Can a club still be a club when it is also a shop window?
Alex Busby is a Frankfurt player, not a Frankfurt project — and against Hertha Berlin his two decisive contributions in a 2-0 win showed what supporters actually come for.
German football keeps telling itself a story about development, patience and the long build. Then a match like the one at the Olympiastadion arrives and reminds us that the people in the stands are not paying for a plan. They are paying for moments. On 7 October, in a Bundesliga game Frankfurt won 2-0, the moments belonged to Alex Busby: one goal, one assist, an 8.8 rating, and a crowd that had spent much of the afternoon watching Hertha Berlin probe without bite.
Hertha had the corners, nine of them, and the ball for long spells of the second half. They did not have a clear-cut chance; their expected goals stopped at 0.63. Frankfurt's 1.76 told the truer story of who knew what to do when the game opened. Busby knew. Three shots, two key passes, five dribbles, and a distance covered that says he is not a luxury: 14.4 kilometres. This is the Englishman at 28, in his fourth season in Germany, a player his adopted country has come to know well rather than merely admire.
What made the afternoon was the company he kept after the hour. Junior Mountaro came on in the 61st minute and changed the shape of the contest, finishing with a goal and an assist of his own. But the game also carried the small, awkward histories that German football does so well. Matthew Baan, borrowed from Hertha in September, started in Frankfurt's midfield. Philipp Budschedl, who spent last season and the start of this one in Frankfurt, came on for Hertha as a defensive midfielder. Old loyalties do not dissolve; they simply change shirts.
And there was the wider question, the one Frankfurt's board will not enjoy. Adolfo López, a regular, sat on the bench until the 67th minute. John Koroma, the usual goalkeeper, was missing with a fractured lower arm, and Adrian Cott took his place. Clubs talk about squads, but seasons are decided by who is available and who is not. Frankfurt won this one without their rhythm fully intact. The supporters will take the result. They will also ask, quietly, whether the club is building something or simply renting it.