Saarbrücken under pressure in the semi-final: “Giving up is not an option”
Patrick Franziska is under no illusions. “Our starting position is difficult,” says the table tennis world number eight ahead of the second play-off in the Bundesliga semi-final with 1 FC Saarbrücken TT against TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen, ”but it's also clear: only a win will help us - and giving up is not an option.”
Will the fighting spirit of the Champions League winners with their backs to the wall once again be enough for at least a deciding match on Sunday (4 p.m./Dyn)? After all, Franziska and Co. not only lost the opening game of the best-of-three series against the team of newly crowned World Cup winner Hugo Calderano, who will retire at the end of the season, by a clear 3-0. The Blue & Blacks had already been beaten by the team from Upper Swabia in both league games and, above all, in the cup final at the start of the year.
“We've had problems all season, not just with Ochsenhausen. We've got something on our shoe, which makes everything more difficult,” said Franziska, trying to categorize the unusually mediocre statistics so far.
The national player does not see the “do or die” situation as a clear disadvantage in view of the last-minute qualification for the play-offs: “With this team, Ochsenhausen only has a chance of winning the championship this year. That can also mean pressure. We, on the other hand, have been playing for survival all season.”
Saarbrücken would not be the first Champions League winner from Germany to miss the Bundesliga final the year after their European triumph. German record winner Timo Boll (seven Champions League victories) is particularly familiar with this: before moving to Borussia Düsseldorf, the idol failed to reach the main round with TTV Gönnern in 2006 and 2007, and Boll's Borussia were eliminated in the semi-finals of the championship race six years ago.
However, an early knockout in the Bundesliga, where Düsseldorf and TSV Bad Königshofen (play-off score: 1:0) are fighting for second place in the final (June 15), would not mean the end of the season for Saarbrücken after six finals appearances in a row: Franziska's club will host the final four in the Champions League at the end of May.
Source: SID
Featured image above: Patrick Franziska (Photo: Schnittbude/Benedikt Probst)