When the soccer coach Christian Streich found out some time ago that his SC Freiburg had to play a game at Borussia Mönchengladbach on December 5th, he was a bit disappointed. On that Sunday evening he would have liked to have attended a concert by the American jazz guitarist Marc Ribot in Biel, Switzerland. He would only have had to drive 160 kilometers from Freiburg to Biel.
Instead of going to Biel alone for a cultural highlight, Streich traveled 500 kilometers to a football game in the Lower Rhine with the SC Freiburg convoy on Sunday. But he could not have imagined any better consolation than this game.
After 85 seconds his team led 1-0 (Maximilian Eggestein), after four minutes 2-0 (Kevin Schade), after 12 minutes 3-0 (Philipp Lienhart), after 19 minutes 4-0 (Nicolas Höfler), after 25 minutes 5: 0 (Lucas Höler) and after 37 minutes 6: 0 (Nico Schlotterbeck). Half a dozen goals in the first half in Mönchengladbach – you would have to consume one or the other at a concert by a shrill avant-garde guitarist to get into a similarly intoxicated state. “An absolutely surreal experience”, the defender Schlotterbeck called the game.
When this was whistled an hour later, the final result was 6-0 for Freiburg in view of an expected stoic second half. After three defeats in a row (1: 2 in Munich, 0: 2 against Frankfurt, 1: 2 in Bochum), the Breisgauers have defended their fourth place in the table and impressively freed themselves from a mini-result crisis.
The new week could be difficult in Mönchengladbach. Eight days after the already sinful 1: 4 defeat in the Prestigederby at 1. FC Köln, the eleven Gladbach starters were physically but hardly mentally present on Sunday against Freiburg. Right-back Stefan Lainer and striker Alassane Plea had to leave after just 29 minutes and were replaced by Patrick Herrmann and Breel Embolo. After all: After that, the Gladbachers only conceded one goal. But that didn’t make the situation any more bearable. In the end it was the biggest home defeat since 1966 (7-0 against Bremen). “Madness”, complained Jonas Hofmann, “desolate.”
There are no tantrums and no discussion group, just arms raised and shoulders shrugged
0: 5 after 25 minutes has never been a team behind in a home game in the Bundesliga. On the edge of the field stood with a petrified face, the trainer Adi Hütter, on the bench sat the sports director Max Eberl in consternation, and in the grandstand you could see the grandees of the board, Hans Meyer and Rainer Bonhof, that they would rather have nothing to do with the matter .
The Gladbachers down on the lawn were in shock. There were no real tantrums and no spontaneous discussion groups, just arms raised and shoulders shrugging. During the break, the striker Embolo was hugged and comforted by the Freiburg coach Streich. Many of the 10,000 spectators whistled.
At the beginning of the second half, Streich stood on the edge of the field, pushed his team on and shouted: “Full throttle!” He had apparently not given his players permission to spare the Gladbachers from an even worse humiliation during the break. But it couldn’t have been frustration at the missed guitar concert, because after the increasing incidences he would not have been allowed to go to the concert in Biel from Germany anyway. He had already revealed that to the broadcaster Dazn before kick-off. Not that bad, well.