The winter break in the 2nd Bundesliga ends on Friday (January 19, 2024). And that’s a reason to be happy, as the House of Commons stands for goals, tradition – and full stadiums.
Lots of goals in league two
The 50th season is underway in the 2nd Bundesliga – and the hope is that not too much has changed during the winter break. The first half of the season produced some nice stories, the one about the many goals is of course one of them. The “kicker” has just calculated this: there are an average of 3.2 goals per game. One could also write: Of 153 games, only five ended goalless, in 30 matches there were five or more goals. It’s welcome to continue like this.
Derby in Hamburg – controlled chaos
Only four goals were scored in the Hamburg derby on matchday 15 between Hamburger SV and FC St. Pauli, but it was still not a bad game. Anyone who watched may have learned a lot: no matter how clear leadership may seem, they are sometimes still very fragile. And risk in the game structure can create space and signal superiority, but it can also go wrong.
Like in this derby. It was the 27th minute when Hamburg defender Guilherme Ramos played a short pass across his own six-yard box. HSV often plays under coach Tim Walter. People who like this sometimes call it Walter Ball. But this time it went wrong, it went really wrong: the ball came up once just in front of goalkeeper Daniel Heuer Fernandes, the rest was slapstick. Heuer Fernandes wanted to clear, but shot the ball into his own goal.
It was, of course, the story of the game. HSV was not influenced by this. He scored two goals in two minutes in the second half and at least saved a point.
There is a second leg between Magdeburg and Hertha
When relegated Hertha BSC played 1. FC Magdeburg on a Saturday at the beginning of September, coach Pal Dardai was first enthusiastic and then no longer. His team was in the lead four times and yet came away empty-handed. Hertha lost 4:6 – what a game that was. Ten goals in one game doesn’t happen often, not even in this second division. By the way, Dardai said he noticed a lot of things. For example this: Sometimes, as he saw it, there were “my boys a little too naive”.
Audience average like in La Liga and Serie A
But there are also statistics that rated the ten-goal game between Magdeburg and Hertha as somewhat average. One of these statistics tells of the spectators in the stadium: 26,872 people were in Magdeburg, which is almost exactly the average of all second division games this season. This is 28,308 viewers. These are impressive numbers for a second league.
For comparison: In Italy’s Serie A the average in the 2022/23 season was just under 29,450 spectators, in Spain’s La Liga it was 29,428.
Schalke, Hertha, HSV – you can hardly get more tradition than that
SV Elversberg, SC Wehen Wiesbaden, VfL Osnabrück, SC Paderborn and FC St. Pauli have one thing in common: they stand out in this 2nd Bundesliga. Because they have never been national champions, unlike 1. FC Nürnberg (nine championships), Schalke 04 (seven) or Hamburger SV (six). With Magdeburg, Schalke and HSV, three European Cup winners even play in league two.
In general, football tradition is a second division thing. Hanover, Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe and Kaiserslautern also play a role. Tradition may guarantee full stadiums, but not sporting success. Clubs like Eintracht Braunschweig, Kaiserslautern, Schalke and Magdeburg are in danger of relegation.
Half the league is at the top
The north is shaking up the league, says the table. First is Holstein Kiel (35 points), followed by FC St. Pauli (33) and HSV (31). But the leading trio from the north is not without competition, quite the opposite: half the league is playing for promotion. Relegated Hertha is in seventh place, only six points behind third place, followed by Hannover and Elversberg (seven points behind HSV).
And it’s really close between HSV and Hertha: Düsseldorf (30) and the Fürth game association are separated by one point, Paderborn is also involved (27).