GOALS: Wuyts, French, West (pen), Jersch
ASSISTS: Lannoy, Shingleton, Weber, Hagen
If you look closely at the graph below, you can see the exact point at which Friedrichshain Rovers realised they were in a relegation battle. On a Saturday when Barcelona were in Berlin, it’s at least logically legitimate to recognise that Rovers could actually be The Best Team In The World, forbidden from promotion and chained, like a brooding bear, to Freizeit obscurity. This season, this band of men have forgivably but regrettably fallen on the wrong side of this city’s many wonderful distractions. They have forgotten that there is football to be played and scraps to be won. But play they can.
And yet you have to go back some way in the Freizeit Landesliga archives to find the last time Rovers strolled out on a Saturday morning and put four past the opposition. Exactly how far back is difficult to know because of navigation issues with the fussball.de website, but Rovers took a purposeful step towards safety on Saturday morning.
If the significance of their 3-0 victory over relegation rivals Knallrot Wilmersdorf went unnoticed by the mid-table teams in this division, then this thumping will not. Just ask Prenzlauer Berg, who lost 6-2 to Lichtenrader back in January, or put it to any of the travelling supporters who arrived early enough to see Rovers take the lead.
Captain Andrew Weber had emphasised before kick-off that the game was to be won by the WSW attacking trident (pick your acronym, ABA also works, but doesn’t look as menacing) stretching the Lichtenrader defence to allow Alexis Lannoy, who is French and Paul French, who is English, space to drive at the centre backs.
And so it was, as Lannoy combined bite and brain to slide Ben Wuyts through. If his new goalscoring responsibility had been cause for shoegazing in recent weeks, Wuyts didn’t let it show, cooly sliding the ball past the remarkably big Lichtenwader Torwart. The game’s Hollyood moment came five minutes later, Adam Shingleton skilfully shielding the ball inside the box for French to curl home with aplomb.
And yet the game’s story arc, which saw them net two goals in each half, wasn’t quite as symmetrical. At the sweat-soaked apex, labouring with dehydration and struggling to contain a strong and deceptively agile Lichtenrader midfielder, there were doubts that they had done enough to hold the course.
The sweltering conditions meant that their first half attacks often fizzled out (French will rue miscueing two easier chances), and when defending in the second, defenders Ryu Voelkel, Tilo Schumann, Kyle Greenwood and Timothy Armstrong had to risk teeth and cheekbones to deny the small but aggressive forwards. The settling second half goals, an Andrew West penalty after Weber was felled and a homecoming tap-in for Nico Jersch that was plated up by substitute Phillip Hagen, were met with both joy and relief.
Rovers did plenty, but Weber will be keen to emphasise the importance of going on to score at least seven in the final game of the season. But he’ll also be impressed, again, with the developing performances of man-of-the-match Voelkel at right-back, and the work rate and growing appreciation of percentages (Marchetti=Xavi) from what is – pending Any Liu’s registration – arguably one of this division’s most enviable squads.
There were two more Hollywood moments – more Naked Gun than Die Hard – as Krzysztof Debicki went for a stroll in no man’s land and Lannoy pirouetted around his marker before lifting the ball over the goalkeeper and onto the post, but Rovers held firm to notch what may turn out to be a landmark victory. Glückwunsch.
p.s. the kit smelt really very bad. I put it on the balcony and got bitter looks from the neighbours, 35 feet away.