Two match days before the end of this year's second league season, the fight for the promotion to the 1st Bundesliga is still in full swing.
Three of the four possible candidates for promotion have lost their last game at the weekend, only FC Köln could finally celebrate another victory and secure the championship and thus the direct resurgence back to Bundesliga 1.
But for the other three teams, it is now getting even harder to see which of them would actually belong in the German football upper house.
After SC Paderborn failed on Friday and lost to Armina Bielefeld, Hamburger SV embarrassed themselves again in front of their own audience on the following Saturday.
And the big favorite from Hamburg lost at home with 0:3 against the basement dweller from Ingolstadt and after this embarrassing performance was rightfully booed by its own audience. If they play and lose like this, they have clearly no business in the first league.
And it looks similar in Berlin, since the FC Union is not making any progress. After a good performance last Sunday they lost away in Darmstadt and missed the big chance to benefit from the mistakes of their competitors.
From place two to place four everything remained the same for the time being, but now there are only two more games left to play and this Sunday SC Paderborn and HSV will meet directly, yet the host has a huge psychological advantage. The HSV seems to be in a bad shape and has not been able to win for a whole seven matchdays, but have suffered bitter home defeats against teams that are much lower in the table.
So I wouldn't be surprised if in this game SC Paderborn would administer the coup de grace to the Hamburgers and finally wake the guests up from their dreams of immediate promotion.
Unfortunately I have to say, because I have been a big fan of HSV since my early childhood days, but I also have to admit that their heyday seems to be ages ago.
In the last few years, with a few rare exceptions, we didn't really get to see good football in Hamburg, and if we consider how the team has presented itself this year, I probably have to deny they are ready for the first league.
Though it hurts a lot!
And then there is Union Berlinm who is my other love. The team from the German capital could benefit from the failures of the other two rivals. If they can win their own home game against FC Magdeburg. In the first half there was a draw between these two East German teams, and also Magdeburg really needs to bring home some points in order to at least reach place 16 and avoid direct relegation.
Third against seventeenth is therefore no clear thing at all, and since it is about "all or nothing" for both teams, the fans in the stadium "An der Alten Försterei" can expect another thrilling and fierce fight of both teams.
For Union Berlin, reaching third place, which would entitle them to participate in the relegation matches with the 16th of the first Bundesliga, would already be their greatest success in the all-German football leagues. And should they eventually be able to win these games, or perhaps even finish the season in 2nd place, this likeable club from the southeast of Berlin would once again have written history. The Union fans will surely do their best to drive their team to the impossible in the two remaining games so that perhaps we might be able to watch another miracle happen.
It will definitely remain exciting until the last match day, and I keep my fingers crossed for HSV and Union Berlin, that maybe both teams will meet again next year in the 1st Bundesliga.
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