Things looked good going into the winterbreak, but Wuppertal has been dicking around since the restart and basically has been overrun by Velbert, who have set a blistering pace. WSV had beaten Velbert early 4-0 away, so the re-match in Wuppertal was highly anticipated a couple of weeks ago. Almost 8,000 fans and a wild 4-4 shootout, but that wasn’t enough to keep WSV on pace. Velbert continued to win, and now have a strong position.
Today WSV struggled to beat Düsseldorf at home, whereas Velbert won easily on the road. It is looking tough for Wuppertal to make up the ground, as they are essentially 5 points behind and really haven’t been able to get back to their pre-winterbreak form.
The good news is that the financial situation has become immensely better since accepting administration and voluntary relegation to the Oberliga two years ago. The new management has done a good job in cleaning things up and building a sound foundation, and were recently re-elected at the membership meeting. In theory, the plan envisioned a return to the Regionalliga in 3 years, so I guess you could say they’re still on target, although it would be nice to be able to make the jump this year.
OBERLIGA NIEDERRHEIN (5th Division) 1 SSVg Velbert (A) 23 16 4 3 64:25 +39 52 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 Wuppertaler SV 23 14 6 3 48:20 +28 48 3 MSV Duisburg II 23 12 6 5 52:21 +31 42 4 Ratinger SV 23 13 3 7 43:28 +15 42 5 VfR Krefeld-Fischeln (N) 22 12 2 8 37:31 +6 38 6 SV Hönnepel-Niedermörmter 22 10 7 5 35:32 +3 37 7 1. FC Bocholt (N) 21 10 6 5 38:20 +18 36 8 TV Jahn Hiesfeld 22 9 6 7 42:38 +4 33 9 TuS Bösinghoven 23 9 4 10 46:42 +4 31 10 Rot-Weiß Oberhausen II 23 9 4 10 37:40 -3 31 11 VfB Hilden 23 9 4 10 49:53 -4 31 12 SC Kapellen-Erft 23 8 3 12 36:42 -6 27 13 TuRU Düsseldorf 23 8 3 12 27:34 -7 27 14 Schwarz-Weiß Essen 21 6 3 12 24:28 -4 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Vdsf Nievenheim (N) 23 6 3 14 28:70 -42 21 16 Sportfreunde Baumberg 23 5 5 13 24:48 -24 20 17 SV Sonsbeck 22 5 4 13 18:48 -30 19 18 VfB Homberg 23 2 7 14 21:49 -28 13