After my team managed to get rid of our popular coach Juri, we now have Jörg Berger, a known "Feuerwehrmann". It doesn´t look to good before tomorrows match in Berlin (and we usually loose there anyway). After 13 matches with only 8 points a club most certainly gets relegated. Is the 10. year in Bundesliga also the last? I still have (little) hope.
I'm hoping Hansa turns it around, but I agree--it looks bleak for Rostock. It would be a shame if the 1.BL next year featured zero teams from the former DDR. If Hansa is relegated, I believe that next season's 1.BL would be the first without a team from the DDR since reunification (this assumes that no East German team is promoted, but looking at the table, there is very little chance that an East German team will finish in the top 3 of the 2.BL). Hansa has been a good soldier over the years in the 1.BL. That being said, I suppose it is only their fault that they have lived on the edge all these years and have failed to consolidate their position.
I wouldn´t say so. The environment for Hansa was very bad from the beginning of their first season in 1991 on. The break down of the economy, the exodus of the young towards the west. Therefore no great sponsors, people couldn´t afford to go to every match etc. pp. Regarding all this a lot of people see it as a miracle that HANSA managed to stay in the "Oberhaus" for ten years in a row now. The club built a new stadium, great training grounds, a football school and still was able to hold the class, despite of the circumstances. And I refuse to give them up.
It is normal for a club of Hansa’s size to get relegated now and then. It is a great achievement that they’ve stayed up for so long. And I’m not counting them out for this season either. Berger has done these things in the past and they do have some good players.
I think Berger is the best we could get at this stage. We will loose tomorrow and then we must start a row of victories. We still can make it, nothing is lost yet.
I agree with you that Hansa's first 7 or 8 years (beginning in 1991) were tough, and I agree with you that Hansa has been a great story. But in the late 90s, when interest in soccer (especially financial) was peaking, things could have straightened out for them, and they didn't. For example, why did the fail to fully capitalize on the their status as the sole East German representative? Might they not have asserted the mantle of THE East German team, the standardbearer for what used to be an entire nation. The team that played by the Western rules and beat the Western teams at their own game. Who's to blame (if anyone is to blame), I don't necessarily know, but one could argue they've missed a golden opportunity to consolidate their place in the BL. Certainly, I think it is an opportunity missed. Look at two clubs that promoted after Hansa--Hertha Berlin and Wolfsburg. Both teams, I think it fair to say, have consolidated their 1.BL status. It may be a miracle that Hansa managed to stay in the 1.BL for ten years, as you state, but one has to ask, why is it still a miracle, and not a mundane achievement for club that feels it belongs playing at that level?
@wolfsburgh Hansa always tried to see themselves as a northern club and didn´t want to be the represantative for east Germany and I think they did a good thing to bring on the reunification instead of insisting on the WE easterners and YOU westerners. It is absolutely out of perspective, sorry to say so, to compare Rostock with Wolfsburg or Berlin. No way they would ever get all the millions and millions of those two other clubs. And I think all psoters who are aware of the situation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and in Rostock would totaly agree with me.
Keith's Response: Honestly, I think it's too early for any club to be talking relegation. It's just too soon. There's still over half a season left to play. Just as "hot" as Wolfsburg has been in this half of the season, they can be just as "cold" in the second half. Same for teams like Mainz, Schalke, etc. Just as awful as teams like Dortmund, Kaiserslautern, Rostock, Freiburg, etc, have been in this half of the season, they could be just as good in the second half. One just never knows. Yes, some teams have more realistic capability to turn it around. Since I'm a Dortmund fan, I'll say that out the clubs I listed I think Dortmund are the most likely to turn it around. But I won't say that they will or the others cannot or won't. I feel it's just too early to start talking relegation. And if anyone can save Rostock, it's Berger. But, they'll need a new coach by mid-season next year. As I said, I'm not a fan of Rostock, but I do admire how they defy the odds and hang with Germany's elite in the 1. Bundesliga every season. I do admire that. I wish Borussia Dortmund had half the heart Hansa Rostock does. Keith
Good points. But even though Hansa's strategy may have been admirable, I think it was probably bad business. They were never going to be THE northern club, not with HSV and Werder in the picture. If I was running the club, I would have played the DDR card to the hilt.
I don't think that they ever tried to become THE northern club. During the 90s you could see some Rostock shirts in eastern Germany (i wasn't there for quite a few time), but i am not sure if they could have become much bigger there. Most people were already fan of another club and kids in Sachsen probably don't feel much more of a conection to Rostock than they do to Dortmund.
1:1 in the 93. minute in Berlin! Bad luck, but maybe that was the turning point. I am now much more confident that we still can make it as seeing Freiburg, K´lautern, Bochum are al in deep trouble as well. (mods please add an [R] in the thread title)
It is truly amazing to me not only as a footie fan, but as a history teacher to witness the rise and fall of clubs through the ranks of the Bundesliga because of population movement, poor results, lack of talent, and low funds to improve the club. In the end, I guess that is the downside of fussball...........ho hum.