Less than 40 seconds were over when Sven Bender rose from his coaching chair for the first time. A quick shout to one of his players, a wave of his hand, then he sat down again. It was a special evening for the assistant coach of SpVgg Unterhaching: Because head coach Marc Unterberger was suspended and had to watch the game from the window of President Manfred Schwabl‘s office, Bender took responsibility in the third division derby against his former club TSV 1860 Munich. As the game progressed, the former international would spend more and more time standing.
At the end of a game that was hectic at times, especially after the break, in front of 14,250 spectators in the sold-out sports park, including Sandro Wagner, the former Hachinger coach and current assistant coach of the national team, there was a 2-2 draw. That doesn’t really help either of them.
The Hachingers remained winless in their sixth third division game in a row and slipped to second-to-last place in the table. After the defeat against Wehen Wiesbaden, Sixty was unable to start a new series before the international break – to the chagrin of sports director Christian Werner: “We are very disappointed, but you saw two teams here that have a lot of mentality.” Coach Argirios Giannikis saw it not quite so negative: “Overall, the result is okay.”
The Lions’ focus was on a few former opponents: goalkeeper René Vollath, defender Raphael Schifferl and striker Patrick Hobsch had moved from Haching to Giesing in the summer, obviously without the blessing of the most loyal people in the south stand. Shortly after kick-off, a corresponding message was shown there, with the motto: A shared beer after the derby was out of the question (the SpVgg supporters rhymed “later” with “traitor”) somewhat awkwardly.
At the beginning, goal scenes were the exception, but the first insults to the guests from the Haching fans soon followed. But the Blues didn’t complain back, but expressed their antipathy towards the executive: “The whole of Giesing hates the police,” was written on a huge banner. At exactly that moment, ex-Bundesliga player Johannes Geis, whose signing the Munich-based Vorstädter had only announced on Friday, fired a free kick at the 1860 goal, which Vollath parried superbly (16th minute). This was followed by a volley of fireworks from the sixties block and a three-minute interruption.
The hosts came out of this better, but their actions were not compelling. But the lions bit: Haching couldn’t get the ball out of the danger zone, Kozuki’s cross was headed in by Hobsch, of all people, to make it 0-1 (33rd) – and there was no excessive celebration at their old place of work.
After the break it gets wild: Haching equalizes twice, Vollath prevents the deficit for Sixty
The Sixties easily took the lead into the half-time break – and squandered it just moments later. Sebastian Maier fell in a duel with TSV captain Jesper Verlaat, and before the penalty was taken, goalkeeper Vollath was shown yellow because he tried to irritate the shooter Simon Skarlatidis. He didn’t let himself be deterred and scored to make it 1-1.
That was the start of wild minutes: first it was Sixty’s turn again. The eye-catching Kozuki refined a quick counterattack on the left side with a remarkable cross from Maximilian Wolfram with a shot from 16 meters that Haching’s young goalkeeper Konstantin Heide had to let pass (54th). But the Blues couldn’t celebrate their renewed lead for four minutes before Verlaat deflected a cross from Markus Schwabl into his own goal – 2-2. And Tim Knipping almost turned the game around shortly afterwards, Vollath’s header just flopped wide of the goal (61′).
SpVgg defender Knipping had to go out due to a suspected broken nose, and the Lions promptly increased the pressure again. Heide had to make a brilliant save against Verlaat’s shot from 14 meters to prevent the score from making it 2-3 (72′). In stoppage time, Thore Jacobsen’s long-range shot narrowly missed the decision in favor of the guests from Giesing.
Vollath in particular was bombarded with insults from the Haching fans even after the final whistle. He took it sportingly: “It’s kind of a shame, but also a bit cool.” That could also have been the conclusion of Haching’s deputy trainer Sven Bender. The ex-Lion put it a little differently: “It was a special moment,” he said. “It was fun. It’s just nice to be on the line for the first time in a game like this.”
