Two excellent new kits should be getting a run out in Dreiech (pop.40,000, 5 miles South of Frankfurt, one castle, showing signs of wear) today.
Pick of the bunch for Hull City is the gorgeously retroid green GK shirt, while my favourite for Frankfurt is the strikingly modernist home kit with its unusual, but highly effective, variegated stripe design. Crisp!
Unfortunately, though, as this game is being played at the relatively modest Maxwerk Sportpark, usually home to Eintracht Frankfurt II (Regionalliga Südwest, Tier IV), I’m not expecting to see any of Frankfurt’s celebrated choreos.
Today’s fascinating friendly throws up a meeting between two teams who definitely “whelmed” last season, albeit in opposite directions. Firmly in the ‘over’ category are Hull City. The Tigers were 3rd favourites to go down at the start of the season (3/1 with William Hill) having only escaped that fate on the final day of the previous season (and having been placed under a transfer embargo to boot). Largely thanks to an excellent goalkeeper & a sparkling striker, they (somewhat ridiculously) actually got themselves promoted to the Premier League.
Meanwhile, SGE Frankfurt are definitely in the ‘under’ column – they finished in an impressive 3rd place in the 2024-25 season, also thanks to excellence in the goalkeeping and striking positions (Trapp, Ekitike). Unfortunately they then promptly lost both of those players, and visibly disintegrated (especially defensively – at one stage conceding 3 goals in 5 consecutive games). They finished 8th (but somehow it felt lower), missing out on Europe for the first time in six seasons.
As of today, Hull City are, somewhat soberingly, 1/5 favourites for relegation from the Premier League this season. Frankfurt are 6/1 for the Bundesliga top 4, meaning they’ll probably finish 8th again.
Today Paddy Power have the Eagles to snatch at 8/13 and the Tigers to maul at 16/5. That these odds, between a serial European qualifier and an abject relegation candidate, aren’t far more lopsided is a neat illustration of the relative financial muscle of the two leagues.
I should note at this point that the apparent malaise at Frankfurt applies only to the men’s game – the Women’s team qualified for the Champions League (for the 4th time in a row)
Apologia: it was impossible to get any match pics today, everybody was behind a wire fence except the VIP lounge, which I couldn’t spring for this time.
