September
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We started off the month with a game against FC Würzburger Kickers. On paper this should be an easy win for us in reality it was much harder then I would have liked.
Make no mistake, we were the dominant team despite having less possession. We creating a good amount of chances (19) of which 8 were on target, it was just our finishing that let us down. In the end it was again Özcan who managed to come through for us to secure us our deserved win.
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Then came Dynamo Dresden. Playing away against Dresden was always going to be difficult, I knew that, but our performance was simply pathetic.
For most of our matches this season we have had less possession then our opponents but managed to create almost double the amount of chances resulting in us scoring quite a few goals. In this game we were again the underlying team possession wise but unlike other games we simply didn't create the chances.
Right before half time, literally the 45th minute, we had a chance to equalise as we got a penalty. Unfortunately Özcan missed.
Up until that point we didn't deserve anything but one has to wonder what a goal for us would have meant for the rest of the match... still we didn't score and so we lost deservedly to a very strong Dresden side.
In this game, our striker Terodde got injured again, (deja vu much?) and he'll be out for a few weeks...
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Right before the game against Dresden one of our central backs, Kaminski got injured
View attachment 118349Rather unfortunate given that I had just implemented a tactic with 3 at the back.
As a result Baumgartl took his place. The reason for my change of tactics was mostly the game against Dresden but the previous games against Union and Wurzburg also played a part. I felt that we weren't as dominant and something definitely had to change.
In this game it definitely looked like our change worked as we played a wonderful game of football, beating a mediocre Kaiserslautern side rather comfortably. It could just be a fluke since Kaiserslautern have been disappointing so far this season but it could also be the start of something good...
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Was the game against Kaiserslautern a fluke or not? We'd find out against Bochum in our next match.
We started the game in brilliant fashion as we managed to score 2 goals within the first 22 minutes. Both goals were the result of a set piece but it was pleasing to see nonetheless.
Sadly then it all went wrong as Insua got himself a red card 43 minutes in the game resulting in us being a man down for an entire half, could we hold on?
Yes, we could. We defended with 5 at the back for almost an entire half but didn't give away anything resulting in us getting a hard fought 2-0 win.
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In last months update I said that we were going to play 4 games in september, somehow I managed to overlook the game against Bielefeld so my apologies.
Following our confident performances against teams like Kaiserslautern and Bochum I felt that we should certainly be able to get a good result against a team like Bielefeld.
As you can see from the match report I seriously underestimated them. Bielefeld started the game much better then us and took a deserved lead in the 24th minute. We had real difficulty finding a way through and it took a superb free kick from Maxim to get us level.
In the second half the game continued to be very close with neither team managing to make the game theirs resulting in a disappointing 1-1 draw.
September Review
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5 games played, 3 won, 1 drawn and 1 loss. Overal I'd call it a pretty disapointing month. The game against Wurzburg was much more difficult then I would have liked, the loss against Dresden was simply pathetic from our side. Then came 2 really strong games against Kaiserslautern and Bochum before getting a mediocre point from our game against Bielefeld.
If we want to be champions we have to do better no doubt about it.
Here is the table with September over:
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As you can see we are still in the top 3, only 1 point behind Heidenheim and Greuther Furth.
A Look Ahead: October
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October will see us play a total of 4 games (for real this time
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2 of those games are against St. Pauli, one in the 2. Bundesliga and one in the DFB Pokal.
We'll also play against 1.FC Nurnberg and 1860 Munich.
Can we give a more confident performance next month, if we want to win the league we'll certainly have to.