Matarazzo and Werner react to Sunday's "Miracle in Sinsheim"
TSG head-coach Pellegrino Matarazzo - the recipient of a frustration-fueled yellow card for leaving his technical area at the end of the first half - understandably also lost his cool at the post-match press conference. The American trainer expressed frustration at the new DFB officiating rules.
| Pellegrino Matarazzo | TSG 1899 Hoffenheim |
SV Werder Bremen's comeback from a 12th-minute 0-3 deficit against Hoffenheim last night proved one for the record books. Eight top flight teams have erased such deficits before and come back to win the game. The most recent one German football lovers will recall is SC Freiburg's comeback victory over Köln on match-day 15 of the 2017/18 campaign.
Of all the spectacular comebacks from the likes of Bayern (twice), Bochum, 1860 München, Leverkusen, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and FC Kaiserslautern, however, nothing was quite like last night's match. No team has managed to erase such a deficit in the opening 45 minutes. Incredibly, only 27 minutes passed between Adam Hlozek's 3-0 and Jens Stage's 3-3.
"I've never experienced a match like that before," SV trainer Ole Werner remarked at the post-match presser, "One isn't preoccupied with belief when coaching a team from the sidelines. One is just trying to influence the game. I made the most of the red-card situation."
"I can't explain [the start]," Werner continued, "We'll go over that tomorrow. For now, I can only take my hat off to my team for showing morale. They scored four unanswered goals away from home. We didn't play all that different [with the man advantage] then we did against Dortmund."
Disbelief ran rampant throughout the Werder camp. Werner called the opening 15 minutes a "total failure in which we lost every decisive duel" in his post-match interview with German broadcaster DAZN, then had difficulty explaining the comeback. Striker Marvin Ducksch had similar words to offer. MOTM winner Jens Stage seemed almost totally disinterested in accepting his match-ball.
Understandably enough, the predominant emotion in the Sinsheimer camp was also one of disbelief. TSG trainer Pellegrino Matarazzo - unquestionably fighting for his job at this point - had 18 minutes of positive football to fall back on. When explaining the result at the post-match presser, the American gaffer couldn't help but raise his voice several octaves.
"Of course a game like this affects the trainer," Matarazzo noted in a combative tone, "It affects every player and everyone in the stadium. When you have a 3-0 lead and lose 3-4, it affects everyone."
"But for me personally, it wasn't destabilizing," Matarazzo continued, "Because I know what my next task is. That's clear enough to me. Tomorrow we have a free day. We'll exhale. And then on Tuesday, we'll get together and talk about the game."
"It's already time to talk about the game against Dinamo Kiev and how to win that game," Matarazzo continued, "My job as a coach is to take these 18 minutes into the next game."
"I got a yellow card for leaving the coaching zone," Matarazzo said, "I don't understand how I'm supposed to get information from the fourth official if I don't leave the coaching zone."
"Should I wave?" Matarazzo sarcastically asked, "If I wave or gesticulate, I'll also get a yellow card. Somebody please tell me what I'm supposed to do in order to communicate with the fourth official. I really don't understand."
