The second half of the season also starts at the weekend in the 2nd league. The first half of the season offered spectacle and a close promotion race. But that doesn’t mean that the quality is particularly high.
What the 2nd league offers German football fans seems to like it. With an average audience of 28,342 per game, as many people came to the stadiums on the first 17 match days as in Italy and Spain – but in the respective first league. And with 3.2 goals scored on average, they get a lot of spectacle.
Excitement anyway, it’s not for nothing that it’s constantly repeated how balanced the league is, which is why game outcomes are often unpredictable. The battle for promotion, for example, is correspondingly close.
There are only seven points between third place (Hamburger SV, 31 points) and tenth place (1. FC Nürnberg, 24). And the first-placed Holstein Kiel (35) and FC St. Pauli (33) have not yet escaped. But excitement and spectacle are by no means a seal of quality. There are doubts about the class of the 2nd league, which would like to be considered “best 2nd league in the world” referred to as.
Too much spectacle for Düsseldorf’s coach Thioune
There are enough examples of this thesis. Fortuna Düsseldorf had a successful phase before the winter break, but coach Daniel Thioune didn’t like the way things were done. “The second half of the season could definitely be more balanced“, said the 49-year-old because of games like against 1. FC Kaiserslautern (4:3 after a 0:3 deficit), Schalke 04 (5:3) and 1. FC Magdeburg (3:2 after a 0:2 deficit). deficit). He wanted more victories.”like the 1-0 win against Hertha BSC at the start of the season“.
What Thioune said was just a repetition, because he had already expressed the demand for less spectacle weeks before. But even before the start of the second half of the season on Sunday (January 21, 2024) in Berlin, there are many indications that his wish remains unfulfilled.
Because his team conceded two goals in each of the test matches. Given this defensive weakness, there is little choice but to focus on scoring goals. But the football wisdom also applies to the 2nd league: the attack wins games, but the defense wins titles.
HSV came away almost empty-handed against the promoted team
Hamburger SV, which has always been offensively oriented under Tim Walter, has failed again and again in recent years. HSV is currently still somewhat on target in third place.
The winter break was also filled with coaching discussions because there is great fear of having to play another year in the second division. This is fueled by performances like against the three newly promoted teams SV Elversberg, VfL Osnabrück and SV Wehen Wiesbaden, against whom the Walter team only got one point.
One team doesn’t manage to defend the way their coach demands, the other team lets themselves be boiled down by newcomers – but they are still right in the middle of the race.
Düsseldorf and especially HSV also have some of the highest budgets in the league; according to the portal “transfermarkt.de”, their players have the highest market value on average. Because teams like St. Pauli and especially autumn champions Kiel make more of their opportunities, they are currently only pursuers.
Even Schalke still dreams of returning to the Bundesliga
Nevertheless, the situation in Düsseldorf and Hamburg is still significantly more satisfactory than in Berlin and Gelsenkirchen. The two relegated Bundesliga teams, Hertha and Schalke, have had an enormously problematic first half of the season, and this is particularly true for Schalke, which was even deep in the relegation battle at times, but was recently able to free itself a little.
But the “Royal Blues” also seem to have doubts about the quality of the current top group. Despite being eleven points behind and in 14th place, the promotion we were aiming for before the season doesn’t seem to be a taboo topic. “It was important that we put in good performances and get points. Promotion is not the number 1 priority for us as a team. We want to play a good second half of the season – we’ll see what happens in the end“, said left-back Tobias Mohr. So the message is: Schalke has not yet ticked off the return to the Bundesliga.
Entertainment more important than quality
The belief in this shows that there is a belief that the competitors could be weak enough to be able to catch up with such a large gap. And that is also the crux of this 2nd league. It offers a lot, but the question of quality remains accompanied by skepticism. Even the argument of the flood of spectators cannot fully be used to ensure that what happens in the stadiums is being honored.
After all, Schalke (average attendance 61,436) and Hertha (44,555) alone guarantee that the numbers are exceptionally high. However, it is obvious that these two teams did not necessarily ensure this with their performances, but rather their tradition led to this. And in Düsseldorf too, with record numbers of members and spectators, it must be borne in mind that the club will be offering three home games free of charge this season and members have a significantly better chance of getting free tickets in the application phase.
But maybe the question of how much class there is in the second division isn’t that important. She provides entertainment, there is no doubt about it. And in the end, all that matters to the people who are there live is whether their club’s class is enough to achieve their own goals.