Showdown in the Regionalliga Nordost. Between leaders Berliner AK and their closest rivals, BFC Dynamo, nothing less than the lead in the championship is at stake on Friday evening on the penultimate matchday of the first leg. However, the top match is on the line.
Second in the table with three wins under their belt, BFC Dynamo take on Berliner AK, who are two points better, in a city duel on Friday evening. “We have an important game ahead of us with the derby at Berliner AK,” says BFC coach Christian Benbennek, only to immediately put it into perspective: “This game won’t decide the championship yet. If you look at the table, the top six teams are still in the race.”
With a win, however, BAK could pull away a little. So what will it come down to? “That we have the courage to push our game through away from home. It does us good to be the more active team,” Benbennek explains. “It won’t be a game where one team dominates the other for 90 minutes. Each team will get its chances and at times will be more on the push.”
Benbennek is not worried that the top match might be cancelled due to the Corona cases at BAK. “I can’t influence that anyway,” says the 49-year-old, referring to the guidelines of the North-East German Football Association. There, it is stipulated that a club must have 15 active, healthy players at its disposal, including two goalkeepers.
If the game is played, the momentum is with BFC.
The final word on whether the top match can kick off is up to the health authorities anyway. “Should it be played, the momentum is with BFC. Corona has hit us with full force. We have sent all the documents to the health authorities and now have to wait and see when and how things will continue,” says BAK coach André Meyer, looking ahead to an uncertain week.
Due to numerous positive tests within and around the team, the 37-year-old has had to refrain from training of any kind since Thursday. In addition, Meyer would continue to miss BAK top goal scorer Nader El-Jindaoui with a torn muscle fibre, alongside Eroll Zejnullahu (muscular problems) and Fatih Baca (fractured rib).
“That’s why I’m not concerned with the opponent BFC. My concentration is exclusively on my team and the question of which eleven players I can field,” says Meyer. “We deliberately made a broader line-up in the summer so that I can react depending on how the game goes and the result,” says Meyer. But even this squad is not immune to the corona virus …
