- 05.03.10
- First Team
Saturday, 1:00 p.m. – Facing FSV Frankfurt at the Betze
For the Red Devils, the week including the crunch encounters with FC St. Pauli and KSC could not have been any better as the record shows six goals and six points from two games. In the two home games that are in the offing now, the Red Devils want to build on that success. On Saturday, March 6, 2010, Kurz’s side will take on FSV Frankfurt at the Betzenberg.
FCK - FSV
The encounter with the relegation candidate from Hesse surely won’t become a walk in the park. If the Red Devils release their full performance potential however, there is no stopping them at all. In Karlsruhe last Sunday, Kurz’s men displayed that in an impressive manner as they battled back from a one-goal deficit and turned the game around just to chalk up three ultimately merited points in the end.
On Saturday, the Red Devils want to seize the game by the scruff of the neck right from the beginning to avoid another nasty surprise. In the first leg encounter, Kurz’s side went to Frankfurt brimming with self-confidence just to find themselves behind a few seconds after the opening whistle was blown. Even if the Red Devils managed to equalize and steal one point there, the game revealed that FSV Frankfurt is a tough opponent to take on.
That is particularly true these days as FSV Frankfurt is on the upswing lately. While FSV Frankfurt sat at the bottom of the table on two points on October 4, 2009, the team from Hesse has climbed up to position 16 in the meantime three points adrift of position 15 which would lift FSV out of the drop zone. As to the second lag table, FSV Frankfurt even lies eleventh. 
FSV’s new head coach Hans-Jürgen Boysen has a great stake in this upward trend. Boysen took over from Thomas Oral, who resigned from his post after the first leg encounter with FCK, in October 2009. With him at the helm, FSV has chalked up some remarkable successes lately as Frankfurt picked up four points from their latest games against Cottbus and Karlsruhe. Moreover, Boysen managed to inject new impetus into the team and stabilize the entire squad. Also the new signings Sanibal Orahovac (Wehen Wiesbaden), Vlad Munteanu (VfL Wolfsburg) and Sascha Mölders (RW Essen) are of asset to the club.
Since the visitors have achieved a goalless draw against FC St. Pauli two weeks ago, the Red Devils are warned and prepared for the match which is expected to become a test of patience. In consequence of five yellow cards, Erik Jendrisek will be sidelined on Saturday. However, since Srdjan Lakic has just celebrated a very impressive comeback as he hit the target even twice after he came off the bench in Karlsruhe, he promises to be a good replacement for Jendrisek up front.
Apart from the two long-term injured players Bastian Schulz and Pierre de Wit all men are available for selection on Saturday. Hence, the stage is set for the Red Devils to chalk up the ninth home win of the season. And should the game really become a test of patience, we can still rely on head coach Marco Kurz’s keen sense of substitutions as four of the latest six goals were scored by players who just came off the bench.
