: Tüting who was supposed to play behind the only true forward Vujanovic, moved to a parallel position with him too quickly when Magdeburg gained possession, robbing his teammates of a pass option, so that the only way was to play using the wingers Watzka and Racanel…well, Watzka. This could have worked but for the minor issue I mentioned above, namely the wingbacks not moving forward quickly enough. Hence Watzka would have to face to opposing players on his own, a venture that could not possibly have any successful outcome.
For the second half, manager Baumgart took off Racanel and replaced him with a second forward, Siga. This meant that Tüting left the central position and moved to the left flank, with the team now playing a 4-2-2-2. The change – and most likely a very harsh appeal to the players – led to a dominant performance in the second half with Magdeburg generating scoring chance after scoring chance, Siga missing the most obvious when he kicked the ball past the goal from about four yards. In the end, Magdeburg were unlucky to draw as Hamburg had a mere two true opportunities, both of which were foiled by Magdeburg goalie Tischer.
Naturally, the level of contentness is limited, but especially the second half provided a glimpse of hope for the remaining season.
In other news, Denis Wolf will be out for another 6 weeks after undergoing knee surgery for a ligament issue. Magdeburg’s sporting director Michael Richter has declared the club will sign another forward.
In: FCM · Tagged with: analysis, Baumgart, FC Magdeburg, Hamburger SV, VfB Lübeck
Season prep hazards
What are the biggest hazards and dangers in the weeks leading up to a new season? Injuries, transfers gone wrong, players you planned with leaving suddenly. Yes, yes, and yes. But there is a new hazard: Security concerns. Indeed there seems to be a new trend emerging, more and more friendly matches are being cancelled due to the fact that local police declare they cannot handle the security issues.
Greatest victim is newly-founded RB Leipzig who as of now have had more friendlies cancelled than played. Chemnitzer FC had their macht against Leipzig cancelled, and 1. FC Magdeburg their friendly against Aue in Grimma.
The latest victim of this new trend is the official season opener in Magdeburg, the 1. FC Magdeburg – Hansa Rostock friendly. Planned since late June, police declared last Thursday they did not have enough personnel to secure the match, due to holidays and 3rd Liga restarting. Funny how these issues seem to crop up all of a sudden. Kind of like the old excuse “I didn’t have time to buy X-mas presents, I keep forgetting what date it’s on”.
Magdeburg are now looking for a replacement for Hansa, while Hansa themselves had another match cancelled: They had invited VfB Lübeck to ply in Rostock that date, but again the police said no way, this time because it was on such a short notice.
In other news, Magdeburg have gotten rid of all players they wanted to leave, and have signed Rostock II’s Simon Tüting for the AMC position as well as 19yo Croat forward Marko Verkic. In addition, 21yo Brazilian midfielder Danilo dos Santos looks likely to be the next signing.
In: FCM · Tagged with: Aue, friendlies, Hansa Rostock, Magdeburg, police, security, VfB Lübeck
And we’re off again…
Season preparation has restarted on Friday. After last year’s disapointment with a 4th place finish, the club has had to cut the budget by about 250,000 Euros and has opted to let some players go, the most prominent of which are the team captain, Daniel Rosin, and the second-best goal scorer, Najeh Braham. As both still have valid contracts, however, the club can only hope they find a new home. Until then, signing new players is a tentative process.
In all six players were let go or told to go: Defenders Wejsfelt (contract ended), Rosin and Dragusha (contract ended), forwards Reimann (to Red Bull Rasenballsport Leipzig) and Braham (currently at trial with FC Erzgebirge Aue) and goalkeeper Geisthardt. Only Rosin and Braham currently remain on the club’s payroll.
Unitl now three new players were signed: Defenders Gaebler (formerly at SV Wilhelmshaven) and Littmann (VfB Oldenburg) and attacker Denis Wolf (Rot-Weiß Erfurt). In addition several U19 players join the squad for the season preparation, but they will probably be used in the reserve team more often than in the senior squad.
Magdeburg are still looking for another forward—at least one is being tested—and the eternal quest for an attacking central midfielder keeps going on as well. Additionally, there are rumors that former FCM defender/defensive midfielder Friebertshäuser might return from Reutlingen, but no indication as to the validity of such rumors exists.
On the weekend, Magdeburg played in two test matches, before real training starts today. In Altenweddingen, the club beat an eighth-tier side 8-0 in a (surprise!) one-sided match. On Sunday the opposition were seventh-tier club Barleben, just beyond Magdeburg’s city limits. In front of about 1,300 spectators, Magdeburg brought home a 7-0 victory. Two different teams were used, manager Baumgart opting for the all-out change at half-time. Read the rest of this post »
In: FCM · Tagged with: FC Magdeburg, friendly, Reimann, transfer news, victory
Changes…
Since I last wrote, there have been some changes at 1. FC Magdeburg. Following the draw against Babelsberg, the team went into a steady decline, losing three out of four games, among them the important derby against Hallescher FC. Following a 0-3 defeat to Wolfsburg’s reserves at home, the 1. FC Magdeburg board decided to draw the line and sacked manager Paul Linz. The new manager would be former player Steffen Baumgart. this move was somewhat surprising, seeing as how Baumgart has no experience managing a team.
Nevertheless, the board are convinced he is the right man.
His first match was the 2nd round of the Saxony-Anhalt-Cup against Germania Halberstadt’s reserves – with all their players coming from the first team. Magdeburg won the match 2-0, but there was not much change visible in their play, aside from a marked improvement in attitude. On Thursday this week, Magdeburg play the cup quarter-final against fellow Magdeburg side MSV Preußen. Kick-off is at 6 pm, a time that necessitates a clear performance by the team, as dusk sets in around 8 and extra time could certainly not be completed before dark.
In: FCM · Tagged with: Baumgart, defeat, dismissal, Germania Halberstadt, new manager, Paul Linz, victory