"The Spirit of Belek" as the twelfth man - Köllner: "1860 percent satisfied"

Created: 2022-01-16Updated: 2022-01-16, 5:24 p.m

By: Uli Kellner

Cheering in the fog: Richard Neudecker (l.) keeps a clear view of a direct free kick in the 69th minute – and scores the 3:2 winner.

© Stefan Matzke / Sampics

What a game to start the football year 2022: The lions are fighting contractions - after a 0-2 deficit.

Let's continue in the DFB Cup: The KSC can come!

Goal conceded to make it 0:2, no offside whistle – at least the back four in the grandstand was now finally up to operating temperature. Just now they were still sitting peacefully next to each other (each with a seat shell distance) - now one after the other jumped up like jack-in-the-box devils. Löwen-Rage high four in the otherwise spectator-free stadium. Fists were clenched, curses were yelled at the team of referees: "Three meters offside!" - "Like in the district league!!" - "You blind linesman!!!" The lions started the year against contractions - after 23 minutes played, it seemed to be about to fail to develop.

A good one and a half hours later: one of the dignitaries, the man on the right in the chain, beams all over his face, leaves the quiet little place, the only warm place on Saturday - and summarizes the 3: 2 (1: 2) final score as short as it is concise: "It was the spirit of Belek that turned the game around."

We scored three goals from set pieces – we put that on the agenda as one of the main priorities in Turkey and worked it through well in training.

1860 coach Michael Koellner.

So wasn't it just cliché when one after the other raved about the six-day trip in the Turkish sun? After the final whistle, the trainer also sounded as if the foundation stone had been laid for the feat on the grass pitch next to the posh five-star “Sueno Deluxe” resort. "I think if you look at the goals today," said Michael Köllner in the BR interview: "There were many in Belek. We scored three goals from set pieces – we put that on the agenda as one of the main priorities in Turkey and worked it through well in training.”

And how well they ignited, the Belek standards! Goal number one, which brought 1860 back into play after a corner kick and an offside goal: Stefan Lex followed a ball in the half field, allowed himself to be fouled and then curled the free kick in front of the goal in such a way that Semi Belkahia only had to nod off. Goal number two just after the break: corner, kicked again by Lex; Stephan Salger fails at the first attempt, but at the second he hits the ball under the crossbar with his right hand. Finally, goal number three: Marcel Bär, played freely by Lex, is fouled in front of the penalty area – Richard Neudecker's subsequent free kick finds its way over Lex's back and into the goal, which the busy captain commented soberly as usual: "The connection before the break brought our faith back. After the 2:2 we said to each other:Now let's turn the thing."

At the latest when Wehen-Joker Wurtz had just missed the 1860 goal in the 87th minute, Köllner also thought: "Now it could work with the home win - if he also pops the ball past the far post from a good position." The performance encouraged him to have set the right levers in Turkey - not only with the standards, but also with the topics "will, passion, team spirit, mentality".

Other lion trumps: will, passion, team spirit, mentality

So Geist von Belek instead of Wampe von Giesing?

At least the lions also won the third game of the post-Mölders era.

In an eerily empty stadium.

Against a strong opponent who is now behind 1860 in the table.

The only downside: Marius Willsch had to leave early (patellar tendon irritation) - and marksman Neudecker got himself a yellow card suspension, which could take him out of the derby against Türkgücü - if it takes place next Saturday.

Before that, however, the DFB Cup is announced.

The lions want to stay on the gas pedal and book the quarter-finals against KSC on Tuesday.

To stay with the picture: success should become the standard in the new year.

Therefore: "Blue tick behind the contraction game," joked Köllner.

He emphasized: "I'm 1860 percent satisfied."