Jess Thorup mostly stood quietly on the sidelines in his dark blue suit. The new coach of FC Augsburg only rarely showed major emotions. Like after a good hour when he celebrated Felix Uduokhai’s goal to make the decision (64th). And like at the end of Sunday, when everyone in Augsburg was happy about a 5:2 (3:2) at the end of the eighth Bundesliga matchday and thus their first away win since October 2nd, 2022.
1. FC Heidenheim took a 2-0 lead through Tim Kleindienst (17th) and Jan-Niklas Beste (18th). But the Augsburg team turned things around before half-time with goals from Phillip Tietz (29′), Mads Pedersen (41′) and Ermedin Demirovic (42′). Later, Elvis Rexhbecaj scored with a hand penalty (88th). It was the second win of the season for FCA and the second defeat in a row for Heidenheim. In the table, the Augsburg team moved past the newcomers and improved to tenth place.
It was only on Sunday that the team traveled to Heidenheim with Thorup’s clear mission to win there. Shortly before his first Bundesliga game, the coach seemed deeply relaxed. After taking up his duties as successor to the released Enrico Maaßen, he explained that he only had five days to convey his “offensive mindset” to his new team and prepare them for the game in Heidenheim. But, as the 53-year-old Dane said to Dazn shortly before kick-off with the calmness of a coach who has coached more than 400 professional games: “Now I’m looking forward to the game to see where the individual players and the team are stand.”
In fact, the FCA started out quite self-confident and forward-looking. But Heidenheim made the first significant approaches to the goal – and also the first goals. First, Beste hit a corner at the second post, where Adrian Beck volleyed the ball into the middle, before Kleindienst scored with a direct shot to make it 1-0. Shortly afterwards, Beste also scored his fourth goal of the season after Kleindienst and Omar Traoré had prepared the second goal in and around the penalty area without any interference. Thorup stood outside the bench and now looked less relaxed and calm and more serious and shocked.
At first, Augsburg’s coach Thorup looks shocked
As expected, Augsburg’s new coach arranged a back four. In addition, four changes were made to the lineup compared to the 1:2 defeat against the other promoted team from Darmstadt in the last game under Maaßen. But the fact that Thorup relied, among others, on Niklas Dorsch in midfield, whom he knows from Ghent as well as Heidenheim’s small service, initially brought no results. The first sense of success under Thorup only came when Tietz volleyed a corner from Fredrik Jensen to make it 2-1.
It was a goal that seemed like a powerful blow to the bottom of a ketchup bottle. Suddenly things started to slip for FCA, and the second and third goals followed like a torrent. First, Pedersen shot a pass from Tietz with his left outer instep to make it 2-2. A minute later, captain Demirovic Jensen used a flat cross to turn the game around before the break. The Finn Jensen and the Dane Pedersen, who were also new to the starting line-up, played a part in this. But the truth was also that the efficiency of the Augsburg team and the at least equally astonishing negligence of the Heidenheim team had made the turnaround possible.
At the beginning of the second half, the hosts came close to equalizing through US international Lennard Maloney. But only Augsburg and Thorup were allowed to cheer. Like in the scene when Uduokhai chested Jensen’s corner into the goal. It was a somewhat fortunate goal. But it was in keeping with the ketchup effect at Thorup’s debut that things suddenly took off for FCA.