Only with the knowledge of the next morning can it be estimated what achievement the athlete had achieved the previous afternoon. In the summaries of the game between Eintracht Frankfurt and VfB Stuttgart you can see the referee Felix Brych running across the field in a very professional manner, you can see him disallowing the goal of Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav because of suspicion of offside; you can see how he reaches for his headset, how he waits for the experts to interpret the image in the Cologne basement and then decides on the goal. You don’t see any pain.
Felix Brych, 48, led half of the game with a torn cruciate ligament. This realization became apparent late on Saturday evening and was confirmed on Sunday morning by an incorruptible image, although not from the Cologne basement. In the middle of the first half, Brych twisted his knee, probably due to a mistake; After initial treatment by the Frankfurt team doctor, he returned to the field with a solid tape before bowing to the advice of the experts during the half-time break. He handed over the management of the game to fourth official Patrick Schwengers, a 28-year-old with very little second division experience.
The word “of all things” is never asked in football before it is used; it has to be used so often that it could definitely use a long summer break. But what should you do when things fit so well again? On the very day on which Felix Brych took charge of his 344th Bundesliga game and drew level with the previous record holder Wolfgang Stark, he was eliminated from the competition – with an injury that reflexively raises questions about the future among older football players.
Brych also owes his great career to his fitness
And with Brych, who at 48 is already a year above the age limit that the DFB once defined in order to send pension notices to its referees on this basis? This limit is no longer so strictly monitored – which is why those who heard Brych’s statements after the game assume that he will try again after a break of several months. Brych is proud of having set the games record in the Bundesliga – and now it’s his of all things a single game is missing to be the sole record holder…
Felix Brych is known for not only being an excellent referee, but also for having clear self-assessment. He knows that he owes his great career to his exorbitant fitness; he was never the great Zampano at the whistle, he was always an athlete. He never had to chase the game, he was always on top of the ball.
You can probably imagine it like this: Brych now runs out to a monitor, looks again at Undav’s goal from the 45th minute and then thinks: And that was supposed to be the last goal that I decided on as a referee? Felix Brych will consider this to be a clear wrong decision of fate.