The superlatives are always being used this season when it comes to SC Freiburg. And now the only unbeaten Bundesliga team with the best defence in the league meets bottom team Fürth with the weakest defence. A clear thing, you’d think, but not if your name is Christian Streich.
If Freiburg also score against SpVgg Greuther Fürth, they would at least set another club record after their start record in the Bundesliga: Ten unbeaten games in a row has only happened twice, from March to April 2012 and from November 2000 to February 2001. “If you can improve something positive, then yes it is even more positive, I have nothing against that,” coach Christian Streich said with a smile. But that could not be the case every week, he added. “Otherwise we would be consistent Champions League winners and German champions at some point, statistically speaking,” Streich said, “it’s relatively certain that that won’t happen. “
Sold-out crowd of 34,700 spectators
Currently, however, Sport-Club are actually in a Champions League place in the table and will go into their second home game in the new Europa-Park Stadium as favourites. Under the 2G rules, the stadium can be used to full capacity for the first time and will also be sold out with 34,700 spectators. Nevertheless, Streich is trying to curb expectations that are too high, not only because of his own tense personnel situation. Although Fürth only have one point on their account and are therefore still waiting for their first win, the SC coach also talked up this opponent at least a little bit. The Franconians had lost in Leipzig last time, but were better in the first half. “They played like they did when they were promoted last season, with attacking football, so you enjoyed watching them.”
However, Streich by no means feels that the praise for Fürth is necessary. Because he considers the crowd to be so “knowledgeable” that they don’t underestimate the opponent, and none of his players would do that either: “I have zero point zero feeling that the team goes into the game thinking we’ll just win this. “
Instead, he expects a “brutally close game”. The SC coach did not fail to mention that his team not only “really left some energy behind” on Tuesday’s long cup evening in Osnabrück (3:2 i.E.), but also did not play that well in the second half, “against a third-division team, mind you”. In the league, however, the Freiburg side have been almost consistently convincing and, in third place, have already picked up 19 points – no one at Sport-Club is currently adding for the sake of staying in the league, even if the club continues to think so.
The statistics clearly speak for the Sport-Club
With only six goals conceded, SC also have the best defence in the league, which now faces the weakest. With 24 goals conceded, Fürth have already conceded four times as many as the Freiburg side. On top of that, SC have not lost any of their last twelve competitive games against Fürth, winning the most recent four, and their last defeat came in a 4-0 loss at Fürth in the 2002/03 second division season. Streich, however, will not be interested in such statistics.
