Saturday May 22, 2021
The specter of terror is haunting
These three players dictate the relegation thriller
By David Bedürftig & Torben Siemer
Bielefeld, Bremen and Cologne are worried, the relegation battle is extremely open. While Bielefeld is building on two top performers, the pressure in Cologne is mainly on a seven-million-man. An old friend becomes a decision maker in Bremen.
The starting point is clear. Arminia Bielefeld, Werder Bremen and 1. FC Köln are in 15th, 16th and 17th place before the final matchday of the Bundesliga season Relegation detention and whoever goes the direct route to the second division together with FC Schalke 04.
East Westphalia against Hanseatic townspeople against Rhinelander. This triall – yes, the word really exists, it’s like a duel, only with three participants – starts at 3.30 p.m., accompanied by the ntv.de live ticker, of course. But what do Arminia, Werder and Effzeh have to do today to reach the promised land? Whereby promised land is very relative in this context. That means: 15th place, above the much-cited line in the table. We looked at what is necessary and indispensable for this.
Arminia Bielefeld (15th place, 32 points, -28 goals): The tables 15. from Bielefeld competes with co-promoted VfB Stuttgart and with a win would have been able to stay in the league on their own, no matter what the competition is doing. A draw is enough if Bremen and Cologne don’t win either. A defeat leads to relegation if Bremen scores and Cologne plays a maximum of draw – or to direct relegation if Bremen scores and Cologne wins. Enough theory, in practice, the entire squad is available in the East Westphalia, no one is currently injured. That is extraordinary and gives us the chance to do the same as we did on matchday 34 of the 2008/09 season. At that time, Bielefeld held the class in league one for the last time with a 2-2 win in Stuttgart, now history could be repeated.
On the one hand, Stefan Ortega, who with 134 saved shots on goal, fended off the most balls across the league, is likely to be decisive. If the keeper catches the next of his many good days and remains undefeated, relegation is very close. Andreas Voglsammer could then make perfect with his third goal of the season. In the previous week against Hoffenheim he showed a great performance, scored with a direct free kick to equalize and also has a very special interest in Arminia playing first class for another year. Because according to “Sport Bild” he has “very clear plans to play in the first division in the coming season”. And a planned move abroad is certainly nicer if there is a celebration instead of mourning beforehand.
Werder Bremen (16th place, 31 points, -19 goals): Bremen must win at home against Gladbach and hope for a point loss for Arminia in order to advance from the relegation place. If Bielefeld loses, a draw is enough – if Cologne does not win, it would stay in 16th place and two extra games. A defeat only leads to relegation if Cologne plays a maximum of draws. If Werder lose and Effzeh wins, Bremen will be relegated from the Bundesliga for the second time since 1981.
At Werder, it’s not a player on whom all eyes rest and who should make a difference. It is the new short-term coach who was lifted into office much too late for his predecessor Florian Kohfeldt, but who is now supposed to fix it in one game (and possibly two more). But what can Thomas Schaaf learn or inoculate within a week? Of course, the Werder game is now more difficult to calculate with the new coach for Borussia Mönchengladbach, but the players may not have understood all of his instructions and ideas.
It’s more about a bit of momentum, about the fresh wind that is so often quoted. To get the right breeze exactly where the Weser makes a wide bend. And at the very last minute. Can the 60-year-old coach enliven Bremen’s pompous offensive game under Kohfeldt as in the best of times, when Werder always preferred to win 4: 3 over 1: 0? At least Bremen mostly won under Schaaf. That was extremely seldom the case under Kohfeldt in the past two years. However, Werder have had a tough time against Mönchengladbach in the recent past, the foals also want to enter the Conference League. After all, belief and a realistic assessment of the circumstances are there on the Weser: “Nobody here underestimates the situation, but we have to believe in our qualities. Recently we have endured too much,” said Schaaf on Friday. Is that enough?
1. FC Köln (17th place, 30 points, -27 goals): For the Domstadters, on the other hand, a victory against the knocked-off last Schalke is mandatory as 17th. Because a draw is only enough if Bremen loses by at least nine goals. A victory in Cologne, on the other hand, would bring redemption and 15th place if both Arminia and Werder do not win. Defeat, of course, means relegation.
At least the last injured captain Jonas Hector (also hinted to stay with a relegation) and attacker Sebastian Andersson return at Effzeh. But the focus is on Ondrej Duda. After all, he wants to make amends after his missed penalty against SC Freiburg when the score was 1: 2 (final score 1: 4). Against the former club Hertha BSC, the seven-million-euro man could do nothing, but he remains the top scorer of the Rhinelander. There are seven goals and six assists this season. He has scored five of these goals in his past eight games.
Duda’s goals are much more important for Cologne because the defense continues to wobble badly. Although they did not concede against Hertha – which was probably due to the fact that the Berliners were saved with one point – but in the ten games before that, the doorbell rang 24 times in the Effzeh network. After the Friedhelm-Funkel effect – victories against RB Leipzig (2: 1) and FC Augsburg (3: 2) – has fizzled out, Duda is under great pressure. Will the 26-year-old Slovak hold up?
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