SV Waldhof are top of the league

[DangerousSausage]

Right, I'm fed up of all the doom and gloom around here. I had a fantastic weekend and refused to let Notts spoil it.

In Germany the hated winter break is over and even the Regionalliga Süd kicked off again with a top two clash between Waldhof Mannheim and Eintracht Trier at the weekend. I was one of the 11,299 in attendance and now really believe that promotion can happen.

The atmopshere around the place is fantastic and an incredible contrast to Notts at the moment! Waldhof have a young manager in his third full season, a settled, focused team where every player knows his job and youngsters are given a chance and no little experience and quality either. Last season they finished 13th (out of 18) and had an average gate of 3,000. Just goes to show what can be achieved on a relatively modest budget.

Have a look at this video and remember this will be Notts again one day. The goals are at 5.08 and 6.18 if you're interested.

 

 

 

[Chris]

I hope so @DangerousSausage, I'm afraid it's all starting to take its toll.

If only this could be Notts once the takeover happens.

[Tarkers]

Great celebrations at the end.

[Piethagoram]

Jannick Somner for Izzy + 500,000 euros to Notts, seems a good deal

[ivansneck]

Magnificent!

[DangerousSausage]

Yesterday was derby day at Kickers Offenbach, and Waldhof duly dispatched their rivals (who had been unbeaten since the winter break) 4-0 on their own turf. I missed a treat. Now 7 points clear of second and (the important one) 9 points ahead of third with 7 games remaining and an utterly dominant team, it's looking good.

So how about a 4-0 at F*rest season after next then?

Warning: this video contains shouting!

 

[ivansneck]

Good gate 11400 I note. Do Regionalliga Suedwest clubs get automatic promotion these days?

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[DangerousSausage]

Yes, the gate was pretty much identical to the fixture in Mannheim earlier in the season. It's a great fixture, always a banging atmosphere. 2000 away fans made the trip yesterday and enjoyed themselves rather a lot more than the other 9000-odd 

No there is no automatic promotion, the reason being that five Regionalligen feed into the third division. Instead, the champions of each division plus the second-placed team from the south-west play a two-legged promotion play-off. If they finish in the top two, Waldhof would play the champion of the north-east (currently FSV Zwickau) or the west (currently Sportfreunde Lotte, but Mönchengladbach II are also in the running). It's an exciting occasion but you can finish miles clear at the top and still not go up - last season Offenbach and Saarbrücken finished first and second but neither went up. It's fundamentally unfair but it appeals to the German penchant of making things as difficult and complicated as possible.

[DangerousSausage]

A promotion play-off place is in the bag!  The first leg is two weeks today. Exciting stuff.

For anyone who's interested, ESPN have published a really good article about my adopted team in English: http://www.espnfc.com/blog/espn-fc-united/68/post/2868569/waldhof-mannheim-chase-promotion-after-incredible-history-in-germany

[ivansneck]

Excellent news.

[DangerousSausage]

CHAMPIONS!!!

Bit strange to see the team cavorting about with a trophy when it could all count for nothing. The away leg against the giant that is Sportfreunde Lotte is today; the home leg is on Sunday, a crowd of more than 20,000 is expected. It's going to be cuddly in there.

[ivansneck]

And to put cream on the cake you have a visit from Gladbach on July 9th!!

[DangerousSausage]

While you lot have had to put up with Fullertonball, I've spent the season watching glorious, thrilling samba football. Over the last week I had a feeling there would be a sting in the tail. How right I was.

After finishing as champions with 73 points (over a 46-game season that would equate to 99 points), Waldhof had to play the champion of the Regionalliga West home and away for the right to win promotion. This scandalous system is a result of the DFB's bungled league reform. Waldhof drew the away leg 0-0 but lost 0-2 at home, with two goals in three minutes effectively killing them off. Waldhof missed a sitter in the second minute but barely created a decent chance after that. Lotte were simply very good at the back, more robust and mentally stronger. Whether another wealthy village club with average gates of 800 is an interesting or worthwhile addition to the 3. Liga is another question.

It's such a shame too. The city has been buzzing for weeks. I had to queue for over three hours to get my ticket. And the crowd of 22,361 created an incredible atmosphere before those two goals knocked the stuffing out of most of us. Going down is painful. Missing out on the play-offs too. Missing out on automatic promotion and losing in the play-offs hurts. But watching players who a week previously were crowned champions on the pitch in floods of tears because they've lost a stupid play-off match and have to stay in the fourth division is in a special category all by itself.

Waldhof TV haven't published the "highlights" yet, but there is a video of the build-up and choreo. Things really get going after about 4 minutes. BTW, the choreography was made by the fans. Those little flags they are waving in the corners are actually cut-up bin liners!

 

[ivansneck]

Nightmare scenario. Next season will you keep the same squad?

[DangerousSausage]

Hopefully more or less, but there will be changes. Captain Hanno Balitsch is considering playing for another year - he's incredibly important, a real leader. In the second half of the season a couple of players (including the first-choice keeper) suffered long-term injuries and will probably miss the first half of next season, so they'll need adequate replacements. Most of the others are under contract though, and a new striker has already arrived.

They day after(!) the play-off defeat, when the team were invited to a reception at the town hall, the manager replied to a question about his future with "schau' mer mal", so now there's speculation about him too. He's been in the post for 3 years and is impeccably loyal though, so I think they just caught him at a bad time.

There's a real gloom about the place now though ... maybe it would have been better to finish 4th or 5th with hindsight.

[liampie]

what division are sv waldhof in? i cant say i have heard of them before you mentioned them. i know they are german but that is it.

[ivansneck]

8 hours ago, DangerousSausage said:

Hopefully more or less, but there will be changes. Captain Hanno Balitsch is considering playing for another year - he's incredibly important, a real leader. In the second half of the season a couple of players (including the first-choice keeper) suffered long-term injuries and will probably miss the first half of next season, so they'll need adequate replacements. Most of the others are under contract though, and a new striker has already arrived.

They day after(!) the play-off defeat, when the team were invited to a reception at the town hall, the manager replied to a question about his future with "schau' mer mal", so now there's speculation about him too. He's been in the post for 3 years and is impeccably loyal though, so I think they just caught him at a bad time.

There's a real gloom about the place now though ... maybe it would have been better to finish 4th or 5th with hindsight.

You mentioned Lotte having greater mental strength. This experience should make the same players come out next year even more determined. has anyone come down out of the 'dritte' into the Regionalliga Suedwest?

[DangerousSausage]

On 3.6.2016 at 21:08, liampie said:

what division are sv waldhof in? i cant say i have heard of them before you mentioned them. i know they are german but that is it.

Waldhof Mannheim play in the regionalised fourth division, but missed out on promotion to the national 3rd division by a whisker. They're very well-known in Germany: they played in the Bundesliga for seven years until 1990 and were part of the furniture in the 2nd Bundesliga before and after that. They missed out on promotion back to the Bundesliga on the final day in 2001 (despite beating a Mainz side that included Jürgen Klopp 4-0), were relegated in 2003 and it's been downhill ever since. It's a true sleeping giant though, if they get out of this league the sky's the limit.

You'd hope so @ivansneck, there are quite a few young players and hopefully they'll learn from this. Stuttgarter Kickers and VfB Stuttgart II have come down, so it's going to be even tougher next season. I'm getting my season ticket anyway, here's hoping!