- 31.01.10
- First Team
Monday, 8:15 p.m. – Red Devils visit new Tivoli
Everyone needs a bit of luck along the way. In last week’s game against Rot Weiss Ahlen luck wasn’t on the Red Devils’ side just when they needed it most. Now, we hope that the penny will finally drop in Aachen on Monday, February 1, 2010. The Red Devils are bent on scoring their first goal after the winter break.
Aachen - FCK
The players had two days off after Saturday’s game - time to clear their heads and look ahead to the game against Alemannia Aachen. FCK head coach Marco Kurz gathered his men again on Wednesday to prepare them for the next challenge. Marco Kurz is meticulous about preparing his team and he will ensure the players are up for Monday’s game against Aachen.
Even though the front runners are still waiting for this year’s first victory, FCK boss Kurz knows his team is on the right path. “The players have reacted to the match against Fuerth. Everyone could see that. They just failed to turn their dominance into goals,” Kurz commented. Erik Jendrisek and Adam Nemec, who will be available for selection again on Monday, will give their best to finally have the ball in the net again. As to the midfield, Kurz has an additional player at his disposal too. Georges Mandjeck, who was away on international duty, has just returned to Kaiserslautern during the course of the week and is fit and raring to go for his team on Monday. 
However, while FCK’s injury list shortens, Alemannia Aachen’s options are stretched. Manuel Junglas has ruptured his cruciate ligament in Aachen’s first game of the year against Karlsruhe and will be absent for the rest of the season. Only a few days later, Timo Achenbach tore a lateral collateral ligament of his knee and is now set for a six-week injury lay-off. To make matters worse at Tivoli, Achenbach is the ninth Aachen player who suffered a severe knee injury in the current campaign. Also Aimen Demai was one of these unlucky fellows. However, after having missed the 1-1 draw between FCK and Alemannia Aachen in the first leg, the former FCK player will most probably be part of Aachen’s flat back four on Monday.
After a surprisingly bad start, Aachen managed to get on the right track by the end of the first leg winning seven points from the last three games prior to Christmas. Riding the wave of success, they added a 3-1 win against KSC before they had to accept a 0-1 defeat against FC St. Pauli last week.
In answer to the injury jinx, head coach Michael Krüger and Sporting Director Erik Meijer, who took over from Jürgen Seeberger and Andreas Bornemann in September 2009, signed the Danish player Allan Jepsen a few days ago. Jepsen, who played for HSV from 1997 until 1999, joined Alemannia from Randers FC on the basis of a short-term deal until the end of the current campaign. The Danish left back is the only new man in the team. Striker Herve Oussale left Aachen to join the Belgian second division club RAEC Mons.
On Monday, the Red Devils will face Alemannia Aachen at a new venue. The venerable ‘Tivoli’ is a thing of the past now as it was replaced by a new ‘Tivoli’, a soccer-specific stadium with a capacity of 33,000, in August last year. However, the old ‘Tivoli’ was none of the Red Devils’ favorite venues anyway since they have not been very successful in picking up points there. Two draws in the sixties are the best results a team from the Betzenberg has ever achieved there so far. Hence, it is high time for the first victory at ‘Tivoli’ on Monday.
