The 0: 6 in Wolfsburg provides Christian Streich with fresh arguments for his warnings. That’s why the SC professionals were easy prey for VfL – and missed the majority of the fans after the final whistle.
The 0:6 also had to sink first: SC trainer Christian Streich.
IMAGO/Eibner
“It’s best if I don’t say anything, then I won’t say anything wrong.” At the beginning of the press conference, Streich briefly tried to cover the Freiburg industrial accident in Wolfsburg with a cloak of silence. But then the SC coach couldn’t help but clearly address some obvious things.
Before the 1-0 he had seen “a totally bad staggering” – no less than seven SC players were carelessly oriented forward with a long ball beyond the center line – and before the 2-0 “again very bad behavior from us”.
Summing up the messed up Saturday afternoon in the Autostadt was this realization: “We were so bad in duels, then you sometimes lose 0:6 against a team like that, although that has never happened to us before.”
Basic virtues were missing
5-0 Freiburg had already lost four away games under Streich, twice at Bayern, once in Mainz and once in Dortmund. In the 7-0 defeat in Munich on the fifth matchday of 2011/12 – the highest SC Bundesliga slap – Streich was still Marcus Sorg’s assistant coach.
The heaviest defeat in his eleven years as head coach happened because the SC pros lacked those basic virtues for which they have been praised for years and are now sometimes feared by opponents. Grippy duel behavior, clever room allocation, clear processes in build-up and attacking play, tactical discipline and consistent help from colleagues – almost all of these were only present in trace elements in Wolfsburg.
In such a case, even a team that previously had 30 points in 15 games is easy prey for an in-form, efficient opponent.
The measures and ideas of Streich and his coaching staff also came to nothing at VfL. Despite the 0: 3, the 57-year-old left his eleven unchanged at the start of the second half: “Our feeling said, let them keep playing like this for now. But that was also completely wrong, like everything we did obviously, including me,” Streich said, not sparing with self-criticism.
We needed two or three minutes to ourselves.
The coach also took responsibility for the missed meeting of most of the fans who had traveled with him and the team. “I told the guys to come into the dressing room immediately, we needed two or three minutes to ourselves.”
After that, the SC pros went to the block to say thank you, but many supporters had already left because the train home was leaving early. “That was more encouragement than banging on,” reports captain Christian Günter of the remarkable reactions of the remaining fans.
Günter and his colleagues, who are otherwise so reliable but particularly indisposed at VfL, are now called upon to make amends quickly. On Wednesday evening it’s against Frankfurt, the next top team. However, the SC pros have to show at least in terms of performance that the appearance in Wolfsburg was just a one-off, violent slip.
“If you lose in Wolfsburg – of course you can’t lose like that – but assuming you would also lose against Frankfurt, that would be relatively normal,” Streich said. Reinforced by the bitter, fresh arguments delivered by the gossip, Streich saw his warnings against VfL and his admonitions to modestly classify his team’s high soaring as confirmed. Some of them were recently interpreted as coquetry or annoying understatement.
“I said the whole time, make sure you all keep the ball flat,” he said on Sky about the many legitimate compliments for second place: “Now we all know again.” In a small group he followed up: “We have to know where we’re coming from. Everything went so well for us, we didn’t lose or even win many tight games. Whoever was behind us was completely crazy.”
However, the SC must not make himself smaller than he is. With all due respect for the great qualities of Frankfurt, it must now be the claim to be able to stand up to Eintracht in their own stadium.
Despite the 0: 6, Streich does not want to deviate from the usual preparation processes: “Make a video, talk to the boys and then kick the ball.” The performance should not spoil Streich’s otherwise pronounced desire to speak.
