The dream of the golden lion year - Goal: 40 points from 21 games...

Created: 01/01/2023, 02:00 p.m

By: Uli Kellner

A spirit of optimism: the 1860 Ultras already had it at the first home game of the season when they were dreaming of “golden times”.

© Imago

If not at the turn of the year, when else is positive thinking appropriate?

Three lion encouragers to restart the ascension mission in 2023.

Stress-free preparation for New Year's Eve, waking up to the New Year without an alarm clock (and hopefully without a hangover).

At the end of an eventful year, Michael Köllner is once again generous with his lions.

The entire weekend is free.

So no one should say they don't have time to look inside or out of themselves.

The desired object for lead or wax casting should also be relatively uniform: a structure reminiscent of stacked champagne coolers standing on a pedestal - the champion's trophy of the 3rd division, which all lions want to press to their hearts on May 27th.

Okay: No one would turn down second place either.

In any case, Köllner has big plans for the remaining 21 games of this fateful season.

"We need staying power to achieve our goals," the coach promised his players.

"To the golden age," read a banner the 1860 Ultras hung on the fence at their first home game of the season.

That was followed by the 0:3 defeat in the DFB Cup against Dortmund.

But the league operation should also have been meant, and as far as that is concerned, there are actually a few encouragers.

If not at the turn of the year, when else is positive thinking appropriate?

Three facts that give hope for a golden lion year 2023.

1st place in the annual table

Consistency is the key to success, all lions agree on that.

There is also a consensus that it is the opposite of consistency if you are in 1st place after seven games (starting record), but in the ten games that followed perform worse than 14 other teams in this league.

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.

It would look much better in a table that takes into account all games in the 2022 calendar year.

The lions would be the undisputed first (63 points), well ahead of their south-west rivals Saarbrücken and Mannheim (55 each).

Even if you include the climbers, 1860 doesn't have to hide: only high-flyers Elversberg (2.41), Magdeburg (2.18) and FCK (1.94) top the Lions' overall annual average, which is 1.85 and extrapolated to 38 games would result in 70 points.

That would have been enough for promotion every year and can be achieved in 2023 if 40 points are added to the previous loot of 30 points.

Since 2004, no lion coach has scored better

TSV 1860 has employed 16 different head coaches since they were relegated from the Bundesliga, from Rudi Bommer (2004) to Vitor Pereira (relegated from the 2nd division), promotion hero Daniel Bierofka to Michael Köllner, who took over on November 9, 2019 and with him almost 1150 days in office, there are not many lion zampanos left in front of him.

His record during this time: 113 games with 54 wins, 32 draws and 27 defeats (goal difference 210:13).

Corresponds to a point average of 1.72, which was only surpassed by Maurer in his first term (1.75).

Second rounds are 1860 since promotion

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My space

The hunting metaphor has a long tradition in 1860, but not once did it literally backfire.

In 2013/2014 in the 2nd league (“hunting season”), promotion was missed, as was 2021, when sports director Günther Gorenzel announced before the final spurt: “We will go hunting .

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."

In November, after falling from 2nd to 6th place in the table, the Halali motif was tried again - with good reason.

In the role of the hunted, the starting record lions first lost their concentration, then their form.

This statistic gives Köllner's hunters hope: the TSV teams are in the second half of the season.

In three out of four seasons since promotion, Giesinger has been able to significantly improve their earnings in the first 19 games when it comes to the back series, most impressively last season (25/36).

Let's continue like this - then 2023 could really be a good and maybe even a golden year for the lion.

As Köllner said at the fan festival in summer?

“We want to have something big to celebrate in May.

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.”