Decider for the district class: Will SV Langenbach succeed in the second promotion in a row?

Frank Vanselow wants to lead SV Langenbach back into the district class. © Michalek

TSV Paunzhausen slipped into the relegation on the last matchday without any action on their part, while A-class newcomer SV Langenbach could be promoted again.

Unterbruck – Relegation battle meets promotion dream: On Thursday (19 p.m.) at the sports grounds of FCA Unterbruck, the district classist TSV Paunzhausen and A-classist SV Langenbach will play for a place in the district class. For the Paunzhauseners, the situation is funny because they had the last matchday of the season off and had to watch as everyone played against them. In the table of direct comparisons of five teams with the same number of points, Paunzhausen finished last – and therefore now has to sit in detention.

Sulzberger on his relegation misery: "Now it's my turn"

"We were prepared and trained thoroughly," said Paunzhausen coach Alexander Sulzberger, whose career end was thus postponed once again. He also jokes that things could now come full circle: "I've had a lot of relegation games and I've lost them all. Now it's my turn." The coach made it clear to his protégés that they had been the fifth-best team in the league in the second half of the season and could therefore arrive with a broad chest. With three wins in the last four games, the team has really given everything to stay in the league.

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The victories also caused euphoria in Paunzhausen itself, where two fan buses alone are fully booked. "The buses would also go back later," jokes Sulzberger, referring to the options of extra time and penalty shootouts. The fans stay until the end – and the players have already practiced the penalty shootout. Sulzberger is prepared for a game of patience and sees the young team of SV Langenbach in the role of favorites.

Vanselow: "It's a great motivation for me to lead the club back there"

In Langenbach, they have routine at promotion celebrations, after all, the impeccable promotion succeeded in the B-Class: 20 games, 20 wins, 106:10 goals. Now, in the A-Class, after 16 wins in 24 encounters, only SGT Istanbul Moosburg had ahead of them. "Recently we played B-Class, and it would be madness to move up to the district class now," says Langenbach coach Frank Vanselow. However, he is convinced that the team can also hold its own in the higher division in its current line-up. The coach once came as a player and held the position of libero, who, like the dinosaurs, is extinct. When he moved to the district and got to know Langenbach, Vanselow played his first game in the district class: "It is a great motivation for me to lead the club back there."

Paunzhausen and Langenbach have a lot in common before the decider in Unterbruck: Both have practiced penalty shootouts, both are expecting hundreds of their own fans, and for both clubs, the district class is something like the maximum of football feelings. And yet different styles meet. Langenbach is playful and offensively thinking, Paunzhausen, on the other hand, is rather compact and mercilessly effective at set-pieces. Either way, there are 90 exciting minutes ahead of them in the battle for a place in the district class – or 120, or even more. BY NICO BAUER

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