Final round in an exiciting 3.Liga season.
The two biggest “losers” actually had non-losing results at home. But they might have well lost, because it means ultiate failure. Heidenheim was on the brink of a historic promotion opportunity. But they could not score at home against Offenbach and thus lose out. For Darmstadt, even wirse, a “relegation final” against Stuttgarter Kickers and only a draw – relegation!
Despite having nothing to really play for, Offenbach honored football and played strong defense against a furiously attacking Heidenheim, for whom a win would mean the promotion playoff. But the Kickers refused to give in and for the most part easily fended off the nervous home side. They withstood a last desperate assault in the final 10 minutes and got the deserved draw. Heidenheim looked lame for large stretches, like they didn’t realize that they needed a goal to win everything.
As a result of Heidenheim’s failure, Osnabrück stunningly takes 3rd and will play for the 2.Liga! And that after head coach Claus-Dieter Wollitz actually resigned midweek for his failure to deliver. The hosts of course had an easy time with relegated Aachen, nabged in a few goals and then tried to find out what was going on down south. Good news was the final result.
Darmstadt attacked for most of the match against Kickers Stuttgart, egged on by a large crowd. However with some luck the Kickers defended well their early lead (scored by “Dicklhuber”, certainly the source of unending jokes). The 98ers could not break through until the 84th minute, when da Costa equalized and gave the hosts hope for a desperate 10 minutes or so.
Preußen Münster finishes outside the promotion race, but 4th place has it’s own reward: auto-qualification for the main round of next year’s DFB-Cup. babelsberg needed an unlikely win to perhaps stay up, and they came out quickly in pursuit of it, jumping out on top. But Preußen sooned asserted control and kicked their ass, so the Potsdamers go down.
Nobody may have been watching, but Dortmund B saved themselves with a result at Stuttgart B. The mini-Neons had put together a fine run and with Dramstadt unable to win, they needed a point, but got the win.
Champions Karlsruhe put an exclamation point with a power win at tough Wehen. KSC started the season slow, but once they got rolling, they were marching unstoppable back to the 2.Liga.
Bielefeld was all partied out over their promotion, so they were on vacation already. Burghausen took advantage and gets a nice win to close out a decent season.
A nothing match in Chemnitz, the hosts used the opportunity to practive shooting and ripped Unterhaching’s ass, their worst loss of the season.
A somewhat boring eastern derby between Rostock and Erfurt, each side having the edge in one half.
Halle defeated Saarbrücken, but the main focus was the retirement of popular oldtimer (40) GK Darko Horvat, and a large crowd came out to say good bye.
Total attendance was 89,731 (avg 8,971), with a sellout in Heidenheim.
Preußen Münster - SV Babelsberg 03 4:1 (2:1) 13,400 Chemnitzer FC - SpVgg Unterhaching 5:0 (2:0) 2,900 SV Darmstadt 98 - Stuttgarter Kickers 1:1 (0:1) 13,600 Hansa Rostock - Rot-Weiß Erfurt 0:0 (0:0) 12,000 SV Wehen Wiesbaden - Karlsruher SC 2:4 (0:3) 8,947 1. FC Heidenheim - Kickers Offenbach 0:0 (0:0) 10,000 * Hallescher FC - 1. FC Saarbrücken 2:1 (0:0) 11,141 VfB Stuttgart II - Borussia Dortmund II 0:1 (0:0) 625 VfL Osnabrück - Alemannia Aachen 4:0 (3:0) 13,900 Wacker Burghausen - Arminia Bielefeld 1:0 (0:0) 3,200 1 Karlsruher SC (A) 38 23 10 5 69:27 +42 79 2 Arminia Bielefeld 38 22 10 6 59:32 +27 76 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 VfL Osnabrück 38 22 7 9 64:35 +29 73 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Preußen Münster 38 20 12 6 63:33 +30 72 5 1. FC Heidenheim 38 21 9 8 69:47 +22 72 6 Chemnitzer FC 38 15 10 13 56:47 +9 55 7 SV Wehen Wiesbaden 38 11 18 9 51:51 0 51 8 Wacker Burghausen 38 14 9 15 45:45 0 51 9 SpVgg Unterhaching 38 14 9 15 48:55 -7 51 10 Hallescher FC (N) 38 12 10 16 37:50 -13 46 11 1. FC Saarbrücken 38 12 9 17 52:62 -10 45 12 Hansa Rostock (A) 38 11 11 16 39:52 -13 44 13 Rot-Weiß Erfurt 38 11 11 16 44:58 -14 44 14 VfB Stuttgart II 38 11 10 17 35:42 -7 43 15 Kickers Offenbach 38 11 11 16 41:44 -3 42 16 Borussia Dortmund II (N) 38 9 14 15 39:58 -19 41 17 Stuttgarter Kickers (N) 38 10 10 18 39:48 -9 40 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 SV Darmstadt 98 38 8 14 16 32:46 -14 38 19 SV Babelsberg 03 38 9 10 19 32:54 -22 37 20 Alemannia Aachen (A) 38 7 10 21 40:68 -28 26 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 Aachen and Offenbach deducted two points for financial shenanigans
Scheisse! Three coaches in one season does not bode well for a struggling team. It was always on the cards once Ranjic left for Duisburg and they recruited a nobody who did nothing for half a season. Then again, we played poorly last season too and needed some miracle wins to stay up. Back to the Regionaliga aginst old foes Worms, Mannheim, and the mini Frankfurters. Congratulations to Hessen Kassel who have been thereabouts for several years now and get their chnace to play off for a promotion.
I thought that Darmstadt might just sneak by and make it. Perhaps it was finally their time to go down. But at least the reorganization of the 4th division has made the Regionalliga SW interesting. If their finances are OK, I would think they’d be an immediate favorite to bounce back, although the jump up to the 3.Liga is a bit harder now with the playoffs.
We’ll see. They have a tendency to drop their bundle once they get relegated and take a few seasons to get reorganised. Although the bounce back seems to feature a bit in years gone by with Hertha, Frankfurt, Karlsruhe all showing it can be done.
Thnaks for your kind comments over the season too. Appreciate the support. For what it’s worth I’ll be supporting WSV in their quest for CL glory. Or at least staying up in the RL.