One Night in Nurnberg

The new season began in somewhat inauspicious circumstances. Energie Cottbus were preparing for pre-season with just four contracted players on the books. With no Sporting Director in place, the challenge of rebuilding an entire squad fell on the shoulders of their young Head Coach, Sebastien Meyer.

"In hindsight, it was way too much work for me to take on alone." Meyer admits. "Trying to recruit an entirely new squad and prepare them in time for the start of the new season was a little crazy. But we felt it was worth the gamble to start a fresh, to build a squad for how we wanted to play."

The gamble was perhaps unwise. The funds generated from the stirring run to the Semi-Final of the DFB Pokal had failed to materialise into a transfer budget. The financial situations is rumoured to have been exacerbated by the €12m loan facility taken out to finance the building of a brand new stadium.

21 players left that Summer, replaced by 16 free transfers and supplemented by a further 5 players arriving on loan. In those early fixtures, the risk had appeared to pay off. Energie were unbeaten in the first 5 matches, before hitting a bit of a bumpy patch.

"We lost a couple of matches, but we recovered to beat Magdeburg 5-0, so we weren't too worried at that point." reflects Meyer. "We had only lost 2 of our first 8 games and we were looking pretty strong."

But the storm was already brewing. Parent clubs had seen fit to recall their young players from their loan spells, citing either a lack of game time or a failure to play them in the agreed roles. A spate of injuries then exposed what was already a threadbare squad. Results went against Energie, and amidst calls for change, Meyer altered his tactics to try and stop the bleeding.

"The calls for us to be more 'pragmatic' were getting louder and louder. People were saying we were too open, too naive. After talking with the coaching staff, we decided to change things."

It didn't work.

On a freezing cold February evening in Nurnberg, Henry Rorig trudged off the field following his red card. Unable to lift his head, he walked towards the touchline, past the manager and up the tunnel. It was stoppage time and Energie Cottbus were 3-1 down at the Max-Morlock-Stadion.

95th Minute. Taylan Duman. 4-1.

Sebastien Meyer stood motionless, his facial expression barely shifting to acknowledge the worsening situation he faced. The Nurnberg rain clapped down on his club-branded baseball cap, forming a trickling waterfall which failed to mask his quiet fury. The final whistle had marked the 12th successive match without a victory.

A team that had been defined by their energy and intensity just a few months earlier now looked in a state of disarray, confidence all but dissipated.

"In that moment, everything changed. It had to. If we continued like that, we would have been relegated for sure. I might even have lost my job. I decided if we were going to fail, I would at least do it on my terms." Meyer says candidly. "Last year proved it can work, not just against 3. Liga teams. We beat teams in Bundesliga playing our way, but we lost belief. I lost belief, and that then becomes confusing for the players. We had to go back to our way of working, to our identity."

It was as though the rain that night washed away any fear. The turnaround was as instant as it was incredible. Energie thrashed Karlsruhe 5-2 in their next match. That was followed by two draws, before they ended the season with an incredible 10 match winning streak that propelled them into 4th place at the end of the season.

"I went away from what I believe in to please other people. I won't make that mistake again."