NORTH Osnabrück vs Kiel Osnabrück needs one point to clinch promotion or Bremen's reserves to win a point against 3rd ranked Essen. Somehow they have their fourth final in the last five seasons on the last matchday - 1999 promotion round (lost), 2000 promotion game (won after penalty shoothout), 2001 relegation fight (lost). Enochs: "For us older players it probably is the last chance to promote to 2.Bundesliga. We can help the club to get on a solid financial level." (since November the players get their salaries delayed; if they don't promote, then they'll have to tremble to get a new D3 license). Kiel is already secured, they just play for the position (are 12th, can finish 9-13). Enochs meets his brother-in-law, Lars Schiersand, in this game: "Lars is a good soccer player, Kiel a good team. There's nothing else to be said about it." The first meeting this season was won by Osnabrück (1-0) Paderborn vs Verl Different situation in Verl: they need to win and Uerdingen gaining at least a point against Hamburg's reserves to avoid relegation (they stay in though if one team doesn't get a license). Maurer will start in this derby, in which Paderborn only plays for the position - they are 7th and can finish 6-10. Actually Paderborn played a pretty good season, but meanwhile is on a several games losing streak since they missed promotion. SOUTH Erfurt vs Neunkirchen Farewell game for Shoffner and the worst D3 team. They'll try to win a 4th road point or collect the first road win this season, but the chances at 7th ranked Erfurt are very small. Not sure if Shoffner can claim his starting position of the last weeks. Augsburg vs Wehen Relaxing game for both teams. Augsburg wants to claim the 3rd spot for which they need a win. Wehen is 8th ranked and has a wide range from 6 to 12 where they can finish. Matarazzo will be used as central mid again. Siegen vs Kaiserslautern Must win game for Siegen that additionally needs losses of Schweinfurt, Darmstadt and Elversberg to avoid relegation. Lukin and van Buskirk will start, Norkus is on the bench. If they fail with 3 or less points, then Siegen already announced to file a mercy request as they got 3 pts reduced in this season - they want to reach that next year the league is playing with 19 teams again. Opponent Kaiserslautern is almost safe and only very surprising scores can make tem drop to a relegation spot. Elversberg vs Unterhaching Full offence power to avoid relegation is Elversberg's plan. Problem: Unterhaching is the best team of the league and they want to promote on top - they need a point for that. Elversberg woul most likely not be rescued with one point (only if Schweinfurt and Darmstadt lose and Siegen does not win). So, a win is needed and in this case it is enough if either Schweinfurt or Darmstadt don't win their game. Payne and Lawson will start, Mason fights for starting as right winger but probably finds himself on the bench.
Thanks. As you've said before, this was not a good season for Yanks Abroad in Germany, in any division.
NORTH Osnabrück vs Kiel 2-0 Osnabrück dominated the game from the start, but they needed 72 minutes to score a goal. As Essen could not even win their game, this score is even without meaning. Osnabrück promotes, but Enochs has no contract for the next season yet - I'd wonder if they don't keep him though. Paderborn vs Verl 1-2 Fully irregular conditions for this game. After the heat of the last days, today tons of rain came down and made this game rather look like water polo than soccer. Due to the pitch conditions, the game was delayed for half an hour. Verl had luck to get a doubtful pk for the halftime lead. In the second half Paderborn missed many chances before Verl scored again. Paderborn got closer before the game had to be stopped for a quarter hour due to the rain showers. Afterwards Verl managed to keep the score, but they are not safe yet as the other crucial game Uerdingen vs Hamburg's Reserves was postponed until tomorrow for the same reasons; Verl needs to trust in Uerdingen to gain a point, otherwise Verl relegates. SOUTH Erfurt vs Neunkirchen 0-2 Last D3 game for Neunkirchen, first road win of the season. Does not change the fact that they relegate as 19th as last. Augsburg vs Wehen 1-3 Also the second team without road win changed this in the last game. After avoiding a nervous last matchday in the last minutes of the previous weekend, Wehen now even finished 7th. Siegen vs Kaiserslautern Res. 4-1 Siegen fulfilled the task and did what they could do to avoid relegation. Unfortunately it was not enough as Schweinfurt and Elversberg won their games. Siegen finishes 16th and will now probaly file the mercy request to the league officials. Elversberg vs Unterhaching 1-0 An early goal rescues Elversberg. They finish 14th - just one single goal away from relegation. More about the YA performances later or in the next days.
Have you heard of any rumors of him moving? Is he 2nd Bundesliga level? Did Jamath Shoffner play? At least they got a win to end the season. I wonder how Brent Goulet is doing? any reports of him taking a coaching job?
Enochs will not be moving. He's been loyal to the club, popular among fans and teammates, is affordable at the 2.Bundesliga level, and has played far above average for the Regionalliga for a few years. His is probably one of the last positions they would look to upgrade. I'm looking forward to how well he does against the higher level of competition for a whole season.
Just wondering because he is out of contract right? How did he do last time they were promoted? I thought he was one of their best players, and expected someone to come in with an offer for him.
Enochs even is team captain, so it's very unlikely that he doesn't get a new contract. I think they were waiting due to the financial situation - in D3 they would have had problems to get a new license and maybe Enochs would have been forced to be a low budget player or move. He is solid D2 level I'd say, does lots of work in the defensive midfield. Very surprisingly, Osnabrück's coach Jürgen Gelsdorf retired from his job today. He told about 'private reasons', which gives lots of space for speculations. Two of them are Schalke coach and sporting director in Bochum. As Aris said, Verl is relegated. They still got some hope on the licensing procedure. If a 2.Bundesliga club from the south or a Regionalliga North club doesn't get the licence, then Verl would stay in. Candidates are plenty, in 2.Bundesliga mainly Karlsruhe, in Regionalliga Essen, Dynamo Dresden, Chemnitz, Uerdingen and Münster. Tomorrow a bit more on the YA performances of the weekend. What I can tell you is that Maurer got a goal cancelled; local media think that it was regular, but I haven't seen an objective source yet.
YA Performances: Enochs: full 90, defensive mid Maurer: full 90, central defence Payne: full 90, shutout Lawson: full 90, central mid, Team of the Day for the first time this season. Mason: last 18 minutes Matarazzo: full 90, defender Lukin: full 90, defender Van Buskirk: 82 minutes, forward Lukin: DNP Shoffner: full 90, forward News about Enochs as the stupid paper boy delivered ‘Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung’ instead of ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’: yesterday he signed a new two years contract with Osnabrück before he flies home to California. Enochs is in Osnabrück since 1996. Here’s a pic being added to the article on VfL’s homepage: http://www.vfl.de/pics/medien/image_1055237959.jpeg VfL signed Dimitrios Guscinas, the top striker of D3 North of this season. He scored 23 goals for this weekend’s opponent Kiel – Guscinas DNP though as he prepares for the Euro qualifier against Iceland with the Lithuanian NT. Here you can find six picture galeries from Sunday's game, stadium, city hall, market place and disco celebrations: http://www.neue-oz.de/information/pub_Sport/vfl_bildergalerie/index.html Elversberg’s President Holzer: “We want to get four new player and urgently keep Lawson, Bick and Molz”
What about Brent Goulet? I guess Russell Payne is off at the end of the season then (Former New Orleans Gambler)
Elversberg Staff ? Am I correct in thinking that Elversberg has an American on it's coaching staff? (I don't have a name)
Olaf, at this point, what does your best YA in Germany team look like? How about something like? K - Payne (Now that Yelldell is gone.) RB - Cherundolo (Sanneh when healthy) CD - Berhalter/Gibbs LB - Duhaney RM - Mason (Cherundolo when Sanneh healthy) CM - Enochs/Lawson LM - Gibson F - Casey F - Thomas
The choice is very limited: Payne - Cherundolo, Berhalter, Matarazzo, Lukin - Thomas, Enochs, Lawson, Gibbs - Casey, van Buskirk Bench: Mason, Shoffner, Maurer (could also replace Matarazzo), Duhaney, Gibson (latter two due to lacking playing time), Sanneh (due to injury), Norkus
YA Season stats (note: North played 34, South 36 games) Matarazzo: 32 games, taken out 5 times, 6 yellows, 1 yellow-red, 1 red Payne: 35 games, 1 yellow Lawson: 31 games, coming in 5 times, taken out 3 times, 5 yellows, 1 goal Mason: 18 games, in: 7, out: 6, 3 yellows, 2 reds, 2 goals Lukin: 29 games, out: 4, 8 yellows, 1 yellow-red, 2 goals van Buskirk: 27 games, in: 7, out: 4, 3 yellows, 9 goals, 5/6 pk's scored Norkus: 6 games, in: 3, out: 2, 1 goal Shoffner: 15 games, in: 5, out: 4 Enochs: 34 games, out: 1, 10 yellows, 2 goals Maurer: 21 games, in: 4, 2 yellows, 2 goals