So we got 4 new players plus Heller who returned after one year in Duisburg plus some new young players who played under 18 before. Last season, it was often not easy to find 18 healthy players, now there are 30 players who all want to play.
After some discussion about Amanatidis’ role in the team (Skibbe prefers a defensive player as captain and made Spycher, picture above, the new captain, a decision that wasn’t appreciated by Amanatidis at all), the season could finally begin with our match against 3rd league team Offenbach, 50 years after we defeated them and became German champion. Skibbe decided to trust these 11 players: Nikolov – Ochs, Vasoski, Russ, Spycher – Schwegler – Teber, Koehler – Caio – Amanatidis, Meier. This happened to be our new core. Of course, Chris (still recovering and only playing 25 minutes in Offenbach), Fenin, Franz, Liberopoulos and Bajramovic played as well. But this is it, we can concede that Skibbe already found 16 players he can trust. That means, 14 players are still without any practice this season. All right, some (like Preuss or Faehrmann) are injured, but Proell, Bellaid, Petkovic, Jung, Korkmaz, Steinhoefer (who played in nearly every match last season, prepared lots of goals), Mahdavikia and Toski will be worried if it goes on like this. Bellaid meanwhile joined his former Club Strassburg. He will return next summer.
In Offenbach, we won 3:0. After a long time of struggling, it was easy only in the end. Schwegler (picture above) who seems to be a very gifted player, scored the first goal after a pass by Caio. Our number 30 from Brazil, who once again had problems with the lactate test but as the central play maker spread some great ideas, scored the second goal and Meier (new position: striker) the last one. Everybody was very relieved, it would have been an ugly start for the new coach to lose his first match against underdog Offenbach.
In Bremen, we saw one of the best Eintracht matches in the last years. Bremen, last years’ cup-winner and UEFA-cup-finalist won all the 4 other matches at the beginning of the season (15:3 goals), reached a tie in Munich – and lost 2:3 against us. Amanatidis scored very early and from that moment on, the ball circulated as not seen for a long time. Bremen is always able to score as well because of their offensive power. Oezil laid down in the penalty area after a contact with Vasoski, was rewarded with a penalty and scored. Everybody thought, the Bremen season finally had begun but we had the right answer. Amanatidis scored again and we prepared for a nice half-time. Right before the end of first half, Sanogo attacked Nikolov in his safe area and scored – the referee didn’t seem to notice. At this moment, we were shocked – in the end we didn’t really mind because there was still one goal to be made: Fenin (the substitute for Amanatidis who couldn’t go on and had already scored his second goal while being slightly injured) kicked the ball in after a corner kick and a header by Teber.
You can imagine the euphoria with which people waited for the next match. Soccer-Germany was talking about Eintracht for the whole week, we surprised everybody. And who next? Nurnberg, league-climber number 3. An easy match? Not at all, it was hot summer in Germany and even exhausting work just to watch this match in the stadium. Caio scored for us but our boys seemed to tire faster than the others. So in the end, 1:1 after a Nurnberg-goal by joker Bunjaku was a fair result.
In Cologne, we managed to remain unbeaten one more time while 13 of the other 18 teams were already beaten at least once. That was the good news – plus the fact that after months we managed finally once again not to get a goal against us. The bad news was that Cologne were the better team and that Ochs, one of my favorite players saw the red card for kicking Ehret from behind. He received a suspension for 4 matches because he already did this at the end of last season against Bremen and Ehret was even injured. Well, at least we know now that our guys can play well (Bremen) and that they can fight in the defense when short-handed.
Against Dortmund, Eintracht definitely should have won. It was a bit unjust to be left with an 1:1-tie in the end. Zidan scored for Dortmund (I feel like the quick little national player from Egypt always scores against us) and Amanatidis answered some minutes later with his already third goal this season. It was an interesting match, far more intensive than most of the matches we had to undergo last season. Amanatidis shot another goal which didn’t count because of offside. But it was a regular goal! Chris was fouled in the penalty area without any consequences. And in the last minute, a header by Meier hit the bar and jumped back into the field by centimetres.
It is kind of annoying to be the far better team without winning. 6 points out of 4 matches are not that sensational either. But we are one of 3 teams that still remain unbeaten this year. And we know already that we will see much better soccer this season than the last one. I consider that great news and look forward to the matches in September!
