The start in the 2nd league is expected with great excitement at the weekend. It could be a season full of surprises.
After months of break, the 2nd league is back. She starts the new season with the crackle between Schalke 04 and Hertha BSC on Friday evening (from 8.30 p.m. in the live ticker at T-Online). A day later, the league then comes up with five games, on Sunday with three games.
Who rises at the end of the season? Who descends? And what can be expected from the season in general? Time for six daring theses at the start of the season.
By Florian Vonholdt, sports editor
Despite the modest financial situation, Hertha BSC is one of the promotion favorites in League 2. This is mainly due to the fact that a large part of the top performers could be held except for Ibrahim Maza. Above all, the scorer and crowd favorite Fabian Reese, who has risen to the captain.
Reese is the face of a new spirit of optimism in the capital. And after national coach Julian Nagelsmann recently announced that he would “stop at no league when it comes to nomination”, he will soon invite the 27-year-old to the national team. Clearly: First Reese shoots the Hertha into the Bundesliga, then he drives the DFB team to the 2026 World Cup.
By Jannik Meyer, sports editor
Schalke will remain loyal to the big defensive problems. With Nikola Katić and Timo Becker, the two suspected Schalke defenders have more important female speed deficits, which good teams will exploit. Even against weaker teams – if Schalke has a lot of possession – this becomes problematic, because almost every team from the 2nd league has some good counter players.
The cardinal problem of the pre -season – 62 goals, the most third -party defensive – was not remedied in summer. In addition, goalkeeper Loris Karius does not make a safe impression. It is difficult to say whether this leads to Schalke even descends and will arrive, among other things, whether Moussa Sylla still has to be sold. In addition, from a Schalke view, it is elementary that Kenan Karaman quickly gets the captain and the most important offensive player fit.
In front of Schalke there is again an extremely complicated playing time – which begins with a hard -tough opening program. After the games against Hertha, in Kaiserslautern, against Bochum and in Dresden, we will be able to see where the trip goes.