

Eintracht Frankfurt
Oh wow, I have been bad at updating this blog. [insert profuse apologies and promises to do better in the future] And it’s not like I have a decent excuse for not writing about Eintracht-the Eagles will head into Sunday’s game coming off a 6-1 derby win against FSV Frankfurt.
The news came out on Tuesday that Theofanis Gekas has transferred to Samsunspor, a club in Turkey. Gotta admit, I’m going to miss the big Greek, but at the same time, I’m not terribly surprised at the move (the timing did surprise me though-I would have bet on a summer move, not in the winter). Even though he struggled with consistency this season, his seven goals this season can speak for themselves. Best of luck with your new club, Gekas!
Eintracht has also added a defender to the squad-Heiko Butscher from SC Freiburg. He’s a versatile player who can play CB, or LB (at Freiburg, it looks like most of his time has been spent at left-back). Veh apparently sees him as welcome depth for the LB position as well. A veteran presence at the back is certainly welcome, and, depending on how well Constant Djakpa’s recovery goes (poor guy had to leave training a couple days ago due to knee problems), we might have to test the depth at that position. Anyway, welcome to the team, Heiko, and we hope we’ll get to play first tier football with you next season.
It’s been a pretty quiet break for the Eagles, but perhaps that’s for the best. We’ve got a pretty good squad already, and focusing on training and getting ready for the Rückrunde are definitely at the top of our to-do list. I hope you all are having a great new year, and (like me) can’t wait for Bundesliga football to start again.
It sucks to end the Hinrunde with a loss. Especially against your promotion rivals. The 2-0 defeat at St. Pauli leaves us in third place, two points shy of overtaking Greuther Fürth and a direct promotion spot. And yet, it’s only the second time we’ve lost this season. Ending the first half of the season with only two losses and a double-digit goal difference isn’t the worst way to spend the winter break. Angling for first or second place may be a little trickier, as Düsseldorf, Pauli, Fürth, and Paderborn have clearly shown that they want first league action next season as well. The jump from third place to fifth is separated only by goal difference, remarkable as that may be. All in all, it’s a good position to be in, but not necessarily a satisfying one.
Frankfurt are doing great right now, wouldn’t you say? We’re one of only two teams to stay unbeaten in league play (the other would be Fortuna Düsseldorf) and we’re the only team to have a double-digit goal difference. Alex Meier is currently tied for the second league’s top goalscorer. For an Eintracht fan, it couldn’t be much better right now. (Aside from the fact that, you know, we’re still in the 2nd Liga…)
Speaking of Alex Meier, have a look at his goal on Sunday against Duisburg, along with the highlights from that game:
For most of the six Eintracht players who were called up for international duty, it was a good week. Gekas helped Greece qualify for the Euros, netting a goal against Croatia and playing in both qualifying games. Our Croatian international, Gordon Schildenfeld, wasn’t as fortunate-Croatia’ll have to face Turkey in a playoff game to qualify for the Euros.
Yes, I’m still alive. No, I haven’t made a post in about a month. With the way things are looking right now, I’m not going to be a very fun person until at least January. I probably won’t be able to regularly update, but I will follow the Eagles and try to make the semi-occasional post. It’s a shame too, because we’ve been doing well.
Although technically an away game, FSV Frankfurt decided that Eintracht’s stadium would make for a better derby (our capacity is roughly four times theirs), so the game was held at the Waldstadion. A crowd of 50,000 (the majority being Eintracht fans) got the chance to see the Eagles thrash their rivals 4-0. Gekas scored once again from the penalty spot, and subsequently got his first 2nd league goal this season. Benny Köhler, who is having a very good season so far, netted himself a brace. The win leaves Eintracht at fourth place and tied for the best goal difference so far. Unfortunately, I can’t comment much on the game itself since I didn’t get to see it live or a replay. I did find highlights however, which are posted after the jump.
Eintracht Frankfurt have gotten off to a good start in the 2nd league, winning two away games and drawing once at home. They also beat Hallescher FC in the DFB Pokal, and will be playing FC Kaiserslautern in the next round. I don’t think anyone is surprised by Eintracht’s form, but it is great to see that the team playing well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to catch any of their games live, but I did find highlights, which are posted below. Alex Meier has impressed so far, scoring five goals in league play, and Gekas netted a brace in the Pokal game. Hopefully, this is just the start for the both of them. All in all, the team looks intent on finishing at the top and promotion.
Well, my plan to keep semi-updated with Frankfurt news didn’t work out and for that, I have only myself to blame. There’s been quite a lot of changes at the club since the end of the season, and there could be more to come before the 2011/12 season begins.
Looking back over the last month or so, here’s a quick run-down of what’s been happening at Eintracht so far:
There’s been some issues with Wordpress recently, which partially explains the lack of updating around this blog. Hopefully, the bugs around Wordpress will be sorted out soon. Until then, it might be tough to get soemthing up here. Midterms and being swamped with school make up the rest of the reason why I haven’t posted in a while . For that, I really do apologize.
I’ll assume that everyone already knows about our descend (read: incredible collapse) into the 2nd league, so there’s probably no need to write about that. Some players will leave (our vice-captain Ochs has already signed on with Wolfsburg), but there are some who have expressed their desires to stay with the squad and help us get promoted again. The board hasn’t found a replacement for Daum yet, but we have hired Bruno Hübner as the new Sporting Director. It’s clear that our goal is to get back into the Bundesliga by next season with automatic promotion.
The end of the season means that I most likely won’t be posting much on the Frankfurt Offside but I will try to stay somewhat on top of Frankfurt-related news. Assuming that everything goes well, expect the infrequent update about transfers, new developments, summer signings, and maybe a club trivia or history post.
I wish you all have a great summer break and hope to see you around come the start of next season, when we tackle the challenge of making our stay in the 2nd tier a very short one.









