Cottbus up in the air, Hansa beaten to the ground
It was a highly dramatic game on Saturday in Cottbus when Energie beat their fierce eastern rivals Rostock by 2-1. It was one of those games that one group of fans will always want to remember and the other group forget as quickly as possible. The stadium of friendship was only sold out for the second time this season after the game against Bayern and again the home fans were to be rewarded with a memorable win. It started with a Rivic chance for Cottbus after four minutes. Energie tried to play like a host from the very beginning but it was Hansa that used its first chance to take the lead after 16 minutes. Cetkovic, whose contract is running out this week wanted to use his supposedly last chance by scoring his very first goal of the season. In the middle of the first half, Hansa captain Kern had to come off injured which meant a big blow for Hansa’s offensive. Cottbus looked nervous, well knowing what was at stake while Rostock had no problem defending the lead but also failed to look for another goal. Three minutes before half time, Cottbus’ Mitreski was sent off after his second foul. At halftime, Hansa was comfortably leading and one man more on the green grass on that sunny afternoon but as great as things looked then, as cruel it was to end for the visitors. The second half saw a hard fighting Cottbus team with a lot of energy trying to force luck their way. It looked as though they means were not good enough so they looked for success with lots of corners and free kicks. Hansa on the other hand was only defending and not doing much. After twenty minutes into the second half, Hansa finally had a chance after a counter attack but American international Pearce did not manage to put the ball over the line with his strong left foot. Five minutes later Hansa invested some energy for the last time to score the second goal which would have sank Cottbus and put them into deep trouble. A nice Cetkovic pass found Hähnge one on one in the box, he passed the defender and curved around the goalie, then waited a second to take the shot towards the empty net only to hit the blindly back jumping goalie. Rostock’s coach Pagesldorf could not believe it and only two minutes later it was Hähnge again who missed a huge chance to win the game for Hansa when three Hansa strikers were facing only two Cottbus defenders but the pass from Cetkovic was too a little too late and Hähnge’s shot just as poor as the one before. That was the moment when Cottbus woke up. After a corner, Rostock’s goalie Wächter made a wonderful save when Cottbus came to a header, totally unmarked in the box. The turning point of the match came nine minutes before the end. A free kick could not be cleared far enough and Skela had a chance to cross the ball in. Gledson did not step forward to put Cottbus’s captain Rost offside and so the skipper headed the ball from close range into the net to equalize. In that scene, Rostock’s best player of the recent weeks, Wächter injured his knee and could not walk anymore. Unfortunately Hansa had already swapped three players and no further substitution was possible. After a lengthy treatment, the goalkeeper gave a sign that he would play on, standing on only one leg most of the time. Cottbus, with only ten men did not give Hansa any air to breathe and so it happened, what every fan felt would happen. Two minutes into overtime, a high ball was hit into Hansa’s box. Orestes in the middle failed to cover his man besides behing a head taller and so Rangelov got the header director towards the corner of the goal. Wächter jumped one footed, got his hand on the ball but not enough to keep it out of the net. He had to come off after that laying flat on the ground with immense pain in the knee and defender Tim Sebastian took his spot for the final seconds. By this decisive lost, Hansa slipped to 17th position in the table, two points behind Bielefeld and already five points behind Cottbus with only four games left to play. Another blow will be that Hansa’s best man Wächter will be missing those four games with his knee injury and also Kern is in doubt for the next game against Hamburg. A miracle will be needed. Defender Stein said that Hansa will have to win three out of the four last games. Not an easy task considering they only won two games of their last thirteen appearances. Only one man out of eleven proved to be a fighter in the so called game of the year and that simply wasn’t enough. It looks as though Hansa gave their spot in Germany top flight away by not wanting it enough.
| Attendance: | 21700 (sold out) |
| Goals: | 0:1 Cetkovic (16.) 1:1 Rost (81.) 2:1 Rangelov (92.) |
| Referee: | Kinhöfer (Herne) |
| Bookings: | Energie: Mitreski (42. Gelb-Rot)
Hansa: Kern, Shapourzadeh, M. Stein |
