Nico Schäfer kept wandering back and forth on the edge of the substitution bench, just as his eyes flickered back and forth between the mobile phone and the lawn of the Wiesbaden soccer arena. Many were as tense as the managing director of SV Wehen Wiesbaden at the decisive third division venues on Saturday afternoon on the last day of the game.
Strong nerves were required and nerves were shown on the fine line between dream of promotion and frustration at the end of the season. In the end, Wehen Wiesbaden initially seemed to have the best finish in the heart-stopping final. When the final whistle sounded in the home game won 1-0, the 8,100 spectators in the Hessian state capital went into raptures – and stormed the pitch to celebrate the players.
Shortly thereafter, Schäfer, mobile phone in hand, made his way through the cheering crowd into the dressing room with a frozen face: VfL Osnabrück against Borussia Dortmund II had actually pushed past the Hessians with two goals in added time – relegation instead direct ascent is announced for the SVWW.
Heart-stopping finale for promotion
The winners of the day and future second division club after a crazy season finale are the Osnabrück team. Lower Saxony won 2-1 with goals from Simakala (90′ + 4 minutes) and Wulff (90′ + 6′) – and kept Wehener at a distance with a better goal difference by one goal. And they sent them to the additional layer of relegation against the second division third from bottom.
The third league had a heart-stopping final of a special kind on Saturday afternoon. Four teams competed on the last day of the game – in addition to the Elversbergers, who have been established as the future second division club (SC Freiburg II is not eligible for promotion) – for the promotion places for the longed-for leap into the second division: Osnbarück, Wehen Wiesbaden, 1. FC Saarbrücken and Dynamo Dresden.
A milestone for any club, if you consider alone that the TV revenue has increased almost tenfold. A direct promotion place as a jackpot, the relegation place as a consolation prize and two rivets were at stake for the quartet, which had exchanged blows for many weeks for the coveted ranks. Two out of four – sounds simple, but it wasn’t until well into injury time.
All four opponents played at home, all four against teams that were no longer at stake, all four were able to master their daily task. For a long time, Osnabrück were behind 0:1 at the sold-out Bremer Brücke – which caused Wiesbaden to storm the pitch and Saarbrücken to be on the relegation place. But the late Osnabrück luck changed everything again: Saarbrücken and Dresden, who were in wait before the last day with equal points, went away empty-handed. The hard work and sweat of 38 match days just barely paid off.
The Dresdeners had exchanged the best possible cards in the promotion race on the penultimate day for the worst. Completely surprisingly, the team of coach Markus Anfang lost 1:4 at relegated SV Meppen – a result with an ultimately destructive effect on the chances on the last matchday. And so there was a mourning mood in the Dresden Arena on Saturday. The 2-1 victory over VfL Oldenburg did not change that.
“I believe in promotion until the last minute,” said Saarbrücken striker Kasim Rabihic, who helped with a goal against Viktoria Köln. Ultimately in vain. The traditional Saarland club also went away empty-handed and, after being relegated in 2006, has to wait to return to the second division. FCS was able to put pressure on the competition early on – Gaus scored the lead in the first minute. But the 2:1 victory was ultimately worthless because the Osnabrück defended their pole position in the promotion race in the tightest possible way and started an emotionally high-speed party weekend.
