FC Augsburg: Curious injury and unhappy end against Freiburg

Dhe story of one of the strangest injuries in the Bundesliga seemed to take a nice turn. But this time too the game didn’t end well for FC Augsburg, who are currently developing a tendency towards unhappy endings. As with the 1-1 draw against Union Berlin on Thursday, FCA also lost a home win in the 2-2 draw against SC Freiburg on Sunday evening, this time even after a two-goal lead. Elvis Rexhbecaj scored the 2-0 win for Augsburg. He was called into action because teammate Kristijan Jakic had a problem with his left calf. After the half-time break, Jakic was on the last steps of the stairs in the players’ tunnel when the muscle spontaneously refused to work. Jakic sat down and, after a short treatment, limped back to the dressing room. The stair joke of the season was ready.

There have been many amazing injuries in football. The former Wolfsburg resident Charles Akonnor once rammed a car antenna into his nose. Finland legend Jari Litmanen was unable to play for months because his sports director shot a bottle cork into his eye and damaged his retina. And Franz Michelberger suffered a knee injury at FC Bayern’s training camp in Israel in 1975 after a camel pushed him against the team bus.

Augsburg’s Jakic’s injury was particularly strange because it occurred for no apparent reason. “The calf muscle closed six steps before the start of the second half,” said his coach Manuel Baum and reported on research into the cause via video study. But the WAR (His Assistant Referee) couldn’t find any wrongdoing either. Jakic hadn’t twisted his ankle or slipped, nothing had happened. “There is nothing in football that doesn’t exist,” said Baum with a smile.

Of course, the Augsburg team didn’t find this joke on the stairs funny, and it didn’t help their mood that they hadn’t translated their decent performance into a full return. Jakic’s sudden loss initially did not have any negative consequences, on the contrary. Shortly after the start of the second half, Augsburg took the lead with a volley from Alexis Claude-Maurice (47′). Shortly afterwards, Rexhbecaj increased the score with his head (49′). But the feelings of happiness for the people of Augsburg are just as fleeting as some holiday flirtations.

The plan was to move on to better times – now we face a tough relegation battle against direct competitors.

As quickly as the hosts made it 2-0, they quickly lost their lead again. After two Freiburg corners, Yuito Suzuki (60th) scored with an artistic volley and Igor Matanovic scored with a goal (62nd). “In the end, unfortunately, a disappointing evening. You could have had six points, but unfortunately you only have two points, and so you are further down,” said Rexhbecaj about the most recent two home games. The 28-year-old was called into action so suddenly due to his colleague Jakic’s stair injury that he was unable to warm up at all. In keeping with the injury, Rexhbecaj left a curious sentence that aptly summarized the situation of Augsburg, who are in danger of relegation. “You’re leading 2-0 at home, you’re playing a good game again, or a better game, let’s put it that way – and you would have really, really liked to take the three points home,” said Rexhbecaj.

At FCA they now have to be careful that the big story of this season doesn’t have an unhappy ending for them. On Saturday we go to FC Bayern, before the agenda includes games against St. Pauli, Mainz, Heidenheim, Wolfsburg and Cologne until the end of February. After these comparisons with their competitors in the relegation battle, it should be clear whether the Augsburg team will have to prepare for a long struggle for relocation. How dangerous their situation was was made clear to them on Saturday when they found themselves in the relegation spot in the blitz table, tied with the second-to-last team.

This also showed that in Augsburg, a season from which they had hoped for a new beginning and progress under their new coach Sandro Wagner in the summer could turn into the opposite. Instead of Wagner, who was fired at the beginning of December, Baum is now trying to prevent something worse from happening. He is also confident because the performance has recently shown a slight upward trend: “We still have a little more in the tank, I am convinced of that,” said Baum. By the way, this shouldn’t be an allusion to David Seaman’s strange injury. England’s former international goalkeeper once dislocated his shoulder while trying to pull a 26-pound carp out of the water while fishing.