Günter Brombosch emphasizes the chances that Tennis Borussia created at Lok Leipzig on the previous day in the Northeast Regional Football League. “We had a few opportunities to take the lead,” says the CEO. Coach Abu Njie praises “the way the team performed”.
So those in charge were quite satisfied. But the B grade does not really match the facts that are important for the table: Tennis Borussia lost 0:4.
But at the moment every step forward, no matter how small, is a good step. Because after the 0:3 at the start at Chemnitzer FC and the 0:6 at home against Carl Zeiss Jena, TeBe now has zero points and 0:13 goals after three games. Only newly promoted Greifswalder FC in the league have zero goals on their credit side – although they have only conceded three goals.
The false start does not yet lead to gasping, because due to the strong opponents it was to be assumed that the team would place itself at the end of the rankings. The intensity of the false start rankles Brombosch: “Of course the goal difference of 0:13 makes us unhappy.” And the second half against Jena was “catastrophic”.
Coach Njie calls the program “Bretthart” in the first seven games – not even half of them have been completed. This Friday (7 p.m., Mommsenstadion) the city duel will take place against the second team from Hertha BSC. “We also need quality here,” says the 48-year-old. But it doesn’t help, the trend has to be stopped: “We want to get the first three points.”
Njie was promoted to the regional league with SV Tasmania in 2021 and resigned there in February after a long negative series. His brother Momar was assistant coach at Tas, and he is now at TeBe.
With every further negative experience, the pressure would increase. And with it the uncertainty of the very inexperienced team. Over a dozen players in the roster are 21 years old or younger. This is the result of a huge upheaval. That’s why for TeBe – that was clear even before the bad start – this season can only be about one thing: staying up. Especially since the relegation hammer really struck last season: Six of the teams behind the Charlottenburg team had to go down. And of the climbers, Rot-Weiss Erfurt has made a very strong impression so far.
The previous season was very pleasing for TeBe with tenth place, the club was better placed in league four in 2008, when it was still in the Oberliga. But last April coach Markus Zschiesche announced that he wanted to change. Zschiesche ended up at league rivals SV Babelsberg 03, just like his assistant coach Ronny Ermel and top performers Tahsin Cakmak and Rico Gladrow.
Babelsberg finished one place behind TeBe in the 2021/22 season, but this time the team is expected to do a lot more. And after three games, Babelsberg is still unbeaten in the league.
Numerous other pillars have also left Tennis Borussia because financially better off clubs became aware of the players. Sporting director Claudio Offenberg also resigned during the summer break. This has been taken over on an interim basis by Manfred Engel, who has been with the club for almost seven decades and has held many different positions.
The goal of the club, which is currently without a main sponsor, came about almost automatically after the changes in the squad: “We want to win players for the regional league from our own youth on a permanent basis,” says Brombosch. “But of course it doesn’t work with eleven 19-year-olds on the pitch either.” So it was a good thing that captain Tim Oschmann (28) or defender Nemanja Samardzic (25) stayed. However, Samardzic has been absent due to a broken hand.
Tennis Borussia is still intensively looking for reinforcements and has already found one: Uzoma Eke was once active in the Bundesliga (four games for SC Freiburg) and second division and now made a good impression on his debut in Leipzig. “He’s outstanding as a player and as a person,” says Njie of the 33-year-old, whom he knows from his time at Berliner AK. Most recently, Eke played in the Hungarian second division at Tiszakecske FC.
The regional league is always a class full of imponderables, nobody knows beforehand how many relegated teams there will be. In the best case, only one this time, if the champions are promoted to the third division and no club from the Northeast German Football Association comes down from there. In the worst case, it hits four teams in the regional league. Abu Njie is not interested in eventualities: “I don’t want to calculate and tremble after the end of the season. We want to ensure that we stay up in the league first.”
