TSV Gräfelfing has to live with a poor number of points - coach Polecki: "Many bright spots"

Created: 01/03/2022, 09:16 AM

From: Christian Heinrich

Focus on the youngsters: Young players like Younes Takir (19) have to carry the wolves with them this season.

© Walter Wohlrab

TSV Graefelfing winters on a relegation place in the district league 2 Munich.

That doesn't necessarily come as a surprise - and yet a great deal is still possible.

Graefelfing - For the third Advent, already deep in the winter break, Sascha Polecki gathered his district league footballers around him again to test their mood.

The result surprised the TSV Graefelfing coach: “The boys are hot for soccer.” Polecki heard with a certain enthusiasm that his soccer players would have preferred to start preparing for the second half of the season in 2021.

But the time when the ball is rolling again on Hubert-Reissner-Straße will come sooner than the wolves would like.

TSV wants to start preparing in January to be fit when the season - according to the schedule - continues on March 5th against FC Neuhadern.

District league 2: TSV Graefelfing hopes for better preparation than in the summer

The program promises to be tough not just because of ice and snow.

The wolves still live in containers and have neither hot showers nor running water.

Polecki starts a few forest runs to get in the mood at the beginning of January.

Then it will show how hot his players really are.

Eight test matches are also waiting for them and a training camp in Berchtesgaden in mid-February.

Last summer, the Gräfelfinger rarely reached the required operating temperature in preparation.

When football was possible again with the pandemic subsiding, most of the young footballers shone with absence and disinterest.

“The month of decision” turns into a disaster for TSV Graefelfing

The consequences were devastating.

After the long Corona break, the entire team did not work out the stamina that would have been necessary to really attack again in November.

"We completely messed up the preparation as a team," Polecki says in retrospect.

The full-bodied attack on the competition in the so-called "month of decision" immediately before the winter break degenerated into a huge blow.

The relegation candidate did not get a point from the last four games of the year because the wolves' batteries were empty.

Trainer Sascha Polecki: From emergency nails to permanent solutions in Graefelfing

Konstantin Schachtner was made responsible for the lack of attitudes on the part of the young players, who preferred to do gymnastics in world history rather than training on the pitch. The coach lost his job to Polecki, who first acted as an emergency nail, then as an interim trainer and finally as a fully responsible trainer. By the end of the season, he got his contract extended.

It took Polecki until October before he had formed something like a team from his youth crowd.

You shouldn't blame him or the youngsters.

They had no real idea of ​​men's football and were physically unable to cope with the increased demands due to the long break in play.

In the district league they suddenly had to deal with well-trained adults.

And as teenagers they had to take on responsibility in a team in which there were no longer any real lead wolves.

Wolves during the winter break with a decent balance - measured against the requirements

It was foreseeable that this could not go well.

Given these conditions, three wins and two draws with nine defeats are still an acceptable record.

With eleven points, the TSV is bobbing on a direct relegation place in the district league 2, but the gap to the secured midfield is only five points.

It is no coincidence that Polecki speaks of “many glimpses of light” in his team.

Whether it will be really light in Graefelfing in the near future, however, depends above all on how fast the youngster's maturation process progresses.

"You have to realize that you are the core of the first team", Polecki sums up the situation of the youngsters.

They have no time to develop.

District league 2: High expectations of young TSV Graefelfing players

And players with routine have not been able to land those responsible so far.

Since Polecki wants to concentrate fully on his tasks as a coach, a second goalkeeper has to be found in order to spark the competition with Kai Kollo.

The expectations of the TSV team are high, maybe too high.

"It is required that you survive a tough relegation battle at the age of 18 or 19," Polecki clarifies.

Have the young wolves realized that the carefree youth is finally over?

The cold winter months should at least provide the necessary cooling for hot spirits.

TSV Graefelfing's balance sheet for the winter break

Seasonal goal given:

Relegation (not within target)

Relegation

Nico Bohn (7 goals)

Table Kreisliga 2 Munich