Get started (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

When I was growing up, there was a saying: “It’s not all decided when you’re five years old and your father’s an alcoholic and your mother’s a slut.” was about finding out why people decide not for, but against, justice and freedom. The saying was always an argument against determinism.

Looking at the start of the season in the third division at the weekend, I remembered the saying that could be modified: “Not everything is decided when the season is two minutes old and you are already outnumbered and are 0-1 behind.” Because that’s roughly how it looked after the first 180 seconds of the game round for the SC Freiburg II team. At home against relegated and league favorite Erzgebirge Aue, Freiburg defender Kim Ezekwem grabbed the emergency brake against Tim Danhof after 32 seconds and consequently saw red – it was the fastest dismissal in the entire history of the third division. But that’s not all: Aues Marvin Stefaniak also scored the free kick due with a nice flick to give the Freiburg goal a 1-0 lead. You can’t imagine a worse start to the season. But the South Badeners fought bravely. Aues Alexander Sorge scored in his own goal shortly after half-time, in the end it was 1-1. “An extreme energy performance,” Freiburg’s coach Thomas Stamm celebrated his team, while his opponent Timo Rost grumbled: “In the constellation, you actually have to score three times.” only.

Elsewhere, too, the initial phase was tough. For example in Essen, where Rot-Weiss hosted the Saarland SV Elversberg in a promotion duel. After 25 minutes, more than 16,000 spectators saw five goals and a missed penalty. The RWE defense presented itself desolate, they went down 1:5, which made the Elversbergers the first leaders of the new round. There was also a lot going on in the direct duel between the two favorites for the title, Dynamo Dresden and TSV 1860 Munich, which the Löwen ultimately won 4:3. The guests had always been in the lead and in the very hot phase of the game (68th to 73rd minute) answered twice a Dynamo goal with their own goals. Sixty coach Michael Köllner exulted: “That was exactly our goal: we wanted to make heaven out of hell.”