All about the next opponent: Interview with Kaiserslautern expert Florian Reis

One week after their game against the Ita­li­an record cham­pi­ons, VfB hosts second-divi­si­on team Kai­sers­lau­tern this evening for the second round of the cup at the Neckar­sta­di­on. We spo­ke with FCK expert and jour­na­list Flo­ri­an Reis about the cur­rent situa­ti­on at Kai­sers­lau­tern.

With the Red Stri­pe: Hi Flo­ri­an, thanks for taking the time to ans­wer our ques­ti­ons. For the first time in almost exact­ly seven years, VfB faces FCK again in a com­pe­ti­ti­ve match. Back then, we also won 3–1 against the second-divi­si­on team at Bet­zen­berg in the second round of the cup. In the mean­ti­me, Lau­tern spent four years in the third divi­si­on. Has the club re-estab­lished its­elf in the second divi­si­on in its third year?

Flo­ri­an: Hi Lenn­art, FCK hasn’t quite re-estab­lished its­elf yet. Last year, they fought against rele­ga­ti­on for a long time and went through three coa­ches, which set them back. This sea­son, the goal is to secu­re a sta­ble spot in the mid­ta­ble. Given last year’s chal­lenges, I think that’s a rea­li­stic expec­ta­ti­on.

What are your thoughts on their chan­ces of retur­ning to the Bun­des­li­ga? Or are they still too finan­ci­al­ly and sport­ingly unsta­ble for that?

Well, you men­tio­ned the last cup game bet­ween the two teams. Back then, the sport­ing and finan­cial situa­tions were much more pre­ca­rious. Atten­dance of 35,000 was the excep­ti­on rather than the rule, whe­re­as now it’s the norm. In Kai­sers­lau­tern, peo­p­le shouldn’t be tal­king about a Bun­des­li­ga return just yet. Other clubs are still much bet­ter posi­tio­ned. But, for finan­cial reasons alo­ne, that must be the long-term goal.

After many win­less games, the team recent­ly defea­ted top teams like Pader­born and Düs­sel­dorf. Has the team mana­ged to turn things around?

It’s hard to say. The team had a strong start, taking seven points from the first three games. After­ward, they strug­g­led, and the results led to the first mini-cri­sis of the sea­son. So far, it seems they per­form bet­ter against teams that want to play offen­si­ve­ly. They should have won at home against HSV four weeks ago too.

This sum­mer, Mar­kus Anfang took over as head coach. He didn’t have the best repu­ta­ti­on after his for­ged vac­ci­na­ti­on cer­ti­fi­ca­te scan­dal. How do you view his appoint­ment?

I think he’s hand­led the situa­ti­on well at Lau­tern. Of cour­se, it’s impos­si­ble to enti­re­ly sepa­ra­te the pro­fes­sio­nal from the per­so­nal in this case, but he seems to under­stand the serious­ness of what he did. Anfang impres­sed me in the way he hand­led the tra­gic death of FCK equip­ment mana­ger Peter Mie­the, who died in a cycling acci­dent during their trai­ning camp this sum­mer. Anfang ser­ved as our media point of cont­act after­ward, and I think he mana­ged it very well.

How does he have the team play, and what are the cur­rent strengths and weak­ne­s­ses of the Bet­zen­berg team?

At Lau­tern, they’re try­ing to impro­ve their style of play, which takes time. But is time some­thing you get in foot­ball? Ano­ther ques­ti­on is whe­ther they have the right play­ers for this approach. We’ll see more in the coming weeks as the team reco­vers from signi­fi­cant ear­ly-sea­son inju­ries. If play­ers like Dai­suke Yoko­ta stay fit, things could impro­ve. Anyo­ne who saw their game in Düs­sel­dorf would pro­ba­b­ly agree. As for strengths and weak­ne­s­ses: they’re always capa­ble of scoring up front, but defen­si­ve­ly, they still strugg­le like last sea­son. I have real con­cerns about them hand­ling the qua­li­ty of play­ers like Deniz Undav or Erme­din Demi­ro­vic.

Rag­nar Ache has scored six times in nine games. What makes him stand out, and who else should we watch out for?

Rag­nar Ache is a power­house. I’ve rare­ly seen any­thing like it. He doesn’t just wait for pas­ses upfront; he also plays sel­fless­ly for the team. I alre­a­dy men­tio­ned Dai­suke Yoko­ta. If he plays on Tues­day, he could give VfB trou­ble, as I expect FCK to adopt a com­pact defen­si­ve approach.

Three for­mer VfB play­ers are in the FCK squad: Flo­ri­an Klein­hansl, Phil­ipp Kle­ment, and Jean Zim­mer. What roles do they play in the team?

Flo­ri­an Klein­hansl initi­al­ly had trou­ble making the squad, but he’s been in the start­ing lin­e­up for the last two games as a left wing­back, repla­cing Erik Wekes­ser and per­forming solid­ly. Jean Zim­mer lost the cap­tain­cy befo­re the sea­son and initi­al­ly didn’t play, but inju­ries have chan­ged that. He’s still a fan favo­ri­te. Phil­ipp Kle­ment is a more com­pli­ca­ted case. He strug­g­led under all three coa­ches last sea­son. Mar­kus Anfang has given him a new chan­ce, but he’s curr­ent­ly inju­red.

What are FCK’s chan­ces in Stutt­gart on this cup night?

To be honest, not very high. This is pro­ba­b­ly the toug­hest draw they could have recei­ved. Under nor­mal cir­cum­s­tances, their cup run ends on Tues­day. But, as they say, the cup has its own rules.

Final­ly, your pre­dic­tion for the start­ing ele­ven and the result?

In goal: Juli­an Krahl; Jan Elve­di, Luca Sich, and Jan­nis Heu­er as the back three; Frank Ron­stadt and Flo­ri­an Klein­hansl on the wings; Filip Kaloc, Boris Tomi­ak, and Mar­lon Rit­ter in mid­field; Dai­suke Yoko­ta and Rag­nar Ache up front. My rea­li­stic pre­dic­tion is a 3–1 win for VfB.

Note: This inter­view was trans­la­ted from Ger­man via ChatGPT.

Pic­tu­re: © Lars Baron/Getty Images

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