You don’t have to like clouds, but for the supporters of the TSV 1860 football club they are apparently the best. While the meteorological concoction poured naturally high above the stadium on Grünwalder Straße in Giesing, the fans in the west curve added more and created an elementary mist mixture of a different kind, you could also call it smoke. Or just: pyrotechnics.
In league three, people like to play, but usually in other stadiums, not at home. And so it was somehow fitting that the Bengal sparks flew in the home fans‘ ultrablock shortly before kick-off of the third division game against VfL Osnabrück, as if the curve above wanted to convey a message to the kickers below on the pitch: How about this, one for a change To ignite a football rocket at home?
In any case, away from home, the Munich Lions’ points haul has been much more generous so far in this season, which is no longer so young, with ten out of 13 points coming from foreign football pitches. After match day eleven on Wednesday evening, this balance has not improved significantly. Against the purple-clad league bottom team Osnabrück, the Sixties couldn’t get past a 2-2 (1-1) draw.
Compared to the 2-2 draw in Unterhaching on Sunday, 1860 coach Argirios Giannikis made four changes. In attack, Morris Schröter and David Philipp were in the starting line-up instead of Julian Guttau and Maximilian Wolfram, Marlon Frey started in central midfield for the suspended Tunay Deniz, and Max Reinthaler replaced teammate Raphael Schifferl in defense. He and his defending colleagues were soon to be occupied by an ex-colleague: Osnabrück attacker Joel Zwarts, who had worn the Munich jersey last season.
Despite the floodlights and the smoke-filled clouds, it wasn’t really clear that the bottom of the 3rd league was in Osnabrück. In the first half, the Lions again found themselves floundering, which was less due to the damp ground and more due to the quick advances of the Osnabrück team, who had moved far up.
But then, as if all the clouds had cleared, the 1-0 scoreline came out of the blue for TSV 1860 (41st). Schröter passed it across to Hobsch, who executed directly and unstoppably. Less than 60 seconds later, the guests responded in their own way: Ba-Muaka Simakala, perhaps given too much time to think, crossed to the second post, where Zwarts was able to get to work as if he was still wearing the lion’s body. He took advantage of the space and headed it in to make it 1-1 (43′) – and the cheerfulness in Munich was gone again.
After the break, Coach Giannikis’ men tried to increase the pressure, although the imprecise passing game in the front third was unpleasant. And so it took an action from substitute Wolfram, who scored from a tight angle to make it 2-1 for Munich a quarter of an hour before the end, before the Lions experienced déjà vu in its purest form. The fans in the stands were still cheering each other when 1860 attacker Soichiro Kozuki tackled Osnabrück’s Basttien Conus as he received the ball. Simakala sank the penalty kick in the middle of the Lions’ goal (79′). They threw everything forward again, but their attacks now faded like Bengal fires when all the sparks have been sprayed.
