Football | 2. Bundesliga: 1. FC Magdeburg has "all of Germany watching"

Perhaps an anecdote is enough to explain why a special club, 1. FC Magdeburg, is preparing to knock on the door to the top flight. FCM still has three games to play in the 2. Bundesliga . Three games against Preußen Münster, SC Paderborn, and Fortuna Düsseldorf will decide whether they stay in third place in the relegation zone or perhaps even achieve direct promotion. Or whether the Magdeburg footballers have simply had a surprisingly strong season. Other clubs hole themselves up during such heated phases, ordering secret training sessions, banning the press, and putting their players on a macrobiotic diet. Magdeburg was different. They held a fan evening on Wednesday evening – and didn't summon any old stand-sitters from the club, but rather the marketing director, the head coach, and the sporting director.

Unconditional noise

As remarkable as this is, it will still be a while before the canonization of the most prominent representative of the Saxony-Anhalt state capital, alongside the handball players of SC Magdeburg , is arguably the most prominent figure in the city. Of course, the club's proverbial closeness to its fans is also in its own interest. FCM may be doing remarkable work in sports (and not just recently), but it is recognized nationally primarily through the power of its fan base. What "Block U" manages to achieve at home games is a case for noise protection regulations. Away crowds can reach five figures; 15,000 fans made the pilgrimage to Berlin's Olympic Stadium last weekend to play Hertha BSC . "I'm thrilled by the unconditional support of our fans, whether at home or away," coach Christian Titz said at the fan evening. "Regardless of whether the game was successful or not. That's why I say unconditional."

The Mannheim-born coach has been in charge of Magdeburg since February 2021. In the same period, promotion rivals Hamburger SV, 250 kilometers upstream on the Elbe, went through four head coaches and two interim coaches. Continuity is therefore one of the reasons why FCM, a small club by economic parameters, is performing so impressively this year .

Big shot vocabulary

Furthermore, Titz embodies a type of coach whose football is so exceptional that his players need time to internalize it. In a league dominated by counter-attacking football, nowadays euphemistically cloaked in self-important terms like "counter-pressing" or "switch play," Titz's teams want the ball. Magdeburg builds cleanly from the back to the front. And the goalkeeper, in this case Dominik Reimann, is actually the first build-up player. And if the ball is lost, FCM wants it back immediately – high pressing is the method of choice.

Meanwhile, the goalkeeper position also demonstrates that Titz, who has always been a remarkable coach, has developed further in recent years. In the less than eight months he was granted as head coach of Hamburger SV in 2018, he sometimes had Julian Pollersbeck open the play all the way into the center circle. This went terribly wrong a few times, partly for individual reasons.

Lessons learned

At the time, some fellow coaches also hinted that Titz, while technically excellent, was too stubborn in his adherence to his enormously risky style of play. Today, the 54-year-old Mannheim native chooses a more pragmatic approach: The last line of defense is positioned a few meters deeper, and the goalkeeper is positioned even deeper. "Christian Titz's playing style is now viewed somewhat differently. We've learned the lessons from the past and have consolidated our position," says sporting director Otmar Schork, who has been at FCM since November 2020.

This hasn't changed the great strengths of Titz's football: Many of Magdeburg's 59 goals – 13 more than league leaders 1. FC Köln – are the product of beautiful combinations. And if the Magdeburg crowd has maintained its nerve and good spirits this season, in which they have only managed four home wins so far, it's mainly because they've often still seen 90 minutes of attractive football. But that doesn't change the fact that probably never in the history of the second division has a team been in third place at this point in the season while occupying a relegation-threatened 15th place in the home table.

This Friday, FCM can take a big step toward the Bundesliga in their floodlit match against Preußen Münster. Even Magdeburg's home team has a good chance of winning. Not only because they're playing against the second-to-last team, but also because sporting director Schork modestly presented the industry's perspective at the fan evening: "We're on a really good path sportingly and have a high level that the whole of Germany is now watching."