Dieter Hecking can breathe easy. His debut as interim coach of 1. FC Nürnberg is successful. The Franconians win the crisis duel against SV Sandhausen. But the “club” shows well-known deficits.
Nuremberg (dpa / lby) – After his comeback success as a coach, Dieter Hecking was happy for a moment and disappeared into the dressing room immediately after the final whistle. The interim coach of 1. FC Nürnberg stopped the Franconian second division soccer team from falling when he made his unplanned return to the sidelines. However, the flattering 1-0 (0-0) in the weak crisis duel against SV Sandhausen after a late penalty kick did not spark the hoped-for optimistic mood for the fight to stay up.
Hecking said he enjoyed the victory almost apologetically after his quick descent into the catacombs and laconically added: “But I was cold.”
Kwadwo Duah redeemed Hecking on his return after two years and 242 days. The fouled striker took the penalty himself on Saturday and made Nuremberg celebrate in the 86th minute.
Until then, the “Club” showed the well-known weaknesses in play structure and in creating scoring chances in front of 26,260 spectators. SV Sandhausen with its new coach Tomas Oral remains bottom of the table. The hot maker saw a “courageous performance” by his team. “Nevertheless, I know that you can’t buy anything from it,” said Oral, who had replaced Alois Schwartz.
After the shaky game in snow and sleet, Nuremberg improved to twelfth place. “The situation will slowly calm down again if we play like we did today. If we get disgusting victories, then things will get better in the next few weeks,” said midfielder Lino Tempelmann after Nuremberg’s cramping victory.
Hecking and his assistant Cristian Fiel had positioned their chairs well in front of the dugout. The red occupied Hecking, the black took the U23 coach Fiel. Oral, on the other hand, was constantly walking along the sidelines. It was an unsightly game between two of the weakest offenses in the league.
Sports director Hecking, now also interim coach after Markus Weinzierl’s release, made three changes to the starting eleven and even switched to a courageous 4-3-3, which didn’t pay off for a long time. Oral’s six changes in the starting lineup proved to be smart moves but didn’t pay off in the end.
“When you’re down there and it’s a six-point game, it’s important to get the three points and not necessarily play well. We did that today,” said central defender Florian Hübner. “In terms of team unity, it was a very, very good performance, everyone helped everyone.”
