The Offenbacher Kickers footballers have plenty of reason to celebrate. On Saturday, however, the best second half of the Regionalliga Südwest has to compete with the second best, SV Elversberg. But whoever loses is eliminated as a pursuer of SC Freiburg II.
© Huebner
Offenbach – The showdown in the Southwest regional soccer league is getting closer and closer. Six game days and five weeks before the end of the season, Kickers Offenbach has one of the highest hurdles ever on the program: The second in the table (74 points) will take on the third SV Elversberg (72) on Saturday (2 p.m.). The two teams currently with the highest points in the second half of the season will meet.
Only the winner can then hope to capture the front-runner SC Freiburg II (79 points). “We know that every mistake can be painful,” says OFC central defender Malte Karbstein: “But we absolutely want to win all six games.”
If that succeeds without Freiburg failing significantly, the OFC would certainly be the best runner-up in the table since the introduction of the Regionalliga Südwest (2012/13). Ideally, the kickers can still get 94 points, which corresponds to an average of 2.24 points per game. So far, TSV Steinbach Haiger has the best average as runner-up in the table, which came to 2.18 points per game in the 2019/20 Corona season, which was canceled after 22 match days.
The hosts on Saturday, SV Elversberg, also appear in this statistic: In 2015/16 they got 2.12 points from 34 games, in 2012/13 1.81 points from 36 games were enough for second place. Both times, however, the Saarlanders failed in the relegation.
Since being relegated from the 3rd league in 2013, the Kickers only scored better in the 2014/15 championship season, when they achieved an average of 2.32 points (79 points from 34 games) – but, as is well known, they failed in the promotion games against Magdeburg. “It is as it is,” says coach Sreto Ristic, always looking at what the Kickers could face in 2021 (48 points from 21 games / average: 2.28) despite their outstanding record. He refers to a prominent example of a coach. “When I played in the 2nd division at Union Berlin, Jürgen Klopp was a coach in Mainz and narrowly missed promotion to the Bundesliga twice before it worked out.” What he wants to express is clear. After the first attempt, the second should follow, if this season doesn’t turn out to be anything to catch up on Freiburg.
Ristic wants to do its part and is working on developing his team. “We want to make it a matter of course to win games,” explains the 45-year-old. Stable structures and a similar structure on the pitch are important to him, professionals who implement the specifications – but also increasingly tactical variability. Ristic lived this many times recently, in the 0-0 draw against SSV Ulm in 1846 he deliberately left the opponent significantly more space at home, only to then strike himself in the switching game. In the 0-0 draw against SC Freiburg II, he let act with a five-man chain.
The Kickers showed their matured tactical ability this week with a 4-0 win in Kassel and a 3-2 win against Homburg. In Kassel, the Kickers mercilessly exploited the weaknesses in the retreat behavior of the courageously pressing North Hesse.
Against Homburg, the Kickers stuck to their plan despite the 2-0 deficit. “I never had the feeling that I had to change anything,” said Ristic. He called out to some players to sharpen their senses. “After that, the team solved it themselves.” For the first time this season and for the fourth time since 2013, the OFC caught up such a deficit in the regional league. But he only won twice before: on October 22nd in a 3-2 win against Ulm, on May 17, 2014 in a 4-3 win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern II.
By Jörg Moll
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