Syou had to wait a long time. A full 21 years. When Eintracht Frankfurt achieved their last victory so far (with goals from Alexander Schur and Jan-Age Fjörtoft) at Bayern Munich on November 18, 2000, Kevin Trapp was ten years old and had just graduated from the F-Juniors of FC Brotdorf, a club in Saarland Melzig, switched to SSV Bachem. Later he went via SV Mettlach to the Palatinate for 1. FC Kaiserslautern, where he then laid the foundation for his professional career. As such, the goalkeeper played a decisive role in the recent triumph of the German record champions on Sunday.
The game on Sunday evening, which the Hessians won 2: 1 like 21 years ago, is likely to be one of the best of the now 31-year-old. Because it was Trapp who not only kept his team in the game with countless great saves, but also unnerved the opponents who kept running up.
20: 5 shots on goal, 72 percent possession
Whatever Bayern tried, whether with his foot or with his head, Trapp parried sensationally, for example against Robert Lewandowski, when he defended his header with his right foot in the 56th minute. He only had to admit defeat in the 29th minute when Leon Goretzka gave Bayern the lead (29th).
Otherwise, Trapp brought the hosts to despair with his brilliant performance – whether it was the players on the pitch or those responsible who were watching from outside. Incidentally, two of them, sports director Hasan Salihamidzic and sports director Oliver Kahn, were in the Munich starting line-up in November 2000.
Now they had to watch as their team suffered a defeat for the first time after nine competitive game successes under the new coach Julian Nagelsmann. “Earned or not doesn’t really matter, in the end we lost. Defeat always hurts, ”said coach Nagelsmann after the game, in which his team was able to score 20: 5 shots on goal and a ball possession rate of 72 percent, but at the same time proved that good statistics are not necessarily enough for a win. Especially not when the opponent can count on a strong goalkeeper and also proves to be efficient in using his own scoring opportunities.
Just three minutes after the Munich team had taken the lead, Martin Hinteregger headed a free-standing corner to make it 1-1, before Filip Kostic made it 2-1 seven minutes before the end. “We shot a game in Munich, that has to give us a lot of boost,” said Trapp, who was not responsible for the upcoming international matches in the World Cup qualification against Romania (October 8) and North Macedonia (October 11) by national coach Hansi Flick last week. ) was nominated.
“Kevin has great quality”
After the return of the most recently injured Marc-André ter Stegen, Flick had given preference to Bernd Leno in the choice of the third keeper behind Manuel Neuer. “Of course I’m disappointed. Of course, my goal is to be part of the national team, ”said Trapp on Sunday after the game, which Flick had watched from the stands in the presence of his assistant Danny Röhl. But he knows, according to Trapp, what he is able to achieve.
At Eintracht, where 14 players went to their national teams on Monday, Trapp will instead train in the coming days and prepare for the upcoming tasks. With the victory in Munich, the first of the current season, the Hessians hope for a boost.
“I have to give the team a huge compliment. We had a fantastic goalkeeper. We are incredibly happy with this win, ”said coach Oliver Glasner. In the summer he had followed Adi Hütter, who had left Borussia Mönchengladbach, as coach. Markus Krösche had come for sports director Fredi Bobic, who now works for Hertha BSC, the next opponent for Frankfurt.
The Glasner / Krösche duo experienced a mixed start. A first round out in the DFB Cup at third division Mannheim was followed by only moderate appearances in the league with five draws and one defeat. There was criticism, including of Trapp. Hope for improvement made the 1-0 last week in the Europa League at Royal Antwerp – and now the victory in Munich.
“We are of course very happy about the win, also considering that we didn’t have an easy start to the season. After the win in Antwerp, this lucky punch was important in the league, especially since we had invested a lot beforehand, but unfortunately didn’t reward ourselves. Now it is important that we continue to work hard and continue to drive development on the pitch, ”said sports director Krösche on Monday to WELT.
Regarding Matchwinner Trapp, Krösche added: “Kevin showed great quality and impressively how valuable he is to the club. He’s not a national goalkeeper for nothing. I am also happy for him about this victory because, in my opinion, he has come off too badly in the past few weeks. “
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