MSV Look To Escape League Misery

First Team
Tuesday, 30.10.2007 / 10:14

What a comeback! With just eight minutes played on the first match of this Bundesliga season, MSV Duisburg made a spectacular return to the top flight. Manasseh Ishiaku put the re-promoted side 1:0 up in front of 76,000 spectators in Dortmund.

What a comeback! With just eight minutes played on the first match of this Bundesliga season, MSV Duisburg made a spectacular return to the top flight. Manasseh Ishiaku put the re-promoted side 1:0 up in front of 76,000 spectators in Dortmund. An hour later the score was 3:0 for the visitors and all of football Germany was left rubbing their eyes. Very few had reckoned with the ability of MSV Duisburg, who will visit Bremen on Wednesday, 31.10.2007 to face Werder in the second round of the DFB Cup.

 

Another yo-yo round for MSV

 

The surprise was no wonder, MSV won promotion on the very last day of last season. The previous season Duisburg crashed back down to the second division, rock bottom of the table and never even looking like having a hope of survival. MSV spent five long years between 2000 and 2005 swimming in the bitter waters of the second flight. Now they are back but again find themselves in the drop zone and threatened with yet another plummet back out of the first division. Rudi Bommer and his men thoroughly enjoyed their opening day success in Dortmund but have since then won only two games (Bielefeld and Cottbus) whilst losing the other eight. The result is seventeenth place in the league table and some serious headaches.

 

Maybe the cup excursion is coming just at the right time to relieve the club of the day to day stress of their battle in the league. Drawing Werder was not exactly reason for a great deal of joy in Duisburg, had the game been drawn at the MSV-Arena, expectations may have been slightly higher. Still, the cup record definitely leans in the visitors favour. The only cup meeting between the two took place back in April 1975 at the Weser Stadium and it was to finish 0:2 in the guests favour. Duisburg went on to reach the final but were beaten 1:0 by Eintracht Frankfurt at the final hurdle. The DFB Cup trophy has eluded the ‘Zebra’s’ despite two further final appearances (1966, 2:4 against Bayern Munich and 1988, 1:2 again against Bayern).

 

Even-stevens in the Bundesliga

 

The fact that MSV don’t particularly enjoy the trip to Bremen is down to their record in the Bundesliga. The Green-Whites have lost just five of the 26 meetings between the two. On the whole though, Werder know not to underestimate their guests. In the direct Bundesliga head to head stats, the score is 21:20 in MSV’s favour, a deficit that dates back to the last century. All of their meetings since 1999 have ended in wins for the Green-Whites. The last clash was just three weeks ago and the Thomas Schaaf’s men ran out comfortable 3:1 winners with goals from Jensen, Sanogo and Andreasen.

 

MSV’s consolation was scored by Ailton, his sixth goal against Werder since leaving Bremen in 2004. The Brazilian scored for Schalke in both the league and cup as well as netting a hat-trick for Besiktas Istanbul in a friendly game. Still, ‘Toni’ is a man always welcome in Bremen: “Ailton may be getting on a bit but I’m quite sure he’ll have a few highlights this season. Not at the Weser Stadium though!!” remarked Werder captain Frank Baumann. This time around though, Werder’s defence may not be faced with the threat of the pacy Brazilian. Rudi Bommer has allowed his striker a week off to visit his wife Rosalie, who is preparing to give birth to twins in Mexico. The trip is planned initially for the next international break. In the last four years Werder have had to face a Bundesliga opponent on three occasions. Each time it was the home side who left the pitch as winners – and so it should continue.

 

Johnnie Muldoon

 

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