24 May 2019
At the end of every Bundesliga, there is a
playoff in which no first division team wants to participate. That playoff is the relegation playoff. Whenever a Bundesliga season is done, the
bottom two teams are automatically demoted [“relegated”] to the Bundesliga’s
second division. That is similar to the
English Premier League. The EPL
automatically relegates the bottom three finishers. Herein lies the difference with the
Bundesliga. The Bundesliga throws a
lifeline to the third-worst finishing team in the first division. That team [this year it’s Stuttgart]
participates in a two-game home-and-away playoff with the third-place finisher
from the Bundesliga’s second division [this year it’s Union Berlin]. Usually the team that fights to stay in the
first division succeeds. The last
second-division team to earn promotion to the first division came in 2012 when
Fortuna Düsseldorf beat Hertha Berlin.
The relegation playoff format is simple. Whichever team has the most goals on
aggregate from the two games wins. In
case there is a tie for aggregate goals, the first tie-breaker is the “away
goal” rule. Whoever scores the most
goals away from home wins. If the two
teams are still deadlocked, then they play two fifteen-minute periods. There is no sudden-death “golden goal” like
what one sees in the National Hockey League.
If neither team scores during the two extra periods, then it’s on to
penalty kicks. Each team has five
turns. The participants must be among
those players who were on the field when the referee blows the final whistle. If, after each team has attempted its five
PKs and the score is still tied, then the teams attempt PKs until somebody wins
by one.
The first game of this year’s relegation
playoff was in Stuttgart. It looked as
if both teams would fight to a scoreless draw by halftime. At the 41-minute mark, Stuttgart broke the
ice by getting on the board first. The
home side fans didn’t have long to celebrate their team’s lead because Union
Berlin evened the scored immediately following the kickoff after Stuttgart’s
goal. At halftime the score was
1-1. Stuttgart made one halftime
substitution by bringing on former German international Mario Gómez. Gómez made
the Stuttgart coach look brilliant by putting Stuttgart ahead at the fifty-one-minute
mark. The goal was a very lucky goal – Gómez
outran two Union Berlin defenders, and his shot deflected off one Union
player’s foot and another Union player’s face before it got by the goalie and
found the back of the net. Stuttgart
fans had more to celebrate. But like in
the first half, Union Berlin tied the score, 2-2. That’s where it ended when the referee’s
whistle blew. The body language from the Stuttgart players sent the same
message – “we’re screwed”. On the Union
Berlin side of the field there were smiles all around. They got two goals away from home. That’s a huge advantage for them going into
the second game that will be played in their
yard. If they get a 0-0 or 1-1 result in
the second game, they get promoted to the first division for next season. If Stuttgart wins in Berlin 1-0 or better,
they stay in the first division.
27 May 2019
The second leg of the relegation playoff
took place in the Stadion An der Alten Försterei, located in Köpenick on the
southeast outskirts of the German capital. This stadium has been in existence in
one form or another since 1920. With a
capacity of just over 22,000, An der Alten Försterei is smaller than the
smallest Bundesliga venue in Freiburg, the Schwarzwald-Stadion (capacity
24,000). The place was packed, the
atmosphere electric with the Union Berlin supporters in full voice. They sang and clapped for the entire game. The
team’s roots go back to the days of East Germany, the supporters of whom were
part of East Germany’s trade unions [hence the team’s name].
When the two teams faced off today, Union Berlin
needed only a draw against Stuttgart to win promotion to the first
division. In the first half, they played
like it. Stuttgart controlled the ball
for most of the first half, and played in Union’s end for the better part of
the first half. Stuttgart nearly got on
the board in just three minutes as they barely missed converting a corner
kick. At 8:33 Stuttgart left-back Dennis
Aogo planted a free kick into the far-left corner of Union’s net. It was not to be. Stuttgart forward Nicolás González
was standing in an offside position in front of Union’s goalie Rafal Gikiewicz
and blocked his vision. The offside call
was very clear. The match commentator
was sure of the call before the referee went to the video assisted replay
[VAR]. Sure enough, the goal was
disallowed. It was definitely the
correct decision. It was a beautiful
strike that was wasted.
As befitting the desperation of a
relegation playoff, bodies from both sides were flying everywhere. There was
much contact between the heads of Union and Stuttgart players. Two Stuttgart
players, defender Holger Badstuber and defender Ozan Kabak, played 70 minutes
with their heads in bandages. Badstuber
was a bloody mess by the time the referee blew the final whistle. Both Badstuber
and Kabak are going to be feeling it tomorrow morning. How strict is the DFB’s concussion protocol,
anyway?
The first half ended in a goalless
draw. So far, the aggregate total worked
in Union’s favor. As in the first game,
Stuttgart brought Mario Gómez off the bench for added scoring power. Stuttgart hoped Gómez would repeat his goal-scoring
performance from the first game [he didn’t].
Union played with more pace than they had during the first half. Union
forward Suleiman Abdullahi [on loan from Eintracht Braunschweig] struck the
woodwork of Stuttgart’s goal twice [at 64” and 66”], but both times he got an
unlucky bounce. Still it was a goalless
draw. Time was on Union’s side. Stuttgart need one goal to stay alive in the
first division. They almost got it when
Benjamin Pavard [bound for Bayern Munich next season] launched a rocket toward
Union’s goal in the game’s closing stages, only to be swatted away by Gikiewicz. Stuttgart’s goal never came. After a little more than five minutes of
stoppage time, the referee blew the whistle.
The score at the end of the game was as it started, 0-0. Stuttgart were relegated to the second
division, the first time since suffering that fate in 2016. Don’t cry for Stuttgart. According to the match commentators, this
season has been Stuttgart’s worst statistically. They earned their relegation.
And what of Union Berlin? For the first time in the club’s history,
they earned promotion to the first division.
Berlin now has two teams in the first division, the other being Hertha BSC. Since unification in
1990, there has been an invisible wall between East German and West German
teams. Dynamo Dresden and Hansa Rostock entered the first division of the Bundesliga after the dissolution of the DDR-Oberliga. Rostock have been up and down, played 12 seasons in the top division, but they currently dwell in 3. Liga [the third division]. Dresden played in the top division for 4 years. They have had their ups and downs as well, drifting between 2. Bundesliga and the Regionalliga [the fourth division]. They currently play in 2. Bundesliga. FC Energie Cottbus played in the top division for six years. VfB Leipzig played just one season in the top division [1993-94]. The eastern German teams haven’t
attracted partnerships from large companies like Bayern Munich and Borussia
Dortmund [or ironically, Stuttgart].
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