TSG lose friendly against Heidenheim

With ten players out on international duty and in the absence of Mark Uth, Pirmin Schwegler, Ermin Bicakcic, Jens Grahl, Tarik Elyounoussi and Kai Herdling, the team was filled largely with players from the U23s and U19s.

"Due to the number of absentees we had to improvise today, especially across the back four. That was obvious as well, we gave away a lot of chances," said head coach Julian Nagelsmann. Nevertheless, TSG enjoyed a strong start to the game and took the lead after four minutes. Vargas let fly from distance and saw his shot deflect off a defender into the back of the net to make it 1-0.

Three good chances to double the lead followed quickly for Joelinton, who managed to test the keeper twice and narrowly missed one effort. Jonathan Schmid’s volley from 18 yards also went whiskers wide of the goal. Despite the chances, TSG failed to extend their lead and were punished by the clinical visitors who turned the game around even before the break. Bard Finne and Tim Skarke scored to make it 1-1 then 2-1 respectively.

"It was a good test for us"

After the break, Nagelsmann’s side kept getting younger. By the end of the game there were only six first-team players in Alexander Stolz, Polanski, Zuber, Kuranyi and Joelinton left on the field, the other five players were all from the youth academy. It was Joelinton who followed on from his hat-trick of missed opportunities with an impressive volley to level the scores once more. 

Heidenheim however created more and more goal opportunities, two of which were kept out fantastically by Stolz in the TSG goal. Up at the other end, a header from Kevin Kuranyi was cleared off the line. With full time approaching, Heidenheim’s Samail Morabit cropped up with a late brace to make the final score 4-2. 

"The result is obviously not what we were hoping for, but that’s not the most important thing here. It was a good test for us - players who haven’t been getting a lot of playing time recently got a chance to get some minutes under their belt and prove themselves today. And we, the coaching staff, had the chance to test some of our players in a game situation," concluded Nagelsmann. 

The following players were used in the friendly: Alexander Stolz, Eugen Polanski, Eduardo Vargas, Jonathan Schmid, Jiloan Hamad, Tobias Strobl, Steven Zuber, Kevin Kuranyi, Baris Atik, Joelinton, Alexander Rossipal, Johannes Bender, Maximilian Waack, Nicolas Sessa.