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E- Block International - A Weblog for "Away Fans" of Tennis Borussia Berlin.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Test Match vs Lichtenberg 47

Yesterday was our 5th or 6th winter friendly match - I really dont know as I was away and a load were cancelled. Perhaps its only the 4th? Well who cares? It was my 2nd and its me that counts.

Sa, 28.01.2006 | 13.30 Uhr
Lichtenberg 47 - Tennis Borussia
2 - 0


Yes, a 2-0 defeat against a team struggling in the division below. :-(

General:

- Despite the fact it looks freezing cold, the temperature was OK for anyone managing to place themselves in the sun. The pitch had metre high piles of snow, where the fans would usually stand and we therefore had the choice of being either squished between snow and the wall, or to get up there on the snow. Our coach chose to climb up on the mountains of snow - I was not as brave.

- The mounds of snow acted as rather good beer holders, keeping the drink cool and secure. Beer was 1Euro 50 for 330ml of Warsteiner. Now to the not so serious stuff ;-)

- I arrived a bit late after getting a tad lost in Lichtenberg. Luckily I didnt miss a great deal and had the honour of paying a full 3 Euros enrance (5 for non students). Felix filled me in with the team and the positions but then became obsessed by a big fat white gull in a tree and was distracted from the game for a while.

- Anyone who sees the result 2-0, both in the second half will probably panic and ask whether TeBe were lacking in fitness. That wasnt the problem. TeBe made 10 substitutions at half-time and other changes followed. This was really a practice run about with a ball.

- Lichtenberg are in the danger zone of the division below BUT they have taken some steps over the winter break to change this. They now have the manager that Union sacked at Christmas (forgot his name) and a few new players. They seemed extremely up for the game, well practiced on the astroturf pitch and fought for every ball. They only made a few changes. It was a very good performance for them and they deserved to win. If they continue like that then we may be seeing them in the Oberliaga division again soon.

- TeBe on the other hand seemed to be playing a different match: Lots of changes and switches to test things out and give everyone a run around; TeBe were less aggressive in their tackling (apart from a few nasty crunches) and never seemed to have come to terms with the astroturf.

- We were moving the ball out to the wings, playing short 1-2s, switching the wings and creating space. All very good BUT THIS WAS A TINY ASTROTURF PITCH! The ball kept going out, switching made little difference and in the space created the ball just ran and ran never slowing down. Our 1-2s were constantly being broken down by a more pressing Lichtenberg. We were playing the wrong tactic for the pitch and the impression I had was that this game was just a run out for us, nothing more than a chance for everyone to test their fitness with a half of running about.

- In this sense its not a disappointing result but I dont like seeing them lose. Lichtenberg were the deserved winners but I hope that TeBe got exactly what they wanted out of the game as well.

- The referee was a young guy wearing an overly tight black kit. Very sexy and he had a good game as well, explaining the rules to the players quite confidently and allowing the game to flow - only stepping in when the tackles were too hard.

- There were 44 paying fans apparently. I didnt see them all. Some young Lichtenberg chavs called us gay to the amusement of a few of us but the match and the atmosphere was nice and friendly. The final ten minutes were amusing though as straight after our match was a "friendly" between BFC Dynamo and Dynamo Dresden 2nd team. With 5 minutes to go the riot police had arrived as well as some very strange charachters from BFC. But heh, that's just the small minority isnt it?

- Verdict: Disappointed but not scared - it was just a warm up.

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