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.
Hiatus
Writing papers, cannae blog.
1. FC Magdeburg vs Stark
This is the comment that appeared on the most important fan site after Magdeburg’s match against SV Babelsberg 03 on Saturday, refereed by controversial FIFA referee Wolfgang Stark. As Magdeburg begin 2009 with a tough schedule, playing the other top 4 teams in the first three matches, tensions were high at Stadion Magdeburg.
After kickoff on Saturday, Magdeburg immediately seized control of the game, dominating Babelsberg at will, and subsequently scored the lead off a Watzka freekick with just 8 minutes gone. However, Stark and his linesmen judged the goal to be offside – a blatant error, as it was easy to see that the ball had been deflected by Babelsberg’s N’Diaye. After making the call, Stark went over to his assistant, but upheld his decision. Both men had an excellent, unobstructed view on the action. Magdeburg kept up the pressure, but could not score, despite great opportunities. Vujanovic’s freekick only hit the post and Watzka’s direct volley went right onto Babelsberg’s keeper. Thus, with assistance from the referee, Babelsberg and Magdeburg went into the dressing rooms with no goals between them.
Nothing changed in the second half, Magdeburgcontinuing their attacks and eventually scored a goal that not even the referee could take away, when Brendel hammered the ball home with a beautiful dropkick from 20 yards out. After the goal, Babelsberg changed their tactics, attacking relentlessly – and here Magdeburg made the mistake to ease their pressure. They were now pushed back to their own box more and more often, and everyone could feel the equalizer coming. Then new signing Bauer mistimed a pass to Brendel in midfield and left Magdeburg wide open to a counter-attack. Captain Daniel Rosin was able to stop the Babelsberg attack, but at the expense of a somewhat dubious penalty. Rosin slid into the attacker, and while not playing the ball, he also did not significantly touch the attacking player who went down nonetheless. Stark waved away the protests, but it was again N’Diaye who would be in the center of things. Before the kick had been taken, N’Diaye had already entered the box, causing Stark to have the penalty retaken – and this time Beer saved the kick.
Whoever had hoped that this would have been warning enough for the Magdeburg players not to let Babelsberg anywhere near the penalty area was soon diappointed however. Babelsberg’s attacks continued unabated and after a throw-in, when the ball had already been cleared out of the box, Stark’s whistle was heard again. With horror the stadium realized that he had given another penalty. The culprit had been Magdeburg’s Racanel, or so Stark said. Racanel had cleared the ball, but a Babelsberg player managed to jump into the way of his leg and be caught. Racanel and his teammates could not believe this decision, but it stood and Babelsberg equalised.
Magdeburg’s final attacking moves led to nothing but another Vujanovic shot bouncing off the post.
Stark would not take questions from reporters after the match, because he “has to get his plane”. Thank you.
The other weekend results only added to the misery, with Kiel beating Cottbus, after being a goal down until the 86th minute and Halle winning in Wilhelmshaven. Next week, Magdeburg travel to their arch rivals, doubtlessly hoping to be the first team to beat them in this season.
Line-ups:
1. FC Magdeburg: Beer – Bankert, Wejsfelt, Rosin, Probst (46′ Zander) – Brendel (78′ Matthias), Bauer, Racanel, Watzka – Vujanovic, Braham
SV Babelsberg 03: Unger – Surma (52. Oumari), Weidlich, Moritz, Müller (60. Lange), Frahn, Prochnow, Ergirdi (60. Hartwig), Civa, N’Diaye, Laars
Scoring summary:
51′ Brendel 1-0
67′ Beer saves Moritz’ penalty
82′ Frahn 1-1
Attendance:
12,042
Match video can be found at the mdr site.
End of Break
It’s over. The time of year most loathed by football fans, the winter break (closely followed by the summer break), is past us. In one of only three matches that were given the go-ahead by the FA in the Regionalliga Nord, Magdeburg travelled to league leaders Holstein Kiel. Kiel had created some consternation among followers of the league when they sacked their manager before the winterbreak, all the while lying in first place. The new manager would be Falko Götz, formerly manager of 1860 Munich and Hertha BSC. Götz would also take over the general coordination of the sports department of the club. Rumor has it that Götz and his assistant Andreas Thom earn as much as 800,000 euros p/a.
However, Magdeburg came with the recommendation of being unbeaten 14 games in a row, winning 11. Additionally, Magdeburg brought with them about 3,000 supporters, more than Kiel’s average attendance. In total 8,250 spectators watched this fourth-tier match. The pitch was in a decent shape, considering the fact that it had been covered by three inches of snow until Thursday before the match. It had been cleared and attempts had been made to dry it up, with some success, I might add. However, it was in no shape to allow for a beautiful game. Instead both teams opted for a clear cut passing game. Duting the first half, both sides were evenly matched, with Magdeburg having the best opportunity to score, when Kiel’s Vujcic passed the ball back to his keeper who picked it up. Vujanovic fired a 14-meter-volley shot off the following indirect freekick, but Kiel’s goalkeeper saved in a brilliant manner. The half-time ended on a sad note, when Jan Sandmann – just back from injury – had to be subbed off. The former Magdeburg player had broken his ankle, without opposition interference.
In the second half, Kiel were more active, dominating play for large parts of the half, but not creating too many chances. Those that were there were denied by Magdeburg’s defense and goalkeeper Christian Beer. In the 72nd, Kiel put the ball out for a corner, a rather pointless move as there was no pressure, but a costly mistake. Watzka’s corner found Najeh Braham standing all alone in the box and the Magdeburg goalgetter – playing with a special bandage for his broken hand – put the guests in the lead. Certainly not what Kiel had expected after all their dominance, but not entirely undeserved either. Magdeburg’s celebrations only lasted 12 minutes, when fresh sub Dimitrius Guscinas made fools out of their defense and scored the equaliser. After that, Magdeburg had two more chances to win the game but on both occasions, the Magdeburg attackers were too late.
In the end a disappointing draw for Magdeburg, if only because they already had the lead. Still Magdeburg have 1 point more from the fixture than on day 2, when they had lost to Kiel at home.
Line-ups
Holstein Kiel: Frech – Sandmann (43′ Hasse), Jürgensen, Wulff (75′ Holt), Vujcic (81′ Guscinas) Lartey, Schyrba, Siedschlag, Nouri, Stier, Grgic
1. FC Magdeburg: Beer – Bankert, Wejsfelt, Rosin, Bauer – Matthias (57. Probst), Gewelke, Watzka, Dragusha – Vujanovic, Braham
Scoring summary
72′ Braham 0-1
84′ Guscinas 1-1
Attendance
8,250
A rather long (thanks to trillions of postponed matches, I guess) match report video can be found at the mdr site, pictures from the match are here, and in several other places.
Transfer update
Magdeburg signed two new players. Daniel Bauer joins the club from Rovaniemi, a defensive midfielder/defender.
Maik Georgi joins the club from Erzgebirge Aue’s reserves, a left winger with a defensive emphasis.
Cold Turkey
Since the beginning of the dreaded winterbreak I had not seen a full football match, neither on TV nor in a stadium. As I’m generally not that interested in indoor football, soccer addict’s methadone, there hasn’t been much to alleviate the withdrawal.
But yesterday, finally, there was a friendly scheduled between 1. FC Magdeburg reserves and VfB Oldenburg. On a snow-covered artificial turf, Oldenburg won a moderately interesting game of rather mediocre quality. Highlight of the match was the first goal, a 25-meter lob that went in right between the keeper’s hands and the bar. Former Magdeburg player Deumelandt scored the second goal in front of a crowd of about 70 people.
Winterbreak
It’s winterbreak in German football, and while training resumes on Jan 14, there are no transfer rumours at all to be found, at least none too reliable.
I’m still hoping for a right defender and a central midfielder, but I guess it will come as surprising as on the team presentation in the summer when a number of new players were first presented without any specualtion mentioning them before.