OL 10/11 Game 1: TeBe vs Brandenburg Süd

[Doughnut Boy Andy]

Match 1: Tennis Borussia vs Brandenburg Süd

Result: TeBe 2 - Brandenburg 5

Team: Filatow - Demirel, J. Bah, Touré, Kirstein - Tokgöz, Türkoglu, Kapli, Akbulut (Cubukcu) - Condé - Günes (Türkkan)

Goals: 0:1 Wedemann, 1:1 Condé, 1:2 (Penalty) Kahlert, 1:3 Wedemann, 1:4 Voß, 1:5 Polster, 2:5 Condé

Attendance: 482

For the first time that I can remember the kick off was postponed by fifteen minutes because of the queues at the turnstiles. Sure there were a lot of people getting their season tickets but the attendance figure speaks for itself - TeBe have managed to create a little public interest.

The weather was quite terrible, almost enough to make me a little homesick, with rain pouring from the heavens and puddles collecting on the running track. The more traditional Block E was abandonned for the covered stand and this added to the noise and the atmosphere.

With the squad thrown together on a shoe string budget just a few weeks ago nobody was expecting very much from them last night. There is no depth to the team as far as extra players go, we only managed to play three pre-season friendlies and the club has no resources for stars. TeBe's hope this season is merely to avoid relegation - the Hapoel Petah Tikvah of the Oberliga - and although some paperwork may still have to be finished to add a few new faces to the squad, what you see is basically what we will get.

To make last night's game even tougher we were playing a team that has advanced a long way since we last met them in this league. Brandenburg Süd played a great Oberliga season last year and finished third in the table just below BFC and Cottbus 2. It was a game we were never expecting to win and a good test to find out what needs to be improved before the more important games against directer rivals. A trouncing or injuries were to be avoided - any other expectations would have been unfair.

It was roughly a game of two halves, the first fourty minutes or so saw us playing extremely defensively trying to avoid the worst. The end of the first and the second half saw us caught napping but gradually testing more up front, pushing forward and being a little more daring.

It seemed like an age that we managed to hold out and keep the game at 0-0 but it may have been just fifteen minutes or so. This created a very one sided match with Brandenburg attacking and TeBe doing little more than furious defending. Once we went a goal down there was a slightly more noticable push forward but rather surprisingly our first goal of the new season was a counter attack... and what a great goal it was, a nice quick run, precise cross and an ice cold finish...bang in she went. The atmosphere on the stand was electric. But while everyone was still celebrating, the referee decided that Brandenburg deserved a penalty - even to the amazment of their fans and some of their players - and we were 1-2 down. The team pushed forward again but half time came with no further goals.

The immediate start of the second half saw us asleep at the back and our guests scored with most of us not even having realised that the game had restarted... but the second half was in some ways better. Sure we lost it 1-3 as opposed to 1-2 but the goal right after the break is an error the lads will hopefully remember and with the game well and truly beyond us at three one down we could play a little more football. Certainly there were some terrible mistakes, some awful passes and some bad communication but the team has not played together for more than a few weeks. Quick counter attacks looked dangerous but midfield passing lost us the ball too often and the defence held out for long periods but made the odd errors that ultimately Brandenburg took advantage of four times (maybe five but i do not think anyone there but the referee himself knew why a penalty was given... perhaps Bierverteiler saw?).

The support was actually worth mentioning because at the end of the game the team were cheered off the pitch after a 2-5 home defeat... in fact the first half the support was great and even if it relaxed a little in the second then it picked up again for the last ten minutes or so, despite or perhaps even because of the score. Nobody were expecting anything from the team to be honest and they managed to avoid a public humiliation last night against a team that will surely be aiming for promotion not praying to avoid relegation.

So what is the general opinion? Well TeBe deserved to lose but 2-5 was probably a very fair result. If the penalty had not been given and if they had not slept for the first minute of the second half then they could have made life hard for Brandenburg... as it was though our guests defeated us easily and despite the awful weather undoubtedly being a leveller in our favour we were outplayed by a better team. Luckily for us we have two weeks time now to prepare for our next game and this could be a crucial one against Lichterfelder, a team that only finished twelfth last season, a real six pointer. By then we may possibly have the last few faces to add to our squad but there is no avoiding the fact that this season is tough.

The optimist in me sees that the morale seems good and that these are a bunch of lads with some genuine potential and skill in there that will surely start to gel together. There is a nice feel about the club and among the fans that the Weinkauf era and so many of the mistakes of the past may finally be behind us, our trainer seems down to earth and determined to make what he can out of the squad and we avoided humiliation and injuries meeting up to all of our highest aims for the day... but the pessimist in me realises that this means bollocks in the table at the end of the season, that morale and determination are not the same as goals and points. With such a small squad any little injuries will have serious effects on the team and we are so very far behind with the season preperation that it will be hard to catch up. Perhaps Brandenburg just went easy on us by the end and we were not actually that good or perhaps that was the standard of this season's league? Certainly we were the cause of their goals and rarely looked dangerous up front and if we concede goals and don't create good chances then we are going to find it tough to beat even the worst teams.

This season is going to be tough - perhaps impossible - but it will be crucial and certainly exciting.

Next match: Saturday 21.08.10 14:00 Lichterfelder FC - Tennis Borussia

[Belfast Lila-Weisser]

Top report DBA, more of these please!

Oh, and get this onto the Party Army blog and get it back to life!