02.11.2009
News-Archive

Bad Patch against Bavarians

There was a big downer felt by team, management and fans recently. What we had hoped would become our personal ‘Oktoberfest’ with two games against Bayern Munich in four days ended with two defeats.

The away game nearly got us a point when we went 1-0 up from a Meier goal and held on to a draw until the 88th minute, then Bayern scored the goal to win 2-1. The home game was disastrous though, in the cup tie against the Bavarians during a midweek game in Frankfurt last week Eintracht was 3-0 down after roughly half an hour. In the end we lost 0-4 – our biggest home defeat in the history of the cup.

 

Massive Attack?

That games against Bayern sparked a little debate about manager Skibbe’s announcement at the start of the season to play more attacking, especially at home, and to focus on a style of play that’s of a high technical standard. Possession, fluent circulation of the ball and a good passing had been improvements so far this season. It was a bit of a worry to see a decline in just that. During the first home win against Hannover, Eintracht had a passing success rate of 78%. Away to Munich it was 69% and in the cup game at home 72% - not good enough, especially not against a big club. We hardly had any chances either, and the question was raised whether the promised ‘massive attack’ of Eintracht might be a myth after all. I guess these things do take their time.

Pain Relief

 

The home win against VfL Bochum was a big relief, for the result but also for the attitude shown by the players, who made clear that they would want to overcome the disappointments of the recent time. It seems we inherited from last season that we hardly win against the bigger teams – the early away win to Werder Bremen might be the exception to that rule. We drew against Hamburg and lost against each Schalke, Stuttgart and Bayern. But it’s the teams ‘at eye level’ as we say in Germany, that we can beat and dominate. Apologies if I bore you with stats – against Bochum the passing success of Eintracht went up to 82%, we had six shots on target and Liberopoulos even hit the woodwork twice. It was great to see the flow of play being back. That should give the team a boost and hopefully will help to settle in the mid table region.

10th anniversary of the Eintracht Fan Club Schobberobber

On the 11th of November it will be 10 years back that our fanclub ‘EFC Schobberobber’ was founded. Congrats to my fellow Schobberobbers, enjoy the anniversary party where I’m sure lots of ‘Schobbe’ (regional applewine drink) will be ‘robbed’ (in this case not stolen but drank – lost in translation). The slightly unusual name for a football fanclub was recently discussed in German footie magazine ’11 Freunde’. Over the years we had some great events: highlights include the visits we payed to Frankfurt legend Alfred ‘Don Alfredo’ Pfaff, or hiring the classic tram ‘Applewine express’ en route to the stadium (mainly for games against Bayern). Always good fun are the away trips with other fan clubs. I also think that we’re the only suporter’s club having had a (half decent) demonstration of fellow fans against them, but it was all ended peacefully, not a single stone thrown ;-) As our president’s family owns a grove of apple trees we have been able to press our own ‘Schobbe’ (apple wine) for a number of years now. There seems to be an endless supply of this fine wine from the presis’s cellars.

 

I’d also like to raise an imaginary glass to our very special friend, Frankfurt fan and Schobberobber Ferit, who sadly died far too young.

International Newsflash

In their section ‘world digest’ the daily public transport newspaper METRO UK here in London had a note about Eintracht and the fact that they had pulled their kit from the market. Apparently tests had shown that the flock coating (numbers, names and sponsors on the shirts) was not the best for the family planning. Maybe that’s why a Chelsea based fertility clinic had advertised right next to the article.

Here’s the copy of the article:

and finally…

GERMANY: a top football team has withdrawn its kit after concerns it could make players impotent. adverts printed on the strip of Bundesliga team Eintracht Frankfurt contained chemicals which could take players off the scoresheet forever, according to scientists. But midfielder Umit Korkmaz said ‘several Wags got pregnant recently’.

 

While we love to see our club Eintracht Frankfurt in the international press I’m sure there are more important matters in the world. Simply check the other news – Obama and the American health system, dead or even murdered investor being found in his pool or the people of India holding a national day of protest - these are affairs surrounding the note about possible implications of wearing a Frankfurt shirt. Let’s hope Eintracht will be back in the international limelight for the right reasons soon –success in football or other sports (up to 22 different sports are offered at Eintracht), so let’s aim for the sports section of the newspaper next time!

By the way the chemicals only represent a slight danger for young children and therefore the player’s manlihood is not threatened. But at least we have learned a new footballing expression: ‘wag’ apparently stands for ‘footballers wife or girlfriend’.

Modern Times – Old School Eintracht
The man who took me to my first Eintracht game ever recently made his first visit to the ‘new’ stadium after a long period of absence. Dad – how on earth did you cope all those years? For the 2006 world cup in Germany our temple had been redesigned, changed completely and was obviously modernised in order to accommodate the biggest event of the footballing world. It was also given a new name, they ‘officially’ changed it from ‘Waldstadion’ (forest stadium) to something else. Well the fans still call it Waldstadion. I took this opportunity to ‘interview’ my old man to see what he thought of his latest Eintracht live experience.

“It was a crazy game I went to, the 6-4 in the cup against Alemannia Aachen. It was a high scoring result and the diva Eintracht made it fairly uneasy for us once again with letting Aachen get as close to a draw as 5-4 after being 5-1 up, the winner was only scored in the dying moments of the game. But the atmosphere was fantastic, it is great to have a pure football stadium without athletic tracks, and the noise is kept much more in the ground, plus the fans are much closer to the action. The choreographed coloured display the fans put on show before kick-off looked amazing. Personally I don’t need all that modern nonsense like the high tech video screen, and I think the plastic cards for buying drinks and Bratwurst are a bit of a rip off with their minimum top up fee.”

 

“My first Eintracht games I had seen at the Riederwald club premises as a boy, long before they moved the games completely to the Waldstadion. The latter was also the place where I trained for my sports studies and exams, and I have great memories connected to the venue. At some stage in the 60es they started to bring in other events, i.e. Muhammed Ali was fighting Karl Mildenberger here once, and rock concerts started also to be held in the ground. But the finest music was to be listened when Eintracht had one of those days. An absolute highlight was the 5-1 against Bayern in the UEFA-Cup final in 1980, after losing 2-0 away in the first leg we scored the 2-0 at home in the 87th minute and went to extra time. Harald Karger aka Schaedel-Harry (Heading Harry) scored twice and we sent them home with a 5-1 defeat and went to the final. I remember an Italian fan completely losing it and hugging everyone in the stand, jumoing up and down. The final itself is also a great memory – winning the trophy in 1980 v Moenchengladbach! Triumphs against Bayern are always something special, so was the 6-0 in 1975 where we went 5-0 up within 45 minutes. Apparently all time Eintracht legend Juergen Grabowski told Bayern keeper and Germany hero Sepp Maier at halftime that he obviously only touched the ball when picking it out of his net. But there was also the 9-2 against Werder Bremen in 1982.”

“Eintracht always had great players to watch, might it be Alfred Pfaff in the old days, or that very special period in the 70es and 80es with heroes like Grabowski, Nickel, Pezzey, Hoelzenbein, Neuberger or Korean striker Bum-Kun Cha (a TV commentator once said ‘No one heads the ball more beautifully!’). The Hungarian Lajos Detari was also a player who could make a difference, although he only played for one season at Eintacht. He left after scoring the winning goal in the German cup final for us – our last trophy until today.”

Thanks for taking the time Dad, and hopefully see you at the temple Waldstadion again very soon!!

Enjoy Tim’s interview, keep the faith in the Eagles and support them - wherever you are!