Status: 09/12/2022 12:50 p.m
For the second time in the club’s history, the soccer players of SV Meppen have managed to get promoted to the Bundesliga. After failing to stay up in the first season, the women from Emsland are now hoping for a longer stay in the elite class.
That’s how last season went
The fact that the Lower Saxons would have a say in the title fight despite the departure of some regular players was already evident at the beginning of the second division series. The SVM started the season with five wins in a row. The appearances against SV Elversberg (5:0), FC Ingolstadt (4:0), SV Henstedt-Ulzburg (7:1) and RasenBallsport Leipzig (5:0) resembled demonstrations of power. A 3-0 defeat at co-relegated MSV Duisburg followed, but that didn’t throw the Meppen team off course.
The team coached by Theodoros Dedes only lost two more times as the season progressed. On all 26 matchdays, the Emsland women led the table and ended up being one point ahead of the Duisburg women in the second division.
In the DFB Cup, SVM was eliminated in the second round. However, the opponent there was also called SGS Essen and only lived up to their role as favorites as a Bundesliga club in added time with a goal from former Meppen player Elisa Senß to make it 1-0.
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Who is coming, who is going?
The most drastic personnel change was in the coaching position. Master coach Dedes surprisingly asked SVM for his release after winning the title in order to be able to switch to the men’s third division team SV Waldhof Mannheim. The 32-year-old Greek now works there as an assistant coach for game analysis.
As the successor to Dedes, who had been in charge of the team for three years, the promoted team hired a Bundesliga novice in Carin Bakhuis. The 32-year-old moved from her Dutch homeland to Emsland. There she was assistant coach at FC Twente Enschede to Tommy Stroot, the current coach of VfL Wolfsburg, and to Robert de Pauw, the new coach at Bayer Leverkusen.
“During the interviews, Carin demonstrated her professional expertise, convinced us with her way of wanting to play football, but also with her personality,” explained Meppen’s sporting director Maria Reisinger.
Most successful goal scorers left Meppen
Bakhuis announced that he wanted to play “bravely and offensively”. Whether the team will be able to implement this tactic remains to be seen. Because in the Pole Agnieszka Winczo (target unknown), Alexandra Emmerling (Bayer Leverkusen) and Isabella Jaron (torn cruciate ligament), the three most successful scorers of the previous season are not available to her.
The departure of the American Jannelle Flaws (currently without a club) hurts the women from Emsland. The striker was no longer part of the regular squad in the past series, but was of great value to the team as a substitute.
Additions from Australia and Switzerland
Should provide Meppen goals: Lydia Andrade (r.).
In the attack there was the greatest need for action for those responsible for Meppen. And because the club’s financial resources are limited compared to the other Bundesliga clubs, creativity was required when looking for players. The busy Reisinger, who has been in office for nine years, found what she was looking for in Switzerland and Australia, among other places. The strikers Kristina Maksuti (FC Lugano) and Lydia Andrade (FC Zurich) as well as the German-born Anna Margraf (Brisbane Roar) ensure international flair at SVM.
Returnee Vildan Kardesler – who played for the Meppen team from 2016 to 2017 – also has experience abroad. Before moving to Leverkusen last summer, the 24-year-old spent five years hunting for goals in the USA. “It is precisely with her speed that Vildan can make the difference and set important accents in our game,” said coach Bakhuis about the native of Steinfurt.
SVM relies on young players
The second division champions made a total of ten new external signings. Among them are attacker Sarah Abu Sabbah from the regional division Borussia Mönchengladbach and the Japanese Mai Hirata (Eintracht Frankfurt II) other very exciting footballers.
What is striking: With the exception of Maksuti (29 years old), none of the new players is older than 24. There is simply no money to buy concentrated Bundesliga experience.
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Little Bundesliga experience in the Meppen squad
The fact that the German top floor is completely new territory for some players and other players have only played a manageable number of games in league one so far could become a problem for the promoted team, especially in the early stages of the season. In addition, the new soccer players have to be integrated into the team and the team has to internalize the game system of coach Bakhuis.
“It will certainly take a while for all the cogs to mesh. But the impressions I’ve gathered so far make me very confident.”
Coach Carin Bakhuis at “DFB.de”
Coach Bakhuis relies on possession football
The 32-year-old is aware that the trees in Emsland don’t grow into the sky. “We’re going into the season as big outsiders. But that doesn’t bother us at all. We’re really up for the challenges that await us,” explained Bakhuis. The trainer does not want to wall herself up to stay up. But on the contrary. “It’s important to me that we have a lot of possession, if possible more than our opponents. I’m also convinced that pressing early will lead to success.”
Opening game at home against SC Freiburg
The courageous style of play demanded by Bakhuis was already evident in the preparatory games. However, the tests were almost exclusively against lower-class opponents. In the first competitive game of the season, Meppen only narrowly beat regional league club VfL Bochum 1-0 in the DFB Cup.
forecast
The departure of Emmerling, Winczo and Flaws as well as Jaron’s injury-related absence weigh heavily. Whether the newly signed strikers can close the gaps that have arisen is uncertain. Overall, however, the squad seems broader than when it was first promoted. Many players are still very young and therefore have great development potential. If Bakhuis succeeds in taking her footballers to the next level and giving the team a signature, staying up in the league is no utopia.
More, however, should not be possible for the women from Emsland. Along with Duisburg, Werder Bremen and SGS Essen, Meppen is one of the teams that will probably only be fighting for the saving tenth place.
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