Bundesliga
Farke brings euphoria back to Borussia Park
The Gladbach fans celebrate the team – coach Daniel Farke (front) celebrates in silence. photo
© Federico Gambarini/dpa
The Gladbach success story with the new coach Farke continues. After a used season, the fans are grateful for the perfect start to the season.
Even the small quarrel over the penalty taker couldn’t spoil the good mood in Borussia Park. A week before the top duel at FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Mönchengladbach fans cheered the short-term lead in the Bundesliga and the ongoing success of the new coach.
“No one can take these seven points from us. The fans deserve it, they can think big,” said Daniel Farke after the hard-fought 1-0 (1-0) win over Hertha BSC. Nevertheless, the coach assesses the situation realistically. “We are far from being a top team. In our situation, every point is worth its weight in gold.”
“The atmosphere is different”
Despite all the transfer and change speculation, which continues, the new head coach has long since taken his team with him. “The mood is different. Last season was complicated for all of us. I’m just having a lot of fun on the field and I’m happy that we’re playing really nice football,” said midfielder Christoph Kramer, who is again an integral part of the team and provides structure in the game design.
The relief of the coach, who relied on the same starting XI for the third time, also made it clear that the game against last year’s team who had almost been relegated was anything but a walk in the park. “That was a brutally complicated game for us,” analyzed Farke and also emphasized: “We didn’t have our best day offensively.” In the end, a hand penalty from two and, as in the first home game against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, a sending off helped.
Penalty excitement
The execution of the second penalty, which resulted in a yellow-red card for Berlin’s Filip Uremovic (69th), resulted in disagreements between Jonas Hofmann, who finally shot and failed to goalkeeper Oliver Christensen, as well as Marcus Thuram and Alassane Plea, who confidently converted the first penalty in the 34th minute. Plea would also have liked to have shot the second.
“We always have two or three candidates. And Jonas was also on the list,” explained Farke. “I actually had a good feeling. The team doesn’t blame me. We won, that’s the main thing,” said Hofmann. Colleague Kramer pointed out that there should be no dispute about the shooter before the execution. “That doesn’t give the shooter a good feeling. Hopefully we’ll learn from that too,” said the 2014 world champion.
“But now we’re looking forward to the away game in Munich,” said Kramer. Possibly with another penalty taker. Ramy Bensebaini converted a penalty in the 5-0 gala against Bayern in the DFB Cup last October.