1FCNUK Player of the Season

Just a few options based on who we at 1FCNUK think are players worthy of at least getting a few votes.

Everyone welcome to vote once. Poll will remain open for 1 week.

Any other choices, please add a comment.

Rollercoaster – another 1.FCN season ends

Looking back on the 1FCNUK season preview from last August, we never really put our neck on the line and made a firm prediction of where 1.FCN would finish in the final table, all settled after last weekend’s game day 34. We did hint that a mid-table finish would be acceptable and that top 10 would be a fine way of consolidating after the previous season’s remarkable sixth place.

What we failed to hint at, and carelessy so based on our experience of following Glubb is that, if nothing else, it would be a rollercoaster of a season. Early form was encouraging but this soon slipped away into something far more mediocre and by Christmas 1.FCN were beginning to look over their shoulder rather too anxiously at the relegation battle already taking shape.

Better results at the start of the second half of the season ultimately not only restored hope that releagtion would be avoided but that a challenge could be mounted for a Europa League place. In true Nuremberg style however, we were soon once again fearing the drop rather than looking forward to games in the far corners of the European continent. Then of course, a string of good results finally laid rest to any chances that Glubb would be heading into the 2.Bundesliga. Of course, this was not enough for 1.FCN – they once gain then had to flirt with the possibility of finishing in a European place, even going into the final game with a slim chance of doing so.

In the final analyis, tenth place is more than acceptable for a club with many young players, little money, and a squad with several loanees. Indeed praise must be given to coach Dieter Hecking and his vital partnership with Martin Bader in ensuring quality players somehow find their way to Nuremberg and peform superbly for 1.FCN. The on-loan Daniel Didavi probably stands out in this category and, although it is highly unlikley Stuttgart will grant his wish to stay in Nuremberg, his desire to do so speaks volumes of the respect many players have for Hecking and Bader.

So, all-in-all, another very pleasing, up-and-down season for 1.FCN with memorable peformances from individuals, and the team, and of course, some which are best forever forgotten.

All Glubberer at 1FCNUK, in Franconia and around the world will be looking forward to next season already. Shame we have to wait until the end of August and only have the Olympics and Euro 2012 as our main sporting enterntainment. It is unlikely that either of these two major events will provide as much excitement as a Bundesliga season.

What now Glubb?

It’s that time of year again. Not a specific date or a specific game number but the part of the season when 1.FCN give a hint of great potential, providing hope that all is well in the future of the mighty Glubb. A few weeks ago this was certainly not the case so consider yourselves lucky that this post was not written during the winter break.

Three wins and a draw from the first six games of 2012 have moved Nuremberg from a precarious 15th place to a far more respectable 10th. What seemed to be an impending and all too familiar battle in the Bundesliga’s drop zone has now turned into … well, just what has it turned into? At the time of writing 1.FCN stand eight points above the dreaded 16th position and eight from a Europa League position. So where will the season go from here.

It is, of course, possible that Glubb could still get sucked back into the struggle at the wrong end of the table. However, this would not only require a string of terrible results from Nuremberg but also some exceptional results from the teams below in the table. Both of these outcomes seem improbable based on current positions and recent form, a form that from a 1.FCN perspective has been inspired by the Bader/Hecking combination of shrewd movements in the transfer market, bringing in Hanno Balitsch and Adam Hlousek. The former brings experience and a stabilising influence to the midfield, while the latter has adequately filled the boots of the injured Pinola at left-back, providing a pacy attacking option and a quality of crosses and set pieces rarely seen in recent times at the Frankenstadion.

The individual form also extends to the likes of Dominic Maroh who will certainly ease the blow of the departure of Philip Wollscheid in the summer, and Alexander Esswein who is beginning to look like the goal hungry striker his time at Dresden suggested he can be. Timothy Chandler too is worth a mention, with very effective performnces on the right of midfield following the decision to play him further forward than his ‘natural’ right-back position. The whole team seems to have a renewed confidence and looks comfortable in all departments.

It is the aforementioned qualities which may provide a glimpse of things to come, if not this season then maybe next, and even a glimmer, albeit a faint one, that Glubb might even challenge for a top six finish.  It would be a surprise now if the current top four in the Bundesliga changes this season – it may not stay in the same order but it seems unlikely that any other team will break into those top places. Of the teams in places five to seven (Leverkusen, Bremen and Hannover) there’s a chance that one of them  will be caught by one of the next three teams (Stuttgart, Hoffenheim and Nuremberg). The battle for fifth and sixth place will be an intense one, even more so for Glubberer if somehow 1.FCN can join it.

Realistically of course, a finish somewhere between ninth and 12th seems far more likely. Based on the position at Christmas (15th – which would have been considerably worse had it not been for a remarkable victory in Leverkusen in the last game before the break), mid-table would represent a more than satisfying performance. Given the fact that budget restraints are a massive hindrance to 1.FCN, survival for another season, the third consecutive in the Bundesliga, would represent a ringing endorsement of what Herrs Hecking and Bader are building at Glubb.

An experience not to be missed…

The recent game against Dortmund proved an attractive fixture for football junkie Simon Pott and his son Mike as he added to his vast experience of watching the beautiful game with his first ever trip to watch 1.FCN. Here’s his account of the experience…

Over the past 20 years I have been fortunate enough to travel to three World Cups and four Euro Tournaments, and have visited over 60 European stadiums.

Early in 2011 my son Mike introduced me to the book For Better Or For Wurst, and after reading the excellent account of an English love affair with the Clubberer, we agreed that we must visit Nuremberg and see what all the fuss was about.

Last October the wife confirmed she was off on her annual shopping weekend away, and Mike and myself soon realized that the weekend coincided with FCN playing at home to Borussia Dortmund

(Thank you to Kicker.de and Bundesliga for announcing the fixtures so far in advance)

We soon found out that the flights to Nuremburg were a little rare, so we booked a cheap €50 Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt and a quick onward two hour train trip to the city. Oh and one more thing!! We overlooked the fact that the world’s biggest toy fair coincided with the weekend in Nuremberg.

We really wanted to stand in the Nordkurve and absorb the home atmosphere. A quick email introducing ourselves to Jon who wrote the book, who put us in touch with Rudi Ullmann, who runs a Fan Club in Nuremberg and he sorted the tickets without any problems.

€30 later, yes €30 for two tickets, and a week before the match, we had flights, tw0 match tickets, and could not wait for the game, or so we thought !!

How cold can it get? On arrival at Nuremberg we were greeted with -13 degrees, with no issues surrounding the match taking place – this was Germany and they are prepared for anything.  We had a two hour trip on foot around this beautiful city, although we did make a few stops to warm up, and we found the people absolutely charming. Mike’s understanding of the German language did help.

The stadium is only five minutes on the S Bahn from the main city station, and we were invited to meet Rudi for a pre match beer or two. The stadium is located next to the Nazi showground, and although little is left to see, we tried without success to pop in to take photos.

We were pleasantly surprised by the sensible low key police presence, and the fans mingled like long lost friends.  After a trip to the club shop, and a photo of legend Max Mortlock we tried in vain to call Rudi. How cold was it? My phone had frozen, and little battery was left, so after about 20 minutes of searching we gave up and went into the stadium.

It was an absolute pleasure to be able stand in a stadium, mix with locals and drink with them. Even a Dortmund fan was welcomed into the Kurve. Cold beer soon turned to Gluwein, and we just about stayed warm. I am so glad we did not buy seats for the game.

For the first 20 minutes of the match on a perfect pitch, Nuremburg were certainly matching the fancied Dortmund and could have scored two goals (not sure how they didn’t) and a crowd of 45,000 was amazing even if it felt like being in the world’s largest freezer!!

Early in the second half Dortmund scored and then sealed the game with a second goal after 80 minutes. This did not dishearten the locals who sang all through the game.  Let’s hope the luck soon changes for a decent, friendly and famous Bundesliga club

At the end of the game the trains ran about every three minutes, the organization was superb, and prices very reasonable. A trip I would thoroughly recommend to any soccer fan and admirer of a traditional beautiful German City.

Just don’t pick the coldest day of the German winter!

Simon Pott, February 2012

Out came the sunshine…

… and dried up all the rain. And 1.FC Nuremberg moved (slightly) up the Bundesliga table again.*

The book about being an English supporter of 1.FCN, For Better Or For Wurst, is due to released in its German language version in early 2012. There is an additional chapter which manages to put the last three and half seasons into a handful of pages – an absolute neccesity as it would have been almost impossible to cover 2008-11 in as much detail as 2005-08 without the risk of further repetition. There are only so many ways to say that a load of fans flew to Germany, ate lots of sausages and drank vast quanitities of beer, witnessed another Glubb defeat, flew home and repeated it all again a couple of months later.

In a slight expansion on the previous two sentences, a comparision is drawn between 1.FCN and the English weather. When everything is set fair, and everyone is basking in the glory of it all, a storm appears from nowhere and devastates every last remnant of a joyous summer. When, on the other hand, all hope of any brightness is all but lost and the days are dark, wet and cold, something akin to a miracle occurs, bringing sunshine and hope that the darkest days have passed.

And so it was in Leverkusen as Glubb recorded a miraculous 3-0 victory over Bayer 04. The awfulness of the previous few weeks of heavy away defeats, lack of goals scored, deluge of goals conceded, suspensions, injuries and generally poor performances could be forgotten as the Bundesliga paused for the winter break – Nuremberg had bounced back, at least a little bit.

A look at the league table provides the most telling analysis of what went wrong during the first 17 games, namely that 1.FCN did not win enough games because they didn’t score enough, and conceded too many, goals. Deeper reasons, and these are purely personal opinions, are that inexperience of some of the players, a lack of passion, and a lack of an alternative plan prevented the team from building on what was a steady enough start to the season.

While I would not criticise the management/coaching set-up at Glubb, with Martin Bader and Dieter Hecking making the most of the difficult situation of competing against teams with far greater financial resources than Nuremberg, it does sometimes seem that there is an unwillingness to make big changes to the team and the formation. Of course, it can also be argued that under Michael Oenning, far too many changes were made far too regularly, unsettling the players and leading to ultimate demise. The inexperience of the younger players is often refreshing when things are going well, but it is reasonable to question whether they all have yet developed the required reslience when faced with more difficult periods. I do not presume to know what is going on in the heads of players either, but watching each game does lead me to question whether there is often enough ‘fire-in-the-belly’. For example, although I would never condone players arguing with the officials, there have been plenty of occasions on which I would have liked to have see Tomas Pekhart at least throw his arms up in despair when flagged offside. I’m sure he is gutted to see the assistant referee raise his flag, but a demonstration of this would at least place a little doubt in the mind of the official, making him look even more closely the next time.

Questioning the loyalty of the players to Glubb is a little unfair from someone sitting in front of a live stream of a game several hundred miles away, and I’m generally convinced that they all want the best for 1.FCN, but it is surely not just coincidence that against Leverkusen there was the sort of passion always shown by Raphael Schaefer from all of the players. Marvin Plattenhardt was a revelation, Daniel Didavi played like his life depended on it, as did Jens Hegler and Christian Eigler. And when in the first few moments of the match, Pekhart failed to connect with a cross into the box, he looked angry and I’m sure he even beat the floor with his fist. From the start of the game there was a commitment and a passion not truly seen for several months. Even without some frailties in the Leverkusen defence and attack , Nuremberg would have been victorious.

One win alone will not ensure that Glubb stay in the Bundesliga but when the second half of the season begins in late January, there will be nobody who can doubt that 1.FCN have got what it takes to climb away from the dangerzone. Several more shows of collective passion, fearlessness and belief will once again have people sitting-up and taking notice of a team which has the ability to not only firmly establish itself in the Bundesliga, but also win many friends among advocates of the truly beautiful game. It would be testimony to the work of Bader and Hecking if Glubb can repeat yesterday’s performance with enough regularity to survive in the German top flight. January can not come soon enough!

 

*With huge apologies to Incy Wincy spider, and the author of the English nursery rhyme.