Crisis Mode?
Part 13 | Ingolstadt 04 | FM23 Hardcore Mode
Straubing
Peter doesn’t care about the Bayrischer Pokal, but I do. I don’t want to lose any of these cup matches, even if the board doesn’t judge me on it. We can’t afford any losses to teams far below us. We need our players to believe in themselves and to start playing as a team.
And that’s what we got against Straubing.
It started out poorly, just like all good stories do. After a few good offensive attempts in the opening seconds, we gave up an absolutely ridiculous goal in the second minute of the game. Lino really should have been able to grab it; the Straubing player really didn’t shoot it all that well, and it was the sort of shot he’s handled before.
I was seriously worried that the poor cohesion had impacted the entire team.
And then it started to turn around.
Jalen Hawkins, who the media has started to turn on, had a little “excuse me” header to nod hom the equalizer for us.
And then came our young Spanish maestro, Fabián Luzzi, the 18-year-old wonderkid, to put us ahead.
Luzzi had the game of his young career. He wound up with two goals and came inches away from a hat trick. He ran Straubing ragged, and looks like a good purchase after all.
We won in the end, 4-2, and should have probably had one or two more.
It was another one of those matches where we dominated possession and simply looked like the better side from start to finish. We passed better than they did, we shot better than they did, we maintained a constant attack from start to finish, and we started to look like a team that is going places.
Of course, Straubing aren’t exactly world beaters. They’re far below us in the ladder, and never really expected to compete against us. Going down 1-0 against them was a really bad sign.
But I don’t mind. A win is a win.
Luzzi
Fabián Luzzi is his name, or Fabián Roberto Luzzi Rangel, if you want to be technical about it.
He’s a wonderkid, and he ceratinly looks the part. He’s got the hair, the face contours, and the natural style to succeed with the fans, and he’s got the skills and the mentality to compete at the highest levels, provided that he gets the chance.
If it feels like just yesterday that we picked him up, that’s because it was only a few weeks ago. He was hidden in the Barcelona B side, one of the big Barcelona signings from a few years back that managed to blend his way in with all the other young players.
Technically speaking, our scouts shouldn’t have ever found him. We had such a paltry scouting budget at the beginning of this season that we weren’t looking any further than southern Germany. It was the Franke sale that allowed me to increase that scouting budget, and it was the Franke sale that helped finance the purchase of this wonderkid.
In other words, if your unhappy players ask to leave, it might not be a bad idea to agree and sell them.
Luzzi’s got the looks and the name to succeed. He’ll also see a huge wage rise if he manages to get an international cap. I don’t think he’s in any danger of doing that coming from the German third tier, but we might have to worry about that contingency if he really starts putting on a show soon.
Luzzi’s pace is impressive, and he has this ability to do things that the defense simply does not expect. He seems to think that he’s a left winger, but he’s not going to touch that position in this squad. It’s center forward for him, and I expect that he’ll put away those silly notions of playing on the wing over the next few weeks.
Oh — he also speaks absolutely no German at the moment. He’s got a bit of basic English, so he can talk with me. Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of grunting and head nodding.
And, no, there’s no worry about Charlotte becoming enticed by the young handsome Spanish star. If we manage to get our scouts out to Asia, though, I’d better watch out.
Dynamo Dresden
We’re playing up in Dresden in our next match.
Peter told me in our last meeting that he expects us to lose. He didn’t blame anybody or cast any aspersions my way. He just came flat out with it: “I expect us to lose the next match.”
Honestly, I think we can win if we get the cohesion going in the right direction. Dresden are in 8th place, which is disappointing for their fans, and have experienced the same kind of surprisingly disappointing results that we have this season.
The sad news is that we’ll have to play without Angelo Brückner, who pulled his hamstring while doing attacking drills in training the other day. It’s not particularly serious, though. He’ll be out for a couple of weeks, but should be back to normal before long.
In all honesty, I think we can cause an upset in this next match. Things are turning around, and momentum is on our side. I can feel it.
