Aw, FCK.
By: Scott | September 23rd, 2009The Kaiserslautern coat-of-arms might give the appearance of harmlessness, with its friendly little fish mouthing a happy hello, but today the fish were swimming in their own waters, and that undoubtedly went a long way toward helping the Red Devils do what no team has managed yet to do since the 2008/2009 Pokal final: beat the Werkself.
As I write this, I’ve not seen the full match- or even highlights- so it’s difficult to say where we went wrong or how much blame can fall on our squad. From the moments offered in the Konferenz coverage, it appeared Kaiserslautern, having managed an early lead on what looked like an offside goal to me*, weren’t going to allow the match to open up. When they were in possession, they kept things tight and quickly locked into defensive tactics. It was a defence Leverkusen had difficulty breaking, resorting to playing the ball back or long passes- often to no one- that didn’t quite get them where they needed to be.
The second half brought more of the same, with our wounds soon salted by a second FCK goal. The fresh perspectives of Barnetta and Schwaab, swapped on for Vidal and Sarpei, failed to turn things around, and although bringing Gekas on for Bender did lead to the Greek International scoring in the 86th minute, the showing wasn’t enough to earn us another 30 minutes in which we might have plotted out a win. Jupp Heynkes commented after the match that the squad can’t be blamed for today’s loss- and he got to see it in its entirety- so until there’s video available to prove otherwise, I’ll take him at his word on that.
Update: Got some highlights, for as long as they last, for you to check out:
The sting of our first defeat will have just a short healing period before we’re back on the competitive pitch come Saturday at Köln. They’ll still be flying high from their 3:2 win over Wolfsburg today, and it would be very fitting if it were the Werkself to bring them back to down to Earth.
In National Team news, Jogi Löw has said he’ll be giving the Number 1 shirt to Rene Adler when the Mannschaft head to Moscow for the World Cup qualifying match against Russia on October 10th. Löw told Bild that Adler has his “absolute trust.”
“Rene Adler is always reliable; you know nothing bad will happen,” Löw said. Just one more reason to look forward to the match most likely to decide the group’s winner.
* Just caught the highlights… Not offside at all. I stand corrected but remain displeased.
Category: Bayer Leverkusen Team News
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Scott I watched the Sky DFB Konferenz coverage and saw that Adler couldn’t really do anything about the second goal. Did you see the first? How has he been doing lately?
Adler deserves the Number 1 for Germany and it is his to lose now. Still I am nervous about how he handles crosses and set pieces.
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Heh, Scott, I think same thing when I see “FCK.” It’s finally dawned on me that *Adler will be playing the Moscow match.* THE Moscow match, the one that will decide Germany’s position in the group. No pressure or anything.
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Hallo, Nick. I added highlights to the post, so you can see for yourself that the error wasn’t Adler’s. FCK should have been better marked. Later in the match, Kaiserslautern definitely had luck on their side with the official not calling penalties on the Kießling and Derdiyok contacts.
I think Rene has been quite strong this season. He hasn’t been tested all that much, but has made some brilliant saves, and even yesterday proved he can read a situation well enough to know when he’s going to have to take the ball away from the opposition himself. One of the things he had been criticized for was a lack of dominance in the box. He certainly looks to have worked on that and, while he doesn’t quite have Oliver Kahn’s “If your head is in the way of my ball, then I will remove your head” aura, there’s a definite Alpha-male energy that at times Adler lacked last season.
One concern of mine has been that Rene seems to get nervous when his squad’s defence is screwing up. That hasn’t much been the case with the Werkself this year, but the NT has looked a bit shaky. While it’s crucial for a ‘keeper to know when he’s going to have to up his readiness, I’m hoping Adler can maintain a calmer anticipation of what’s coming his way than he has in the past. As Juliet said, the pressure on Adler for the next qualifier will be enormous. If he passes this test with the class and skill we’re used to, anyone left with doubts is just bitter.
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I remember Rene’s debut for Deutschland against Russia last year, and he was absolutely amazing. He’s been playing well with the shaky German defense so far, and I really hope he keeps it up.
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