Championship favourites 2003 vs. Champions 2002
Arne chatted with Andi of hansafans.de about the next match against FC Hansa Rostock. Our following pre-match report is the result.Andi: On Saturday you travel to the hangers-on and 'Bayern hunter' number one of this season. What does it feel like for you, 'having' to go to Rostock the club on the second spot?
Arne: It definitely doesn't feel particularly good. That's not down to your supposed strength, though, rather to our dip in form at the moment. Because, when you leave the German FA Cup aside, out of the six matches this season we have won just one – playing you, the current 'highfliers' is just what we needed.
Andi: We always look forward to Borussia, of course! That's because of several reasons. Firstly, at home we lost just two of the seven matches against you, secondly there are always many goals when we play each other, and thirdly you have the 'darling' of the Rostock supporters in your squad, Jens Lehmann. So it looks like we're gonna see a match with a lot of action. And that's better than just another standard match, isn't it? However, leaving our current run aside, I don't think Borussia are playing that bad. And when you have seen our defence against Bochum and particularly against Bochum, thinking of the quality players in your squad I get really worried. The only glimpse of hope really is that you haven't particularly impressed so far. By the way, how are your injured players, is that Rosicky going to play again on Saturday?
Arne: If I only knew, up to now we don't have heard anything. But it would be very important for us, definitely, because with Amoroso, Reuter, Wörns and Rosicky four extremely important players we're missing in the past few matches. I got to say that Amoroso's absence is for us even worse than Rosicky's, because at the moment our men up front are anything but prolific. But when all are match fit again I expect things to get better very soon. Perhaps this happens already this Saturday because your high doesn't convince me completely. Granted, you are not going to have to struggle against relegation like in the past few years, but in my opinion the results this season are giving a wrong impression of your strength. In the first three games you had quite poor opponents and sure enough when you played Leverkusen you lost. Yeah, and we really don't need to talk about that Bochum match, the one in which you could/should have get thrashed. So, what are you thinking yourselves what spot in the table would reflect your strength? Are you euphoric and think you deserve to be top of the table or quite sceptical too?
Andi: Where we think we ought to be? On the second spot! Where else? *grinning* No, seriously, I for one, and the majority of the fans, think that at the moment we have achieved so far to get the first third of the points we need, that is, 12 out of the 36 points. That ought to be enough this year to avoid relegation. But because we did it in just five matchdays, a bit of dreaming out to be allowed. I compare this with a holiday. When you leave Germany's autumn rains behind for three weeks of holiday in the Caribbean, you enjoy the sun and dream a bit. Especially since everything is fine with our team, the new signings are doing well in our opinion, especially Kientz and Aduobe. The only drop of bitterness is Lantz's red card after saying 'fuckin' German referees' (isn't he right?), he will miss out on the games against you and Hanover. We'll see, perhaps Meggle will finally be given a chance, or our youngster Kevin Hansen plays again. Wibran would be an option too, as he has proven against Bochum, after all with him our game finally was a bit more attack-minded. In brief: we enjoy our current spot and dream, we are aware though that it won't go on like this forever. And many of us are, especially in a game against you, despite your problems, a little worried. But in the stadium we'll try to make up for that. The second half against Leverkusen has proven what influence our fans have in home games. A fantastic atmos, and our side will put the opponents under pressure. Against you the tickets will be sold out and with the help of a positive mood we should be able to give your Borussia lads a proper fright. What do you think, how many Borussians will make the trip to the Baltic Sea?
Arne: Let me say a few words about the players first: I would like to see one or two changes in the first eleven. Oliseh in for Heinrich, Fernández for Evanilson and Herrlich for Koller, that would be my wishes for changes on Saturday, but we'll see how much of this the boss will make come true. Especially Heinrich definitely needs a rest, his performances recently were really abysmal, and Fernández too has left a much better impression in London than 'Eva' has so far this season. But now to your question: It's hard to tell how many of us will accompany the team. I guess there will be about 1,000 who will make the trip to the North, and there probably will be the same number of supporters who live in the surrounding area of Rostock, or that is, the North East. I'm really eager to see what the atmos will be at your ground – a vocal home crowd unfortunately has become in Germany something rare, and it would be nice to finally see some exception. But be careful, we're not bad either! Even though in the past years we've lost much of our reputation, especially in away matches our support is getting rapidly better! Besides, we have prepared some little special action and we hope your stewarding service won't spoil it. Perhaps this way both groups of fans can create some really awesome football atmos, as it always should be.
Andi: I'm curious too to see if you can put through that special action. It would be nice if you could, that would be some signal for once. Last season it did work too (after a lot of exhausting convincing). We now that in away matches you are about to develop into a homogenous (fan) army again. We'll see how many fans will come into your enclosure who don't really have much to do with you (Rostockers who didn't get a ticket, 'surrounding area fans' who want to see Borussia playing, ...) and how you manage to integrate them. As for ourselves, I'm eager to see what happens too, because we have been in a dialogue with the club and the matchday announcers, who already have put many of our ideas into practice, which helped improve the atmos in the latest home match a lot, up to standing ovations at corner kicks. Let's see what happens and sing together (or against each other) during warm-up 'You'll never walk alone'! Talking of doing things together, when your Jens Lehmann is again 'making some new friends' you can take the chance to shout (secretly, so that no-one notices) 'Lehmann out!', because then our bowl will be all cheering again!
Arne: Cheers for the chat, Andi, and all the worst for Saturday! How to beat second-ranked teams is something of which we have much experience anyway from last season ;-)
Geschrieben von Arne
