Five minutes before the end, a snowstorm suddenly set in over the Grünwald stadium, as if the higher powers wanted to say: stop it, it doesn’t make any sense anymore!
In fact, nothing worth mentioning happened down on the lawn, TSV 1860 Munich only had a half chance in the so important third division game against their pursuer Dynamo Dresden and lost 1: 2 (1: 0). And the fans apparently lost faith that promotion to the second division could still happen. Outraged shouts were heard as the players headed towards the dressing room, helplessness reflected on their faces. “We have to put our heads together as a team,” said midfielder Tim Rieder when asked how things should continue after just one win in the past seven games. However, after this defeat on Monday evening, it was still up in the air how things will continue with the coach Michael Köllner.
Nine days earlier, in the 2-1 win against FSV Zwickau, the sixties had played on frozen grass covered with snow – and at least in phases they had played something like a combination game again. Nine days later, the ground looked lush green like in midsummer – and for a few minutes it actually looked as if the sixties had finally shed their autumn blues. The guests from Dresden didn’t get over the center line at first, Sixty won almost every duel. In order to be successful, however, it does not always require a combination game, sometimes a single, ball-safe player who has planned something is enough. In the fifth minute, Albion Vrenezi grabbed the ball near the halfway line and sprinted, and the 29-year-old fired a perfect shot from the edge of the box that smacked the inside post and went into the net for the acclaimed lead. But: “After 20 minutes you still haven’t won a game,” the scorer later summed up himself.
“We were unsorted in the chain,” said Köllner afterwards, “bitter that we gave this game away.”
But as the game went on, the lions fell back into the behavior patterns of the past few weeks. Suddenly, the ball was regularly lost in their own half again, goalkeeper Marco Hiller showed weaknesses when it came to freeing shots, and the hosts were no longer in possession of the ball for longer periods of time. And this time Raphael Holzhauser radiated little sovereignty, it was an unfortunate performance by the veteran. Dresden came into the game better and better, but it also became more and more heated. Not only Phillipp Steinhart and Semi Belkahia saw yellow, but also the former sixty man Manuel Schäffler, who was on the bench for Dresden.
At the beginning, Stefan Lex, Jesper Verlaat and Marcel Bär were the captain, the chief of defense and the top scorer of the past season. Lex and Verlaat came on as substitutes in the second half, again the first few minutes were the most striking, Leandro Morgalla and Verlaat heading home (47′, 49′). But the equalizer in the 56th minute was deserved at this point: Holzhauser and Steinhart let Ahmet Arslan cross unhindered from the edge of the box, Verlaat apparently speculated on offside – but Stefan Kutschke sneaked up at exactly the right moment and headed the ball to make it 1-1 a. “We were unsorted in the chain,” said Köllner afterwards, “bitter that we gave this game away.”
A splashing of the game was initially only prevented by grumbling from the ranks and pack formations on the pitch. The guests remained more dangerous, also because there were always gaps in the defensive midfield of the sixties. This was also the case in the 76th minute, when Niklas Hauptmann was able to get through to Dennis Borkowski, who kept his nerve in a one-on-one with Hiller. Dresden had turned the game. Bär, who came on later, headed the goal again too centrally (85th), the rest was flurry.
When asked how things are going for himself, Köllner only said: “The team will do everything to win away from home.” You go to Oldenburg together at the weekend. It sounded like he was going with me.
