Rovers suffer cruel defeat to league leaders

The Rovers' four match-unbeaten run came to an end on Sunday in a gut-wrenching 4-3 defeat to league leaders FC Viktoria München.

The visitors came into the match with 16 points from their opening six games, having netted 30 times already this season; however, after a string of resilient performances, the Rovers were up for the challenge and confident of getting a result.

With promotion hopefuls FC Fürstenried watching on from the sidelines, it took just four minutes for the Rovers to take the lead –Lamine Cisse slotting in from a tight angle. The fine start got even better just ten minutes later when Taha Cherfia latched on to Dominic Werth's cross and tapped in for his first competitive goal for the club.

Stunned by the early setback, Viktoria set the tone for a highly-charged encounter with aggression and physicality but found their match in a strong Rovers side. They soon reduced the lead to 2-1 through their tricky number 9 Aykut Kislali (18’), but the hosts hit back once more, Pedro Jardim scoring directly from a corner to take his season tally up to three goals.

3-1 up after 22 minutes, the Rovers were in control and deservedly in front, but the tide would soon turn irreversibly in favour of the league leaders. A momentary lapse in concentration invited Daniel Lobato to cut the lead to 3-2 (25’) before controversy came calling – not for the last time this match – when the Rovers were reduced to ten men. Goalscorer Jardim was shown two yellows in the space of six minutes, without a prior-warning, as the referee decided to take a zero-tolerance policy on fouls committed by the players in green.

A competitive game spoiled

The Rovers were on the wrong side of another controversial decision on the stroke of half time, when Werth’s close-range strike was ruled out for offside. Meanwhile, goalscorer Kislali’s dirty off-the-ball antics, which included a strange fondness for Rovers’ testicles and shoving Werth to the ground by the neck, continued to go unpunished.

In the second half, Viktoria piled on the pressure and sought to gain every possible advantage from the referee, falling to ground at any hint of contact, and this eventually paid off in the 63rd minute. After winning a soft free kick half way into the Rovers half, and finally seeing yellow for his excessive theatrics, Kislali delivered another sucker punch, this time figuratively, to head his team level.

With ten minutes to go and the scores level at 3-3, the Rovers were deal another blow as Jamshid Barekzai was shown a second yellow in brutal fashion. After being substituted on, Barekzai eagerly entered the pitch too early, with Cherfia having not yet exited the field of play – a common mistake at amateur level, easily dealt with by a strong reminder from the referee. Instead, with the opposition screaming that the player had already been booked in the first half, the referee ignored Barekzai’s honest protest that he thought Cherfia had exited on the far side and showed him a second yellow.

Viktoria headed in the winner just two minutes later and the ten Rovers players left on the pitch were unable to find a response. Unfortunately, it was just one of those days.

As bitter as the result may be, nothing can be taken away from the performance and commitment shown by every player. Six games back in the A-Klasse, the Rovers are holding their own and showing that they are a match for any team.

Next up the boys face a trip to fourth-placed TSV München Ost on Sunday, 14th October (13:30).