Felix Thiel is in the air, the ball bounces off his foot against the crossbar, and FV Illertissen has won the Toto Cup, the Bavarian football association cup, again. And again in penalties. It’s a déjà vu for the goalkeeper and for many of the spectators, Thiel also saved two shots in the final last year. And because this 4: 3 win (0: 0 after 90 minutes) against the third division club FC Ingolstadt also means participation in the next DFB Cup competition, one can say that this participation is gradually becoming a main source of income for the Swabian regional league club becomes.
Of course, it was also a déjà vu for Michael Köllner. In the season that has now ended, he lost twice with a professional team in Illertissen. At the end of September, 1860 Munich showed a strangely discouraged performance, in that phase the lions played worse and worse until Köllner had to leave after the winter break.
So why do higher-class teams generally find it so difficult in Illertissen? “There are a few factors that come together,” explains Köllner, for example the grass is “insanely dull”, plus the tartan track, all things that you don’t find in professional sport, and his team failed to accept the conditions. That seems to be true of others as well, as Illertissen didn’t concede a single goal in the 2022/23 competition. And two years ago, a professional team from Türkgücü only prevailed on penalties. This time the Schanzer had their first chance to score in the 53rd minute, they didn’t record a single top-class player – almost like that, so they wanted to catch Illertissen’s keeper on penalties with their shots on goal.
This time, Köllner’s team played as discouraged as they did in the sixties at the end of September. This time, however, the 53-year-old had a few more plausible reasons to hand. In any case, Köllner likes to make blunt statements when the last game of the season is played, and this time too. “We literally walked with a cane today”, his players were “dead”, because the minimum goal of remaining in the league had to be achieved with a rump squad, which cost the remaining team all the more strength. “The picture today doesn’t particularly surprise me,” he says when asked why no leading players have gone ahead, “the team didn’t play such a season for nothing.” He also only saw a difference maker like Pascal Testroet twice in training, shortly after his commitment in early April.
Two penalties saved: Köllner calls FVI goalkeeper Felix Thiel a “failed professional”
It is therefore completely clear that a change is needed, says Köllner, and he means a radical restructuring of the squad. “At times” he even believed that “it got us this season”, so he saw the Schanzer in acute danger of relegation. Despite the low expectations, he was “extremely disappointed” with the performance in Illertissen. Participation in the DFB Cup is of course good for a club that is in a good financial position like FC Ingolstadt.
“We also played a long season and we also had the pressure that we were fighting to stay up. We mastered it brilliantly against a good opponent,” said a happy Illertissen coach Holger Bachthaler. Incidentally, the 47-year-old returned to his home club when FV had just thrown the sixties out of the cup. Despite the highest coaching license, Bachthaler has not really managed to make the leap into professional football.
Perhaps the Swabian long-term finalist in the Toto Cup is easy to explain: Köllner also speaks of goalkeeper Felix Thiel as a “failed professional”. There is enough football substance, at the same time the amateur can always play much more freely. But you have “the whole burden on your shoulders, even in the penalty shoot-out”. Köllner probably means: the whole burden of a season gone wrong.
