Berlin (AP) – Tasmania Berlin does not have to worry about the position of the bottom light in the eternal table of the Bundesliga.
“We clearly lag behind last. Nobody can take that away from us, ”said the club’s fan representative, Hacel Bazić, of the German press agency. Of course, not FC Schalke 04 either, but on January 9th (3:30 p.m. / Sky) they will catch up with the capital city club in another inglorious category. If Schalke remained without a win against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, they draw level with Tasmania, who were the only club to fail to win 31 consecutive matches in the 1965/66 season. “That wouldn’t be the first record we’d hit,” said Bazić.
The royal blues are not eager to be named in the same breath as the symbol of unsuccessfulness in the future. “Of course we want to avert the fact that we set the minus record. We don’t want to continue on the defeat side and win this home game under any circumstances, ”said Schalke coach Christian Gross.
And in Berlin-Neukölln they are proud of those things that would make coach faces blush elsewhere. With the 3-0 defeat at Hertha BSC last weekend in Berlin, Royal Blue also made a dozen Tasmania supporters unhappy. The fans cheered on Schalke on Saturday evening under the uncomfortable motto “Appreciate capital city football: No further degradation by run-down commercial associations” on Coubertinplatz in front of the Olympic Stadium. Also there: the fan representative Bazić. “Even the Hertha fans thought it was funny,” he said of the action.
“One of our most important records is going to be lost,” said Tasmania legend Hans-Günter Becker. But he is not sad about it. At that time, Becker was the captain of the teams. The now 82-year-old first played in midfield and then as a defender.
“In contrast to Schalke, we set our record over one season,” added the current President of the Tasmanian Islands, Almir Numic. And the backgrounds were different at the time: Tasmania moved to the Bundesliga due to financial irregularities at Hertha BSC. That surprised not only the management of the club.
“I was there in Scharbeutz myself,” remembered Tasmania captain Becker. Then one day a friend approached him and asked if he was still on vacation. “I said: yes of course! We’re still here for 14 days. ”Without knowing it, Becker had become the captain of a first division team overnight.
The first small sensation was not long in coming: In front of more than 81,000 spectators, Tasmania won against Karlsruher SC in the Olympic Stadium. “Some people thought it would go on like this now,” said Becker. That year, however, the Tasmanians only scored 15 goals, conceded 108 goals and were the last to be relegated.
“The longer we could keep the zero-to-zero, the better,” Becker said of the tactics. Shortly before the end of the season, the club ended the series with a win against Borussia Neunkirchen. “So the adventurer Bundesliga came to a conciliatory end.”
The Tasmania has received a lot of media inquiries lately, said President Numic. The negative record has paid off for the club so far. Hardly any other amateur team arouses such interest as the Berlin club, even in times of Corona. “This week alone, two television stations are visiting us,” emphasized club official Numic.
Only part of the name connects their club with the later bankrupt SC Tasmania 1900. The current fifth division, founded in 1973, is not the official legal successor. “That is why it is in 1973 – and not in 1900 – in the coat of arms,” explained Numic.
Tasmane Becker still has one tip about 55 years after his own record series for Schalke: stick together! In this way, the crisis cannot be averted, but at least it can be overcome together – without individual players looking for something better in the winter transfer period.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210107-99-937431 / 4
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