The idea wasn’t a good one, but it was probably well-intentioned. But as tempting as the prospect of Christmas presents from the players was, only a few hundred Hoffenheim fans complied with the stadium announcer’s request to “stay seated a little longer” after the final whistle. From their point of view, the sight of the 8,000 Gladbach supporters celebrating was too depressing, singing about the “greatest club in the world” and its near future in the “European Cup” and praising goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas as the man who secured the 2-1 win Sinsheim had secured with a few great saves.
It wasn’t just Gladbach’s completely hoarse sports director who saw Hoffenheim as a “better team” that was already “much better in terms of football” than “the standings in the table say”. Otherwise, Roland Virkus was completely happy about a successful afternoon in which a strange record was broken: after 1009 days, Borussia achieved two league wins in a row within one season for the first time. And the atmosphere was also right: “The boys felt at home, our fans roared Hoffenheim to death,” said Virkus, who, despite all the praise for TSG, also noted that “a change of coach doesn’t have to be a panacea.”
In fact, the hosts, who replaced Pellegrino Matarazzo with Christian Ilzer in mid-November, were not spared a few unpleasant questions that arise from the standings in the table: Anyone who has 14 points after 15 match days can be lucky that they are still in 15th place stands. Midfielder Paul Stach answered the question of whether the notoriously underperforming team, which has been in the first division since 2008, would be in the relegation battle, as succinctly as it was logical: “We have to.”
However, at the end of the year the question arises as to how this team will resolve a discrepancy that has been their loyal companion for more than just this weekend. “The performance doesn’t match the result,” said Ilzer, not for the first time on Saturday. “We’ve never led since I’ve been here.”
The fact that TSG missed the opportunity to achieve a somewhat conciliatory end to the year with a win was partly due to reasons that had to be located in their own penalty area. After Philipp Sander scored for Gladbach and Andrej Kramaric equalized with a penalty, Alassane Plea’s 1:2 was pretty significant here. Alexander Prass and Kevin Akpoguma shared the assist thanks to convincingly demonstrated passivity. The much bigger problem, the “lack of efficiency” that Ilzer complained about, had several fathers: Tom Bischof, in whom FC Bayern is said to be interested, Anton Stach, Adam Hlozek, Haris Tabakovic and Andrej Kramaric had good opportunities, too which was actually a good sign – were all played out. But anyone who doesn’t score after half a dozen good chances is definitely not just unlucky.
In Sinsheim they are now looking for a man for the storm
Anyone who saw how pitifully Hlozek missed his chance and how Kramaric almost shot over the strong Gladbach keeper Nicolas from close range can understand why they are currently looking for a man for the attack in Sinsheim. Here, too, the summer has an impact, when long-time sports director Alexander Rosen was fired in the middle of the transfer period and coach Matarazzo then bought a few mostly expensive players in a somewhat panicked manner.
The question of what the coaching change has achieved so far is easier to answer at first glance than at second glance. There has been one win, three draws and four defeats across all competitions under Ilzer so far, with five points from seven Bundesliga games. Predecessor Matarazzo had to leave after nine points from ten games. At second glance, which also takes into account the part of the 90 minutes that is cut out of summaries, progress can definitely be seen. TSG also played simply good football on Saturday, at least “between the two sixteen,” as the new managing director Andreas Schicker, who also came from Graz, admitted.
And something else stands out: While TSG has often indulged in alibi football after falling behind in recent months, on Saturday, just as when they were 1-0 down in Dortmund, you couldn’t deny that they seriously wanted to force an equalizer. BVB managed to catch up, but not against Gladbach. Which is why, at the end of a messed up first half of the season, Hoffenheim is in the middle of a relegation battle, along with competitors like Kiel and St. Pauli. They hardly have the better players in any position – but they won their games at the weekend.
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