Despite the official half-way mark last week, the 3.Liga continued on before winter hibernation. And the restart/2nd round of the league proved to fairly tough for some of the higher ranked teams
Leaders Osnabrück disappointed with a lame performance at the legendary “Rote Erde” against Dortmund II.
Preußen Münster had a relatively easy win against Burghausen, controlling the match, but perhaps dragging things out too much.
A stunning result in Aachen, as demoralized Alemannia exhibited great fight and beat down favored Bielefeld. The hosts were the dominant team in the 1st half, and although a shocked Arminia recovered to even the 2nd period, it was back and forth. Despite falling behind, Aachen came into great win with two late goals by 19 year midfielder Robert Leipertz.
Karlsruhe remains in top form. Despite falling behind early in a regional derby with a battling Heidenheim, KSC soon jumped back in, and in a power display overran their opponents down the stretch. They’ve now jumped into the promotion-playoff spot and are in in-form team. Bielefeld and Unterhaching are in a dogfight and can no longer afford crap results, and Osnabrück and Münster are in danger of being passed as well. Heidenheim is done, I can’t see them climbing back into the race.
Unterhaching almost dumped one in their pants against desperate Darmstadt. The Hessen squad proved to be ready and jumped out to an blitz lead. The Hachingers were stunned, and the 98ers didn’t look like relegation candidates. Eventually the hosts equalized on a late penalty, only to be almost immediately stunned again by a Darmstadt counter. It looked like a huge win for the visitors, but Niederlechner scored his 2nd in injury time to save Haching’s ass. The youngster has had a few excellent games recently and is attracting attention from the higher leagues. Too bad for Darmstadt, close but no cigar. Still, a good point for them.
Offenbach basically sucked and then got stunned by Halle just before the final whistle. Pretty much shows that the Kickers don’t have the focus necessary to mix it up at the top. Important win for Halle.
Rostock is another club that had ambitions of slugging it out for promotion, but instead they’ve sucked, especially recently. Host Kickers weren’t much better in the first half, but at least raised their game and come away with a deserved win, critical in their relegation battle.
Erfurt and Wehen. Draw. What else? Erfurt needs points, but perhaps their hoping they’ll get a pass because Aachen is going to the Regionalliga.
Babelsberg got an injury time goal to get a fair draw against Chemnitz. The visitors took a lead in a hard fought match and then tried to catenaccio their way to the points. Luckily, they failed, numbskulls.
Total attendance this round 53,899 (avg 5,390)
SpVgg Unterhaching - SV Darmstadt 98 2:2 (0:1) 1,400 Alemannia Aachen - Arminia Bielefeld 2:1 (0:0) 12,837 Preußen Münster - Wacker Burghausen 2:0 (0:0) 7,000 Borussia Dortmund II - VfL Osnabrück 1:1 (0:0) 2,809 1. FC Saarbrücken - VfB Stuttgart II 0:0 (0:0) 3,284 Kickers Offenbach - Hallescher FC 0:1 (0:0) 4,810 Karlsruher SC - 1. FC Heidenheim 5:2 (1:1) 11,082 Rot-Weiß Erfurt - SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2:2 (1:1) 4,627 Stuttgarter Kickers - Hansa Rostock 2:0 (0:0) 4,050 SV Babelsberg 03 - Chemnitzer FC 1:1 (0:0) 2,000 1 VfL Osnabrück 20 12 5 3 28:13 +15 41 2 Preußen Münster 20 11 6 3 33:15 +18 39 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Karlsruher SC (A) 20 10 7 3 34:13 +21 37 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Arminia Bielefeld 20 10 6 4 29:19 +10 36 5 SpVgg Unterhaching 20 10 6 4 35:26 +9 36 6 1. FC Heidenheim 20 9 4 7 34:31 +3 31 7 VfB Stuttgart II 20 8 5 7 26:22 +4 29 8 Wacker Burghausen 20 9 2 9 26:28 -2 29 9 Hansa Rostock (A) 20 8 5 7 22:26 -4 29 10 Kickers Offenbach 20 7 5 8 29:24 +5 26 11 Chemnitzer FC 20 7 5 8 28:26 +2 26 12 1. FC Saarbrücken 20 7 4 9 28:32 -4 25 13 SV Babelsberg 03 20 6 5 9 17:26 -9 23 14 SV Wehen Wiesbaden 20 3 13 4 26:29 -3 22 15 Hallescher FC (N) 20 5 6 9 17:28 -11 21 16 Stuttgarter Kickers (N) 20 5 5 10 21:23 -2 20 17 Alemannia Aachen (A) 20 4 7 9 20:30 -10 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Rot-Weiß Erfurt 20 4 7 9 23:36 -13 19 19 Borussia Dortmund II (N) 20 4 6 10 17:34 -17 18 20 SV Darmstadt 98 20 3 7 10 18:30 -12 16 A = Absteiger just Relegated N = Neuling just promoted 1st line: Promotion to 2.Liga 2nd line: Promotion Playoff with 2.Liga 16th place 3rd line: Relegation to Regionalliga Alemannia Aachen basically relegated due to pending insolvency.