The new KMD podcast features Marco Russ. The long-time Eintracht Frankfurt player talks about the current Frankfurt form crisis, the new Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner and about the hardest time of his life, among other things.
Flashback: In the 2015/16 season, Eintracht Frankfurt struggles against relegation, finishing the season in 16th place in the table. On the day of the relegation play-off against second-division third-placed 1. FC Nürnberg, it is announced that Marco Russ has received a shock diagnosis of testicular cancer. “It was insane,” Russ describes his feelings at the time in the current KMD podcast. “When you’re just fighting for sporting survival with Frankfurt and you get news like that, you feel like Mike Tyson is punching you in the pit of your stomach and your breath stops. “
Russ: “It wasn’t Hollywood ready, but it was movie ready “
However, Russ never had any thoughts of taking it easy and skipping the relegation games. “I didn’t leave myself any decision at all, for me it was absolutely certain that I would play,” Russ said. “I was captain, I had a responsibility towards the team and the club, I didn’t want to escape that.” But it was he, of all people, who then scored the own goal in the 1-1 draw in Frankfurt to give the club an interim 1-0 lead.
“That was great,” says Russ with an ironic laugh. In hindsight, Russ says, everything came together: “Diagnosis, game, own goal, draw.” And a yellow card, because of which he was suspended for the return match in Nuremberg. “I had my operation and then followed how we saved ourselves in the hospital in the evening. It wasn’t hollywood, but it was cinematic. “
“I used to say so succinctly that the kind of cancer is actually a kindergarten version. “
MARCO RUSS
In the end, Eintracht kept their class without Russ by winning 1-0 in Nuremberg – and Russ also passed the battle against cancer. “I’m doing very well today,” the now 36-year-old can happily report: “Except that I realise I haven’t done any sport for a year.” But that also has to do with his new job as a video analyst at Eintracht, which fills him up. That’s why he’s naturally also concerned about Frankfurt’s current form crisis: the 2-0 defeat in Bochum has seen the Hessians slip to the last non-relegation place.
It’s true that “a lot of things went against us” at VfL, says Russ, citing the early deficit, the missed penalty and two early unplanned substitutions. “But those shouldn’t be excuses because we weren’t good enough.” In principle, he said, there is confidence in the team’s potential – which it has already shown in games against Fenerbahce, against Piraeus and at FC Bayern, among others. The problem, according to Russ, is that Eintracht does not consistently play up to its potential. That’s why it’s important for the immediate future to “bring consistency to our performance.
Russ is convinced that the path under Glasner is the right one
The new coach Oliver Glasner is responsible for this. The fact that things are not yet running smoothly under the Austrian is not an isolated case in Frankfurt. “All the new coaches in the Bundesliga have their problems – except Julian Nagelsmann.” Russ appeals for patience from the fans. “The team needs time to implement the coach’s ideas in such a way that you can be successful.” He is convinced that Glasner will still turn the tide at the SGE. “I am of the opinion that the path we are taking with Oliver is the right one.