ATuesday unstoppable fun-and-mood football, on Saturday consistent football work. Two days of work in Freiburg, which were worthwhile for RB Leipzig when looking at the range of their own possibilities. On Tuesday, they stormed into the DFB Cup final on June 3 with a 5-1 triumph and full of enthusiasm; on Saturday in the Bundesliga they fought a 1-0 win at SC Freiburg at the same venue with collective discipline and thus moved up from fifth place in the table to third place in the Champions League qualifier. Appropriate, as RB Leipzig has been one of the top three teams in the Bundesliga for several years, alongside the all-time champion FC Bayern Munich and the long-term pursuer Borussia Dortmund.
It’s no wonder that the Saxon delegation, under the athletic direction of their trainer Marco Rose, who was born in Leipzig, enjoyed the work trips to Breisgau. Substitute goalscorer Kevin Kampl, who saw his moment of glory as a chance to break up the mutually controlled zones of tight spaces and spotted open country ahead, made his way in the 73rd minute to score the goal of the day.
With a speed dribbling and solo run plus Freiburg support when the central defender Manuel Gulde, who was unintentionally brought into play by Kampl, played a one-two with the goal scorer, who then maneuvered the ball past goalkeeper Mark Flekken into the net. The Slovene, who grew up in the Rhineland, described the current situation in Leipzig with confidence after the two groundbreaking victories in southern Baden. “We can still make an outstanding season out of a season that we thought might be okay.”
Freiburg is the one who suffers
The expected participation in the Champions League in the coming season and the aspired title defense in the cup competition in the final against Eintracht Frankfurt make the Leipzigers, who until recently were prone to failure, on their feet. But now that stormy fine spirits like the long-injured Dani Olmo and Christopher Nkunku have returned and the absolute defensiveness in this highly talented collective is again noticeable, Rose’s ensemble is in full swing. “It was a good week for us overall,” said the visibly satisfied Leipzig coach after Kampl’s “great individual action” had also decided the league game in favor of RB.
Rose praised his team’s “patience” in a game “which, as expected, went differently than Tuesday”. The cup game revealed that his outstanding attackers Nkunku, Olmo, Szoboszlai or Werner can turn football games into celebrations. On Saturday, they proved with their clever defense and switching strategy that his defensive strategists Orban, Klostermann or Laimer can only withstand the sporadic pressure from the opponent.
The victims of Leipzig’s self-confidence this week were Freiburg, who with their unquestionable work ethic have placed themselves in the top flight of the Bundesliga. “We gave our all, but Leipzig’s win was deserved,” said coach Christian Streich, summing up a day when his team had recovered from the obvious cup defeat and, with the usual defensive diligence, blocked the superior opponent’s chances of scoring their own goal for a long time . However, without becoming a threat to the opponent. This time Streich was more important than the day’s result.
Streich’s message
After the unpleasant incidents surrounding the cup game, when beer mugs and coins were thrown onto the pitch, one of which hit the Leipzig attacker Silva, and freaking fans climbed over the fence to possibly storm the field, the coach praised the spectators this time . The Freiburg fans were like they always were at this venue: positively enthusiastic. “We have to keep it that way,” Streich warned, “everything else doesn’t work. Otherwise SC Freiburg’s excellent reputation, which this club has built up over the last thirty or forty years, will be ruined.”
This message was clearly more important to the soccer coach, who was warned again because of loud nagging, than all the questions that had revolved around the game. Whether SC Freiburg, currently fifth in the table, still has a chance of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time will probably be decided next Saturday when the team plays fourth-placed Union Berlin, the other surprise team in the higher areas of the table. This could be a duel among equals – unlike the recent encounters with RB Leipzig.
