OL 10/11 Game 19: Celebrating campaign's first away victory!

[mr. bungle]

Good things come to those who wait - it can be confirmed by TeBe Supporters that this is more than just a trashy Ketchup advertising slogan from the 80s or some buddhist sounding silly saying. No, it's simply the naked truth, especially if you are a football, or - even better - a tennis fan! Having accompanied their team to faraway places like Torgelow, Rostock and Neustrelitz just to witness fierce defeats with goal differences up to seven, the never surrendering Party Army had really deserved a sense of achievement in so long. After some new signings (and leavings as well) during the mid-season-break and the first two games of 2011 being rescheduled due to heavy drizzle showers :), everyone was curious about how the team would perform at the crucial six-pointer against the bottom club Ludwigsfelder FC who had the chance of overtaking TeBe with a win, whereas TeBe was aiming at increasing the gap between both relegation battlers. And, as you probably know, they succeeded!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend the match, but as for instance Norbert reports in the German speaking section, this victory seems to have been a really deserved one. TeBe obviously had some difficulties in the beginning of the game, acting nervously, losing many balls a.s.o.. But after about 15 minutes they began dominating the match and were even able to - which TeBe Fans so far have not been used to from away matches - create themselves several goalscoring chances. As we learned from the TeBe Radio, the team seems to have worked on its short passing game quite a lot during the break and does not operate with long distance balls any more like it did during the season’s first half, which didn’t really match to the types of players we have in the squad. As more it’s almost ironic that the first TeBe goal was coming about from a header. Obviously not in the classical way but more as as a hook header after the Ludwigsfelder defense players were already heading forward after actually having defused the danger of an TeBe attack. After TeBe had regained the ball the Ludwigsfelder were expecting the referee to blow the whistle for offside. Which luckily did not take place, so the TeBe new arrival Mateusz Trachimowicz was taking the chance for his debut goal.

Subsequently it was Ludwigsfeldes turn again to dominate the game, but luckily without getting very dangerous for Kotti’s goal. After a period of about ten minutes TeBe managed to accelerate the pace again which immediately turned into something countable: A delivery was finding Kim who, according to the TeBe Radio, seems to be kind of "new-born" after the break and exactly knew what to do, first outwitting his counter player and then placing a 10 meter shot close to the near post, which was immediately followed by the half-time whistle, leaving the TeBe crowd very happily into the break. Two goals, I already mentioned this, in 45 minutes – that was exactly the same number of goals which TeBe accomplished to score in all previous away games of the season summed up. So every away supporter was really yearning for that feeling of seeing the ball fidgeting in the net (or however this most beautiful situation is expressed in English). And being that harmless in the attacking play was of course encouraging most of the opponents to put high pressure on the TeBe defensive which often wasn't able to resist that constant stress successfully.

With the beginning of the second half, lots of the TeBe supporters, quite typical for them, hadn’t yet moved away from the beer stall, as goal number three was taking place. Once again it was Jae-Sung Kim who succeeded: His height of about 170cm didn’t prevent him from scoring by header after a long "high" ball into the box. Maybe we actually have more kick-and-rush-qualities than we always thought? Come on, Teddy, abandon that short-passing bullshit! Just kidding...

The rest of the game saw several further TeBe chances so that even a much higher victory would have been possible - Tokgöz for instance was only hitting the bar with a long-range shot, another one by Zemlin could be cleared off the line by a Ludwigsfelde defender as the keeper was already beaten. These wasted chances were of course not diminishing the (even for radio listeners) audible joy of the Party Army. One really can be happy and relieved about this crucial victory which might have already been a sort of deathblow to Ludwigsfelde whereas TeBe at least managed to advance to place 14 in the table. Rising up higher was prevented by an unexpected Lichterfelde win against the (former?) top team of Brandenburg Süd, but at least we have left the two definite relegation places. (The 14th of the north and the south division will have to play off a decider under certain circumstances, depending on how many teams are going to come down from the Regionalliga. Insofar not really advisable to stay there).

All told, the result and the way it was (according to the eye witnesses) accomplished let hopes rise that the low-budget new signings of the winter break have been well chosen by the coaching staff, that the quality has improved and that our team will be able to accomplish the unexpected, namely to avoid relegation. Of course one will have to await how much the work of the recent weeks will even pay off against stronger opponents than Ludwigsfelde. But compared to the 1:1-draw of the first leg (with one player down certainly) some progress seems to have taken place within the team. They now have the certainty that good work is rewarded which will encourage them to proceed with these efforts. And as a fan you can simply enjoy the feeling of this unvulnerable victory for some days. To quote the already mentioned Heinz spot once again: It’s worth the wait!

So far my little résumé - entirely based on second hand information, but we have reported about so many losses here, so the good news has to be spreaded as well... Witnesses of the match are of course welcome to correct things or endorse important facts!

Next fixture takes place on Sunday at 2 p.m., which will delight the TeBe supporters who have family and usually don't like the Friday "late night" matches that much, against Greif Torgelow.