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Only two years after the championship, VfL Osnabrück is back in the third division. Although the purple-whites were able to win the second leg of the relegation against Ingolstadt on Sunday 3-1, the mortgage from the 0-3 bankruptcy in the first leg was too big. After the final whistle, tears flowed among those involved.
“Have to give everything”
When Marc Heider put VfL 2-0 up with a double strike within 14 minutes, she was suddenly there: the hope of being able to stay up after a weak performance in the first leg. But the two-goal lead only lasted up to the 31st minute before Ingolstadt scored the all-important away goal. “The goal we conceded broke our necks a bit,” said Ulrich Taffertshofer at the end of the game on the “DAZN” microphone. Because due to the away goal rule, the purple-whites now needed at least five goals. With the 3: 1 by Etienne Amenyido in minute 81 hope germinated again briefly, but it should not be enough. After 2009, 2011 and 2013 Osnabrück also lost the fourth relegation and is relegated to the third division. “It hurts so much,” tweeted VfL after the game.
Taffertshofer also quarreled: “If the third goal had come earlier …”. There was no doubt that the win, even if it wasn’t enough in the end, was deserved. “Today we performed like you have to perform in a relegation,” said coach Markus Feldhoff with tears in his eyes. The bottom line is that the poor performance in the first leg cost them relegation. “We gave everything, I feel sorry for the players. The disappointment is unbelievably great,” added Osnabrück’s coach and congratulated the Schanzern fairly on their promotion: “The sum of the two players deserves the promotion.”
The 2,000 fans in the stands stood behind the team during the 90 minutes, cheered the team on again and again and at times created goose bumps. “The fans are outstanding”, praised Taffertshofer and said: “2,000 people were on fire.” Even when the relegation was sealed with the final whistle, expressions of displeasure and whistles were largely absent. Instead, there was encouraging applause, while some players lay in tears in each other’s arms and were comforted fairly by Ingolstadt residents, including coach Tomas Oral. “We are from Osnabrück, we are always there,” agreed the audience, and the stadium announcer also stated: “We will be back”.
Seventh relegation from the 2nd Bundesliga
For the time being, the third relegation to the third division since 2009 and the seventh second division relegation in total are now on the books. “We are devastated. I know what relegation means for the club,” said Feldhoff. The purple-whites were able to win just nine of 34 games in the regular season, especially at home, the Lower Saxony presented themselves shockingly weak without fans and were the weakest home team with only ten points. In the meantime, VfL lost twelve (!) Home games in a row – by far a new negative record in the history of the second division.
The change in coach from Marco Grote to Markus Feldhoff, who took over on March 3, did not bring about the hoped-for turnaround. It is still unclear whether the 46-year-old will sit on the bench in the coming third division season – his contract would only have been extended if he had not been relegated. In any case, there will be a change in personnel, especially since 18 contracts are running out – including the working paper of regular keeper Philipp Kühn. Like top scorer Sebastian Kerk (ten goals, ten assists) and Barça loan from Ludovit Reis, the 28-year-old is unlikely to be sustainable.
Whether the direct ascent can still succeed? After relegation in 2009, the immediate return to the 2nd Bundesliga worked out, but it went straight back down a year later. Osnabrück then needed eight attempts for promotion – including a defeat in the relegation. In 2018 it almost went into the regional league before Daniel Thioune turned the relegation candidate into a newcomer and led him to the second division as a champion. The purple-whites want to go back there as soon as possible.
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