At the premiere of the new coach, there was almost a fourth home bankruptcy without a goal of their own. Nils Fröling prevented this in the 1-1 draw against Nuremberg with a goal in injury time.
Rostock (dpa/mv) – Thanks to Nils Fröling, Patrick Glöckner’s debut on the coaching bench at FC Hansa Rostock didn’t go completely wrong. The Swede saved the second division soccer team on Friday evening in the 1-1 (0-1) against 1. FC Nürnberg with his goal in added time (90.1 minute) at least one point. “We really deserved the equalizer. The point is more than okay,” said Glöckner on the Sky TV channel after the hard-fought 90 minutes. Fabian Nürnberger (5th) gave the Franconians an early lead in front of 23,500 spectators in the Ostseestadion.
For Hansa’s new man on the sidelines, his debut could hardly have started more unhappily. After just five minutes, Nürnberger hammered the ball unhindered from a good 25 meters into the bottom right corner. This was preceded by a serious mistake by left-back Lukas Scherff, who had been ordered back into the starting XI by Glöckner.
Midfielder Svante Ingelsson almost immediately restored the tie, but was denied by Christian Mathenia, who reigned brilliantly at Nuremberg. Hansa then kept the pressure on, but there were hardly any convincing chances to score.
It’s different with the guests: if Rostock’s goalkeeper Markus Kolke hadn’t reacted brilliantly twice in the final phase of the first half, hopes of an end to the home misery would have been gone early on. First, the captain ironed out a nasty mistake by central defender Ryan Malone and saved a shot by Christoph Daferner (40′). Then he deflected a header from Christopher Schindler over the bar (42′).
Even after the restart, the attacking department of the hosts – as so often this season – didn’t come up with much. After an hour, central defender Damian Roßbach found his master in the outstanding Mathenia with a touchdown header. Substitute Kevin Schumacher shot wide of the right post from 16 meters with fifteen minutes to go.
Center forward John Verhoek headed over the goal three minutes before the end of regular time. Only Joker Fröling redeemed the magnificent scenery. The Swede fired directly from the edge of the penalty area and hit the left corner in the first minute of added time for a well-deserved equalizer.
