Football deities in stress: supernatural nastiness

The closer the final whistle is, the greater the willingness of the fans to believe in some kind of higher-level being who will provide their own team with a flash of inspiration at the very last minute and thus equalize or take the lead. However, what usually doesn't happen, which in itself is not proof of the non-existence of such a higher authority - it could also be that she just can't stand her favorite club.

Or is simply overwhelmed. After all, there are more than 300,000 official football clubs worldwide, most of which play on weekends. Purely statistically, a football deity would have to look after around 12,500 clubs every hour. And even if several such metaphysical VARs shared the job, they couldn't possibly process, let alone answer, every single prayer.

There was a particularly lot of praying and hoping on this Saturday in the Bundesliga during the Augsburg vs. Leverkusen game. Before kick-off, Augsburg's coach Manuel Baum was presented with a symbolic certificate for first place in the table, which he probably didn't like very much. After all, he had spent the week trying to teach fans and reporters about mean stuff like realism. In the 89th minute it became apparent that the entity responsible for the game against Leverkusen was a clear spoilsport: an equalizer and the league lead was over.

Perhaps the same Numen was also on duty in the Freiburg versus Mönchengladbach game. Or someone else really enjoyed working with Tim Kleindienst. The Gladbach striker had previously complained in detail about the overall lack of attitude and concentration in the team, but then received a yellow card after an unnecessary jersey tug in the 13th minute and was sent off almost 40 minutes later. The practical demonstration of the consequences of poor concentration and attitude ended with 0:5.

After all, no one will be so mean as to present coach Eugen Polanski with a certificate for last place in the table on the next match day. The Gladbach club management parted ways with him on Sunday. Which is a shame, because Polanski is considered a very nice person. But if there really is some kind of overarching football entity, it probably has a lot of wonderful plans for him. Unless, unfortunately, there is no time at the moment.