Match Report
Winning run over as U17s defeated in Hannover
The Black & Yellows now need to pick up points in the postponed game away to Arminia Bielefeld (2 October, 18:00 CEST) and at home against SC Paderborn (5 October, 11:00 CEST) to ensure a finish in the top three and this qualify for League A. "That's our clear goal," assures coach Karsten Gorges.
He was again without a number of key players in the city in Lower Saxony: Wehrbein, Inacio, Reggiani, Ogoke, Kusi, Mize and Albert were all unavailable. "That shouldn't be an excuse. The other guys now have the opportunity to show what they can do," emphasised Gorges, who was overall satisfied with his team's footballing performance. He was however unhappy with their chance conversion and defensive organisation: "Both areas have plenty of room for improvement. We have a lot of work to do after this game."
As expected, Hannover 96 proved to be a strong opponent. They already proved as much in the 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture. But the visitors from Dortmund settled into the game well, despite falling behind 1-0 in the 21st minute. Gorges claimed that BVB had been denied a "clear penalty", Niklas König hit the post and Justin Hoy, who, like Luca Riedl, was playing for the U19s in Essen on Friday evening, scored in the 35th minute to equalise the score at 1-1. While BVB failed to capitalise on the chances they created, many of which came after neat combination play, the team from Lower Saxony consistently punished any carelessness in the defence and pulled away 4-1 in front thanks to goals in the 40th, 51st and 55th minutes.
"The team showed good spirit after that, fought their way back with some good play and kept their composure," said Karsten Gorges. Luke Fahrenhorst (61) and Luca Perri (75) pulled goals back to make it 4-3 before the visitors capitalised on another defensive mistake to restore a two-goal cushion at 5-3. "It's unacceptable that we conceded more goals in one game than in the previous six combined," criticised U17 coach Gorges, who expects a positive reaction from his team on Wednesday (2 October) in Bielefeld.
U17: Froese – König (85, Damberg), Riedl, Driedger, Ritter - Fahrenhorst (85, Kolano) – Zarqelain, Hoy, Branco (85, Tanyi), Heavens (46, Perri), Faust
(wiwi)