Two years on from the Munich Irish Rovers' title-winning season, we take a look back at the 2017/18 story, bringing you all the highs and lows of the journey, including quotes from some of the players who made it happen.
August 2017 – after a full season in the B-Klasse, the club’s uphill battle for stability had been more or less won and the cobwebs of relegation brushed away: A new era at Munich Irish Rovers FC was taking shape. In his second season in charge of the first team, Clyde Diaz had big plans for the campaign ahead: “If you want to be champions…” had quickly become the coach’s catchphrase, and he was not alone in his optimism. While keeping hold of key players such as Sahib Santiago, Dan Hirons and Lamine Cisse, the club also welcomed several promising talents into the team at the summer trials.
Mikkel Kring, who joined the Rovers in 2017, reflects: “I entered the locker room and was greeted by a multicultural cocktail of everything from the exotic Portuguese language to the raspy voices of the Brits and I honestly thought it would be a nightmare to become part of this crazy setup. I have never been more wrong in my life. I was greeted by a group of people that were welcoming, open, fun and nothing more than a true pleasure to be around. It took only a few training sessions to feel like I was part of the club and part of what I now consider my foreign family.”
The international vibe at the club has always been a real point of pride for any Rover, and will surely remain the most welcoming aspect for all the years to come. However, when it came to football, there was something different in the air that season, as Dominic Werth recalls: “I had played for the Rovers two seasons before when we were relegated – returning to the club in 2017/18, it was unrecognisable – quality players all around me.”
All things considered, the first half of the season went well - without ever breaking into the top two, the Munich Irish Rovers were ‘up there’, and ‘challenging’, but were also left wondering what more could have been. Amidst an 8-1 drumming of TSV Solln II on the final day of the year, a 5-2 victory against title-challengers Herakles and a late winner away to second-placed Teutonia, the Hinrunde was riddled with ‘what ifs’. Nothing had dampened the spirits, but everyone was well aware that more consistency would be essential in the second half of the season. And the Rovers would have to dig deep for it – especially with Mr. Consistency, Jamie Dominguez, announcing his departure for Spain, his home country, at around the same time. 
Jamie Dominguez looks back: “Leaving the Rovers was hard, simple as that. Many years of sharing the locker room, good football and much more with good friends. I learned a lot from great players and tried to put all my efforts into improving skills and game play, always with the goal of promotion in my mind. I miss the Rovers every week and have not been able to find another team that gives me what the Rovers did.”
The next two seemingly major setbacks came courtesy of an untimely ankle injury to goalscorer Lamine Cisse, potentially ruling him out for the remainder of the campaign, along with top-scorer Abdoulaye Jansokho’s departure for a higher division. ‘Where are the goals going to come from now?’ was very-much the elephant in the dressing room. Captain Sahib Santiago called for positivity: “Now is not the time to cry about losing two goalscorers, now is the time for other players to become goalscorers!”
Wise words from the veteran, which clearly resonated with the team, as Dan Perkins and Dominic Werth pulled on their shooting boots to give the boys in green a winning start to the Rückrunde. As for filling the boots of Jamie Dominguez, the winter addition of Diego Alvarez soon proved to be something of an answered prayer. In the blink of an eye, back-to-back victories after the winter break had Rovers sitting pretty at the top of the table, but the next setback was just around the corner. Rovers 1-1 Neuaubing, two points dropped, but they were the least of Clyde Diaz’s concerns as box-to-box midfielder, Max Rendell, was taken to hospital with a broken arm after a moment of madness on the touchline. The news of Santiago’s injury in the same match rubbed salt in the Rovers’ wounds, as their playmaker was ruled out for the next significant chunk of the season. 
When the next two defeats followed, promotion seemed well and truly off the cards. A sobering 5-1 loss in Gern had the Rovers’ heads hanging. Andrea Storti urged his teammates not to turn their backs on each other, to continue training and try to gain some momentum for the following season. Asking the players to keep the faith would have been a waste of breath.
Rovers would now have to win every remaining game and hope for their rivals to slip-up here and there – a monumental task, especially considering the imminent run of three games against teams in the top 4. With nothing to lose, Brett Gooden soon gave the team something to smile about again after a hat-trick masterclass against MTV. The belief was back, however unrealistic it seemed. “All I wanted them to know is that they are too good to let it slip from here. So the question was not can we (because I was 100% sure we could) but do we want to! The change had to be in the mindset. Everyone was made to feel like Champions.” –Clyde Diaz on how he tried to motivate his players in the difficult phase.
Rovers vs Meroni. Diaz’s men were all set for the first of six cup finals to end the season. Under strict observation from league officials, the Italian expat club, whose clinical nature had upset the Rovers once already that season, were well on their way to stealing another victory from the far superior hosts. But two goals in quick succession from Dominic Werth and Jamshid Barekzei turned the game on its head. “Revenge is f***** sweet!” declared the coach. It would prove to be a pivotal day for the club.
Still the outsiders in what had become a four-way race for promotion, the Munich Irish Rovers were just getting started. With captain Sahib Santiago and goalscorer Lamine Cisse both back from injury, the lads kicked things off in May with consecutive 3-1 wins, first at home to second-place Teutonia and then away to first-placed Planegg. Six goals, six goalscorers, six points – top of the league.
The title was in our hands. Compared to the three crunch tie victories against promotion rivals, the final three games of the season were a formality on paper, but this team had come a long way and there was no danger of complacency. After a comfortable 3-0 win against bottom of the league, a trip to Espanol awaited for the penultimate game of the season. A win would not guarantee the title, or promotion, but dropping points would be sure to rule out both. Everything was on the line, and with the scores tied at 1-1 after 80 minutes, it was all slipping away. Rovers needed a hero. Determined to cause an upset, Espanol upped their game more and more as time ticked away, but when Jordan Maciel sent his free-kick swinging into the penalty area, there was nothing anyone could do to prevent Diego Alvarez from burying it first-time. That was it! The young Mexican had won it, and the reaction said it all: pile-ons, tears of joy, on and off the pitch. “Just thinking about this game, this goal, this team and that season gives me chills,” – the matchwinner himself, two years on. 
Clyde Diaz reflects: “Espanol threw everything at us but mentally we were so strong and determined at that point we just did not want to give up. The feeling after the Espanol game was that of fulfilment...”
That may have been the case, but there was one more game to play. The Rovers were producing a fairy-tale end to the campaign, and nothing was going to stop them winning this final game against their Herterichstraße landlords, TSV Solln II. Well, perhaps one thing… In what will forever be remembered as the greatest anti-climax in the history of amateur football, Solln forfeited the game, awarding Rovers the title and a ticket back to the A-Klasse. Jordan Maciel, A Team right back and director of football, tells the story first-hand: “I was getting ready to go to bed and have an early night when I got a message from the opposition that they didn’t have enough players to field a team.
The following day, the teams gathered at Solln to watch the B team play their final game of what had been a solid season under management of the young Henry Schoppmann-Amadeo. After the full-time whistle, the trophy was presented and the celebrations commenced.
Dan Perkins on winning the league by default: “I think I speak for every member of the club in saying that when the text came in that we had won the final game by default, it was absolutely gutting. Lifting the trophy that Sunday, on what could have been one of the best sporting days of our footballing lives, couldn’t have been more bitter-sweet.”
As is always the case in football, the players soon turned their attention to what lied ahead: a return to the A Klasse. That’s what it was all about.
2 Comments
23/6/2023 12:15:43
Thanks for sharing an update about this one. Keep sharing! Leave a Reply. |
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