By Peter Weis @PeterVicey
Much as was the case after the Friday night fixture, a late penalty of a controversial nature was the main talking point following Eintracht Frankfurt’s 1-1 draw against VfL Bochum on Saturday evening.
| Kevin Trapp. | Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0 |
Eintracht Frankfurt remain undefeated through four rounds of the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign. The RheinMain Adler are nevertheless still seeking their second win of the season after drawing Bochum at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion on Saturday night. The visiting Hessians certainly played well enough to win all three points, yet conceded a late goal from the penalty spot.
Match official Benjamin Brand ruled that SGE attacker Omar Marmoush’s tug on the jersey of VfL defender Ivan Ordets in the box merited a spot kick. Kevin Stöger stepped forward to convert the 1-1 in the 74th. Speaking to the Sky interview team afterwards, SGE keeper Kevin Trapp wasn’t exactly pleased with the decision.
“I agree with what Thomas Müller said last night,” Trapp told the Sky team, referring to his fellow German international’s assessment of another late penalty that robbed Bayern of a win late, “We would of course have taken it if broke our way, but it was a very soft penalty. There’s always holding in the box.”
Eintracht defender Robin Koch concurred.
“For me, that’s way too little for a penalty,” Koch told his Sky interviewer, “It’s extremely bitter to concede a goal like that. It’s normal for there to be holding [in the box] on a corner kick. There are four or five situations like that every game. Of course there’s contact, but for me it’s too little.”
SGE trainer Dino Toppmöller echoed similar sentiments in his own post-match interview. The Sky team literally made everyone they spoke to review the scene. Trapp also noted that it might be the case that the VAR team should have intervened to potentially compel referee Brand to reverse his decision. The “Kölner Keller” – in accordance with the rulebook – didn’t notify Brand as there was no “clear and obvious error” in the subjective judgement.
“It’s all relatively unclear when VAR is allowed to intervene and when not,” Trapp said, “There’s a tug. He whistles it down. You have to accept that. But you see a scene like that relatively often in the games. Then there will probably be a few more penalties in the future.”
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