The only reason the whistles at the end weren’t that loud was because many spectators had already left. After each goal was conceded in the second half, people stood up, waved and said goodbye. The 4-0 defeat of the Sixties against SC Verl early on Saturday evening was a time lapse of the past few months, an ever-increasing emotional disconnection from the performance down there on the pitch. The first shouts of “coach out” could be heard between 0:2 (76th) and 0:3 (77th). By the way, it wasn’t full to begin with. Some people on social media are already taking offense at the club because the number of spectators was declared to be 15,000, i.e. sold out.
The fans may not be primarily angry because the Lions lost again. But because they feel like they’re being made fun of when a lot of what players and officials say and then do just doesn’t add up. Coach Argirios Giannikis, who was not “out” on Sunday, had repeatedly emphasized in the past few weeks that there was simply a lack of luck in the game at home. Players had emphasized several times: Oh, you just have to take the lead again, luck force, knock over the buck, things like that.
But what the audience sees every time again are extremely timid lions. “Verl is not a lightweight in her style of play,” said Giannikis as a reason after the biggest defeat of the season. You have to be patient and not allow yourself to be lured out by such a strong team. Max Reinthaler said after the game, almost indignantly: “I think we have the only chance to score until the 30th minute.” It was actually the only chance, albeit a double chance from Julian Guttau and Thore Jacobsen (15th). “It’s not the case that you shoot them out of the stadium,” he added.
It’s clearly against the lion’s honor to base the game so heavily on, well, an outsider. On top of that, large gaps in the defense became apparent at times, as could be seen up in the stands. Immediately before the 2-0 lead, Sixty had one of the few dangerous penalty area scenes when he was outnumbered. The counterattack ran over six stations in 15 seconds, in which not a single player was attacked with the ball. Then Lars Lokotsch slotted in easily, goalkeeper and fan favorite Marco Hiller didn’t look good either. Julian Stark increased, and Leroy Kwadwo then scored an own goal (86′).
After Kozuki, managing director Werner also sees red
Losing 4-0, you could do that with unconditional attacking football, but then at least there would have been something going on in the stadium. This time Giannikis even tried to create even more stability (or boredom) by changing the system; So the 19-year-old, pitiful, decent Sean Dulic found himself in the middle of a three-man chain because Raphael Schifferl was injured in training on Friday. He did get an early yellow card (9th), but “I think he did very well, it wasn’t his fault,” said the coach. The fans would probably even digest an attack of youth madness from the coach in connection with a defeat better than the performance against Verl. “That has nothing to do with football,” sang someone in the main stand towards the end. Somewhere near the visitor Michael Köllner, by the way, who with his 1.73 points average in 133 sixty games now looks like a football sage who has been chased away from the court.
For a moment it seemed as if this increasingly lifeless Grünwald stadium could develop something like a Wagenburg atmosphere. There was great outrage when Soichiro Kozuki was shown red after half an hour because he hit Yari Otto above the ankle (30′), after a “switchover moment”, as Giannikis later said – one could also have said that Kozuki was after himself brought himself into the situation after a botched solo run. Managing director Christian Werner, who had recently written a letter to the DFB and talked about distortion of competition, then saw red immediately after Kozuki, apparently because of an insult to the assistant referee.
From the stands he saw the 0-1 for Verl by Dominik Steczyk (43′). But the outrage fizzled out and the team did not receive much support. After the game there was a short farewell to the players from the west curve, accompanied by whistles, where a banner with “Merry Christmas to all Lions fans” could be seen during the game. Maybe that’s how it is at sixty: when the staid time is over, things might get quieter again.
Giannikis football can certainly be successful, as the German-Greek, who took over the job on January 10th, has already shown, and the squad is strong enough on paper to play at the top of the third division. But how Giannikis football is supposed to arouse the enthusiasm that his fans need as urgently as the lion needs raw meat is a big mystery. Especially since there is only one game left at Erzgebirge Aue before the break.
#TSV #Munich #Outrage #Lost
