Höler scores twice in friendly win against Altach

With half of the SC squad away on international duty and other players being given a chance to rest and recover after what has been a busy season, today’s friendly against SC Rheindorf Altach was mainly a chance for the club’s U23s to see some playing time. The matchday squad featured 14 players from the SC reserves and six from the first-team set up.

Altach parted ways with head coach Miroslav Klose in mid-week, with Klaus Schmidt replacing him at the helm. The side are currently fighting to avoid relegation from the Austrian Bundesliga via the relegation play offs.

SC didn’t need long to open the scoring,with Lucas Höler tapping in their first chance of the day after a deflected pass fell to his feet in front of goal (13’).

Neither side gave up much ground in the minutes that followed, with chances few and far between. Kimberly Ezekwam came close to netting SC’s second with a long-range effort, but SCR goalkeeper Tino Casali was able to claw it out of the top corner (38’). Max Rosenfelder then missed the target shortly before the break (42’).

The hosts remained the better side after the change of ends. Höler nearly netted a second, but was denied by a well-timed slide tackle (50). Three minutes later, Jonathan Schmid cut a free kick back towards the top of the box, where Höler was waiting to add a second goal to his tally (53’).

With the exception of Benjamin Uphoff, Jonathan Schmid and Nils Petersen, SC fielded a team of exclusively players from the U23s in the second half. Despite a dominant performance from the hosts, they were unable to add a third goal to their tally. The U23s will be back in action at home on Monday against 1. FC Saarbrücken (19:00 CET, Dreisamstadion), while the first team will play their first competitive fixture after the international break on Saturday, 1st April (15:30 CEST) against Hertha BSC.

SC Freiburg XI: Uphoff – Rosenfelder (46′ Fahrner), Braun-Schumacher (85′ Wagner), Ezekwem (46′ Kehl), Makengo (64′ Allgaier) – Treu (46′ Lee), Eggestein (76′ Prokopenko), Schmid, Stark (64′ Lienhard) – Höler (76′ Knappe), Petersen.