After Freiburg’s 1-1 draw against Mainz, SC coach Christian Streich was actually quite satisfied with the “fight” his team had delivered. Nevertheless, he had to get rid of his anger over social media criticism of the young goalkeeper Noah Atubolu, which had apparently been pent up in him for a long time.
Stands in front of his keeper Noah Atubolu: SC coach Christian Streich. IMAGO/Sven Simon
During the home game against Mainz, Streich had turned around angrily and shouted something angrily in the direction of the main stand, from where he was probably heckled. There was no cheering atmosphere in the stadium given the game was not particularly attractive but was very competitive, so there was also grumbling and – unusual for Freiburg – even a few whistles, including after a failed shot by Noah Atubolu. That may have contributed to the SC coach later making an all-round attack.
“I’m too worried about him,” he said about the insults that the young keeper has to read about himself on Instagram, Facebook and the like. “There is far too much drama on social media or sometimes anti-social media,” explained Streich, who is not active there himself but has had comments shown. “We are SC Freiburg and have a 21-year-old goalkeeper from our own youth, from our own city – that’s exactly our path.” Apart from that, the German U-21 national goalkeeper may have “made two or three mistakes” in his 41 competitive games this season and made a “sensational save in the first half” against Mainz. After Michael Gregoritsch’s early opening goal and before Jonathan Burkardt’s equalizer, he parried against the eventual goalscorer and deflected a shot from Brajan Gruda around the post.
Atubolu kept nine clean sheets
Throughout the season, Atubolu helped ensure that the sports club is in seventh place after the draw against Mainz and can continue to hope for its third European Cup participation in a row. Streich also pointed to his goalkeeper’s nine clean sheets, which are only bettered in the league by Leverkusen’s Lukas Hradecky, who hasn’t conceded a goal in 14 games. He himself handles the criticism well. “He’s doing really well, he’s cool,” Streich said of Atubolu. “We’ll see if he prevails, but I firmly believe he will.”
However, he couldn’t give the SC keeper a simple tip like himself about avoiding social media: “I can’t tell him to turn off all your social media. These boys at 21 then think they “They’re alone in the world. It’s like putting on my pants in the morning.” Atubolu is supported by everyone in the club, “the fellow goalkeepers support him, the whole team supports him”, but above all he has the “top goalkeeper coach Michael Müller”, who was trained by the current national goalkeeper coach Andreas Kronenberg. “And we are on the pitch we are on – also thanks to his good performances. You have to have tomatoes in your eyes if you don’t see that over the whole season,” said the SC coach.
“You should be proud that such players play for us”
The club’s philosophy includes continually training young players. And in the current season, in which Freiburg has an unusually high number of injuries, some of these young players are often challenged. Streich also mentioned by name left-back Jordy Makengo, who came on as a substitute against Mainz in the second half for captain Christian Günter, whom he had to replace in the first half of the season. “You should be proud that such players play for us,” he demanded of the fans.
Streich was able to live with the draw against Mainz “in their best phase of the season”. Even though the team “didn’t succeed in everything with the ball,” they “worked in a disciplined manner.” He was therefore “satisfied with the fight and with the point”. He is worried before the second home game in a row next Saturday against Wolfsburg not only because of the criticism of Atubolu, but also because of the continued difficult personnel situation. Substitute Merlin Röhl was a bit ailing, and defender Lukas Kübler will also be missing due to a yellow card suspension.
2024-04-22 14:08:39
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