Strasse to Glory weekly recap: A mixed bag

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t really consider Bayern Munich and 1. FC Kaiserslautern to be rivals anymore. I know that traditionally, this may have been the case from back in the 1970’s, but nowadays, with the teams about as far apart as they could be in terms of success. When people debate who Bayern’s true rivals are, I don’t hear people saying FCK as an option.

But according to FIFA, the two are in fact rivals. So much so that we couldn’t buy Jann-Fiete Arp or bring Joshua Zirkzee in on loan because “This club (Bayern) will not sell players to a rival”.

Okay then. Moving on to other plans.

When I started this series, I had simulated through three games. So, after a 2-0 loss to Viktoria Köln, a 2-2 draw to Ingolstadt, and a 3-1 loss to KFC Urdingen 05, we began the simulation in 18th place with 1 point off 3 games.

Not the best start. In fairness, I hadn’t fully set the tactics or the development plans for everyone on the team. Once those were set, we began to seem like a team that would put it together.

August 2020 (1-1-2 Urdingen was on 8/1/20)

Rostock 2-1 Kaiserslautern

53’ Huth (0-1)

65’ Verhoek (1-1)

80’ Daedlow (2-1)

A tough game overall, we had led in possession. But, a lack of time in our half cost us.

Kaiserslautern 3-0 Turkgucu

13’ Huth (1-0)

64’ Ritter (2-0)

75’ Ritter (3-0)

Our first win of the season and a shut out no less!

Kaiserslautern 2-2 Unterhaching

25’ Stahl (0-1)

28’ Huth (1-1)

56’ Hain (1-2)

71’ Huth (2-2)

This match was annoying on so many levels. But, we walked out with a point.

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Toward the end of August, we made two final acquisitions to help round out our five signings of the window. The first four were free agent signings:

• Ashley Williams (36, CB, Wales): a veteran presence for our youngsters, he technically has the only international tournament experience on our team
• Nemanja Mitrović (27, CB, Slovenia): he’s in the prime years of his career and had a good enough rating to fit right into our starting XI
• Georgi Kostadinov (29, CDM, Bulgaria): another example of a good rated player with a few more years worth of solid playing time
• Todor Nedelev (27, RM, Bulgaria): I don’t know why all of Bulgaria was on our free agent list, but considering he’s now our highest rated winger, I won’t complain.

Our final signing was SV Darmstadt midfielder Paik Seung Ho of South Korea. At 23, and rated 70 overall, this was a signing for both immediate and long term success. However, with this team’s formation, he won’t exactly fit into a CM role that he prefers, instead playing as a CDM.

So, with that we were off to the month of September. Our position had only improved slightly, having gone up one spot to 17th in the table on five points from six games.

We immediately saw signs of improvement.

September (3-0-0)

Hallescher 0-1 Kaiserslautern

85’ Huth

I think this Elias Huth kid might be turning into something...

Kaiserslautern 3-0 Zwickau

39’ Huth (1-0)

57’ Huth (2-0)

88’ Huth (3-0)

WOW I really think this Elias Huth kid is turning into something...

Verl 0-4 Kaiserslautern

28’ Redondo (0-1)

35’ Huth (0-2)

45+1’ Huth (0-3)

64’ Huth (0-4)

HOLY SHIT THIS ELIAS HUTH KID IS TURNING INTO SOMETHING

That was our month of September. Three games, nine points, seven goals from Elias Huth alone. For someone who’s only 23 years old, and given EA’s revamping of dynamic potential, we might have our next star striker on our hands.

Oh and by the way, those three wins saw us shoot up from 17th in the table to 4th. I’m not kidding.

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With our new wave of confidence, October beckoned. This stream came on the day of a Bayern Munich’s UCL match with Salzburg, so we had to end early. But, here’s where we are so far:

October Part 1: (0-0-2)

Kaiserslautern 1-2 1860 Munich

32’ Salger (0-1)

52’ Huth (1-1)

90’ Mölders (1-2)

Huth keeps his goal scoring streak alive, but a heartbreaker in the 90th sees Die Löwen walk out with three points.

Dynamo Dresden 3-2 Kaiserslautern

7’ Ritter (0-1)

13’ Hosiner (1-1)

34’ Hosiner (2-1)

44’ Ritter (2-2)

55’ Sohm (3-2)

Huth’s scoring streak dies as our backline underperforms for us. Time to crack the whip.

After these two losses, the club now officially sits in 12th place with 14 points from 11 games.

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Before I end this, here’s a look at how our squad is performing compared to the league:

3. Liga Scorers Table

1. Elias Huth (ST) - 13 goals from 11 games

T-2. Marlon Ritter (CAM) - 6 goals from 11 games

Other goal scorers: Kenny Prince Redondo (LM) [1g from 10 games]

3. Liga Assist Table

1. Marlon Ritter (CAM) - 6 assists from 11 games

T-3. Elias Huth (ST) - 3 assists from 11 games

T-11. Kenny Prince Redondo (LM) - 2 assists from 10 games

T-11. Paik Seung Ho (CM) - 2 assists from 4 games

Other assisters (all with 1 assist): Todor Nedelev (RM) [4 games played], Dominik Schad (RB) [11 GP], Simon Skarlatidis (LM) [5 GP], Adam Hloušek (LB) [11 GP], Gerogi Kostadinov (CDM) [6 GP], Carlo Sickinger [11 GP], Nemanja Mitrovic (CB) [7 GP]

3. Liga Clean Sheet Table

T-4. Avdo Spahić - 4 clean sheets from 11 games

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Technically, we still have two more games to play in October against SV Meppen (18th) and 1. FC Magdeburg (4th). So, we will pick those up on Monday and then simulate through the whole month of November with the team to make up for me missing out on Friday (sorry).

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