Second Chances for First Place

I think that Dieter stole a good-luck charm from Uli at a Hoeness family gathering. Just as I was lamenting our time on top of the table lasting only a week, results conspire to go our way and we’re back again. That sort of luck usually only happens for the elder Hoeness, but that seems to be the way things are going for us now.

Luck was the name of it this weekend- luck in seeing both Hoffenheim and Bayern Munich draw while Hamburg fell to Wolfsburg (surprise challengers themselves?), as well as luck of our own in overturning a spirited Borussia Mönchengladbach.

We had a strong opening half and were two goals up before the break. The first came from a long ball expertly controlled by Andriy Voronin, who fired past ‘Gladbach’s rising-star goalkeeper Logan Bailly on 28th minute. The Belgian had no chance. Andriy’s looking pretty unstoppable right now- I hope that Liverpool aren’t paying attention. A minute before the halftime break- always a fine time to score- Patrick Ebert set up our stalwart Pal Dardai to score the second goal, a powerful shot past Bailly’s near post.

So, two goals up, things going well. But relegation-fighting-expert Hans Meyer (hell, he saved us from it back in 2004) must have said something to his team, because they came out better. Their own stalwart Oliver Neuville perked them up, and he went close to scoring twice before Arne Friedrich theoretically brought down Marko Marin in the area. The resulting penalty was converted by the lively American Michael Bradley. The visitors had the bit in their teeth and threw everything they had at us, but poor finishing and Jaroslav Drobny kept them away. We even had a couple chances at the end to score a third, with both Domovchiyski and Voronin missing pretty good chances. In the end, though, we ended up wrapping up the points and returning to the top.

How long will it last this time? Who even knows any more? It’s getting harder to say we aren’t legitimate candidates, though. I want to advocate restraint, because there are twelve games left and I’m superstitious…but. The players themselves are starting to talk. Immediately after the whistle was blown at the ‘Gladbach game, flush with emotion, big Joe Simunic pledged that of the twelve remaining games, we would win eight. And then we’d be at the top still, and we’d celebrate at the city hall. True, it was in the heat of the moment, and not the sort of thing that he would have said in an interview, or any situation where he wasn’t standing in front of thousands of screaming fans, but he hasn’t backed down. I am superstitious, but…you’ve got to dream big sometimes, right? (Lulu, to his credit, is not saying anything of the sort and is still talking about ensuring UEFA Cup qualification. Solid head on his shoulders, that Lucien Favre.)

If we do manage to stay in the top 3, or hell, win the Bundesliga, the immediate prize will be money. As it stands, we have none. In fact, if we don’t make Europe at all, we’ll probably have to sell someone off to meet the budget we’re going to be presenting to the league shortly. We certainly won’t have the funds to keep our on-fire Ukrainian. Andriy’s done wonderfully for us, particularly of late. The fans like him and he loves Berlin. Other clubs- Hamburg, Valencia- are interested in him, but he’s said that if he can, he wants to stay in Berlin. As it stands now, we probably can’t keep him. If we make the Champions League, though, we will.

Cross your fingers, it won’t be easy. There are tough games coming up, especially away. The next game is one of them- our bottom-of-the-table bogey-team neighbors Energie Cottbus. But according to Joe, we only need eight wins. Maybe we can write that one off.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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