Football | 3rd League: Hype about SGD shooting star Menzel: “He should continue on his path”

Dynamo Dresden is expecting Hansa Rostock, its third opponent from the East, in the still young season. The mood is good among the Elbe city team, especially thanks to the young homegrown player Tony Menzel.

After the nail-biting match at 1860 Munich and the fourth win in five games, the SGD has overtaken its Saxon rival Erzgebirge Aue in the table and is currently first in the 3rd division. But the top position hardly bothers anyone in the state capital, the sting of missing out on promotion after the brilliant first half of the season a year ago is still too deep. The focus is instead on a native of Dresden: youngster Tony Menzel, who has scored four goals and provided one assist in five games and also cleared two shots off the line for the Lions, securing the important away win.

SGD captain Kutschke: “If he changes due to outside influence, he has a problem”

His captain and SGD veteran Stefan Kutschke praised the 19-year-old, as well as Paul Lehmann and Jonas Oehmichen, who are only a year older and also come from Dresden: “These are guys from here who have played in the Dynamo youth team for many years.” They know the club's values ​​and know how to represent them. They are inquisitive, down-to-earth, listen and work on themselves. Menzel has earned the laurels that the youngest of the group in particular is reaping. “But if he changes due to outside influences, then he has a huge problem,” warned Kutschke, who is 16 years older. The center forward is “not at all worried or concerned about Tony. He should continue on his way, like the other two young players.” The oldie is also positive about the future, because with 17-year-old Dmytro Bogdanov, Dynamo already has the next talent in the pipeline. And that in the position of center forward.

Dynamo striker Daferner: “Tony should just carry on as before”

Currently, it is not Stefan Kutschke who is starting there, but Christoph Daferner. He also had warm words for the keen midfielder from Elbflorenz at the SPORT-IM-OSTEN microphone: “Let's leave his football talent aside: he marches. And we need that in the 3rd league. He is a young player, he makes progress, then he brings his technique and his footballing class with him. We are very happy for him. Just as his strike partner, the native Swabian, was not worried that Menzel would take off, he advised him to “just carry on as before” and “sort out the hype relatively quickly”.

After all, “things can happen quickly in football,” as the former second division player knows only too well. The experienced strikers and the young wild ones will face Rostock next Saturday (2:00 p.m. live on MDR-TELEVISION). The East clash against the Hanseatic city team, who have had a very poor start to the season and need to show signs of life after being relegated, is likely to be another test for the SGD squad, which is full of homegrown players. Stefan Kutschke knows this too, and despite the opponent's negative run, he warns: “If someone thinks: 'Here comes Hansa Rostock with not such a good start', they're on the wrong track in a derby like this.”

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