Comedy of Errors
With the international break and the two games before being away games, it seems like a long time since we were last in the stadium. And to be honest, I wish it was little longer. There is no beating around the bush, in the four years I have been a season ticket holder this was, without question, the worst I have seen them play but more of that later…
Before we get into the report of the stadium visit of Mönchengladbach, there was a report of the cost of football done by the BBC covering all the English and Scottish clubs and some of the bigger European clubs (of which Hannover does not feature). For those of you interested here is how Hannover compares:
| Cheapest Season Ticket | 185.00 € |
| Most Expensive Season Ticket | 695.00 € |
| Cheapest Match Day Ticket | 14.00 € |
| Most Expensive Match Day Ticket | 54.00 € |
| Bratwurst | 3.00 € |
| Beer | 4.00 € |
| Coffee | 3.50 € |
| Match Programme | 1.00 € |
So all in all, Hannover and Germany offers great quality football at a reasonable price.
So on to todays game:
Heading to the stadium this time, there was a bit of fear, Mönchengladbach are a good strong team and coming off the back of two consecutive away defeats, this was not the fixture we could have done with. Hannover at home though, are a different proposition. They fear no-one and in the 4 years I have been going to the stadium whether it is Athletico Madrid, Manchester United, Bayern or Bochum, they play good, fluid, attacking football….most of the time.
Once in the stadium the Mönchengladbach fans had turned up in huge numbers and absolutely packed the South West corner of the stadium and were singing and waving their flags. Now it was our turn. Before every home game, prior to the players coming out onto the pitch, the stadium sings “Alte Liebe” which is the official anthem of Hannover 96. This time, the rendition was little more subdued than normal. Maybe the fans collectively had a feeling what was about to happen.
The opening 5 mins of the game, the signs were looking good for Hannover. Two promising free kicks which lead to nothing but the signs were there. Those signs were to be short-lived, 15 mins gone in the game and a poor clearance and some defensive mistakes gave Mönchengladbach a chance to cross. A pin point cross from Alvaro Dominguez right on to the head of Max Kruse gave Mönchengladbach a deserved one – nil lead. The rest of the first half just petered out into rather dull affair, so much so that, some fans in the south stand started making paper airplanes and one actually made it all the way onto the pitch. Mis-placed passes and no cohesion in midfield led to some negative football from Hannover and the fans made their annoyance clear with a few echos of boos, which only got louder on the half time whistle. Mönchengladbach on the other hand saw this game for the taking and chants of “Europa Pokal” were ringing from the south-west corner.
This match was the first time that the Bundesliga had used the special spray (or shaving foam) for free kicks. Shortly now into the second half and the referee saw reason to use it for the first time. This was greeted with cheers from all fans when he started to spray the line for the ball and the second line ten meters away. Everyone was probably thinking “hahahaha…that’s pretty good!” that Granit Xhaka took full advantage to smash the ball to the keeper side, slightly wrong footing Zieler and the ball was nestled in the back of the net for a two nil lead and still the best part of 45 mins to play. Oh oh!
The second half was one of the worst performances I have seen, the midfield were ineffective, which put added pressure on the defense and more and more defensive mistakes were being made. This turned into a lot of backward passing or our defenders trying to play “route one” football and hoof the ball up to the strikers which was easily cleaned up by Mönchengladbach every single time. To call this a comedy of errors is an insult to the word comedy as there was nothing remotely funning or entertaining about the second half. The boos were getting louder and more often and the half progressed. The third goal in stoppage time saw Zieler chase the ball a bit to far out the penalty box and the ball clipped back to Max Kruse for this second goal of the game and Mönchengladbach’s third. Finally the referee blew the final whistle and put us all out of our pain.
Hannover never looked threatening throughout the whole match and a midfield shake up is sorely needed. We need Lars Stindl and Edgar Prib back fully fit and in the team. There was report that Tayfun Korkut was the bookies favourite for the next Bundesliga manager to get the sack. While Hannover are not the hiring and firing type of club, I can understand why the bookies are thinking along those lines.
This game was, once again, fully sold out. I think a few more performances like that those of you who want follow the BBC cost of football calculator and travel from outside Germany to Hannover for a game. You should have no problems getting a ticket.
The next game is an away game in Dortmund…hmmm!…then the next visitors to HDI arena is Eintracht Frankfurt on the 1st November at 15:30.
Come on everyone, heads up and Auf gehts Hannover!
Hannover 96 0 – 3 Borussia Mönchengladbach
0-1 Kruse 15 mins, 0-2 Xhaka 49 mins, 0-3 Kruse 90 mins
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