Eintracht Frankfurt is one of Germany’s major clubs and their support has grown since their inauguration in 1899. Their cohorts are fantastic and the recently known Commerzbank-Arena, holds over 51,000 fans and in 2010-11 Eintracht Frankfurt overhauled attendances ahead of such prominent clubs like Liverpool, Napoli and Atletico Madrid. Through their illustrious history there have been many ups and downs that the ‘Die Adler’ faithful have had to endure. Nevertheless, the first season they were promoted back into the Bundesliga there were many positive experiences for the head coach Armin Veh and his players.
Eintracht Frankfurt is one of the original ‘Founding Fathers’ of the German Bundesliga in 1963 and it is sentimental that Eintracht Frankfurt is taking part in the Bundesliga’s fifty-year anniversary. Eintracht Frankfurt has been German Champions before, however this was prior to the German Bundesliga being formed as they captured this title in 1959. They have won the DFB Pokal on four occasions and won the UEFA Cup in 1980 after an all-German two-legged affair against Borussia Monchengladbach. The 1980s was obviously their greatest time as a club acquiring two DFB Pokal’s and gaining the UEFA Cup with that famous goal by Fred Schaub.
Since that victory in 1988 DFB Pokal final however, Eintracht Frankfurt hasn’t gained any more major trophies since, but this season has looked very promising for Eintracht Frankfurt. Not in terms of trophies, but getting ‘Die Adler’ (Eagles) back into Europe. This account is going to assess Eintracht Frankfurt’s season so far and whether they have the potential to go on and build on their current fourth place position.
Armin Veh’s method coming up from Bundesliga 2 worked last season and quite frankly, opponents found it hard to compete with Eintracht Frankfurt’s slick passing play from the back. They came up from Bundesliga 2 with no fear and found on many occasions that other opponents found it very difficult to break them down with their 4-3-2-1 formation that they use. This resulted in Eintracht Frankfurt finishing sixth with 51 points, which granted them a place in the UEFA Europa League.
It could be argued that the season they finished sixth could be compared to English team Everton’s fourth place finish in 2005. Everton never respectively had a good side and never really spent any money that summer with Wayne Rooney leaving for Manchester United. Everton were the underdogs of the Premier League but proved doubters wrong by gaining a UEFA Champions League qualification chance and this can be mirrored to Eintracht Frankfurt’s successes last season. Everton got their fourth place spot because of their first half of the season form but ran out of steam the second half of the campaign. Their first half of the season form was that good, it managed to get them over the finish line.
However this season has been a completely different story for ‘Die Adler’ as it has seemed that the UEFA Europa League has taken its toll on the squad resulting in poor performances from the team. Eintracht Frankfurt are only one point ahead of the relegation playoff position sitting in fifteenth place. They have fifteen points from seventeen games, scored twenty and conceded twenty-nine goals. There is a huge possibility that ‘SGE’ could be relegated this season. They have only won once in their last twelve games and that win came away to Bayer Leverkusen. One positive this season is that Eintracht Frankfurt can take out of this season has been their UEFA Europa League form. They finished top of their group gaining with fifteen points, winning five of their six group games. Unfortunately for ‘Die Adler’ they have been drawn with Portuguese side FC Porto, which may prove a step too far for the Germans.
Eintracht Frankfurt will want to remain in the German Bundesliga this season and will have to fight in order to do this. Maybe a signing in the transfer window will ignite them into a good run of form but you have to worry that with their current form, it would be no surprise to see them back in the 2 Bundesliga.