1. FC Nuremberg: The club is a strange team

When the train conductor wishes all passengers "hopefully three points" before the last train change, you know where you've landed: in the region that – aside from the Ruhr region – is arguably the most football-crazy in Germany. Miroslav Klose once grew up in the heart of the Palatinate, in a place that sounds as if an author had imagined it as the setting for a charming children's book. And before he left Blaubach-Diedelkopf for Munich and Rome, he was drawn to the obvious place for football-loving teenagers from the Palatinate: the Lautern West Curve. He was a FCK fan for years before becoming an icon on the pitch.

Klose, who emphasized before the match that he knew "what the stadium can do to you," will likely remember October 26, 2025, fondly. It was a day that would have likely left the 1. FC Nürnberg coach with some uncomfortable questions if Robin Knoche hadn't converted a penalty in the third minute of stoppage time to make it 1-1. The resulting point was at least fortunate, as Kaiserslautern often forced the crowd to utter their grief during their attacking efforts. However, the Palatinate team was the better team.

Once again, it wasn't a disastrous Nuremberg performance—the club almost never puts on those. But it was also one that demonstrated how far this team is from achieving its own goals. There are currently two Franconian teams that have to worry about staying in the second division. Fürth certainly does. But also the club, which has so far barely been able to address any of the problems that have plagued it for months. Even after the game in Lautern, question marks remain, especially in attack.

FCN had two huge chances in the first half, one more than FCK. The fact that the hosts still went into the break with a lead, thanks to Martin Hanslik scoring the 1-0 goal in the 45th minute, was fitting. Especially considering that Julian Justvan had just lost possession, the same player who had already squandered his own second biggest chance: While attempting to convert a penalty, he slipped on the slippery surface and sent the ball over the bar (15th minute). However, that wasn't Nuremberg's best chance. Rafael Lubach missed it after FCK goalkeeper Julian Krahl parried a shot from Artom Stepanov, putting the Nuremberg player in a comfortable position to slot the ball into the net from a meter out (45th+2').

In the second half, the club finally showed why they, along with 1. FC Magdeburg and Fortuna Düsseldorf, have the league's worst offense. Aside from a shot that Adam Markhiev fired just wide of the goal (55th minute), they had no real chances. When numerical superiority situations result in Justvan shooting at his marker (49th minute) or Mickael Biron firing a cross into the arms of Lautern's keeper Krahl (78th minute), that's hardly a testament to quality.

The fact that Lautern managed to win four or five headers in the Nuremberg penalty area is also a persistent problem for this strange Nuremberg team – which occasionally shows that its Klose wants to implement a football game concept that, ideally, could not only be fun but also bring points. Justvan admitted after the game that it hadn't been the plan to have hardly relied on the originally planned short passing game in the opponent's half: "We played too many long balls. And the score was only 0-1."

The final score was 1-1, thanks to Knoche converting the club's second penalty of the game after an endless VAR review, and probably pleased no one more than Klose. After the game, he walked to the bus with a biography of FCK hero Hans-Peter Briegel, handed to him by a local journalist. And he didn't pretend the game that had just ended was just like any other for him: "The lads knew what this meant to me today."