Blind Football Bundesliga: Own goal drama surrounding German championship

An artificial turf pitch in the middle of the city, a sport full of emotions and a thrilling finale. The last match day of the Blind Football Bundesliga offered all of this to the numerous spectators last Saturday at Karolinenplatz in Darmstadt. Because even before the event began, it was clear: With last year's champions SF BG Blista Marburg, MTV Stuttgart, Borussia Dortmund and FC St. Pauli, four teams are still fighting for the championship title.

In the first game of the day between FC Ingolstadt and Fortuna Düsseldorf, the championship was no longer at stake, but one player in particular was to delight the spectators. After the party had started to slow down, the Düsseldorf player brought 15-year-old Karlo Brenner into the game. He impressed the spectators with his skillful dribbling and also captivated more and more people passing by. He was then not only involved in Cengez Koparan's goal to make it 1-0, but also scored the 2-0 winning goal for Fortuna, making him the top scorer for the team from the Rhine.

The second game between FC Schalke 04 and VSC/ABSV Vienna was also intended to bring some momentum to the event. The Viennese were accepted into the Bundesliga three years ago because they are the only relevant blind football team in Austria and wanted to compete regularly with other teams.

The fact that Schalke are missing a few players should be an advantage for Vienna's Asmin Traoré in particular. With many shots on goal, he made the team from the Ruhr region sweat early on before he managed to score the 1-0 for his team. But even the interim equalizer by Pero Marijanovic could not stop the Viennese, because in the last second of the game the referee pointed to the penalty spot after a foul by the Royal Blues. Traoré again converted the resulting penalty to make it 2-1.

The following game in particular was to fill the stands. The reason for this was the numerous ex-professionals such as Marco Sailer and the ex-Schalke player Gerhard Kleppinger, who were to try out blind football under the direction of national blind football coach Martin Mania. Although some ex-professionals proved to be talented at blind football, the exhibition game ended 0:0.

Following the party, former Lilien professional Marco Sailer said on SPORT1-Microphone: “It's a crazy experience. You just imagine it differently. You think: 'You put the glasses on and you can't see anything, but you still have some sense of orientation'. But you're just completely in the dark. You try to solve it a little bit with your hearing, but it's so extremely difficult.”

The 38-year-old continued: “The commands are discussed beforehand, but you don't really dare to say anything because you're so busy with yourself. You try to feel your way forward and listen. I have the utmost respect for the boys and girls for how they do it.”

And the location of the pitch on Karolinenplatz between old buildings, such as the State Museum or the city archives, also excited Sailer. “I think it's great that something like this is happening in Darmstadt.” And the mitten on Karolinenplatz. I was promoted here twice with Darmstadt. We had our promotion celebrations here. So I don't think there's a better place from my point of view and also for the city. And what has been built here is simply phenomenal. “There are a lot of spectators here and I'm really happy for the boys,” explained the former striker.

The highlight of the last match day, however, was to follow after the celebrity match. In the last two matches of the day, the best four teams will play for the German blind football championship. National coach Martin Mania emphasized: “Due to the starting position, this is definitely a knockout game. It's exciting right up to the end.”

Mania was right, because in the penultimate match of the day between Borussia Dortmund and record champions MTV Stuttgart, numerous national players were on the field. Among them was Dortmund's Jonathan Tönsing, who led the scorers' list with 20 goals before the last matchday.

Despite numerous chances by Tönsing, MTV took the lead in the ninth minute through national player Alexander Fangmann. Tönsing equalized shortly before half-time, but shortly before the end it was Fangmann again who scored the 2-1 victory for Stuttgart and shot his team to the top of the table.

Due to MTV's late victory, both teams needed a win in the final match between SF BG Blista Marburg and FC St. Pauli to jump to the top of the table and secure the title. In this game, too, several national players were on the field.

Martin Mania was on SPORT1However, the microphone did not allow him to predict the championship. He explained: “Stuttgart has set the pace and you have to say that Stuttgart has strong nerves.” Accordingly, the pressure on both teams is now high. It is very difficult to predict because it is now very evenly matched. One of our national players, Rasmus Najes, is playing for St. Pauli again. He is back and is a very strong player.”

“I believe that it will be an action that decides this game.” But I cannot say who it will be. Marburg's number seven, Taime Kuttig (Editor's note: German national player), is also a type who does that. So one of the two will believe it, I will pull for one side or the other,” the national coach continued, and he was actually right.

In a balanced and thrilling game, Thoya Küster had the first chance for Hamburg after just two minutes, but failed to hit the left post. FC St. Pauli then increased the pressure, but could not take the lead.

But in the second half, FCSP coach Wolf Schmidt had a lucky hand. At the restart, he took Küster off the field and brought on Natan Werner, who quickly dribbled his way to the Marburg goal in the 17th minute. Marburg's Kuttig then intervened and put the ball into his own goal. In doing so, he made FC St. Pauli the new German champions in the Blind Football Bundesliga.

After the championship trophy was handed over, FSCP coach Schmidt said: “Simply sensational!” We always believed in it and worked hard for it. The title is recognition for our work.”

FC St. Pauli also showed class at the award ceremony that followed. When the FC Ingolstadt team, who were in last place, were asked to come forward for the award ceremony, the Hamburg team acknowledged the Ingolstadt team with loud chants of “Schanzer, Schanzer”. Nevertheless, the Bavarians were somewhat disappointed with their performance this season.

And BVB professional Jonathan Tönsing, who was awarded the Golden Shoe as top scorer after scoring 21 goals this season, was not satisfied with fourth place either. The 25-year-old stressed: “I would swap the shoe. Everyone knows what it would be for.”

But the fans of FC St. Pauli prepared the biggest reception for their blind footballers. At the Bundesliga match against RB Leipzig, the team was celebrated by almost 30,000 spectators.