Oberliga Freiburger FC is about to make a new start with a new coach and is hoping for quieter years. Oberliga relegated FV Lörrach-Brombach, on the other hand, is working on the restart in the Verbandsliga with a new coach.
Oberliga Freiburger FC is about to make a new start with a new coach and is hoping for quieter years. Oberliga relegated FV Lörrach-Brombach, on the other hand, is working on the restart in the Verbandsliga with a new coach.
For Benjamin Pfahler, those were unusual weeks at the beginning of June. As a coach at Offenburger FV, the 38-year-old was able to cheer all the time and accept the championship trophy of the Verbandsliga, but as a prospective head coach at Freiburger FC, he had to tremble and shiver.
It could actually have been that he would have led his former club into the Oberliga and at the same time would have had to compete with his new club in the Verbandsliga. would have. In the end there was a double happy ending for Pfahler: FFC and OVF both start the new Oberliga season in two weeks. For Pfahler, it is a return to his direct homeland, Breisgau, at FFC.
This is where he once learned to play football and played for Freiburger FC and SC Freiburg in his youth. After an interlude at TSG Hoffenheim II, he later played for several teams in the region and gained his first experience as a coach. Now he’s back. And he’s happy: “It’s great fun, we have an incredibly interesting team together,” says the high school teacher.
He has a difficult task ahead of him in Dietenbach Park. Since promotion to the Oberliga in 2019, things have been bumpy for the former German champions in the fifth-highest division. Twice the red jackets only narrowly avoided relegation, once due to the pandemic-related end of the season. Nevertheless, the FFC continues to rely on young people. “We have an age structure that is otherwise only found in U-23 teams,” explains Pfahler. His oldest kicker is 25 years old, almost everyone else could still play in youth teams. Three players have left the club and six players have joined from their own U19s.
Externally, there are also six new additions. Annil Vigneswaran, who last played in the SV Sandhausen youth team and now plays for the Malaysian youth national team, is particularly exciting. In view of the Bollen heat of the past few weeks, the Pfahler era at Dietenbach began little by little. At the start, the new coach had a particularly large squad called up. “By the start of the season we want to work out who will make the leap into adult football and which position is best for whom,” explains the coach.
In addition to the sporting task, he is particularly excited about the structural changes at his new club. Because from autumn they want to build a sports kindergarten at the FFC and redesign the cabin wing, including a gym with a wellness area. It’s a belated leap into the 21st century. Pfahler would like to sweeten it with sporting successes.
Almost 70 kilometers further south, the desire for success after an unsuccessful season is great. In the Grüttpark they eagerly await the new association league season. After two years in the Oberliga, FV Lörrach-Brombach will start again in the sixth highest league this summer after being relegated. Incidentally, the parallels in terms of coaching history are striking at FFC and FVLB. Up until a few years ago, Ralf Eckert shaped an era of ten years in Dietenbach Park and Ralf Moser was a zampano in Grütt for a decade.
Since then, both clubs have been looking for consistency in the coaching position. In the southernmost tip of southern Baden, coach Tiziano Di Domenico is now to initiate the restart. Di Domenico had last coached FC Wittlingen. He had previously managed FC Steinen-Höllstein, SV Weil II and FC Neuenburg.
Sport director Tobias Jehle is satisfied: “The team is in a good mood, the newcomers have been integrated very well so far, the new coaching team is doing an excellent job.” The people of southern Baden have also put together a young team. “The average age is 22.5 years,” explains Jehle, which is why the FVLB is aiming for a placement between fifth and tenth place. They are not aiming for a direct re-emergence, they are slowly starting to rebuild in Grütt.
“We also have to get used to the new way of playing,” says the sporting director. While in the premier league they mainly worked against the ball, playing with the ball is now back on the program – once the Lörrach team’s showpiece. The association league has to manage a huge upheaval. 16 newcomers face nine departures. The restart has it all.
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