WSV had a workman-like outing in the makeup game against Bayer Kid-Aspirins. They pretty much controlled the game from the start against the Mini-Lusers, and when Tom Moosmayer floated in a freekick, Daniel Flottmann was unmarked at the far post to give WSV the lead.
Interesting that GK Rene Adler, German international, started in goal for Bayer-II, as he is now recuperating from his injury. Will be interesting to see if he wins back his starting job from Bernd Leno, who has done very well. He looked pretty decent, but WSV didn’t give him much of a chance when scoring their goals – but he had plenty to do.

After dominating teh first half, WSV continued to press in the 2nd. They peppered the Alka-Seltzer Jrs. goal with shots, Flessers shot cleared off the line, Landers a direct volley that was just blocked. Then it turned into the Christian Kanppmann show, as the Regionalliga’s top goal-getter demonstrated his stuff. In the 63rd minute, a Moosmayer corner was extended by Landers, and Kanppmann was there for the tap-in. Then he hammered in a rebound off a Zieba shot.

Overall, a fine performance for Wuppertal…

Wuppertaler SV - Bayer Leverksuen II    3:0 (1:0)

Attendance: 698 (Stadion Am Zoo)

1:0 Flottmann (23.) 	 
2:0 Knappmann (63.) 	 
3:0 Knappmann (72.) 

WUPPERTAL:
Semmler - 
El Hammouchi    , Flottmann     , Schlieter , Herzenbruch - 
Landers , Fleßers    , Moosmayer    , Baltes    - 
Zieba - 
Knappmann        

Subs:
Quotschalla (71., Baltes)
B. Abelski (77., Moosmayer)	
Meier (83., Fleßers)

Trainer: Bruns

LEVERKUSEN II:
Adler - 
Koronkiewicz    , Haitz , Nauber , Eichmeier    - 
Temeltas    , Weiler - 
Biada    , Opper    - 
Steffen , Hirsch   

Subs:
Al Ghaddioui (63., Biada)	
Maouel (63., Hirsch)
Leo (79., Eichmeier)

Trainer: Mink

WSV travels to leaders Lotte and beats them up! Shows what Wuppertal is capable up when they just focus.

Lotte is the likely promotion favorite, and certainly expected a win. (Not that anyone cares, since they have zero fans and nobody has ever heard of them). And they grabbed the lead and seemed to be on their way. But WSV wasn’t phased and soon the outstanding Maciej Zieba equalized, after the combo with Ben Baltes and Tom Moosmayer. WSV then stunned their hosts by taking the lead when Marcel Landers floated in a freekick – meant as a cross – that ended up in the net. In the 2nd half, it was the Zieba show, as first his inside pass could only be knocked in for an own goal, and then he put home another cross from Mossmayer. 1-4 and the rout was on…not. This is WSV, and they can never make things easy. Soon after Felix Haas got his ass red carded, giving Lotte some hope. The leaders threw everything into attack and came storming back. WSV defended desperately for a while, and then in injury time, a couterattack by Marco Quotschalla finished the match.

Despite scoring 5 times, it’s a bit surprising that Christian Knappmann didn’t notch one. Perhaps he shot his wad midweek at Kaiserslautern…

A nice win for WSV, but mostly as a reminder of what could have been. If they hadn’t been dicking around mid season (and early season and for the most part late season too…hey, all season), this could have been a promotion decider – with Wuppertal at least returning to the 3.Liga. As it is, Lotte could probably care less, as their promotion rivals Dortmund II and Gladbach II also lost.

WSV has a makeup home match Tuesday against Bayer Alka-Seltzer Light (Luserkusen II), who basically suck in 17th place. So if the pattern continues, WSV will probably stink and lose disgracefully, and the fans will only console themselves with “Runge raus!!” chants.

Sportfreunde Lotte - Wuppertaler SV 3:5 (1:2)

Attendance: 920 (connectM-Arena)

1:0 Wingerter (7.)
1:1 Zieba (21.)
1:2 Landers (25.)
1:3 M. Lorenz (49., own goal)
1:4 Zieba (53.)
2:4 Kotuljac (74.)
3:4 Engelmann (76., penalty rebound)
3:5 Quotschalla (90. + 3)  

LOTTE:

Buchholz -
Grieneisen, Dal. Gataric, Czyszczon, Zinke -
Wingerter, Zech       -
Loose , M. Lorenz    -
Engelmann, Kotuljac    

Subs:
Schlösser (46., Dal. Gataric)
Assauer (67., Zech)
Maddente  (71., Wingerter)

Trainer: Walpurgis

WUPPERTAL:

Semmler -
El Hammouchi, Flottmann, F. Haas, Herzenbruch    -
Landers, Fleßers, Moosmayer, Baltes    -
Zieba         -
Knappmann  

Subs:

Schlieter (58., Baltes)
Quotschalla (74., Landers)
Meier (86., Knappmann)

Trainer: Bruns

Back in the “day”, there was a San Francisco rock band called “The Tubes” who had a semi-hit entitled “White Punks on Dope”. I can’t remember much of the song, but for some reason it reminded me of WSV…

Anyway, in K-town, it was going to be a showdown between the Regionalliga’s top gunmen, FCK’s Andrew Wooten and WSV’s Christian Knappmann. It turned out to be a non-starter, as Wooten played for FCK’s Bundesliga squad on Saturday, and therefore was scratched. Knappmann seized the moment with a brilliant second half display of 4 goals, and with 24 reigns supreme over all 4th division in Germany.

WSV came out strong, pressing hard. Especially attacking midfielder Maciej Zieba looked good, one of his better performances. Despite several chances, no scoring in the first half, but things immediately heated up after the restart. FCK drew first blood, as Steven Zellner dribbled through the sleeping WSV defense and knocked home. But WSV didn’t cave in like they usually did, and a nice cross by Tom Moosmayer was headed home by Knappmann. Just a couple minutes later he was fould in the box, and put home the penalty. A few minutes more, a carbon copy of the first: Mossmayer cross, Knappmann header, goal. Finally, to cap off a crazy 10 minutes, this time the cross from Sven Landers, and another Knappmann strike.

A surprisingly decent WSV performance against a half-way decent opponent.

1. FC Kaiserslautern II	 - 	Wuppertaler SV	 2:4 (0:0)

Attendance: 320 (Fritz-Walter-Stadion)

1:0 Zellner (59.) 	  
1:1 Knappmann (63.) 
1:2 Knappmann (65., penalty) 
1:3 Knappmann (71.) 
1:4 Knappmann (74.) 
2:4 Freyer (88.) 


KAISERSLAUTERN II:

Keilmann - 
Becker    , Orban , Modica    , Heintz    - 
Lindner , Linsmayer - 
Saiti , Zellner     , Himmel - 
Freyer    

Subs:
Rizzuto (46., Heintz)
Grammel (73., Becker)
Lensch  (76., Rizzuto)
 
Trainer: Schwartz


WUPPERTAL:

Klafflsberger - 
El Hammouchi , Flottmann , F. Haas , Herzenbruch - 
Landers    , Fleßers , Moosmayer , Baltes       - 
Zieba - 
Knappmann 

Subs:
Meier (81., Baltes)
Zimmermann (86., Landers)
                
Trainer: Bruns

WSV dicked around in Elversberg. Coach Bruns moved folks around, given some injuries and the opportunity to look at some youngsters. Reserve GK Martin Klafflsberger looked pretty decent. Christian Knappmann nailed his 20th in the nets, which leads all Regionalligen. But WSV couldn’t really get much of and edge, and soon after the Knappmann goal, SVE was equal through a strike by Luxembourg international Marcel Deville.

Overall, yet another poor outing in a crap season by WSV.

SV Elversberg - Wuppertaler SV 1:1 (0:0)

Attendance: 250 (Waldstadion an der Kaiserlinde)

0:1  Knappman (51.)
1:1  Deville (59.)

ELVERSBERG:
Kuhn -
Wolf, Pellowski , Fernandes, Schwall -
Grimm, Reiß    -
D. Jungwirt , M. Schug -
Krasniqi, Deville       

Subs:
Marte (82., Grimm)
Billick (86., Deville)

Trainer: Kiefer

WUPPERTAL:
Klafflsberger -
El Hammouchi, Flottmann, Herzenbruch, Moosmayer -
Landers, Zieba, F. Haas, Baltes    -
B. Abelski, Knappmann    

Subs:

Zimmermann  (73., Landers)
Asaeda (80., Baltes)
Meier (87., B. Abelski)

Trainer: Bruns

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