Once again Wuppertal played their one step forward, one backward dance. This time they kicked VfL Bochum II’s ass 3-0. Lousy attendance was of course the reward for the disgraceful midweek drubbing in Dortmund. They probably wish they hadn’t left the pub to watch a boring match that hardly took any interest until Knappmann managed to squeeze in his 19th of the season. The 2nd half was somewhat better, as WSV came out determined, kicked some ass, scored a couple of goals, and then went back to sleep. Bochum never bothered to show up, they looked like a 16th place team.

But at least it’s a win

Wuppertaler SV - VfL Bochum II 3:0 (1:0)

Attendance: 936 (Stadion-Am-Zoo)

Scoring:

1:0 Knappmann (41.) 	 
2:0 Fleßers (58.) 	 
3:0 Quotschalla (61.) 

WUPPERTAL:
Semmler - 
El Hammouchi, Fleßers, Schlieter , Moosmayer    - 
Landers , Zieba , F. Haas , B. Abelski    - 
Quotschalla, Knappmann    

Subs:
Meier (70., B. Abelski)
Zimmermann (75., Landers)
Herzenbruch  (86., Moosmayer)
Trainer: Bruns

BOCHUM II:
Heuer Fernandes - 
Caspari, Kalina, Wolff, Götze - 
Mengert, Bulut - 
Freiberger, Kefkir, Wassinger    - 
Hrustic   

Subs:
Opiola (45., Kalina)
Stevens(46., Kefkir)
Kyei (61., Wassinger)

Trainer: Metaxas

Once again. When looking at Wuppertal, I know you want to say “Is it half-empty or half-full”, well actually it’s almost all empty or zero-full. WSV had a makeup match against Borussia Dortmund II in the old Dortmund Rote Erde stadium and got bitch-slapped 0-3. What a disgrace, even though BVB II is a pretty decent squad. Luckily only 493 fans watched this grim defeat.

Rather than go into any gory details of the latest WSV embarassment, I figure I’ll give a little news on the Regionalliga. As mentioned before, this is a transition year for the 4th division, as next season the DFB is expanding the regional leagues. So for the most part, there is no relegation for clubs this season, but the struggle for promotion is fierce, as it will be harder to make the jump to the 3.Liga next year.

In the Regionalliga Nord, it’s a fierce battle at the top between RB Leipzig, Halle and Holstein Kiel. Leipzig has a point lead, but an extra game. All other clubs are at least 16 points back. Leipzig is of course interesting, since it’s sponsored by Red-Bull, famous for Red-Bull Salzburg and the MLS New York Redbulls. Of course, since the DFB bans using commerical names in clubs (exceptions only for “traditionals” like Bayer Leverkusen, which started as the club for Bayer factory workers), the “RB” officially stands for “RasenBallsport”, but everybody knows the score. A couple of years ago Red-Bull essentially bought the 5th division license of SSV Markranstädt. They’ve dumped money into the club with the idea of becoming Hoffenheim 1899: The Sequel. However this season they’ve met fierce opposition from traditional ex-GDR side Halle FC and from Holstein Kiel, who had a nice DFB-Cup run. The Nord will get split next season into a more traditional Nord league, consisting of Niedersachsen/Hamburg/Bremen/Schleswig Holstein clubs, and the eastern clubs will go back east. Among other known clubs struggling in the current league are VfB Lübeck, SV Meppen and SV Wilhelmshaven. Ex-GDR clubs include VFC Plauen and 1.FC Magdeburg.

In the Regionalliga West, Sportfreunde Lotte (an obscure Westfalen club) and Gladbach II are tied at the top. Dortmund II is lurking in the shadows. Of course, this is where Wuppertaler SV is currently stinking, and next season will continue to smell. Currently a mix of Western and Southwestern clubs, it will be limited to Nordrhein-Westfalen clubs next season. Among known clubs are WSV, Essen, Verl and Fortuna Köln from the West, and SW clubs Eintracht Trier, Elversberg, Koblenz.

The Regionalliga Süd is currently a mix of clubs from the southwest, Baden-Würtemmberg, Hessen and Bayern. This will get split up next season as Bavaria gets it’s own league and the southwestern clubs merge into a SW league. The BW and Hessen clubs will then share a league, so when the DFB is done, the Regionalliga will make some sense. Currently Stuttgarter Kickers rule the league. Some other well known clubs are Wormatia Worms, Pfullendorf, Hessen Kassel and Waldhof Mannheim.

Actually, when did this become a derby? Perhaps in the early 70s, when both teams went crazy in the then 2nd division Regionalliga West, each scoring over 100 goals. That year, WSV won a famous 5-0 away win in Essen, hehehe. Of course, WSV has always had rivalries with the likes of Fortuna Düsseldorf and VfL Bochum, also going back to those days. And with Aachen. But I guess the RWE one rings true even now, because both clubs have stunk at the same level and play each other often, whereas the others have moved on to better things.

Nevertheless, a decent crowd for 4th division standards watched a hard fought match as the teams drew 1-1. Essen was stronger in the 1st half, controlling the pace and pressing against WSV. A header by Thomas Denker gave the red-whites the lead. WSV was too passive, and although Daniel Flottmann had a superb chance to equalize, they couldn’t complain about the deficit.

In the 2nd half, it was a different story. WSV was strong and aggressive, and RWE was holding back and absorbing the pressure. But near the end, Wuppertal broke through and got the deserved equalizer.

Both sets of fans behaved badly, mostly scuffling with the police rather than each other. The match was stopped for 8 minutes as stadium orderly was hauled to the hospital after getting bopped on the head with a bottle.

Rot-Weiss Essen - Wuppertaler SV 1:1 (1:0)

Attendance: 8,713 in Georg-Melches-Stadion (Essen)	

Soring:
1:0 Denker (31.)
1:1 Flottmann (84.) 

ESSEN:
Lamczyk -
Brauer , Denker     , Wagner , Guirino -
Grummel       , Heppke    -
Lemke , K. Avci , Grund -
Kaya

Subs:
Koep (70., Heppke)
Lenz (80., Kaya)
K. Lehmann (85., Grummel)

Trainer: Wrobel

WUPPERTAL:
Semmler -
El Hammouchi , Fleßers , Schlieter , Flottmann     -
Landers    , Zieba , F. Haas       , Moosmayer -
Quotschalla       , Knappmann

Subs:
Zimmermann (75., Landers)
Baltes (75., Quotschalla)
B. Abelski (85., F. Haas)

Trainer: Bruns

Wuppertal once again never ceases to amaze. They get into a pattern of crappiness, and then suddenly turn out a good result. This one was a shock, as WSV blasted leaders Borussia Mönchengladbach II 3-0.

And it was a deserved win. WSV was unrecognizable from the team that has stunk up the league in the last few outings, and thoroughly dominated the Regionalliga West leaders. Christian Knappman was in form again, notching two goals (17 and 18). Gladbach started brightly, but WSV quickly seized the initiative and launched strong attacks against the visitors. A header from Knappmann was the reward, after a perfect cross from Maciej Zieba. The 2nd half proved more of the same, as Wuppertal amazed the miniscule crowd (remember even the revised Zoo Stadion holds around 26,000 and in old days you could pack in 35,000), but in the end even the suffering fans were impressed and gave a standing ovation. Gladbach II had been on a good run, but this loss forced them to cede leadership back to Lotte.

Of course, the season is beyond salvation, but it’s nice to get a win, probably the best performance of the season. Let’s hope it carries over into next week, for the traditional derby against Rot-Weiss Essen.

Wuppertaler SV - Borussia M'gladbach II 3:0 (1:0)

Attendance: 916 (Stadion Am Zoo)
Scoring:
1:0 Knappmann (38.)
2:0 Zieba (48.)
3:0 Knappmann (70.) 

WUPPERTAL:

Semmler -
El Hammouchi , Fleßers, Schlieter , Flottmann -
Landers, Zieba, F. Haas , Moosmayer -
Quotschalla , Knappmann        

Subs:
Meier  (75., Fleßers)
Zimmermann (75., Landers)
Herzenbruch (83., Zieba)

Trainer: Bruns

GLADBACH II:
Blaswich -
M. Zimmermann, Dams, Heubach, Odenthal -
Bastürk, Korb    -
Dowidat, Cigerci, Bieler    -
Podszus

Subs:
Platzek (46., Korb)
Tobor (60., Bieler)
Schumacher (77., Bastürk)

Trainer: Demandt

Regionalliga West

 1  Sportfreunde Lotte	  	24   15    7 	2     46:20  +26    52
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Borussia M'gladbach II  	24   15    5 	4     47:30  +17    50
 3  Borussia Dortmund II  	22   12    4 	6     43:24  +19    40
 4  Eintracht Trier	  	22   12    4 	6     33:20  +13    40
 5  1. FC Kaiserslautern II  	24    9    9 	6     37:35  +2     36
 6  Fortuna Köln (N)	  	23   10    6 	7     35:34  +1     36
 7  1. FC Köln II	  	25    9    8 	8     40:35  +5     35
 8  Wuppertaler SV Bor.	  	23    9    6 	8     37:30  +7     33
 9  1. FSV Mainz 05 II	  	25    8    5 	12    34:33  +1     29
10  SC Wiedenbrück 2000	  	22    8    5 	9     28:33  -5     29
11  SC Verl      	  	23    8    4 	11    25:29  -4     28
12  FC Schalke 04 II	  	22    8    4 	10    29:37  -8     28
13  VfL Bochum II	  	24    7    7 	10    30:43  -13    28
14  Rot-Weiss Essen (N)	  	22    8    3 	11    32:40  -8     27
15  SV Elversberg	  	23    7    6 	10    26:34  -8     27
16  Bayer Leverkusen II	  	26    6    9 	11    26:35  -9     27
17  Fortuna Düsseldorf II  	25    4   11 	10    27:34  -7     23
18  SC Idar-Oberstein (N)  	22    5    5 	12    23:44  -21    20
19  TuS Koblenz (A)	  	23    3   10 	10    21:29  -8     19

Wuppertal continues to suck. After a slight improvement after winterbreak, WSV is back to their old shenanigans and are stinking up the Regionalliga. This Sunday was yet another disgraceful outing, losing 0-1 at SC Verl. Was it worse than last week’s turd losing by the same score to last-place Koblenz? Doesn’t seem possible, but obviously WSV was willing to try…

Only 545 fans showed up in Verl’s “Stadion and der Poststrasse”, and they were treated to a rather lame match. Guess they could smell a bad one miles away and most stayed away. Neither side did anything, (except get 4 yellow cards in the initial 5 minutes) and it’s questionable whether the level was even worthy of 4th division. Then after 40 minutes, WSV defender Raschid El-Hammouchi commited an idiotic foul on Verl’s loan striker Matthias Haeder, and David Lauretta put home from the spot.

The second half was even worse, WSV stinking even more, if that were even possible. Verl was pretty crap too, and if their forwards could hit the side of a barn they probably could have banged in a few more.

So WSV drops another spot down to 8th. Well, they’re only 19 points off the pace, so I suppose they could still get promoted, hehehe…

SC VERL:

Kampe - 
J. Schmidt , Saur , Bertram , Kaminski    - 
Bömer-Schulte , Brinker - 
Arifi, Lauretta, Großeschallau       - 
Haeder

Subs:
L. Schröder (59., Lauretta)
Rasp (84., Arifi)
Martinovic (87., Großeschallau)

Trainer: Bertels

WUPPERTALER SV:

Semmler - 
El Hammouchi, Schlieter, Flottmann, Herzenbruch    - 
Meier , F. Haas    - 
Zieba , Quotschalla, Moosmayer    - 
Knappmann

Subs:
Landers  (46., Herzenbruch)
van den Bergh (69., El Hammouchi)
Baltes (75., F. Haas)

Trainer: Bruns

Scoring:
1:0 Lauretta (41., penalty)

Yellow cards:
Verl: Kaminski (5.), Großeschallau (3.)
WSV: Quotschalla (1.),	Moosmayer (3.)

WSV managed to disgrace itself in the worst way possible: losing at home to last place TuS Koblenz!!

The “massive” crowd in the Zoo-Stadion was shocked at the lack of ideas and general incompetance of the WSV squad. Things could have gotten off to a good start however, as after 10 minutes they had a huge chance. Christian Knappmann was alone in front of the goal, but the Regionalliga’s leading scorer missed wide. That just seem to make Wuppertal even more nervous, and the guests simply packed the box and waited for their chance. It happened just after half-time, and then Koblenz went back into their shell. Wuppertal pressed, but looked pretty clueless. The visitors tried to help out, as Göderz got his ass tossed on a straight red after 64 minutes, but even a man advantage wasn’t enough to equalize.

Wuppertaler SV   -   TuS Koblenz 0:1 (0:0)

0:1 Stahl (49.)

attendance: 1,483

WSV
Semmler -
El Hammouchi , Schlieter, Flottmann, Herzenbruch    -
Landers, Meier, Fleßers, Moosmayer -
Knappmann, Zieba
    Subs:
    Quotschalla (46., Landers)
    Baltes (46., Fleßers)
    Zimmermann (82., Herzenbruch)

    Trainer: Bruns

KOBLENZ:
Yalcin    -
Göderz, Mund, Haben, Gentner -
Gros , Stahl, Mineiro -
Nakai, Kim    -
T. Bauer
   Subs:
   Arslan  (67., Nakai)
   Klasen (76., Kim)
   Urwin (89., T. Bauer)

   Trainer: Dämgen

Other matches

Regionalliga West - Round 25

Sportfreunde Lotte	-    1. FSV Mainz 05 II	      1:0 (0:0)
SC Wiedenbrück 2000	-    Fortuna Düsseldorf II    3:1 (1:1)
FC Kaiserslautern II	-    SV Elversberg	      2:1 (1:1)
VfL Bochum II	        -    SC Verl	              2:1 (2:1)
Bayer Leverkusen II	-    1. FC Köln II	      1:0 (1:0)

 1  Sportfreunde Lotte          21   14    6 	1    41:14  +27    48
 2  Borussia M'gladbach II    	20   12    5 	3    38:24  +14    41
 3  Eintracht Trier	  	20   11    4 	5    31:17  +14    37
 4  1. FC Kaiserslautern II	22    8    8 	6    34:33  +1 	   32
 5  Borussia Dortmund II  	19    9    4 	6    38:23  +15    31
 6  1. FC Köln II	  	23    8    7 	8    36:33  +3 	   31
 7  WUPPERTALER SV              21    8    6    7    34:29  +5     30
 8  Fortuna Köln (N)	  	21    8    6 	7    29:32  -3 	   30
 9  SC Wiedenbrück 2000	  	20    8    5 	7    25:27  -2 	   29
10  VfL Bochum II	  	21    7    6 	8    26:35  -9 	   27
11  1. FSV Mainz 05 II	  	23    7    5 	11   31:30  +1 	   26
12  SC Verl	  	        20    7    3 	10   23:27  -4 	   24
13  Rot-Weiss Essen (N)	  	20    7    3 	10   27:34  -7 	   24
14  FC Schalke 04 II	  	19    7    3 	9    25:34  -9 	   24
15  Bayer Leverkusen II	  	22    5    8 	9    24:29  -5 	   23
16  SV Elversberg	  	20    5    6 	9    20:29  -9 	   21
17  SC Idar-Oberstein (N)	19    5    5 	9    21:37  -16    20
18  Fortuna Düsseldorf II	21    3   10 	8    23:29  -6 	   19
19  TuS Koblenz (A)	  	20    2   10 	8    14:24  -10    16

Wuppertaler SV’s mini-revival was stopped by Jack Frost. The match against 1.FC Köln II had to be canceled, because the Zoo-Stadion pitch was frozen. No date has been set for the rematch.

Instead, folks were treated to a podium discussion about “Bergisch FC”, a so-called project to bring “professional” football back to the region. Supposedly this goofy idea would consist of a merger of WSV, Union Solingen and FC Remscheid. Luckily there is no support of this insanity. There are two schools thought regarding this idea:

1) It’s just a deliberate attempt by the board to spin up the fans and piss them off. If so, it would be one of the few successful moves by the board, since about 100 fans showed up to shout against this idea.

or

2) Crack is readily available in Wuppertal and smoked on a regular basis by certain members of the board.

There really is no support for this move. It worked 60 years ago in the founding of WSV, but virtually all subsequent mergers in the area have had no positive effects. Indeed, clubs disappear and the fans seem to go as well. A well run club is the only way forward, and clubs like Mainz or Freiburg clearly indicate that you can have success if you plan ahead.

Wuppertaler SV has been back in action since the winterbreak, and so far things at least seem to be moving in the right direction. (Officially, the club is known as “Wuppertaler SV Borussia, but only wankers refer to that name. And you’ll probably only hear club officials using that name, so you can draw your own conclusions…)

Obviously, when you get relegated from the 3.Liga and have fallen back into the 4th division Regionalliga West, the situation is pretty dire. And of course, the campaign so far has to be one of the worst in memory. The squad completely sucked in the first half, and indeed were in potential relegation zone. (But of course, this is a bit Monty-Pythonesque, because there will be no relegation this year. The DFB has decided to reorganize the the Regionalliga, and with all the Südwest clubs getting moved to their own division, basically everybody is assured of staying up.)

Things started looking up when the club fired coach Karsten Hutwelker, who meant well, but was completely unable to motivate the squad. Since then, the club has won a few matches, and indeed as climbed up into a semi-respectable 5th place. However, as you look at the table below, respect is relative…

 Regionalliga West 2011-12

 1  Sportfreunde Lotte	       19   12 	  6    1     39:14  +25     42
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 2  Borussia M'gladbach II     19   11 	  5    3     37:24  +13     38
 3  Eintracht Trier	       20   11 	  4    5     31:17  +14     37 *
 4  1. FC Köln II	       20    8 	  7    5     36:30  +6 	    31
 5  WUPPERTALER SV             20    8    6    6     34:28  +6      30
 6  Borussia Dortmund II       18    8 	  4    6     36:22  +14     28
 7  Fortuna Köln (N)	       20    7 	  6    7     28:32  -4 	    27
 8  1. FSV Mainz 05 II	       21    7 	  5    9     30:27  +3 	    26 *
 9  1. FC Kaiserslautern II    19    6 	  8    5     30:30   0 	    26 *
10  SC Wiedenbrück 2000	       19    7 	  5    7     22:26  -4 	    26
11  SC Verl	  	       19    7 	  3    9     22:25  -3 	    24
12  Rot-Weiss Essen (N)	       20    7 	  3   10     27:34  -7 	    24
13  FC Schalke 04 II	       19    7 	  3    9     25:34  -9 	    24
14  VfL Bochum II	       20    6 	  6    8     24:34  -10     24
15  SV Elversberg	       19    5 	  6    8     19:27  -8 	    21 *
16  SC Idar-Oberstein (N)      19    5 	  5    9     21:37  -16     20 *
17  Fortuna Düsseldorf II      19    3 	 10    6     22:25  -3 	    19
18  Bayer Leverkusen II	       19    3 	  8    8     21:27  -6 	    17
19  TuS Koblenz (A)	       19    1 	 10    8     13:24 -11 	    11 *

* - indicates south-west club

As you can see, WSV has zero chance of getting promoted. Instead that worthless club Lotte is running away with the league. (And you thought I was just referring to the Chiba-Lotte Orions of the Japan Pacific Baseball League. Or the Korean chaebol…). WSV really is just playing out the season, trying not to suck too much. Fat chance…

Since the league restarted last week, many of the matches in the lower divisions have been postponed due to the weather. However, WSV has managed to get their matches played. The opener was a 1-0 win over Fortuna Köln (goal by Moosmayer) at the Zoo-Stadion, with a massive crowd of 1,385 fans. Then today WSV travelled and came away with a 2-1 win over FSV Mainz II. Schlieter and Zieba scored the goals (Hey, even I have never heard of them), so now WSV is on an upward trend…

The current squad is not bad from a 4th division standpoint:

                                             Matches  Goals   Valuation (euros)
Goalkeepers
 (AUT)	Klafflsberger, Martin 	? 	        -       -      ?
	Samulewicz, Sascha 	21.03.1986 	7 	0      150,000
	Semmler, Christoph 	03.03.1980 	10 	0      200,000
        Sube, Bastian 	        09.01.1992 	3 	0       75,000

Defenders
        Fleßers, Robert         11.02.1987      14      1      200,000
        Flottmann, Daniel       06.08.1984      19      1      225,000
        Herzenbruch, Felix      08.08.1992      11      0       50,000
        Lorenz, Stefan          19.09.1981      5       0      175,000
  (BEL) Moosmayer, Tom          01.10.1979      18      4      200,000
        Schlieter, Thomas       28.01.1981      20      3      350,000
        van den Bergh, Lukas    07.09.1988      2       0      100,000
        Zimmermann, Jörn        09.02.1992      9       0       50,000

Midfield
  (JPN) Asaeda, Ken             27.07.1983      14      1      250,000
        Baltes, Benjamin        30.03.1984      11      0      150,000
        Brinkmann, Dennis       22.11.1978      2       0      250,000
  (MOR) El Hammouchi, Rachid    12.09.1981      16      0      125,000
        Hammes, Jan             02.02.1985      -       -       ?
        Landers, Marcel         24.08.1984      19      0      250,000
        Matern, Nico            27.11.1992      1       0       25,000
        Meier, Jan-Steffen      30.05.1992      17      0       50,000
        Weikl, Björn            09.02.1977      -       -      100,000
  (POL) Zieba, Maciej           24.01.1987      15      3       75,000

Attack
        Abelski, Ben            19.09.1982      11      1      150,000
  (ALB) Kastrati, Bekim         25.03.1979      10      1      125,000
        Knappmann, Christian    19.03.1981      20     16      250,000
        Quotschalla, Marco      25.07.1988      2       0      125,000

Overall, according to Transfermarkt, (http://www.transfermarkt.de), the squad is valued around 3.7 million euros, with an average of about 140,000. This puts WSV near the top of the division, clearly under performing.

The only player who has been doing well is forward Christian Knappmann, who leads all the Regionalliga with 16 goals. He’s played most of his career in the 3rd-4th level, scoring 86 times in 264 matches. Perhaps this is his swan song. The best known player is Albanian journeyman Bekim Kastrati, who had a cup of tea with M’gladbach in the Bundesliga 2005/06 and was capped by Albania twice. (Although actually I think he was born in Kosovo). He’s bounced around mostly in the 3rd division, where he’s scored the bulk of his 50 goals (140 matches) in Germany. He was brought in to be the big striker a couple of years ago, but has largely flopped. Experienced defender Tom Schlieter has 80 2.Liga matches with Oberhausen, and Tom Moosmayer a glass of beer at that level too.