The Silberhornstraße underground station and the Grünwalder stadium are closely connected. On match days, fans of TSV 1860 flock from the depths of the bus stop to the surface, and the conspicuous all-rounder Fritz Fehling (long hair, very long beard) can often be seen. Early on Friday evening, a couple rode the escalator up the escalator, the woman had a four on the Löwen jersey, the man a five, which of course led to associations: would have four more wins in 1860 after the game against Hallesche FC, or already five, which would have equaled Kickers Offenbach’s third division start record from 2010? It was five because the game ended 3-1.
TSV 1860 is in its fifth season in the third division. Mirror, mirror on the wall, is Sixty the longest serving third division club in this country? No, Hallesche FC is a thousand times older than TSV (loosely adapted from Snow White): Halle has been there for eleven years and, unlike 1860, the HFC is happy to be part of this community. This season he is more at risk of relegation than ever. The top scorers Marcel Eberwein and Elias Huth left the club, and the suspended pillars Jonas Nietfeld and Niklas Kreuzer are missing. It is not surprising that Halle had a weak start.
Löwen coach Michael Köllner made two changes to the starting eleven compared to the game in Verl: Meris Skenderovic and Fabian Greilinger started instead of Fynn Lakenmacher and Albion Vrenezi. The Löwen immediately went on the offensive, the ball ran nicely from white-blue man to white-blue man, and they quickly had their first chance when Skenderovic put a cross from Christopher Lannert just wide of the post (11′). On the opposite side, Sebastian Müller headed in next to Marco Hiller’s goal (13′).
Tunay Deniz and referee Steven Greif change the course of events
A single header? How boring. Sixty responded after a corner with three headers in a row: Morgalla to Deichmann, Deichmann to Stefan Lex, whose final attempt on goal went over the top (19′). It was a lively game, even the black-clad guest fans gave the lion supporters nothing in terms of singing.
After 28 minutes, Tunay Deniz and referee Steven Greif changed the course of events. Deniz fouled Lex in the lions’ half, and Greif sent him off with the second yellow card. It was 1-0 seven minutes later and it was a great goal. Lex put the ball back on Martin Kobylanski, who curled the ball under the bar from 17 meters (35′). The starting win counter jumped to “five” at that moment.
It started to pour during the break, but that didn’t bother the lions, they came back onto the field earlier than the guests from Halle. And they came with Lakenmacher, Joseph Boyamba and Marius Willsch instead of the yellow-loaded Lannert, Skenderovic and Kobylanski. It was a wise decision by Köllner, because Referee Greif quickly took the card and yellow-red for one of the warned trio would have destroyed the nice majority.
Before the 2: 0, the home side afford a few negligence that should punish other opponents harder
Things were looking good for the lions, but slowly sloppiness crept into their actions. Here one bad pass too many in attack, there an inappropriate nonchalance in defense. And then, yes, it didn’t help that Köllner had taken his warned players off the field prophylactically – Tim Rieder saw a straight red for a rough kick against Timur Gayret (56th). But the lions are different this season than they have been in the past 20 or 120 years. They didn’t concede the 1:1, but they scored the 2:0. Boyamba played Deichmann wonderfully free and he rounded the goalie and fired at Reddemann on the line before he hit the follow-up shot (60′).
The game became rougher and the question arose whether the number of goals would increase or the number of players would continue to decrease. It was the goals: Anders Jozsef Bolyki headed the goal back to make it 2-1 (74′). Would it be tight again? No, sixty has changed. Boyamba converted a penalty that he had gotten out himself after a wonderful sprint over half the field (79th). That was the end of the goals and sending-offs, and Sixty enjoyed a three-point gain. Yet again.