Gladbach warm up for Bayern with cup win over Kaiserslautern

Berlin,
August
11:
Borussia
Mönchengladbach
wrapped
up
their
pre-season
preparations
with
a
1-0
victory
away
at
Kaiserslautern
in
the
first
round
of
the
German
Cup
on
Monday
(August
9)
night,
as
they
look
ahead
to
Friday’s
Bundesliga
opener
against
Bayern
Munich.

Captain
Lars
Stindl
scored
the
only
goal
of
the
game
at
the

Fritz-Walter-Stadion
on
the
famous

Betzenberg
hill,
a
first
half
header
from
a
Patrick
Herrmann
cross,
to
hand
new
head
coach
Adi
Hütter
a
victory
in
his
first
competitive
game
in
charge
of
the
Foals.

“It
was
a
well
worked
goal
because
we’re
aiming
to
get
extra
bodies
in
the
box
like
that,”
said
Hütter.
“But
it
was
equally
important
to
me
that
we
kept
a
clean
sheet.”

Adi
Hütter:
‘Price
tags
don’t
interest
me’

Having
been
knocked
out
of
the
cup
in
the
second
round
in
two
of
the
past
three
years,
a
good
cup
run
will
go
down
well
with
Gladbach
fans.
But
Hütter
has
bigger
priorities
in
his
first
season
at
Borussia
Park:
returning
the
Foals
to
European
competition.

Gladbach
may
not
have
fallen
anywhere
near
as
low
as
former
German
champions
Kaiserslautern,
now
in
the
third
division,
but
last
season’s
eighth-place
Bundesliga
finish
was
their
lowest
since
2018
and
only
the
third
time
they’ve
finished
outside
the
top
five
since
2015.

Last
season
ended
in
acrimony
and
disappointment
as
former
coach
Marco
Rose
announced
his
departure
to
Borussia
Dortmund
midway
through
the
campaign,
with
sporting
director
Max
Eberl
also
coming
in
for
criticism.
But
once
Dortmund
had
triggered
Rose’s
€5m
release
clause,
there
was
nothing
Eberl
could
realistically
do,
and
he
in
turn
put
that
money
towards
triggering
Hütter’s
€7.5m
release
clause
at
Eintracht
Frankfurt.

“The
price
tags
don’t
interest
me,”
Hütter
told

Kicker
this
week,
having
said
previously
in

Sportbild:
“Football
is
now
dictated
by
supply
and
demand.
If
you
work
well,
you
attract
the
attention
of
other
clubs,
both
players
and
coaches.
And
I
never
promised
Eintracht
that
I
would
stay.”

Joe
Scally
‘very
promising’

Like
most
top
Bundesliga
clubs,
Gladbach’s
pre-season
progress
has
been
dictated
by
the
rate
at
which
players
have
returned
from
international
duty,
and
in
what
physical
state.
Forwards
Lilian
Thuram,
Breel
Embolo
and
Jonas
Hofmann
all
missed
the
trip
to
Kaiserslautern
through
injury,
the
latter
having
suffered
from
COVID-19,
too.

Alassane
Plea
only
managed
the
final
twenty
minutes
while
Ramy
Bensebaini
is
also
still
out
and
was
ably
replaced
at
left-back
by
American
teenager
Joe
Scally.
The
18-year-old
joined
Gladbach
from
New
York
City
in
January
and
is
a
right-back
by
trade,
but
he’s
already
made
a
positive
impact
on
Hütter.

“I
am
relieved
when
I
see
how
he’s
able
to
deputize
for
Ramy,”
he
told

Kicker
magazine
last
week.
“He’s
a
very
promising
player
who
is
very
flexible,
and
he’s
also
physically
well
developed
for
his
age.”

With
the
arrivals
of
Hannes
Wolf
(€9.5m
from
RB
Leipzig)
and
the
highly
rated
Luca
Netz
(also
18
years
old,
€4m
from
Hertha
Berlin),
Scally
isn’t
the
only
new
youngster
at
the
club,
complimenting
a
squad
which
sporting
director
Eberl
has
just
about
managed
to
keep
together
–
with
two
likely
exceptions.

Possible
departures:
Zakaria
and
Ginter

Eberl
has
already
confirmed
that
Gladbach
have
received
offers
for
the
classy
Swiss
midfielder
Denis
Zakaria,
with
Roma
and
Napoli
reported
to
be
leading
the
chase,
while
German
international
Matthias
Ginter
could
also
be
on
the
way
out.

The
27-year-old,
who
started
in
all
four
of
Germany’s
games
at
Euro
2020,
has
a
contract
until
2022
and
would
like
to
extend
it,
but
Eberl
has
made
it
clear
that
Gladbach
can’t
afford
to
offer
him
improved
terms
after
seeing
turnover
fall
by
€50
million
due
to
the
pandemic.

A
shrewd
economic
operator,
Eberl
would
rather
sell
Ginter
now
than
see
him
leave
for
free
next
summer
–
but
even
he
might
struggle
to
find
a
club
willing
to
pay
upwards
of
€20m
for
the
€30m-rated
centerback,
with

Sportbild
reporting
that
interest
from
Atletico
Madrid,
Real
Madrid
and
Barcelona
isn’t
as
great
as
first
thought.

Losing
Ginter
would
be
an
early
blow
to
Hütter.
The
Austrian
has
a
reputation
as
an
offensive
coach
from
his
successful
spells
at
Red
Bull
Salzburg
(Austrian
champions
2015),
Young
Boys
Bern
(Swiss
champions
2018)
and
Eintracht
Frankfurt
(Europa
League
semifinalists
2019),
but
says
his
first
priority
at
Gladbach
is
to
fix
a
leaky
defense.

Only
Cologne
and
relegated
Werder
Bremen
and
Schalke
conceded
more
than
Gladbach’s
56
league
goals
last
season.
“A
good
defense
is
the
key
to
success,”
Hütter
told

Kicker.
“You
don’t
build
a
house
starting
with
the
first
floor;
you
start
with
the
foundations.”

Those
foundations
were
in
place
against
Kaiserslautern
in
the
cup
on
Monday
night,
but
Hütter
knows
they
will
be
subjected
to
much
greater
pressure
against
Bayern
Munich
on
Friday,
the
next
stage
of
his
Gladbach
rebuild.

Source:

DW