Veröffentlicht am24. Juni 2007|Kommentare deaktiviert für Well, that’s something at least
Today, another FC Magdeburg team (after or B and C teams) gained promotion: Our U19-squad won the second of two play-off matches against VfB Oldenburg with the final scoreline of 3-0. The match was similar to the first leg in Oldenburg, both teams were trying to get a goal right from the start, as both teams needed to win the match in order to avoid extra time. However, Magdeburg got off to a better start, and after a terrible mishap on the part of Oldenburg’s keeper, Magdeburg scored to make it 1-0. Afterwards, Oldenburg tried to build up more pressure, but they just couldn’t get past the Magdeburg defense, and in the rare instances they did, FCM-goalie Schwabke was there to deny them. When Magdeburg scored their 2nd goal from a header after a long ball, the game looked all but over – but suddenly Magdeburg became more defensive, less keen on taking the ball out of their own half and thus Oldenburg created some chances, but again they couldn’t convert any of them. After the half-time break, Magdeburg was already celebrating yet another goal, but the referee ruled it offside. Afterwards the game was in the balance as Oldenburg was now dominating with their short-passing game, but again they were ineffective in front of goal, and so it was only a matter of time until Magdeburg created the 3-0 from a counter. After that, the game was decided and Magdeburg promoted to the U19-Bundesliga. A little consolation after the unfortunate end of the Regionalliga season.
Kommentare deaktiviert für Well, that’s something at least
is apparently the promotion to Bundesliga 2 for FC Magdeburg. After a good game, Magdeburg only managed a 1-all draw with FC St. Pauli and thus dropped to third in the table, since Osnabrück managed to come back from a 0-1 scoreline and won against Ahlen 2-1.
Magdeburg has played an extraordinary season, their first in Regionalliga Nord since their bankruptcy in 2002, but couldn’t put the icing on the cake after they only got 2 points out of the last three matches.
Facts:
1. FC Magdeburg 1 – 1 FC St. Pauli 60′ Kuru 0-1 71′ Lindemann 1-1
Veröffentlicht am1. Juni 2007|Kommentare deaktiviert für About 34 hours to go
until the kick-off in this season’s last game for FC Magdeburg. The opponent is freshly promoted FC St. Pauli from Hamburg, and Magdeburg need to win to be promoted to Bundesliga 2.
Needless to say, there’s excitement all around, people report difficulty sleeping, miscounting the days til the match and all these gorgeous phenomena. I personally can confirm both of them…
Originally, Magdeburg had intended to sell an additional 500 tickets on Wednesday, but the German FA foiled that plan. Apparently, St. Pauli and Magdeburg fans have an intense rivalry – that certainly is news to me, and probably to many others as well… Quote from the German FA in response to an email complaining about the decision: „Die Fans von St. Pauli und dem 1. FC Magdeburg haben eine besondere Rivalität.“ The mail goes on to cite the importance of the match as grounds for their decision, however, the impression of a clueless FA remains – especially since there were no significant problems when the two clubs met in December.
The regional TV station, the Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk will broadcast the game live from 1345 Berlin, and there will also be public viewing on Magdeburg’s Alter Markt, right in front of the city hall, where 1. FC Magdeburg once celebrated winning the Cup Winners‘ Cup. An internet radio stream will also be available on Saturday. Also, Fangeist will be at the stadium, the match being part of a conference with the other relevant matches of the day, Osnabrück vs. Ahlen and Wuppertal vs. Emden. The stream is here.
Veröffentlicht am27. Mai 2007|Kommentare deaktiviert für That’s all folks…or is it?
After matchday 35, FC Magdeburg only needed 4 points from the remaining three matches to secure promotion. But as always, things didn’t quite work out as planned. On matchday 36, Magdeburg only managed a 1-all draw with Leverkusen’s reserves. The equaliser came seconds before the game ended, and after Leverkusen had played with a man down for 70 minutes. Still Magdeburg now only needed 3 points from two remaining games. So yesterday, they traveled all the way to Emden near the Dutch border, only to lose Manai to a second yellow card and the game as well. While conditions were certainly not exactly good, check out the pitch here, Magdeburg lost due to some terrible errors in defense, similar to the one that led to Leverkusen’s equaliser the week before. Kubis‘ two goals couldn’t help much, as Magdeburg suffered the first defeat after 12 matches. Emden won 4-2. To go up, Magdeburg now have to win their last home game, against what is probably the best team around, FC St. Pauli. The team from Hamburg have already secured their promotion, but will nevertheless not give the game away, so that the match will be worthy of the sold-out stadium. mdr TV will broadcast the game live on next Saturday from 1345 CEST.
I’m still tryingto figure out how these two results can be explained and whether or not I should revise my last post.
Veröffentlicht am16. Mai 2007|Kommentare deaktiviert für How to be a successful team
As it looks now, 1. FC Magdeburg can achieve promotion to the Germany’s 2. Bundesliga this year. This possibility opened up for two reasons: First, the other teams in the Regionalliga Nord were not as constant in their performances as should have been expected and second, 1. FC Magdeburg performed admirably well. Now why is a team that has played 4th tier football and has remained unchanged, except for four new players from other clubs and a number of players from Magdeburg’s very own youth teams, be so successful?
One reason is certainly that there is an inherent calmness in the club, a feeling that manager Dirk Heyne greatly contributes to. An example: Christopher Kullmann, a 20-year-old forward has been injured during the winter break and after his injuries healed, he is not quite up to the old level. But he still gets his games regularly, even after some abysmal performances. A different manager might not have tolerated this – but Heyne did, and with success too: Kullmann eventually scored the important 2-1 lead in the match against Union Berlin. The calmness can be shown by another example as well. In April 2006, Aleksandar Kotuljac was injured in a match against ZFC Meuselwitz. Up to then he had been in the form of his life, had delivered the best match when Magdeburg beat eventual runners-up Plauen 5-0 just 4 days earlier. The club allowed him to heal this injury thoroughly, even though it took almost 10 months until Kotuljac was able to play again. But when he stepped on the pitch in the match against Holstein Kiel, everyone felt that he was trying hard to be in the form of that Plauen match. And in the following matches, Kotuljac scored 9 goals and has his part in Magdeburg’s 11-match unbeaten run. Another reason is the team spirit the club radiates. Not only does everybody fight and run to make up for the other’s mistakes, but no-one carries grudges for being benched, the prime example here being another forward, Danny Kukulies. He joined the club from MSV Neuruppin prior to this season, but his performances weren’t up to scratch and so he was benched – but there was no moaning about it. And when he finally got a spot in the starting line-up against Union Berlin, he also scored.
What’s very important to the team is how quickly new players are integrated, something that is especially important in the case of Frank Gerster who had had disciplinary problems at both Sachsen Leipzig and Kickers Emden, his last two clubs. But in Magdeburg, Gerster was soon an accepted player, and is one of the team’s leaders. The other two team leader’s are an obvious choice: the team captain, Mario Kallnik who has been at the club since 2001 (one of the few players not to leave when Magdeburg went bankrupt in 2002) and Kais Manai – another new player. But even these two are special. Kallnik wasn’t in the starting line-up for the first 18 matches of the season and only got 4 games as a substitute. Yet at no point there was any doubt that he was the right choice for the captaincy and his leadership was unchallenged. With the beginning of the second half of the season, Kallnik returned to the line-up and has since established himself in the first team, although his first performances were not so good. The same goes for Kais Manai. Apparently he was plagued by injuries in 2006 and is only now showing his full potential, but what he has shown in the past few matches, beginning with the game against Düsseldorf has been a standard of controlling the game that has only rarely been seen in Magdeburg in the past years.
The final factor to the success of this slightly strengthened Oberliga champions of 2006 is the high club identification. As an example I’ll cite Mats Wejsfelt, the Swedish defender. He has played at Babelsberg, Helsingborgs IF, IFK Malmö, Trelleborg FF and joined Magdeburg in July from Sachsen Leipzig. In the clip below he is interviewed on the plans Magdeburg have for June 2nd, the day of the last league match. On that day, 1. FC Magdeburg will play St. Pauli and it looks like both teams will be promoted.
Translation: Wejsfelt: On June 2nd, we must celebrate here together with St. Pauli. Reporter: Together with St. Pauli? Wejsfelt: Yes, that’s great, doesn’t get better. Reporter: Not together with Dresden? Wejsfelt: Nah. () Can’t say that as a Magdeburger.
So apparently, Wejsfelt has noticed the fierce rivalry between Dynamo and Magdeburg and understands the feelings of the fans. This understanding has been demonstrated by Aleksandar Kotuljac who was recently asked which club he would not join. His answer: Dynamo Dresden, high treason is out of the question.
Regardless of the truthfulness of these statements, they show that the team is intact and the players are indeed glad to play here. This of course also endears them to their fans more than before, if that’s even possible.
Kommentare deaktiviert für How to be a successful team
Veröffentlicht am14. Mai 2007|Kommentare deaktiviert für Queuing
Today, I stood in line for two and a half hours, waiting to get tickets for the final match of the season, 1. FC Magdeburg vs. FC St. Pauli. While I was waiting, I realised that compared to us, the English know next to nothing about queuing. There were no queue-jumpers out there today, and leaving one’s place for a bit was not a problem either. I probably could have gone off to a cafe without losing my spot. I guess that there is no political or economical system that creates such a healthy queuing environment as communism (or what the Communist bloc took that to be). Resources are scarce and so queuing was normal. My parents used to queue for bananas or oranges, and if that shopping centre hadn’t just the night before moved the washing machines next to the entrance my parents happened to be using, they would have had to queue up for that too.
Want some pictures? Take a look – this is in front of the FC Magdeburg shop, at about 11:50 am (if you are blessed with good eyesight, you might be able to spot me). And this is in front of another ticket shop. Yes, the ticket shop is that blue thing down the alley… Update: As of 2:30 this afternoon, all tickets have been sold. Apparently there is just one section not sold at all, where it is unclear as of now, if it’ll be used to seperate the fans or be sold at a later point in time. I’d estimate about 26,000 tickets sold at the moment.
