Indoor champions
Last Saturday, the NOFV held its annual Indoor Championship at Riesa in Saxony. This is indoor footy, not futsal, of course. All Regionalliga teams from the NOFV territory were “invited” to participate (there’s not really a way not to take part…) and so six teams competed in two groups of three: Cottbus II, Rot-Weiß-Erfurt and 1. FC Magdeburg in one, SV Babelsberg 03, Union Berlin and Dynamo Dresden in the other group. To add some spice to it, Magdeburg had lost to both Erfurt and Cottbus only recently.
In the first match, Magdeburg struggled, but was able to come away 4-3 winners over Cottbus’ reserves. Yet a 0-2 loss to Erfurt meant that all hinged on the Cottbus-Erfurt match, and Magdeburg fans were treated to quite some drama, as Cottbus took a quick 2-0 lead. Erfurt, however, managed to equalize and eventually even win the game 4-2. This meant Magdeburg would face Union Berlin in the semi-final, while Erfurt met Dynamo Dresden.
The semifinal was a close call that had to be decided by spot kicks from 9 meters. Here Magdeburg’s goalkeeper saved some spot kicks and Magdeburg were through to the final where they once more met Erfurt. This time, Magdeburg didn’t go down easily and the match went to spot kicks as well. Again Marian Unger came to the rescue and for the first time Magdeburg were crowned NOFV Indoor Champions. Of course, indoor football is not a very good indicator for the quality of any team, as evidenced by the fact that Magdeburg’s Danny Kukulies became best goalscorer of the tournament, a player who couldn’t do anything in the open air season.
Impressions from training show that since the arrival of Paul Linz the team has trained with more concentration and also with increased intensity. Understandable, as with a new manager nobody can rely on previous merits so everyone has to prove his worth. Beginning in January, Magdeburg will play several friendlies, the highlight being the match against Bundesliga outfit Schalke 04 (January 19). Other opponents include Sachsen Leipzig (January 13) , Hessen Kassel (January 16) and Czech first flight team FK SIAD Most (not fixed yet, probably February 2).As training restarts on January 7, there are only a small number of days of training before the first match, but with the intensity of training shown so far, they should suffice.
In terms of transfer news it looks like Danny Kukulies will leave for tier IV side Tennis Borussia Berlin, and Tornieporth looks to be out of the door as well, despite hopes of getting a fresh start after Heyne had taken him out of the team for disciplinary reasons. No news regarding incoming players as of yet, only a plain denial of interest in Erfurt’s Kumbela who has been suspended by his club for disciplinary reasons (hitting his pregnant girlfriend in a nightclub, apparently).
Little updating
Moved my blog to Wordpress, hope there aren’t any issues or anything wrong.
Blogging shall resume shortly.
Look at that, FA!
Within 48 hours of Dirk Heyne’s dismissal, FC Magdeburg have presented his successor as manager: Paul Linz.
Linz is a former forward and has played 33 Bundesliga matches and 233 matches in Bundesliga 2. Among others, he played for Werder Bremen and Waldhof Mannheim, scoring 115 career goals. After his playing days were over, he managed several clubs, most successfully Eintracht Trier which he guided back to Bundesliga 2 after a 21-year-absence.
At today’s press conference, Linz stated that while he’d have to see the team before deciding exactly what he’ll do, he wanted to put Magdeburg a lil more into the direction of attacking football. No surprise there, this coming from a former forward who, as he said, “always gets nervous when pushed back”. Linz added that there certainly was something to be done about the dismal performance of the attackers, in terms of winter transfers, he didn’t think the players were quite as bad as their statistics indicate. He indicated that he was not rushing the transfer issue, as he would want to sign quality players.
His contract runs till the end of the season, and if Magdeburg do qualify for the new tier III league, it will be automatically renewed for two more seasons. Thus, FC Magdeburg have solved one out of the three interesting issues in the winterbreak, the remaining two being the new players that have been promised.
Thursday sees a supporters meeting to discuss the new away kit. After the disastrous affair with this season’s orange away kit, the board had announced they’d listen to the fans’ suggestions and wishes. Ought to be interesting.
Finally…
Yes, finally the Magdeburg board hhave taken the step many had expected three weeks ago: Following the 1-2 defeat at the hands of Cottbus’ reserves, manager Dirk Heyne was relieved of his post. The board were quick to declare that they would like Heyne to take on another task at the club, owing to his iconic status (408 competitive matches as goalkeeper for the club) with the fans.
Looking back, Heyne was the right manager for the club when he was first installed, back in 2003. Then Magdeburg had just escaped bankruptcy and were struggling to get out of tier IV football on a tight budget. Heyne had been managing the club’s Under 19 team and his high identification with the club in addition to his relatively low experience in management (he had been goalkeeper and youth coach at Borussia Mönchengladbach, buthad never had the responsibility of managing a senior side) made him a good solution for the club.
Over the next few years, Heyne formed a competent team that consistently played a decent game of football. As relatively few changes were made to the playing squad, the players got to know each other very well, thus compensating with teamwork for what they lacked in individual ability. In the past two seasons, Heyne’s tactic (strong defense with counter-attacking football rather than trying to dominate the opposition) yielded great results: the team was promoted from Oberliga Süd and finished 3rd in the first year in the Regionalliga.
This style of play was highly dependent on a working midfield, an attentive defense and forwards that converted the few chances they got during a match. For some reason, this did not work this season. The difficulty lies in analyzing why it did not. Of course, this season’s team differs from last season’s. Players have aged, and some have not aged well. Two forwards left and were not adequately replaced. And our best new player, midfielder Florian Müller, is to tied up in defense to effectively fulfill an attacking role.
As Dirk Heyne was incapable of solving the problems in Magdeburg’s play, his dismissal was inevitable. Now it will be interesting to see who the board present as his successor and whether they can attract helpful players in the winter break.
Oh yea, here are the Cottbus stats.
Lineups
Energie Cottbus II: Männel - Bankert, Bittroff, Franke - Hackenberg, Schuppan, Thielemann, Küntzel, Bandrowski - Hensel, Ramaj (46′ Marrack)
1. FC Magdeburg: Unger - Grundmann, Kallnik, Probst - Neumann, Habryka (64′ Kukulies), Manai, Müller, Lindemann - Agyemang, Kullmann
Score summary
26′ Schuppan 1-0
63′ Schuppan 2-0 (pen)
67′ Grundmann 2-1
Attendance
700
I came here for this?!
Magdeburg played Bremen’s reserves last Saturday, and it was a step backwards, compared to the match against Wuppertal the weekend before. The referee wasn’t exactly helpful, as he called a number of fouls that would have been considered regular challenges by most other people. As Bremen were the superior side, technique-wise, Magdeburg was hurt more by this style of refereeing. They picked up a number of yellow cards in the first half, some of which appeared extraordinarily harsh. FCM were unable to string even as few as two passes together, especiall Andy Müller (as expected) and Björn Lindemann (surprisingly) excelled in losing the ball. In all, Magdeburg’s players seemed nervous and this in addition to the refereeing led to a first half that was without any actual highlight. Bremen added their incompetence in scoring to complete the picture.
In the second half, Magdeburg put up somewhat more pressure and this was rewarded with a goal in the 57th: Manai hit a freekick towards the 6-yard-line where Gerster put his head to it and the ball went in. Magdeburg’s yellow cards came back to haunt them within miutes of the goal as Gerster was sent off with his second yellow (this one well-justified). The send-off brought massive agitation as both Magdeburg players and fans were not exactly happy with that decision. During the ensuing freekick Magdeburg’s captain Kallnik sort of forgot himself in all that excitement, and Werder seized the opportunity. Amidst a disordered Magdeburg defense, they equalised with a fine long shot from Kruse. No more goals were to follow, but overall Magdeburg were lucky to come away with a point.
As feared the Wuppertal match seems to have been a fluke. It needs to be pointed out that Magdeburg were unable to adapt to the style of refereeing, although that style shouldn’t have been a surprise to them. The statistics are there for everyone to see and interpret. The ref also didn’t let the Bremen players take their freekick unhindered…
Yet, with all due respect, the standard of refereeing was extremely poor, as the actions of the referee attained more importance than those of the players. The only positive thing is that the distance to the magic #10 spot is still unchanged at 5 points.
The winterbreak better be used to attract helpful players, and maybe manager Heyne should think about why he had to answer questions as to why the team doesn’t perform with “I do not know”…
On Janaury 19th, Magdeburg play a friendly against FC Schalke 04…a good opportunity to show off any improvement…
Lineups
1. FC Magdeburg: Unger - A. Müller, Grundmann, Kallnik, Probst - Lindemann, Gerster, F. Müller - Manai - Agyemang (88th Kukulies), Jarakovic (76th Kullmann)
SV Werder Bremen II: Mielitz - Holsing, Erdem, Mohr, Peitz - Heider (50th Grundt), Kruse, Löning, Artmann - Stallbaum, Schindler
Score summary
57′ Gerster 1-0
59′ Kruse 1-1
59′ Gerster 2nd Yellow
Attendance
7,041
1 win down, 11 to go
First things first: Magdeburg won against Wuppertal, the sixth win of the season. The first half was the best football the team has played so far.
Then, another event shed a new light on the board’s decision not to sack Heyne on Monday last week. Heyne’s father died on Friday, apparently after a prolonged illness. That illness has most certainly been weighing on Heyne’s mind. However, this raises a question: While this is highly speculative, it appears his fahter’s sickness has been a distractive influence on Heyne, adding to the stress caused by the league situation. Would it not have been beneficial to allow Heyne time off from his responsibilities to deal with that situation? Of course, the point’s moot now, but one has to wonder whether the league situation would be as it is now…
On to the game then. Magdeburg fielded a 4-3-1-2 formation, still without either Wejsfelt or Prest, but instead Grundmann and Kallnik as central defenders, and Neumann and Probst on the left and right wings, respectively. The midfield featured Lindemann and Florian Müller on the wings with Gerster filling the central position. Manai played an attacking midfielder behind forwards Jarakovic and Agyemang.
Magdeburg put Wuppertal under pressure right from the start, but they held their ground firmly, at the expense of a number of free-kicks. They also remained dangerous on the occasional counter-attack…at one point Kallnik was lucky his tactical foul was not punished with a yellow card - he later received one for a similar transgression.
With the number of fouls called on both sides, it came as no surprise that the first goal of the game would come off a free-kick. After a great run from Agyemang he was tripped just outside the box (he had been involved in a tackle inside the box earlier, but no penalty was given and TV footage proved inconclusive). Gerster and Lindemann positioned themselves to take the kick and Wuppertal’s Maly put the wall right into the way of a potential Lindemann hammer - but Gerster just lifted the ball over the wall, and thanks to the setting sun, Maly could only see it again as it had already gone in. Magdeburg continued to control the game but could not create any more goals.
With only seconds remaining before half-time, referee Schempershauwe whistled for a free-kick just to the right of Magdeburg’s box, but as no Wuppertal player made a move to take the kick, the ref ended the first half right then and there. Wuppertal’s captain Rietpietsch was less than enthused, and he apparently made that clear to Schempershauwe in no uncertain words. His efforts were rewarded with a red card, and with only Magdeburg’s goalie still on the pitch, the scene must’ve made an entertaining story for his comrades in the dressing room.
In the second half, Magdeburg lost their dominant stance, with Wuppertal attacking fiercely, but again, nothing really dangerous was created by them. FC Magdeburg found themselves reduced to the occasional counter-attack and a well-executed one brought on goal number two: Manai passed the ball into space for Agyemang who capped his run with a low cross for Jarakovic who netted the ball.
As Wuppertal proved unable to score, FC Magdeburg ran out 2-0 winners.
What is it worth then? Madeburg moved to #12 in the table with 23 points, but remain 5 points behind the magical 10th place. On Saturday, Magdeburg face Bremen’s reserves (9th, 29 pts), then they travel to Cottbus’ reserves (18th, 13 pts) for the final match of the year. If the victory over Wuppertal is to be worth anything at all, both games must be won, a feat difficult to achieve as reserve teams are technically well-versed and fast. In my opinion, this one game cannot change the critical attitude towards Heyne’s performances.
Crisis - and no consequences?
On Monday evening, the FC Magdeburg held an emergency meeting. After defeat in Essen the distance to the magical 10th position had grown to 6 points and the club have now been now waiting for a win for 5 league games.
Many had expected manager Dirk Heyne to be sacked yesterday, but despite speculation as to his successor being rife, no decision has been reached yesterday, as has transpired now. The board still have not issued a statement.
It seems that despite knowing that FC Magdeburg will need to gather 34 points from the remaining 19 league games, the board believe that there is still ample time to allow for some more experimentation on the side of Dirk Heyne and the team.
I personally do believe this to be a very bad decision. From my perspective, Heyne has failed to deliver a convincing performance in the past twenty league matches. The one consistency in these matches has been the enormous lack of an attacking strategy. This lead to the team’s helplessness whenever an opponent took the lead in a game. Generally, FC Magdeburg were unable to control a game no matter who the opposition, and despite a ordinarily well-working defense, were hardly ever able to avoid conceding one or more goals. Due to the lack of offensive power, conceding a goal always meant losing two or all points.
In the past twenty league matches, Magdeburg have not turned around any game, and they also have not been able to retake the lead after an equaliser.
Of the past twenty matches, Magdeburg only won 5, drew 7 and lost 8. Six of the draws ended 1-all, and half the time Magdeburg lost a lead in these games (vs. Leverkusen II in May, Energie Cottbus II in August, and vs. Union Berlin in November). In their 8 losses, Magdeburg managed to only score 5 goals - and two of these were scored in the last season in the loss at Emden. And now let’s look at the 5 wins, shall we? In these 5 matches, Magdeburg didn’t concede a single goal, three wins were 1-0 affairs, one a 2-0 and the “biggest” win a 3-0. Both these latter matches were against inept opposition, the three former were only won with a huge amount, especially the 1-0 against Dresden in August.
There is no improvement visible at all. Considering the rather long period (we’re talking 6 months here, remember) Heyne had to improve the situation, I do not see how he could possibly turn things round in the winter break. Especially considering the fact that the teams in the upper half of the table will most likely begin approaching the club’s better players, such as Florian Müller or Ivica Jarakovic.
In my mind, the board should have sacked Heyne on Monday.