Promotion final in the 2nd Bundesliga: These center forwards make the difference

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Bremen's Marvin Ducksch is the third-best scorer in the league

Photo: IMAGO/Teresa Kröger / IMAGO/Kirchner Media

Anyone who looks at the top scorer list in the second football league these days might think they got lost and the second division table in front of their eyes.

A Schalke logo is at the top of the best attackers of the season, just like in the real table.

The coats of arms of Hamburger SV and Werder Bremen follow close together.

Simon Terodde, 29 goals this season, is the top scorer in the league – and with Schalke 04 he was promoted to the Bundesliga one matchday before the end of the season.

They are followed by Robert Glatzel from HSV (21 goals) and Marvin Ducksch from Werder Bremen (20).

Both are fighting with their teams on Sunday for a direct jump into league one, the relegation, one of these clubs could even go away empty-handed and only come fourth.

Darmstadt also still has opportunities for advancement.

This second division season thrives on great excitement.

The close constellation at the top of the table is also due to the fact that the teams were characterized by classic goalscorers such as Terodde, Ducksch and Glatzel, who were outstanding for the second division.

They were the “king transfers” of their clubs last summer.

And they will possibly decide the ascent race.

The table before the season finale

Here's an overview of the chances of promotion - and the role of their respective goalscorers.

The influence of the strikers is particularly evident in a man who has already been promoted: Simon Terodde.

The second division machine: Simon Terodde

Schalke's Terodde knew that he scored 20 or more goals in a season.

In the previous season he scored 24 goals for HSV, in the 2018/2019 season it was 29 for 1. FC Köln.

Terodde could even surpass this mark on the last day of the game against Nuremberg.

Terodde also scored four goals this season, which makes 33 goals involved – with a total of 70 Schalke goals.

His contribution to Schalke's rise is enormous.

In 282 second division games so far, Terodde has scored 171 goals, based on his actual playing time (22171 minutes) he scores every 129 minutes on average.

In the Bundesliga, on the other hand, there were only ten goals in 58 games, so he scored an average of a goal every 294 minutes in the top flight.

Terodde is probably too good for the second division, in the first division he is one of many.

The 34-year-old's contract with Schalke runs for another year;

Possibly Terodde will want to prove again in the late autumn of his career that he is also a strong Bundesliga striker.

Hannover's mistake: Marvin Ducksch

Werder's striker Ducksch had also previously demonstrated his high quality, also in league two.

In 2018 he became second division top scorer in Kiel;

so far he has mostly played for individually weaker clubs.

Ducksch scored 16 goals for Hannover 96 last year. A few weeks ago, Hannover club boss Martin Kind admitted that it had been a mistake to sell Ducksch to his competitor in Bremen.

Werder transferred EUR 3.5 million to Hanover.

Unlike most strikers of his stature, Ducksch is not a mere exploiter in the penalty area.

He usually stays away from the crowd in the sixteen, preferring to shoot the corners than to throw himself into header duels.

Because Ducksch also puts the most unlikely flicks in the corner, gets involved creatively in the build-up of the game and has already scored nine goals, Werder fans forgive his weaknesses.

In total, Ducksch has contributed 29 goals to 63 goals in Bremen.

For Ducksch, 28, Werder's rise would be a good opportunity to prove himself in the Bundesliga again.

At the beginning of his career he was not able to assert himself at BVB.

Later, in Paderborn and Düsseldorf, he only scored twice in the 25 Bundesliga appearances for those teams.

This is how Werder rises

• If Bremen win their home game against Jahn Regensburg (Sunday, 3:30 p.m.), promotion is complete.

  Even a draw would be enough for the Bundesliga return.

• In the event of a defeat, fourth place could even threaten.

  Bremen has a much worse goal difference than HSV and Darmstadt.

  If the competition wins and Bremen loses, Werder will have to play another year in the second division.

The Bayern fright: Robert Glatzel

The HSV top attacker Glatzel moved from Heidenheim to England to Cardiff City in the summer of 2019, the fee: at least six million euros.

A few months earlier he had scored a hat-trick against FC Bayern with Heidenheim in the DFB Cup.

Hamburg was lucky that Glatzel's career in England and during a loan deal to Mainz faltered.

HSV managed to sign the 28-year-old last summer for a fee of one million euros.

At HSV, Glatzel benefited from the outstanding ball distributor Sonny Kittel, who gave him six goals.

Overall, Glatzel was involved in 24 (21 goals, three assists) of 64 HSV goals.

Like Terodde and Ducksch, Glatzel has hardly been able to show his qualities in the Bundesliga so far.

However, the HSV striker has significantly less Bundesliga experience than the other two strikers, scoring two goals in 13 first division games for Mainz.

This is how HSV rises

• In order to return to the Bundesliga in the fourth year in the second division, HSV would have to win at Hansa Rostock on Sunday, while Bremen would have to lose against Regensburg at the same time.

• A Hamburg relegation seems most likely at the moment.

  But also to have this for sure, HSV should win at Hansa.

  In the event of a draw, Darmstadt could pass – and HSV could play in league two for a fifth year.

• However, should Darmstadt, who are tied on points, lose their home game against Paderborn, HSV would very likely be able to bear their own defeat.

  Hamburg have the clearly better goal difference.

Terodde, Ducksch, Glatzel and Niclas Füllkrug, who is Werder's second-best attacker with 18 goals, is also part of the striker story: Such an escalation of top second division strikers has rarely been seen in recent years.

But are they good enough for the Bundesliga?

The past has sown doubts.

Incidentally, good attackers can also be found in Darmstadt.

Philipp Tietz and Luca Pfeiffer have scored 30 of Darmstadt's 68 goals so far.

VfL Bochum also had an equally balanced strike duo in their ranks last year – and the club rose.

This is how Darmstadt rises

• Darmstadt can no longer manage promotion or relegation on their own, the goal difference compared to HSV is not good enough for that.

• However, relegation or a direct jump to the Bundesliga is possible.

  Should Bremen lose at home against Regensburg and HSV only get one point in Rostock, Darmstadt would have been promoted directly if they won.

FC St. Pauli will no longer have anything to do with promotion.

The slump after the phenomenal first half of the season probably has many reasons.

Guido Burgstaller's lack of goals should also play a role, after 14 goals in the first half of the season he only scored four times in the second half - and St. Pauli collapsed.

This year, success in league two is based on a goal machine.