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IMAGO/Grant Hubbs / IMAGO/Eibner
SC Freiburg is a club that has not been able to handle success in the past.
If the team had won a place in the European Cup - twice that was the Uefa Cup, once the Europa League - then relegation to the second division followed shortly afterwards.
SC Freiburg is now back in the European Cup after nine years. Most recently, the club won 2-1 in the Europa League against Azerbaijan's Qarabag FK.
But something is different this time: In the Bundesliga there is no indication of a crash - on the contrary.
After the 0-0 against Gladbach, Freiburg is in second place.
One important reason: the squad has become wider, bigger and faster.
Against Gladbach, coach Christian Streich was able to leave top performers from last season on the bench with a clear conscience, because the additions have a lot of quality.
This can also be seen from a simple number: Of the ten SC goals so far, seven have come from the additions Matthias Ginter, Michael Gregoritsch and Ritsu Doan.
Ginter replaces Schlotterbeck
The sports club was once a training team that discovered and developed talent and earned enough money with the proceeds to play properly in the Bundesliga.
This is currently not the case.
Freiburg had to give up Nico Schlotterbeck this summer.
But they replaced the national player with world champion Ginter.
But Freiburg also plays so well because many of the team have known each other for years and are attuned to each other.
Players like Christian Günter or Nicolas Höfler learned how to kick here.
Others like Petersen, Manuel Gulde and Philipp Lienhart have matured here to become seasoned Bundesliga players.
While such players would previously have moved on to the sports club after a few years of development and would have experienced the high points of their careers at other clubs, it currently seems as if the Streich team now wants to reap the merits in Freiburg.
It's harvest time in Breisgau.
Streich, the longest-serving coach in the league, stands for the continuous work of the SC like no other.
It's an impressive argument for consistency in fast-moving football that in Union Berlin, Urs Fischer and Freiburg are the teams that are at the top, who are particularly well-rehearsed and whose coaches have been in office for the longest time.
New stadium, new ambitions
In view of the good past season and the good start to the season, Freiburg has undergone a profound change in perception.
While last season could still be dismissed as a surprise season, Gladbach's coach Daniel Farke never tired of emphasizing on Sunday that they had won an absolute "top team" a draw here, "in our best game of the season so far".
SC Freiburg is no longer the small SC.
The fact that Freiburg is perceived as a top team also has something to do with the new stadium.
While the old Dreisam Stadium, with its pitch that was too short and crooked, still represented the image of the small SC Freiburg, the steep tiers of the Europa Park Stadium demonstrate new self-confidence.
It is impressive how quickly the sports club has settled in here.
The SC has been playing at the new home ground for almost a year.
He has only lost five times in it.
The arena, which can seat 34,700 spectators, is 98 percent occupied and the atmosphere is impressive.
The fans are hardly strangers anymore, the move was a success.
How is the club getting through the English weeks?
With all the exuberance that you can currently feel in Freiburg: Freiburg has not often had to compete against the heavyweights of the league.
For example, SC lost 1:3 against Borussia Dortmund.
And the central question will be anyway: How does Freiburg get through the many English weeks?
On Wednesday, the club travels to Greece, where the second Europa League game against Olympiacos Piraeus is scheduled.
After the final whistle against Gladbach, Streich gathered his team on the pitch to get them in the mood for the coming weeks.
It was a beautiful picture of them standing there in a circle.
The story of the small but committed SC Freiburg on the edge of the Black Forest.
It's a story that is history.
