Opponent Check: FC Augsburg

Augsburg have now established themselves in the Bundesliga and stay up, not always confidently, but mostly calmly. The table positions of the past seasons also bear witness to this. FCA has finished 15th three times in the last five seasons. However, there have already been outliers when they have finish in a sensational 5th place in 2015 and competed on the European stage the next season. Liverpool FC were a bit too strong in the second round.

This season, after a bumpy start and the change of coach from Maaßen to Thorup, Augsburg has recently stabilised. In the second half of the season they are in seventh place, just behind Bayern Munich. Thanks to the three points against Freiburg last weekend, the acute relegation worries have faded for the time being, with a nine-point lead over the relegation place. Suddenly, they are only four points are from seventh place. Felix Uduokhai, most recently also a goalscorer from his defensive position, also looks at the upcoming tasks against the competition with a warning: „We now have to find a good balance because the teams are at the same level, where we also have a little more difficulty. We have to be there beforehand, we have to play the same way we did here at home against Leipzig, Bayern and Leverkusen.“ We take a closer look at the Lilies‘ upcoming opponent. FC Augsburg in the opponent check.

With around 5.9 million inhabitants, Denmark only has slightly more citizens than the combined number of people living in Berlin (approx. 3.7) and Hamburg (approx. 1.8). It is all the more astonishing that the Scandinavians have produced numerous talents in recent years such as Andreas Christensen, Jannik Vestergaard, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Yussuf Poulsen and Unioner Frederik Rönnow. The current head coach of FC Augsburg is not least responsible for this: Jess Thorup. They all enjoyed his training when he was on the sidelines as a coach for the Young Danes from 2013 to 2015 and reached the semi-finals of the U21 European Championship in 2015. “I love developing young players,” said the 54-year-old coach about his passion at his inaugural press conference in Augsburg. He is now also able to do this at FCA with players like Arne Engels and Dion Beljo.

Thorup, who laced up his football boots as a professional at KFC Uerdingen in Germany for a year and a half in the 90s, already speaks German very well and was pleased about his employment with the Fuggerstadt team in an interview on the club’s own YouTube channel: “It’s a dream of coming back after more than 20 years. I feel very comfortable here in Augsburg.” The father of two plays golf, rides a bike and enjoys being outside. Thorup won the Danish championship with FC Midtjylland in 2018 and FC Copenhagen in 2022.

The Copenhagen native took over the FCA from Enrico Maaßen, who had to leave after the 1-2 home defeat against the Lilies after just one win from the first seven games of the season. The 16 games since then have shown a fairly balanced balance: five wins, six draws, five defeats. In the focus on sport in the BR at the beginning of February, Thorup formulated higher goals: the top 10 must “become our goal next year” at the latest. An important three points came on Sunday against Freiburg: “That was exactly the reaction I was hoping for after the game in Mainz. We talked a lot about mindset and mentality and I saw a team that controlled the game and thought offensively from the first minute. I’m very happy about that because we played very well.”

If a team falls behind, the chances of a win or at least a draw logically decrease significantly. Not so at FC Augsburg. The people of Fuggerstadt regularly fight against this fact. FCA was behind in 19 of the 23 games of the season played so far. However, these games resulted in five wins and just as many draws and a correspondingly incredible 20 points after deficits. Without these points, Augsburg would be languishing with a measly six points. The highlight lies in the comeback qualities.

This was also the case last Sunday when the guests from Freiburg took the lead with a penalty from Vicenzo Grifo. What brings other teams off their game or makes them lose their minds is FCA’s strength. So the home team was able to turn the game around. Uduokhai and Engels were recorded as scorers within nine minutes and the WWK Arena shook. Points after backlogs? A statistic in which Augsburg are ahead by a large margin (20). In second and third place are Borussia Dortmund and TSG Hoffenheim, with twelve points each. One of the main contributors to these statistics is top scorer Ermedin Demirovic. The Hamburg native was directly involved in 19 of the 33 goals scored (12 goals, 7 assists). That makes him the fifth best scorer in the league.

The people of Dortmund were amazed. At the Bundesliga start to the 2023 calendar year, they faced 19-year-old Arne Engels on matchday 16 in the game against FC Augsburg. Arne who? The winter newcomer from Fuggerstadt should actually be introduced to the new league slowly and develop in peace. But the Belgian immediately became a regular. In his competitive start at the sold-out Signal Iduna Park, he impressed with a mature performance and an assist.

Engels, who was born in Flanders, has often flown under the radar in his career. This was also the case at his last club: Club Bruges. There the midfielder did not play for the professionals, but for the Bruges youth team in the second division. After the now 20-year-old had become a regular in Augsburg, the question arose as to whether the 18-time Belgian champion had overlooked Engels‘ talent. „He is very calm, very level-headed, very flexible and has good physicality. He has a very good finish with his left and right and a very good passing game. I think he is a great talent. He will be one here „What he’s doing is extraordinary,“ said former FCA coach Enrico Maaßen, predicting a great development for the midfield talent. That’s how it was supposed to happen.

Engels himself was happy about his move in an interview on the club’s own YouTube channel: “It’s a big step for me, but I was well received. The league suits my game well.” The Belgian, who can play both on the right and in the middle, impresses with his toughness in duels, overview, dynamism and good shooting technique. He also enlivens the Augsburg offensive with his creativity and free spirit. Engels has long since developed into a top performer and contributed three goals and three assists this season. He recently scored the 2-1 winner against SC Freiburg. “I’m very happy with my goal, I’ve practiced situations like this in training – today I was able to put it into practice in the game. We have to take this dominance with us to Darmstadt,” said the man with shirt number 27 after the home win, while also looking ahead to the duel with the Lilies.