Paderborn Snatch Late Point
Allianz Arena, Munich - TSV 1860 finally put an end to their 3-match losing streak by earning a point at home to SC Paderborn 07 in a game memorable more for officiating mistakes than for quality football.
The deadlock was broken in the first half with a goal from Kevin Volland who clumsily bundled the ball home at the back post with a combination of his arm, thigh and chest. Parity was restored in the 82nd minute when Florian Mohr took advantage of some sloppy defending to earn the visitors a point.
From the kick off "Sechzig" had the lion's share of possession. Paderborn allowed their hosts space to play football and that was exactly what they wanted. Wide men Stefan Aigner and Daniel Halfar were brought into the game but their support of the front two was limited.
A series of poor officiating by the linesmen was trumped by the referee in the 18th minute of the game with a real belter. A clear hand ball in the penalty area that was seen by 15,000 supporters was missed by Thorsten Schriever, the man in the middle, in charge of the game. Quite staggering was the level of incompetence.
A generally dull game went through the motions until it finally came alight in the 37th minute. A cross from the right bypassed everyone except Volland who was loitering at the far post. He somehow managed to steer the ball into the net but quite how he did it wasn't instantly clear. Replays showed the ball to hit him somewhere near his chest but there was a hint of hand ball too.
The Lions went into the half time break with that one goal lead and they deserved it too. It should have been enough to settle them down but by the time the second half kicked off, it seemed that the host had nodded off.
There was a real lack of quality from both sides, neither able to hold onto possession for any length of time and both sides guilty of some basic, dare I say schoolboy errors. If not for the lack of cutting edge from Paderborn, 1860 could have been severely punished and certainly would have been by any side with a half decent centre forward.
Persistence finally paid off for Paderborn when with 7 minutes of normal time remaining they equalized through Mohr, the masked defender. It was like Paderborn had decided to bide their time for 80 minutes and then make a concerted effort to go for goal. They clearly stepped up a gear and put 1860 under all sorts of pressure for the final 10 minutes, culminating in a goal and a valuable away point to extend their unbeaten run to 8 games.
It’s a bitterly disappointing result for the Lions fans but it was a fair result in the end. The Lions still have plenty to improve upon and unless they do it quick, they will see any hopes of a promotion push fade away from them very quickly.
