If the impression is not deceptive, then the advertising slogans of the TV channels sound a little more defensive than was already the case. The second division, praised as the “best second division in the world” in the previous season, has not only lost its glamor due to the lack of the premium brands FC Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen. For a while it also looked as if the promotion race would not be quite as exciting as it was a year ago.
Before the 32nd matchday, the program directors at the German Football League (DFL) came up with something: They packed the top trio into a Sunday conference – and the result was a second league in which the previous safety margins have melted away like ice in the spring sun .
Hamburger SV emerged as the winner of the day and can now hope for direct promotion again. The gap to second-placed 1. FC Heidenheim is just one point, while leaders Darmstadt 98 are four points away. The losers of the match day are all except HSV – including the pursuers FC St. Pauli and Fortuna Düsseldorf, who played 0-0 in a direct duel on Saturday and were unable to put Hamburg under pressure from behind due to the shared points.
Hanover 96 – SV Darmstadt 98 2:1
Preparations for a promotion party had not been made, as in the previous week, when the Darmstadt team could have made the leap to the first class. This approach is part of the understatement of the Hessians, but so far it has not really been effective. After a 3-0 loss against St. Pauli, Darmstadt suffered their second defeat in a row with a 2-1 loss in Hanover, which is quite remarkable given that Torsten Lieberknecht’s team had previously only lost four times throughout the season.
Is that nervous? In any case, you haven’t often seen a game like this from the “lilies” this season. After just half an hour, the otherwise stable Lieberknecht team was 0:2 behind, despite the goal from 98 striker Philipp Tietz shortly before half-time, there was only a moderate rebellion. In addition, the regular players Matthias Bader and Braydon Manu each saw the yellow-red card. They will miss the next decider against Magdeburg.
Carsten Wehlmann, Darmstadt’s sports director, was nevertheless proud that his club is leading the second division rankings – despite the limited “opportunities” that the Hessians had compared to some of their league competitors. A small tip, which of course could only be addressed to HSV, which has ten times as many members and more than twice the budget for the squad.
SZ forecast: Greuther Fürth, VfL Bochum, Arminia Bielefeld and SC Paderborn also had significantly less financial resources than HSV in previous years – they still ended up ahead of the traditional club.
SC Paderborn – 1 FC Heidenheim 3:2
Now even the Heidenheim village saint Frank Schmidt has uttered this unfortunate word. Before the trip to Paderborn, the coach of 1. FCH had officially announced the so-called “crunch time” in the second division, but you couldn’t blame him. Because Schmidt, a man of a rather reserved nature, admitted at the same press conference that his blood pressure is currently higher than usual with the prospect of a future in the first class.
So the good news first: After the defeat in Paderborn, it didn’t look as if Schmidt’s pulse had been so high that it would have been a health concern. There was a lot going on. “First chance, first goal!” The live ticker reported, for example, when striker Tim Kleindienst scored to make it 1-1. The Heidenheim classic, so to speak. On the other hand, it was unusual that the Schmidt-Elf did not bring their 2:1 lead to the finish line, but lost 2:3 after an indifferent performance. A kind of Heidenheim novelty at the worst possible time.
SZ forecast: Anyone who speaks of “crunch time” also admits that they see the greatest success in Heidenheim’s club history as a realistic scenario. And is there a more realistic coach in Germany than Frank Schmidt?
SSV Jahn Regensburg – Hamburger SV 1:5
Special circumstances require special measures. Tim Walter, the coach of HSV, recently outraged long-time lower house fans by saying that he doesn’t watch the second division. That didn’t sound really down-to-earth. At the press conference before the away trip to Jahn Regensburg, however, one could experience an almost purified Walter. Because there the coach proudly revealed that he now even plays from the third league studied. Probably without much enthusiasm. The offensive thinker Walter, who incidentally prefers to watch Real Madrid and Manchester City, had only evaluated in his video analysis whether he allowed the Jahn coach Joe Enochs, who was newly installed during the week, to have 37 or 40 percent ball possession.
In the second division debut of the American Enochs, most recently employed by the third division club FSV Zwickau, the Walter team showed little willingness to compromise. You would hardly have thought it possible, but HSV succeeded – in all seriousness! – a sovereign appearance in a relegation candidate, through which he was able to position himself again as a serious candidate for promotion. At 65 percent, Hamburg’s ball possession percentage was even higher than the season average – and apart from that, there was a significant increase in Regensburg compared to the previous weeks.
Individual personal details also stood for this: HSV striker Robert Glatzel, who had lost his marksmanship in the second half of the season, scored the 1-0 lead and got a penalty. Playmaker Sonny Kittel, who was often disappointing in “Crunchtime” (Copyright: FCH coach Schmidt), converted this and scored again and offered a more than useful performance. Miro Muheim scored the most beautiful goal with a long-range shot. In the past few weeks, that Muheim had been noticed as a security risk in defence, but on Sunday he was exceptionally completely uninvolved in Hamburg’s only goal. The final point was set by attacker Filip Bilbija, who was mostly ignored by Walter.
SZ forecast: HSV coach Walter should watch a lot of the first division despite the win to be on the safe side. Because in the promotion relegation it’s not against Real or City, but probably against Stuttgart, Bochum or Schalke.