With the 21st matchday, the 2nd Bundesliga starts on Friday (February 4th, 2022) in the last third of the season. Curious: There are just nine points between first and ninth place in the table. For comparison: In the Bundesliga there are 21 points.
As a result, the league has something to offer that hasn’t been available in the German football league for years: tension in the fight for the top of the table. And this is not a new situation.
Last year, too, the fight for promotion places was extremely tight until the end of the season. The leader from Darmstadt currently has 39 points on his account, the ninth-placed SC Paderborn 30 points. In between sort the FC st. Pauli, Werder Bremen, Schalke 04, the HSV, the 1st FC Heidenheim, the 1. FC Nuremberg and Jahn Regensburg.
Darmstadt: gray mouse at the top of the 2nd league
The current leader of the table, Darmstadt 98, seems to play a subordinate role. While the team finished seventh in the table last season, the team coached by Torsten Lieberknecht has developed into a real top team.
Many clubs literally bathed in the lilies. A 6:1 against Sandhausen, a 6:1 against Ingolstadt and a 4:0 against promotion competitor St. Pauli underpin the claim to the 1st league. The team has nine wins from the last twelve games. If the team can maintain this level, it will go up to the Bundesliga again in May.
St. Pauli: top favorite recently in low form
The direct opponent for the top of the table is at the moment FC st. Pauli. And that wasn’t necessarily to be expected either: Last year at this time, the team of coach Timo Schultz was still in 15th place in the table. Already in the last season things went uphill again under the St. Pauli veteran Schultz.
And this season too st. Pauli has already won eleven games. At home at the Millerntor, the Kiezkicker are still undefeated. Striker Guido Burgstaller has been the top scorer in the 2nd division to date.
At least in the league, the form of the team got a small kink recently. The last four games were not won there. against HSV you lost the city championship on the last day of the game. If you don’t want to lose touch with Darmstadt, you have to win again soon.
Big clubs lurking
At third-placed Werder Bremen, a man turned things around: Since coach Ole Werner has been there, he has SVW won all five games – from tenth place in the table to third place. The duo of Marvin Duksch and Niclas Füllkrug inspires in the storm. Together, the two have scored 19 goals this season.
Only the storm duo Pfeiffer and Tietz at Darmstadt 98 are more successful with 24 goals. After the crisis surrounding the fake vaccination card from ex-coach Marcus Beginning, DFB been closed for a year, there is a spirit of optimism on the Weser. The goal: League 1.
Schalke 04 and Hamburger SV, two big traditional clubs, are just one point behind Bremen. Both have recently improved in form and, above all, stabilized. plus point for S04 in the fight for promotion: striker Simon Terodde is back at Schalke after his injury break. As soon as he plays again, the striker scores: two goals in two games.
Chaser Heidenheim and Nuremberg
And then there are the “smaller” pursuers. 1. FC Heidenheim has established itself at the top, only missing promotion two years ago in the relegation. Two points behind the relegation place is the 1. FC Nuremberg in 7th place.
After being relegated from the Bundesliga in 2019, being saved from slipping down to the 3rd division at the last second in 2020 and a mediocre 2021 season, fans of the “clubs” Glad to find their club in the top segment of the table again.
Outsiders Regensburg and Paderborn
The worst prospects in the promotion race have at least at the moment SSV Jahn Regensburg and SC Paderborn. After a good start to the season and first place in the table after the eighth match day, Regensburg suffered four defeats in the last five games.
The result: Der Jahn slipped down to eighth place in the table. the SSV is currently four points behind third place, der SC Paderborn five. The East Westphalia must after the departure of top scorer Sven Michel to Union Berlin however aggressively reorder.