Kaiserslautern clash edges nearer...

Manager and players

Andreas Beck has turned down the chance to join the Germany national team's tour of the USA. The TSG captain was called into to the squad by Joachim Löw last week for the first time in two and a half years.

Beck, who made his 150th Bundesliga appearance for TSG on Saturday, said: “It's like a little miracle. It's amazing to think that we've made the relegation play-off on the final day. Now we want to realise our dream of survival against Kaiserslautern, something that almost no one would have even considered was possible a week ago. The play-off match is of higher importance to me than the trip with the national team.”

The players didn't do any work with the ball on Monday. Instead they did some running exercises, spent some time in the weights room and made use of physiotherapy as part of their regeneration strategy. On the other hand, Markus Gisdol and his staff got to grips with the upcoming opponents. “It's a day of transition for the players, but we're already preparing the training sessions for the coming days,” explained Gisdol. The TSG scouting team have been concentrating on Kaiserslautern for a quite some time. “We've done our homework,” said Gisdol.

The fans

Lots of fans visited the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena on Monday to get hold of tickets for both relegation play-off matches. There have already been several animated discussions in fan forums about the games and every possible outcome has been speculated. There have been many comments on the TSG Facebook page throughout the course of the day. It seems that everyone is excited about the match. Even the supporters club is preparing for the home match. Exactly what they have planned has not yet been revealed…

The club

The ticketing department is certainly working hard with TSG having booked a place in the relegation play-off. It was all hands to the deck at the WIRSOL Rhein-Neckar-Arena in order to deal with the huge ticket demand. The fan shop was also reasonably busy on the bank holiday, as were the video analysts. The preparations for the Thursday's opponents have already been huge but now they enter the decisive phase. On top of that, the website's homepage has had a new look since Monday lunch time. A timer is counting down the seconds until kick-off on Thursday evening.

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