Gnodstadt shakes up the league

While fellow promoted teams SV huttenheim and hohenfeld/RW kitzingen are worried about staying in the league, michael rieger's eleven are in the top half of the table. Six strong victories before the winter break catapulted the players from the marktbreit suburb to sixth place and even within striking distance of the relegation zone. And it is precisely this that the upstart has now actually set its sights on.

The gnodstadters had digested the "business accident" B-class – for the first time in the club's history, TSV played in this league – and returned to the A-class as champions after only one season. There was no doubt about it that the yellow-green. They only had to share the points three times in 21 other victories, and even then michael rieger, who replaced promotion coach claus hoh in the summer, recognized: "the team has substance. I saw the last five games of the past season and knew that we could finish in the top third."

However, the berlin native, who now lives in obernbreit and came to gnodstadt for the first time through his son, who plays soccer himself, knew that this ambitious goal could only be achieved with the appropriate hard work and discipline. "One of my conditions was that we always have at least ten players at practice. Otherwise I would have packed my bags and left," says the ambitious training manager, who has never had to pack his training bag into the car. His proteges have understood. The average participation is around 14 players, and that's something to work on, especially in terms of football, says rieger, who once played in the top flight himself.

However, the newcomer initially only received limited praise for his training approach. Only two victories achieved in the first nine parts. Like its fellow climbers, TSV seemed to have to fight against relegation. "The team needed time to acclimatize to the league and to integrate the new players. At times we played with seven players who had not been part of the team last season. It took a while for that to settle in," explains rieger, who nevertheless saw very good performances from his charges. With the exception of the clear 0:3 against seinsheim/nenzenheim, in which the gnodstadter were simply not on the high, his team was always competitive and showed several times character.

"The morale in the squad Is huge. She believes Always to their strengths"

Michael rieger, coach of TSV gnodstadt

The newcomers were particularly convincing against the top trio. At home against repperndorf, a point almost jumped out after an interim 1:5 deficit. The second bayern kitzingen II knopfte the rieger-elf a deserved draw and table leader vfr bibergau also wobbled precariously. "The morale in the squad is huge. She always believes in her strong. It's just that sometimes they're still too young and therefore too green behind the ears," sums up rieger, who also admits to his own mistakes. He had put players in the wrong positions or set up too offensively, believing his team was already further along in its development. So the promoted team paid a heavy lesson several times.

But the gnodstadter do not love to be distracted and said goodbye with a six-win series into the winter break, to which the coach would have liked to add a seventh success. But the game in repperndorf fell victim to the weather. At the time, riegers was upset, but that has now faded: "that has now been forgotten and is yesterday's snow. Nothing out of the ordinary will happen in the rematch."

Instead, the gnodstadter kickers focus on themselves when it comes to sunday, 10. Marz, against the same repperndorf team again. Because with a win in the post-season match, the promoted team was able to stalk its way to within three points of the relegation zone. "Not having any ambitions would be a poor testimony," rieger says clearly with a view to this one. The coach sees the fight for second place as a challenge that his team will have to face. At the end of the season, the aim is to achieve the best possible result – in gnodstadt's case, a decisive match for promotion.