An Eintracht Braunschweig thread, feat. your host Alex_K [R]

Bah, not a good game. They overdid the sitting back and didn't attack Bayern enough (kudos for other than that keeping the same general tactics as usual, though). They generally did well in keeping Bayern from getting scoring chances, but after the two penalties any possible intensity was out of the game. But I'm glad that this didn't happen in an important game - a loss at the right time, so they can prepare to take on Frankfurt.

And god, I hate Gerd Gottlob. This side of Werner Hansch, there's no one worse, not even JBK.

 

Eintracht has problems getting into the game against top teams - after Bayern also seen against Frankfurt now (the injury crisis in defence doesn't help either - now the backups to the backups are playing ). That's not that big a deal, though - everyone as to keep in mind that half of the team is playing their first ever season at this level (and of the other half, only very few ever played regularily at such a level). Neither Bayern or Frankfurt are the teams to beat this season. That the team can hang in with teams with a sligthly lower payroll than Frankfurt they have alrady shown.

Attendance has been nice so far - 22.800 average in the first two league games ain't bad.

 

Now keeper Petkovic is injured - definitely out for the next game . Thankfully we aren't Leverkusen and have thought of a back up .

 

I'm not that concerned with the quality of the remaining players - everyone is good enough to step in when needed. But missing the goal keeper and the 3 most experienced players in defence at the same time... against Karlsruhe there will likely be an inexperienced GK (Davari, 4 pro games) with two inexperienced CBs (Correia, 3 pro games + another one, there's more than one option at least).

 

Eintracht always loses in Karlsruhe, it's probably a natural law or something.

 

Some surprising line-up changes today - but they worked out very well! And of course the first Eintracht win Karlsruhe in living memory... the team can hang in with almost every team in the league. The usual pessimists here came out again after the Frankfurt game, demanding new players and stuff. But fact is, neither Bayern or Frankfurt are exactly your typical 2nd Bundesliga team, so losing against those was never an indicator of the team being doomed.

Changes today:

Davari (in goal) and G. Korte starting, both with their first 2. Bundesliga game (two players subbed in, Unger and Turan, also made their debuts at this level - while Turan is still young, Unger is a more unusual case, being 30 and in his first Bundesliga level season).

Boland moved to defense, and the formation was changed to include two d-mids (Pfitzner and Vrancic). This avoided the problem of having too many inexperienced players in defence, as Reichel was simply moved to CB, and Boland replaced Reichel.

Good changes by the coach, and I admit I wouldn't have made those in his position.

 

All we need are about 40 points - if we get 25 until matchday 12 and 15 from the last 22 matches I'd still be happy.

 

Well, as I said - as long as we get the points... and you really have to try to get relegated directly these days. Since the latest league reform no team on a direct relegation spot had more than 31 points (although of course you want to avoid the play-off as well - but 40 points should still be more than enough for this).

 

Eintracht really, really lacks a player who can consistently score from the spot. For years now you get the feeling a penalty is only a 50-50 chance to score Other than that, a draw is ok - going into the season with mostly the same team as last year always meant that many players would have to adapt to the new level.

The injury wave continues - now Pfitzner was out, and Vrancic had to be subbed out early as well. Intrestingly though, all but 4 players in the squad have already played a league match (Dogan certainly would have by now if he hadn't been injured).

 

Let's be honest here: I love beating St. Pauli.

More importantly however - Eintracht kept one of the league's top teams from playing their game.

Davari so far has gotten a lot of praise - while Petkovic is still injured right now, there might be a change of strating keeper in the future.

 

Welcome, make yourself at home. Try the nuts.


Wasn't much to talk about the last game, the rather anticlimatic 0:0 in Rostock. Dogan is back training with the team, so that's some news at least.

 

3:1 over Cottbus. The second goal was textbook Eintracht. I predicted Eintracht to adapt well even before the season, but they play even more consistent than I would have thought.

Kumbela's send off was ridiculous, though - he got his first yellow for not even taking off his shirt after his goal, he just pulled it over his head. The second foul, ok, but it wasn't that bad either. Given the very soft yellow he got a few minutes earlier the refree could very well have done without giving him a yellow-red.