Raptor

July & August 1997 (3)

After some friendlies, the season proper kicked off on August 13, with a home league game against Zwickau. Frankfurt immediately showed their intentions by playing an attacking, short-passing, game in a 3-3-4 formation. It wasn't the most usual of formations in the modern day, but then, we're here to turn back time...

Zwickau didn't stand a chance. Swedish forward Johnny Ekstrom (32), probably the best player on Eintracht's books, played in the hole and from there he struck twice in the first 30 minutes. Fellow forward Thomas Sobotzik (22), playing as the out-and-out striker he isn't, still got his name on the scoresheet as well. Twice, for that matter, both from the penalty spot. It sealed a 4-0 win, witnessed by a shade over 10,000 people. Attendance is something we'll have to work on, as the Waldstadion can host over 61,000, with more than 30,000 seats. To make things financially viable, those 30,000 will have to show up on a regular basis.

Three days later, the first dropped points of the season were a fact, following a 1-1 draw in Wattenscheid. Neither Serbian goalkeeper Ola Nikolow, nor left back Ralf Weber, a former German international, were at fault, but the rest of the makeshift defense were. Makeshift, because Kachaber Tskhadadze, the rock at centre half was on international duty with Georgia, and Dietmar Roth was injured. Zvezdan Pejovic had his chance to shine, but the Croat, suffering from the limit on foreigners, failed to take it. He was sent off for a foolish lunge in the 67th minute, a couple of minutes after the only genuinely talented midfielder on our books, youth international Thorsten Flick, received a second yellow for not much more than being a hot-head. Herr Flick wants a new contract, but has to calm down a fair bit before he'll get it.

After thrasing Regionalliga outfit Neunkirchen 5-0 in the first round of the German Cup, complete with crowd disturbances caused by infamous Neunkirchen hooligan Jarrs and his gang, two further points were dropped away at Carl Zeiss Jena. And when I say dropped, I mean dropped. Frankfurt were crusing until the 86th minute, Ekstrom and Sobotzik grabbing a goal each in the first ten minutes after the interval, when Mark Zimmermann went tumbling down in the area. It was the perfect Schwalbe, leading not only to a penalty, but also the sending off of Tskhadadze. Zimmermann stepped up himself and made it 1-2. Injuries had already reduced Frankfurt's attacking options, and when the red card was handed out, the last proper forward was replaced by a defender, leaving Eintracht to defend for four minutes plus stoppage time. The equaliser, when it came, had something inevitable over it...

Suddenly, Frankfurt had a bit of a dirty reputation in away games. Three sendings off in two games? As per usual, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. At the next outing, at Fortuna Düsseldorf on August 30, goalkeeper Nikolow came rushing out to stop an opposing striker from opening the score, but made the slightest of contacts. If it was penalty at all, the subsequent dismissal was harsh to say the least, what with another defender having arrived on the line already, he arguably wasn't the last man anymore either. Still, 16 minutes into the game, Eintracht were down to 10 men, had their backup goalkeeper Sven Schmitt on the field, and his first touch of the ball was when he collected it from the net. Three minutes later, Schmitt was at fault for the second, and Frankfurt were lucky Düsseldorf took their foot off the gas after that.

At the end of August, Frankfurt were in 7th place, with 8 points from 5 games, four off third place which is the last promotion spot.

Raptor

September 1997

New month, same problem: discipline was a bad joke, even if a couple of August red cards were an even worse joke. Freiburg might have been above us in the table, but aren't what one would call a better side. Still, because of Herr Flick's second double booking in a fortnight, we never got the chance to keep all three points at the Waldstadion. 0-0 made the board a little nervous. And those nerves weren't eased by events three days later: Leipzig were in town, and thanks to an early goal, grabbed victory. Having already transfer-listed Flick, more for his reaction to the bollocking he received in the wake of his second red card than the event itself, I figured it was time to tell a lot more players they were playing for their careers. And secretly ventured into the transfer market as well.

New recruits arrived too late to avoid a 2-1 defeat at Unterhaching (where we'd led 1-0), but for the home game against Fortuna Köln, ex-Aberdeen, ex-Rangers goalie Theo Snelders was our new number one. Just in time to take the jersey from Nikolow, whose suspension started. Equally important was the arrival of Bjorn Heidenstrom from Leyton Orient. The combined transfer fee for the two was £250k, a decent investment judging by the calming influence they had on the side.

Even so, despite going two up thanks to Sobotzik, Frankfurt still threw it all away again. This time, it was more due to bad luck and a fluke goal than anything else. Even though 2-2 meant two further home points went down the drain, improvement was visible.

In Nürnberg, we presented our biggest signing to date: Emil Kostadinov, the Bulgarian international who'd personally eliminated the French in the dying seconds of World Cup '94 qualifying. Litex Lovech were £1.7m better off, and we had a proven attack leader. Everybody happy? Well, the board weren't convinced, after we lost 2-1 that day. But then, Nürnberg probably do have the best squad in the division.

Then came what looked like the start of a turnaround: in the DFB Pokal, we eliminated Chemnitz 4-0 on their own turf, Kostadinov showing the way with a couple (one from the spot by which time victory was beyond doubt). While it was nice to win and keep hopes of a decent cup run alive, it was only a Regionalliga outfit we beat. Next up, however, were Gütersloh, and when Eintracht went 1-0 down after 10 minutes, many thought "here we go again!".

Not this time though: Sobotzik scored a hattrick, even though continentals wouldn't call it a proper one as Ekstrom put one in the back of the net in between those three goals somewhere. Then the man of the match was replaced by Da Silva, back from injury, and with his first touch of the ball, it was 5-1 for Frankfurt. Enough to end the month in 10th place. The only way is up? It better be!

retired_karamelkel

Well, I god, a legend returns to writing. I don't have much time to read anymore, but this weill be on the shortlist.

Raptor

October 1997

Transfer activity settled down, and so did our new recruitments. October was going to be a crucial month, as promotion already looked unlikely yet a good few important players had clauses enabling them to bugger off if we failed to achieve just that.

Nothing like a bit of pressure to separate the boys from the men though, and Frankfurt started to play better, and deserved a lot more than one point from the home game against Uerdingen (3rd placed) and the visit to Mainz (7th). Unfortunately, Lady Luck deserted Eintracht when it came to finishing. Between them, Kostadinov, Da Silva, Ekstrom and Sobotzik probably broke the world record for hitting the sanction in any given calendar month. With each and every rebound being miraculously saved, or somehow finding it's way over the crossbar, and the inevitable sucker punch at the other end, those two games ended 0-2 and 0-0 respectively, despite dominance in terms of possession and pressure.

Still, it had to come good eventually, and at home to Hannover, it did. Goals from Heidenstrom and Scharpenberg justified pairing those two in central midfield for the first time, an experiment decided on in the second half of the Mainz game. It was enabled by a change in tactics that saw Frankfurt utilise wingbacks in a 5-3-2 formation so popular among the leading Bundesliga sides. Only problem was that the club didn't have any natural wingbacks. The position on the right was now filled by unmotivated Thorsten Flick, who only delivered for the German U-21s it seemed, with Sascha Lehnhart being his counterpart on the left.

The 2-0 win was the right tonic ahead of the third round cup tie at home to 5th placed First Bundesliga team Karlsruhe.

Some of the 24,000 crowd still to take their seats when Ekstrom caused a massive roar and surprise by opening the score after only 20 seconds. Although Eintracht couldn't dominate as strongly as it had in the previous three league games, that was never to be expected. Losing Lehnhart early on was a blow, but the team stood their ground, and were rewarded in the 81st minute, when Kostadinov made sure of a famous victory with a close range header.

It was a great confidence building job, with November's five league games, three of which would be on the road, just around the corner.

Raptor

November/December 1997

Thanks to Heidenstrom and Sobotzik, Eintracht secured a most satisfying 2-0 win at wannabe-commie revolutionaries St. Pauli. The Norwegian signing quickly became a cult figure at the club when he personally took care of SV Meppen, with a couple of headed goals that the visitors answered only with a solitary counterstrike.

Nevertheless, all good things come to an end, and a somewhat unfortunate 1-0 defeat at Stuttgarter Kickers meant a lot of hard work catching up with the leaders was undone.

Thanks to thirteen goals in the remaining three matches before the long winter break, Eintracht still had good reason to keep up their promotion hopes though. Kostadinov showed the way in the 5-2 win at Zwickau, before Heidenstrom was the main man once again when Wattenscheid came to town (4-0). The only December match at Greuter Fürth almost ended in tears, as Tskhadadze was sent off early on for the stupidest of fouls right before the referee's eyes. Even with ten men, Ekstrom, Sobotzik (2) and defender Weber found the net, before taking the foot off the gas, allowing the home side to grab two late goals to make the final result look closer than it was.

Despite that great run towards the winter break, Eintracht found themselves only up to 9th place, on 32 points from 20 games, still a massive 8 points off the third and last promotion spot. The winter break would have to be utilised to strengthen the squad further. Frankfurt could ill afford to lose any more points at the start of the second half of the season.

shannon2007

Fs upping six month old threads :p

Raptor

Yeah, Terk should card this w@nker

Raptor

Winter break 1997/8

Having received a personal accolade in the Manager of the Month award for November, De Vries decided to try and make the most of it by getting extra transfer funds from the board. Given the good run the club were on, it wasn't a big surprise they subscribed to their manager's vision. Unfortunately, money isn't the only ingredient. Promising players tend to demand first team football in top flight teams nowadays, which made reinforcing the squad a lot harder. In the end, Frankfurt were reduced to shopping in the lower leagues of other leading European nations. It led to the signing of Jean-Francois Peron, from English side Walsall, in a £400k deal. The Frenchman was being earmarked as the new right winger, while on the left hand side, De Vries hoped the free transfer of Danilo Coppola from Italy would solve his selection headaches in that area.

The last winter arrival was Claudio, a highly promising Brazilian schoolboy, who nonetheless had to be offered a £2,000-a-week contract to fight off Serie B and C competition. Eintracht could afford a little dent in their salary budget though, as Dirk Wolf and Thomas Zampach were sold to Bochum and Wattenscheid for £625k and £875k respectively, knocking a cool ten grand a week off the wage bill. A minor cull among reserve team players also helped in that respect, as Frankfurt started to turn in monthly profits of around £150,000.

To maximise secrecy and a peaceful preparation ahead of the second half of the season, the club made the decision not to play in any of the lucrative Hallenturniere, or Indoor Tournaments many Bundesliga clubs cashed in on during the winter break. Apart from the lack of financial windfall, it was a risky strategy in terms of not being able to try out the new arrivals before things got serious again. The management preferred to keep the squad fresh for a heavy run-in though, and so it wasn't until Valentine's Day that Frankfurt would play a match again, when they'd be given the chance to make amends for the two points dropped in Jena earlier in the season.

Raptor

February 1998 (1)

What followed was a huge shock. Eintracht were nowhere. Visitors Carl Zeiss Jena, despite having a considerably less talented squad, made Frankfurt look like amateurs, and cruised to a 3-0 win. Even the second half triple substitution which saw all three winter signings make their debuts, couldn't turn the tide. To make matters worse, both Flick and Kostadinov had to go off injured, meaning Frankfurt ended the game with fewer than 11 players for a different reason than on a few occasions in the first half of the season. And Thomas Sobotzik was seriously unhappy about not being allowed to make a club record move to either Berlin or Bremen in the transfer period, which had an affect on his game today. Conceding three goals in the absence of suspended defence leader Tskhadadze, who'd also miss the next league game, was yet another worry for De Vries. Next up was the trip to Freiburg, and only a win would do to keep their increasingly faint promotion hopes alive...

Raptor

February 1998 (2)

Injuries, suspensions and downright disappointment with the performance against Jena led to a good few changes for the Freiburg match. Thankfully, they paid off. Olivier Bunzenthal, replacement centre half, might have had to be stretched off in the very first minute, but it only added to Frankfurt's determination to make up for last week's disgrace. Sobotzik had had a private chat with his manager, and had been promised he could leave in the summer if Eintracht didn't go up, but only if the forward did all he could to make sure Frankfurt returned to where they belonged. Anything less than 100% effort in every single match would result in spending the rest of the season on the bench, or worse: in the reserves. Sobotzik's answer: two goals.

Claudio added Frankfurt's third on his first start for the club, and even though Freiburg clawed one back for the second time, Eintracht won 3-2.

The follow-up should've been a home win over 4th placed Düsseldorf, but that wasn't to be. A less than perfect first half led to a half time deficit of 1-0, and even though Heidenstrom levelled the match in the second 45, and even though that closed the gap to the top-3 to 9 points, one couldn't help but feeling any run initiated after today would be too little, too late.