A week ago, the pitch in the Ingolstadt stadium looked as if it urgently needed a winter break, especially since the last third division game of the calendar year was so competitive that there were still a few deep holes. The FC Ingolstadt team, however, looked more like they wanted to continue playing through the winter; In the 1-1 draw against Cottbus, the Schanzer showed themselves to be on equal terms and with the draw they took the Lausitz team out of the autumn championship. Above all, they are now hibernating in fifth place, in an excellent position because they have only lost once in the last twelve games, 0-1 in Bielefeld. “Ingolstadt has found its rhythm,” said Cottbus coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz.
It seems as if a daring experiment was about to take off. Coach Sabrina Wittmann had to struggle with the same problems in the first half of the season as her predecessors: with a long list of injuries, which is almost a tradition for the Schanzer. The difference is that Wittmann’s predecessors in recent years all had significantly more experience in overcoming common industry problems. But only the 33-year-old, who has so far worked without the necessary trainer license, has managed to deliver consistent performance despite the lack of staff. “I really believe in the process that teams go through,” she says somewhat cryptically. What she means above all is that it simply takes time for a game identity to develop; the start of the season was initially quite bumpy.
The defensive stability in particular is striking, especially since no fewer than five full-backs were injured at the end of the first half of the season, as well as the veterans Maximilian Dittgen and Pascal Testroet, the latter of whom only got a short appearance against Cottbus. But all of this also had the advantage that Wittmann could and had to rely primarily on what she knows best in the club: the youth. The squad is probably still quite expensive by third division standards, but with Wittmann they are discovering the opportunity to successfully integrate in-house talent in the Autostadt, where the car manufacturer is no longer doing as well as it once was. This usually not only relieves the burden on the budget, but also has an identity-forming effect. Not without pride, Wittmann pointed out after the Cottbus game that Elias Decker, an 18-year-old central defender, played in a full-back position for one half, and things ended quite well.
A few hours before the game, the Schanzer had fittingly announced that, after Felix Keidel, Maurice Dehler, Deniz Zeitler and Ognjen Drakulic, Max Plath had now been given a long-term contract. Wittmann herself had accompanied many of these young players as a long-time youth coach. By the way, it could even happen that the goal-scoring Zeitler, who has just turned 18, is sold extremely profitably.
“We already knew that we had hired an excellent coach,” says sports director Ivica Grlic
At the same time, Wittmann herself, the first female coach in men’s professional football, has successfully taken the next development steps and instilled a reliable style of play in the team. “We already knew that we had hired an excellent coach,” says sports director Ivica Grlic. That’s why they decided in the summer to pay the necessary fine before Wittmann begins the Pro license course in January. The club has not yet made it public that Wittmann has been included in the next course, but it is considered certain. Incidentally, they don’t want to say anything at the FCI about the question of how much fine was actually incurred – Marc Unterberger’s league competitor Unterhaching probably had a high five-figure amount.
Training starts again next Monday. In the second half of the season, which Ingolstadt has also traditionally screwed up, Wittmann will be missing from time to time because of the course. The question is whether the team will still maintain its rhythm of success if Wittmann loses its training rhythm.
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