TSG Neustrelitz 0:0 TeBe

Saturday 28th October 2006, Parkstadion

TeBe: Greil - Schalle, Thiam, Perez - Weidner, Petrowsky, Lemcke, Eckl (58. Nwankwo) - Savran, Fuß, Griesert (75. Kadow)

Attendance: 745 (50 TeBe Fans)
Booked: Scholze, Lösel - Petrowsky, Perez
Sent off: Lösel (68.) - Petrowsky (90.)

Another drab performance, another two points lost against a poor opponent, this one even decimated by injuries. Yet again there are no excuses for a listless, laboured 'effort', one lacking any spark or will to win. I had to read the other match reports to recall what happened, all I remember was Savran hitting the post from a corner near the end of the first half, the sendings off, and fofie missing a great one-on-one chance to finish us off near the end. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that my girlfriend was there, for her first ever football match. After this she'll hardly be rushing back for more.

People can try and gloss over it or draw the positives all they want, as they have been on Lila Kanal, but the fact is that we're not good enough to achieve our stated aim of promotion. 7 games unbeaten and 9 points better off than last season count for nothing when your no.1 rivals have gained more points in that period and are now NINE points clear. Our midfield are not creative or hungry enough, our team lacks a real leader and there seems a general lack of wanting to fight for one another.

Who to blame is the question. Questions now have to be asked of Dejan's tactical and motivational ability at this level, plus the role and effect of the Maschke brothers in the team's internal affairs. TeBe trumpeted promotion as our stated aim at the start of the season, said we had the best squad in years, Dejan boldly proclaimed our team was the best in the league just 2 weeks back. THIS IS PLAINLY NOT THE CASE. The Winter break will be telling. If we're out of contention by then, something will have to give.

Some positives and negatives from the day:

+ Nice train journey there, the Party Army were in good spirit
+ Nice ground (location), very reasonable beer and food prices and a friendly crowd
+ Good support in the first half

- Team 'performance'
- No pupil/ student/ jobless reduced price was a bit cheeky, but 4 EUR was still top banana
- Idiot wannabe hardman security guard shoving a Party Army member at half time for wanting to take a photo from a yard inside the running track
- Too much alcohol consumed by many
- TeBe fans not sticking together on the way to and from the ground, and perceiving non-existent stress on the way home

I had a disappointing trip, all in all.

TeBe 1:1 FC Schönberg 95

21st October 2006, Mommenstadion

Goals: 0:1 (83.) Urgast, 1:1 (90.) Thiam

Team: Same as last week, save Galic replaced by Eckl

Schlecht. Nur schlecht. After the high of beating the league leaders last weekend came the low of scraping a draw with a run-of-the-mill Oberliga side at home in the last minute. To be honest, we didn't really even deserve a point. We laboured, but we had no creativity, I only recall one really good chance in the 1st half, a back-heel flick from Vucko which went wide, we had no fight, there seemed no urgency, and we were hit on the counter attack a number of times by a well-organised Schoenberg side who finally punished our dawdling and huffing and puffing with a well-worked counter, a break over the top, down the left, cross in, the striker had all the space in the world to bend it past Greil.

Our equaliser came in injury time via a header from a corner from our best player yet again, ABDOUL Thiam. He's too good for this league and too good for us. We badly miss a playmaker, and our three up front seemed out of sorts. Something seems not to be right in the team. The passion, commitment and fight shown against Babelsberg was sorely lacking here.

Poor crowd (by that I mean around 300), lots at the anti-Nazi demo or at the Moenchengladbach match in the Olympic Stadium. Beautiful t-shirt weather. Kobold's altered Norn Iron TeBe flag was in attendance for the first time.

The fans are understandably depressed and resigned. Babelsberg won a tight away match 1-0 and so go 7 clear again. Winning tight matches when you're not playing well is not something that TeBe do well, especially when they're expected to, and for that reason no promotion for us this season. Depressing. Photos maybe from the Doughnut Boy if he can be bothered.

SV Babelsberg 03 1:3 Tennis Borussia

13th October, Karl-Liebknecht Stadion, Attendance 2379

TeBe: Greil - Schalle, Thiam, Below - Weidner, Lemcke, Petrowsky, Galic (16. Eckl) - Savran, Vuckovic (61. Schmidt), Griesert (74. Kadow).

This is a bit late, due to me recovering and being busy with room stuff.

What a result. More than that, WHAT A PERFORMANCE. After last week’s apparently embarrassing friendly performance, and the somewhat ‘stuttering’ efforts that I’ve witnessed, TeBe finally stepped up to the plate when it really mattered.

[For my non-Berlin friends: Babelsberg, before Friday, had won 7 out of 7 in the league, conceding only 1 goal. We were already 8 points behind them and thus this was already a cup-final for us, lose and it was game over already. We’ve been in League 4 for long enough, and realistically this is our last chance to get into Division 3.]

So as you see, I went into the game honestly without any trepidation, I thought we’d lose 3-1, all over, nothing I had witnessed thus far made me think differently. Doughnut Boy was his usual nerves. We met up with friends bit by bit on the regional train down towards Potsdam. We all congregated in Wannsee, and here, I decided I’d start drinking beer after all (beer pressure, as I call it). The Party Army headed to Babelsberg together, to the SVB03 fan club, [as we have a good relationship with their fans esp. through similar political views]. A few Sternis and chats with old faces, then off to the ground.

3 EUR entry. Bargain. Their prices put TeBe to shame. 2 EUR for a 0,4l beer, good tasty Bratwurst (apparently), and I was very impressed by the stadium, it would make a nice old-school League 1 stadium in England, compact, terracing et al. A good crowd of TeBe fans had turned up, around 300 (about the same as our home matches!), and I frequently had people coming up to me expressing surprise that I was there (I’d written on the forum that I couldn’t go, to scare some crazy fans (eh Bungle?!) who seriously believe that if I’m there, we win, and they swallowed it!). We resolved some stress as to whether we could put up our banners and then the game started.

I was down at the front, with Doughnut Boy, pretty much for the whole of the first half, and was delighted. We were great. We probably played the best football since I started following TeBe. The most important thing was that you could see we WANTED IT MORE. We were hungrier, harder in the tackle, more committed. But in addition, our passing was great, some great counter-attacks, and Thiam was a rock at the back. We scored after 3 minutes and everyone went nuts, in a kind of disbelief. We then controlled the game. Savran should have scored when put through one-on-one after a dream defence-splitting pass from Lemcke (I think), we hit the angle from a corner, and then Savran made up for it before half-time cooly rounding the keeper after B03 failed to clear and blasting home.

2-0 at half-time, we were ecstatic. ‘Auswaertssieg!’ (‘Away win!’) was screamed repeatedly from our end, and the singing was more or less constant. B03 fans, to their credit, kept singing too.

Second half, B03 came out much stronger and with a lot more bite in the tackle. Too much in fact, as Mutschler got sent off for a disgraceful late tackle. A couple more (Tretschok, ex-Champions League winner, could have walked too). But B03 came swarming at us, and it looked as if we had stopped, and that WE had a man less. Their pressure told when Ben-Hatira headed in a corner at the far post. Game on. By this stage, I was shitting it, all the momentum was on their side. They nearly scored exactly the same corner from the other side; hit the post; Greil dived low to his left to punch away another shot. We had no outlet, Vuckovic drifted out of the game and was replaced, and still we kept pumping high balls forward to no-one, to be attacked again. But we stood firm after 30 minutes of solid pressure, Griesert weaved his magic on the left at times to relieve us, then, after B03 hashed a high-ball clearance, Savran took advantage, sprinted towards the keeper and cooly slotted it past him to make it 3-1. Game over.

How we enjoyed the final whistle! The team gave at least 5 ‘la olas’ (that German thing they do when they win) loads of “That’s what you call a home defeat!” “Forza TeBe Allez allez!” and the like. The belief in the Kobold/ ‘lucky mascot’ had been strengthened, oh crap. 5 points in it, a long way to go, and they still have to come to our place. So the season could still be interesting yet.

Some cool videos of the fans and atmosphere, thanks to Bully, here, here, here and here. Cool photos, thanks to Ruepels here (click on 'Bilder').

Well done to Dejan for being so bold with three up top, well done to all the team, especially Thiam, Griesert, Savran and Schalle who I thought were immense.