What’s special about these cup games in the country is that everything is so close. The additional stand that they had set up at FC Pipinsried on Wednesday was less than five meters behind the goal where the only goal of the day would fall. And when a memorable cup game came to an end, the TSV 1860 Munich players could hear exactly what their supporters thought of it.
“Take off your jerseys,” shouted one, tugging at his own jersey as if to say: I’m a real lion. It was easy to see in the players’ faces what such statements do to them. And that in a place that you would actually like to return to. A good five years ago, Sixty secured the regional league championship in Pipinsried.
The third division team had actually lost the quarter-finals of the Bavarian Toto Cup to the Bavarian league team, 20-year-old Daniel Gerstmayer became the match winner with his header in the fifth minute. Neither a red card for Pipinsried (66th) nor a penalty (83rd) helped the Sixties to avert the disgrace, ultimately these circumstances only made them grow.
“It wasn’t a B team,” says 1860 coach Jacobacci. He didn’t underestimate FC Pipinsried
So there Lions coach Jacobacci, 60, sat in front of a clubhouse audience that was frenetically celebrating local coach Martin Weng and said: “I can only apologize for the performance that my team put in.” Pipinsried’s coach Weng said a little later that before the game he had once again shown his players the Toto Cup results from the 1960s from previous years; last year, for example, they were eliminated against FV Illertissen. “From the beginning,” said goalscorer Gerstmayer when asked when he started believing in victory. So maybe the ’60s weren’t, per se, the favorite they thought they were. In other words: they underestimated Pipinsried. Of course, no one admitted this afterwards.
Weng described the penalty that Sixty’s Albion Vrenezi hit the crossbar as “the last push. You just realize how much your head makes a difference. What the boys could still run, I wouldn’t have thought they could do that myself.”
So where were the lions’ heads? Especially in the 24 minutes of being in the majority, after the somewhat dubious sending off of Ludwig Räuber because of an emergency brake? Sixty continued to act as if everything between the 2,500 spectators was somehow too small for them. Passes seemed as if the teammate was ten meters further away than he actually was, shots on goal landed in the chain-link fence or in the parking lot behind it. “We just didn’t manage to pose problems for them. If anything, they posed problems for us,” 1860 defender Leroy Kwadwo had to admit.
Coach Maurizio Jacobacci didn’t really find an answer either. He listed player names, such as goalkeeper Marco Hiller, who was back in goal for the first time after a three-week injury break, to emphasize: “It wasn’t a B team.” In other words: He didn’t underestimate FC Pipinsried. The day before, Jacobacci had said that they wanted to avoid the fate that befell their city rivals FC Bayern at 1. FC Saarbrücken in the DFB Cup. However, he rested his captain Jesper Verlaat and put attacker Fynn Lakenmacher on the bench. It’s hard to compare Lakenmacher with Harry Kane, if only because Lakenmacher came on as a substitute and missed his chances.
Due to the bankruptcy, the Sixties also lost their best chance of taking part in the upcoming DFB Cup
“In principle,” Jacobacci said of his players, “they are set up to perform,” and some non-regular players also have the opportunity to “present themselves for higher tasks.” But the Swiss coach also had his thin-skinned moments in the completely overcrowded clubhouse. For example, when he was asked why he only called up one player from the starting eleven that won 3-2 in Saarbrücken a week ago. “Is Hiller a B team? Is Glück a B team? Is Vrenezi a B team? Do these players have no chance of surviving against Pipinsried?” he asked. And added sarcastically: “Then it’s my fault that I put together a team like that.” Because a sports director was missing in the summer, Jacobacci played a key role in putting together the squad. These days he is increasingly calling for a sports director.
The elimination from the team that played 0-0 against TSV 1860 Munich II in the summer was not just embarrassing. Given the distance to the top of the third division table, the Sixties have lost their best chance of taking part in the DFB Cup next season. The new momentum after an important away win in the league is also gone, so the derby against SpVgg Unterhaching next Saturday is once again pointing the way.
After the game, the argument that the ticket sale had caused flared up again between officials. It didn’t go as well as the Lions would have liked in Pipinsried, in fact it wasn’t a home game for sixty in terms of atmosphere. One more win and Pipinsried would definitely make the final as the lowest-ranked team remaining. The draw will take place next week, but the Pipinsried team doesn’t really care about the opponent. “We have nothing to lose at all,” said an overjoyed goalscorer Gerstmayer.
The Würzburger Kickers and defending champions FV Illertissen are still in the competition – the fourth participant is still missing after Türkgücü Munich had to cancel its game against FC Ingolstadt: the grass in the alternative stadium in Rosenheim was under water. According to SZ information, Türkgücü submitted an application to the BFV on Friday to play the game on Sunday in Ingolstadt. But that was obviously too short notice. On Saturday, the Schanzer announced that the game would probably not be played until February. Where is still not clear.