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BERLIN -- Eintracht Frankfurts latest win has got the rest of the Bundesliga sitting up and taking notice of Niko Kovac.The former Croatia midfielder, who took over as coach last March when Frankfurt was in the relegation zone, has revitalized the unheralded club, guiding it through a relegation playoff and quietly steering the side to fourth place in the league after its best start in 23 years.The latest victory was a 2-1 win over a formidable Borussia Dortmund on Saturday.Im happy and proud. I also told the team that, said Kovac, who coached Croatias national team at the 2014 World Cup. Im a realist. Everyone can dream, I wont dream. We were nearly relegated last year. Now we are where we are and I dont want to overrate it. We should all be reasonable and not start taking off.Frankfurt -- perhaps most famous for its 7-3 loss to Real Madrid in the 1960 European Cup final -- trails another surprising team, third-place Hertha Berlin, on goals scored.After beating Bayern Munich the weekend before and following that up with an 8-4 rout of Legia Warsaw in the Champions League, Dortmund was brought back to the reality of the Bundesliga by Frankfurts compact defense and hard-working midfielders. Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel was so frustrated he made his three changes all at once before an hour was played.It would have been easy for Frankfurt to panic when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang equalized after Szabolcs Husztis opener, but Huszti set up Haris Seferovic to score what proved the winner just two minutes later. Seferovic had been on the field for less than 10 minutes, proving Kovacs instincts were right again.The Frankfurt coach sent his side out in a 3-4-2-1 formation with captain Alexander Meier up front supported by offensive midfielders Marco Fabian and Mijat Gacinovic. Without the ball, however, Frankfurt drew back into a 5-4-1 formation, making it hard for Dortmunds speedy players to find space.Dortmund enjoyed more possession while Frankfurt waited to catch the visitors with counterattacks, a ploy that paid off when Huszti made the breakthrough right after the interval.Kovacs side is based on a solid defense -- only Bayern and Cologne have conceded less in the league -- but the Frankfurt coach knows that key to the clubs success is the ability to strike at the other end.If we only concentrate on defending it will be difficult. We have to find our salvation also in attack, said Kovac, whose side has conceded only 10 goals after 12 games -- a club record.Financial constraints meant Kovac only had 2.5 million euros ($2.65 million) available for transfers in the offseason, but with sporting director Fredi Bobic, he invested in good young players from abroad that have deepened the pool of talent available.The side is no longer as reliant on Football God Meier to lead the side to victory. Under Kovac, the 33-year-old forward is often benched with Seferovic, Fabian, Gacinovic or Branimir Hrgota providing alternatives.Every player brings something from their own culture into the collective. So its an enrichment for all. Were versatile, Kovac said.Spanish defender Jesus Vallejo, who arrived on loan from Real Madrid, has praised the working environment that Kovac provides.We have a great team spirit from the start, the 19-year-old Vallejo said. The coach always tells that when we work as a team each individual gets stronger through the process.Kovacs side tends to do just enough to win. Saturdays victory over Dortmund was the 10th by one goal in 12 competitive victories.Frankfurt is unbeaten in six games at home this season, having hosted both Dortmund and Bayern at the Waldstadion already, and the side is unbeaten in six straight games, its best run in more than four years.Twenty-four points are already cool, Bobic said.Hard work and modest expectations have served Frankfurt well so far, even if Seferovic joked about joining the title chase.Third is good, huh? Of course theres still room for improvement there, the Switzerland striker said after Saturdays game, before Herthas win over Mainz on Sunday. But of course weve got to keep both feet on the ground. Cedric Paquette Jersey . The Clippers were angry about blowing a big lead; the Kings didnt like being in that kind of hole and nearly digging themselves out only to lose. 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The roads are quiet with relief, the ruddy trudgers of sandwich-laden picnic-hampers down to a steady trickle along the Great Stone Road.In the separated pens of the Old Trafford nets in the hour before play, the Pakistan players practised. And practised. Azhar Ali, diligently forward, diligently back; the coaching staff, arms folded, nodding approvingly. In and out they alternated, like figures on a weather house, Mohammad Hafeez, Yasir Shah, lined up against the Lancashire academy bowlers sprightly-keen to show what they could do.Behind them, staring at helmets and backsides, trying to identify whose belonged to whom, stood the Monday morning spectators. Not a great number - 6,533 in all - but proper cricket fans these: who else would give up a days holiday in chilly late July to sit in bucket seats to watch the fourth day of a one-sided Test?The nets are funny things, as close as people get to the players, an obscure mini zoo where fans stare while players pretend theyre not there, fans lurk and players reach resolutely for their bats and hope to walk away to the safety of the dressing-room un-manhandled. A rite of passage nonetheless.From the nets, it was just a short journey round the ground to B Stand - just to the left of the media centre, and most pertinently next door to the Pakistan dressing-room. If you couldnt quite see Misbah-ul-Haq reaching out for an idle scratch, you could imagine it: every players jaunt up and down the steps that led to the pitch was wildly cheered.B stand then, a multicultural slice of the kind of English society that cricket often turns up by accident: a good-natured mixture of cold and unpickled British people hunched over packets of cheese and onion in a mixture of cagouls, neat beards, hijabs, a couple of skull caps and a pair of stars-and-stripes sunglasses.On a day slowly meandering along to its inevitable conclusion, the spectators entertained themselves with vuvuzelas and cracker blowers, chatter in Urdu and English, inflatable bananas and that sustaining culinary combination of a soggy 99 followed by a warming coffee.In the prime seats just metres away from the Pakistan dressing-room steps, sat three sisters, Kiran, 21, a pharmacy student, Amina, 18, about to embark on a dentistry course, and Sophia, 15, hair covered in bright hijabs and decorated with Pakistani fllag pins.ddddddddddddThe three sisters had woken at seven oclock and piled into a big van the family had hired for the day. Eight people crammed in, bags full of picnic, over the way from Bolton, Rihanna and Calvin Harris blaring on the radio. They are cricket nuts, all of them, a Pakistan flag hangs outside their house and posters adorn the walls. Theyd brought along a roll of coloured paper with them, and intended to write some thoroughly inspirational posters.We watch Pakistan on TV, but this is the first time weve seen them live, Sophia said. We love their passion. We paid extra for these seats because we knew theyd be just next to the dressing room.She reaches for her sisters phone to show her selfies with the team just as England declare at 173 for 1: time for Pakistan to pull off a surprise win? Were just hoping it doesnt rain.Higher up in B stand were another group of family friends - two of them, Zohaib and Farukh, had driven down from Glasgow with their small sons. A five oclock wake-up and then a four hour drive with no stops. It wasnt great for the rest of them but I didnt want to be late, Zohaib said. Their friend Ali Usmani had come from Bolton too - via 16 years in Pakistan and 20 years in Holland. He and his wife had brought along their son.I tell him to support England, that you should support the country where you are brought up. He loves cricket, his favourites are Shane Warne and Shahid Afridi, but I tell him that education is the first priority.It was a first visit to Old Trafford for the sisters, for the Glaswegians, for Ali too. The first time you hesitate to come, he said, then the way is open. Good news for Lancashire, if there is good news in a Test crowd of six-and-a-half thousand - there is plenty of potential support out there if they can find a way to capitalise on it.As it was, Pakistan crept past their first innings, just. When Misbah played on for 35, the end was nigh, though a final flourish from a blazing Mohammad Amir gave his fans something to cheer about.And from there it was a trudge back to the car, bags empty, legs tired. For England fans, a triumphant afternoon. For Pakistan fans, an ultimately disappointing but potentially uplifting day at the cricket. For the Pakistan team, it is back to the coach and the drawing board - the next two Tests suddenly looming very large. ' ' '