No slump after almost promotion
©IMAGO
To be the best team of 2025 in the 2nd Bundesliga and still not play first class – this is what SV 07 Elversberg bears after an impressive year with a small flaw. The Saarlanders, who have only been playing in the lower house since 2023, almost achieved promotion to the Bundesliga under coach Horst Steffen, who moved to Werder Bremen in the summer. After 34 match days of the 2024/25 season, they were in third place, just one point behind Hamburger SV, who went back up after seven attempts. In the first and second leg, 1. FC Heidenheim proved to be a mood killer, even though Elversberg was actually the better team.
“This year here was the best time of my life, I can only thank each and every one of them. We were a few millimeters short, it’s incredibly sad, but everyone gave absolutely everything,” said loan player Fisnik Asllani (23), who is now also causing a sensation in the Bundesliga after returning to his home club TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. While the SVE has not lost any of its previous strength despite some personnel changes and a necessary change in the coaching position. Things are also going well under Steffen’s successor Vincent Wagner, which is reflected in the annual table of the 2nd league. The fantasy that the Bundesliga could work out in 2026 is definitely there.
While things could hardly be going better for Elversberg, the development at SpVgg Greuther Fürth is worrying. The Cloverleaf is the weakest in terms of points of all the teams that played the full number of games in the lower house. The release of managing director Rachid Azzouzi and trainer Alexander Zorniger in October 2024 is sometimes seen as the origin of the rapid decline. Including interim solutions, four trainers have been on the sidelines since then. Relegation candidate Fürth now wants to get back into calmer waters with Heiko Vogel.
Hertha BSC, which finished last season in a disappointing eleventh place and is now one of the extended circle of promotion candidates, is in the upper midfield. Fortuna Düsseldorf, on the other hand, has arrived in no man’s land. Still sixth in 2024/25 and therefore five points behind regulation participant Elversberg, the club has now stumbled badly and is now closer to the 3rd league than to the German upper house. That’s why Sven Mislintat should now realign the club as sports director. Co-relegated Jahn Regensburg (14 points) and promoted team Dynamo Dresden (13) have even fewer points than SSV Ulm and are therefore even outside the graphic template.