*** English version below *** Es lohnt sich beide zu lesen ;-) ***Zum zweiten Heimspiel in Folge luden die Herren der Eintracht ihre Rivalen der Black Lions (SG Offenbach/Hausen) in den Niddapark, nach dem deutlichen Sieg gegen die SG Krofdorf/Riedberg begierig, den anwesenden Supportern, Spielerinnen des Damenteams und den U12 Spielern, die an diesem Matchday zuverlässig als Ball- und Teejungen dabei waren, einen weiteren Beweis des mit dem neuen Coach in dieser Spielzeit einhergehenden Aufwärtstrend, zu liefern. Gegen im Sturm physisch überlegene Gegner zeigten die Frankfurter Jungs von Anfang bis Ende eine gute und beherzte Leistung, in allen Mannschafsteilen wurden die großen Props der Black Lions zu Fall gebracht, sodass diese in der ersten Halbzeit trotz deutlicher Feldüberlegenheit kein Durchkommen durch das Bollwerk der Adler fanden. Dementsprechend besannen sich die Gäste auf Punkte vom Kicking-Tee, um mit 3 Punkten in Führung zu gehen. Nur wenige Minuten später egalisierte die Eintracht jedoch mit einem eigenen Kick. Im Verlauf der ersten Hälfte absorbierten die Frankfurter lange die Sturmläufe der Black Lions, bis es Spielertrainer Alex Ryan gelang, einen weiten Pass der Black Lions zu interceptem und zum viel bejubelten ersten Versuch der Partie abzulegen. Damit nicht genug, die Eintracht behielt Ihr strukturiertes Spiel bei und erzielte in der ersten Hälfte einen zweiten Versuch, zu dessen Entstehung die mittlerweile gut aufeinander abgestimmte Hintermannschaft herrlich kombinierte. Bevor jedoch Fullback Max Kirchner zu seinem Versuch ablegen konnte, muss es jedoch zu einem von Astrologen unbemerkten Phänomen gekommen sein. Offenbar standen sämtliche Planeten in einer kosmischen Konvergenz und veränderten so für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde maßgeblich das Gravitationsfeld, welches den mittlerweile zum Flanker umgeschulten gnadenlosen Kuchta umgab, was dazu führte, dass diesem unter dem Einfluss höherer Mächte unwillentlich der Ball aus Hand rutschte und in Max Kirchner seinen Abnehmer kurz vor dem Malfeld der Gäste fand. Da der Erhöhungskick leider von den Malstangen abprallte und die Black Lions mit einem sehenswerten Drop Goal versuchten, den Anschluß an die Hausherren herzustellen, ging es mit einem Zwischenstand von 15-11 in die Pause. In der zweiten Hälfte bot sich ein anderes Bild, nun waren es die Adler, welche das gegnerische Malfeld belagerten, allerdings hielt die Verteidigung der Black Lions stand, sodass kein weiterer Versuch erzielt werden konnte. Stattdessen nahmen die Frankfurt Jungs 6 Punkte aus Penalties mit und zogen zwischenzeitlich weiter davon. In der letzten Viertelstunde drehten die Gäste jedoch auf und erzielten zwei Versuche und punkteten per Penalty, sodass sich plötzlich die Hausherren mit dem Rücken zur Wand wiederfanden. Mit einem Rückstand von 21-23 warfen die Eintrachtler alles nach vorne und errangen in der 80. Minute einen Straftritt in der Hälfte der Black Lions. Aus knapp 40 Metern und halblinker Position entschied sich scrum-half Nikolas Freitag, den Ball in einem letzten Versuch auf die Stangen zu kicken, doch verfehlte er sein Ziel um wenige Zentimeter. Letztlich haben beide Teams in einer fairen und harten Partien den Sieg verdient, doch am Ende musste den Black Lions gratuliert werden. Dennoch sahen die wieder einmal fantastischen Zuschauer eine gute Leistung ihrer Herren, die sich spielerisch stark verbessert zeigten. Außerdem gab Simon Teichmüller sein Comeback und verhalf mit seinem neuen und kongenialen Zweite-Reihe Partner Higgi Volkmann der Eintracht zu größerer Sicherheit in den Gassen. Für die Eintracht spielten (Punkte in Klammern): 1-Stefan Hörnschemeyer, 2- Marcel Molzberger ©, 3- Johannes Kerst, 4- Simon Teichmüller, 5- Higgi Volkmann, 6- Mihnea Baluta, 7-Stefan Kuchta, 8- Tobias Reich, 9- Nikolas Freitag (11P), 10- Mo Groden, 11- Dennis Kosel, 12- Nikolaus McLachlan, 13- Marius Seidenthal, 14- Alex Ryan (5P), 15- Max Kirchner (5P), 16- Tarek Taylan, 17- João Gohla, 18- Timo Breidenbruch, 19- Lorenzo Manganelli, 20- Jan Bernecke, 21- David Piotrowski Hammer Tackle of the Day: Higgi Volkmann Man of the Match: Nikolas Freitag D*ck of the Day: Stefan Kuchta ***Once every 4 years the world Cup final is contested and millions of excited rugby fans tune in worldwide to watch a match played out between the two best teams in the world. But on that same day 12000 kms away two teams slugged it out in a much more exciting and tense contest: Eintracht fresh from their 96-0 win against Riedberg last time out welcomed the Black Lions for their next league match. The Black Lions had done their homework and they knew that they had to bring their best team and perform, or else they'd as well be swept aside by this powerful and pacey Eintracht side. For the second week in a row we had a selection dilemma as we had to choose a 22 from a strong squad. Due to our strength in depth we made changes to bring in some fresh legs. Marcel returned to captain the side from Hooker, Simon returned for his first game of the season and linked up in the newly formed second row with the very versatile Higgy. Mihnea- our Romanian bulldoze-r moved into the back row with the returning Dog of Kuchta and they made a mobile and dynamic back 3, using Diego as the brains and link at 8. At 9 & 10 we chose to keep the half back pairing that worked so brilliantly last week, with the calming and consistent Flipper at 9 linking with our creative Pivot in Mo, we had a new centre pairing this week as Oma Niko came back into 12 after recovering from an injury last week and Marius rescheduled his modelling shoot so that he could slot into 13. Last week we used a punch from 12 with pace at 13, but this week we used the technical abilities of Niko at 12 to spread the play and Marius showcased some excellent running lines, pace and soft hands to feed the settled back 3 that was unchanged. As the clock struck 2pm on Antonias watch (by far the best referee I've ever seen) Max kicked us off and in typical fashion Mihnea hounded down the opposition catcher; the first tackle set the tone of the day. The Black Lions knew they were in for a physical contest and attacked accordingly with strong running and strong rucking at the breakdown. The Eintracht defence was equally strong and with great communication, organisation and discipline we quickly won a penalty and placed it into the corner. Back into their half we went, it was an evenly matched game and each team carefully constructed their phases and took smart territory when needed. One loose kick from the Black Lions 10 and they were in trouble, after a tidy gather from Max at 15, he stepped his way round the chasing winger and fed Story Time Dennis to outpace the covering Tackler, he stepped inside to the safety of the chasing Eintracht pack. It was only a fantastic last man tackle by the lions 15 that prevented Dennis dotting down for his second try in successive matches, the lions defended very well in the ruck and squeezed a penalty out of us by which they kicked themselves out of trouble, but the game was on a knife edge. The Black Lions earnt themselves a scrum deep into our territory, this was the first scrum of the game and would be such a crucial element to this game. All of the slightly more handsome men with numbers 9-15 on their back watched in excitement to see who's pack was going to dominate the game. The lions bedded down with a considerably heavier pack but it was the strength of the Eintracht pack that drove them backwards. The Lions 2 did exceptionally well to hook the ball even with their pack in reverse, Flipper our pest of a 9 was putting immense pressure on his opposite man and Kuchta having read the play perfectly was half a second too early as was his keenness to smash their 10 and a penalty was given against us for an early break of bind. The Lions knew that points weren't going to be easy to come by against us and pointed towards the posts. Their 10 calmly slotted the 3 and the scoreboard had started to tick. Barely 3 minutes later and we found ourselves in the same position, Flipper stepped up and does what Flipper does best and keeps us in the game and we'd made it onto the scoreboard ourselves. For the next 10 minutes the game was a wrestling match, strong direct running from both sides was met by a brave defence which made for great viewing for the fans. The lions battered their way up the pitch and cleverly created an overlap, as their 10 threw his long pass he hadn't anticipated our winger pressing early, he gobbled up the intercept like a thief in the night and raced away to dot down under the post for the first try of the game. It was slightly against the run of play but not undeserved, Flipper added the extras and we found ourselves in the lead 10-3. From this point we really stepped up as a team, and this was by far the best performance Eintracht have delivered this season. The brilliant Mo and Flipper controlled the tempo of the game and smartly varied our punches with pods narrow, wide and using the backs to stretch the already tiring defence. With 10 minutes to go before halftime Mo orchestrated an excellent pod combination to release the backs, with Mo acting as the pivot he fed Kuchta, who sucked 2 men in before feeding Oma Niko (who had a faultless game as the link) who used Marius‘ powerful running and gentle smile to suck in the opposition. Niko then fed to the winger in space who-being the well educated Brit that he is- didn't need any extra invitation to step his opposite man before drifting inside to commit the fullback before feeding the onrushing Max who'd ghosted unmarked with a delicate blind pop. Max's pace took him to the corner where he dotted down his 4th try in 2 games. With Max developing an almost telepathic relationship with the wingers we could have the most dangerous back 3 in the league. The kick was on the touchline and Flipper struck it brilliantly but it just fell short, the score was 15-3. The lions showed true strength and after a well taken drop goal and a penalty we headed into the break at 15-11. The second half started much like the first, we carefully constructed phase after phase, every single forward was brilliant, the pods were organised and powerful and the lineouts looked very assured. The new 2nd row had a lovely blend of power and intelligence and it really helped us to keep control of this match and I'm excited to see this pairing continue. For all of our dominance and territory we spent 25 minutes camped in their half, but only came away with 6 points. This ultimately cost us, as when their 9 sniped down the blind side and dotted down he reduced the deficit to 5 points. This fed the lions confidence and they brought the game back to us, they powered and probed searching for more points and when one of their big forwards crashed through (one of the rare occasions they did) he dotted under the posts to level and then they added the extras to lead by 2 points. Eintracht had 7 minutes to find a score, we lost a little bit of composure that served us so well as the clock ticked down but we continued to play. With one minute to go, we secured a line out and carefully put together phases, under pressure the lions gave away a penalty. We pointed to the posts and the game now rested on the our brave, young and handsome 9. It's the worst way to end a game, but God damn it was exciting. Flipper lined up the kick from 40 meters out and struck it brilliantly, everyone watched with their hearts in their mouths and after what felt like an eternity it missed the upright by a matter of inches and the Black Lions roared with delight. They celebrated hard because they knew how hard they had to work for this victory. In all honesty Eintracht played so well they didn't deserve to lose, but you couldn't say that the lions didn't deserve it either. The real winner on the day were the fans that got to watch such a fantastic game, and they were brilliant yet again.
05.11.2019
