Dynamo Dresden enjoyed a great campaign for newcomers and, despite not being solid enough to get in the promotion race in spring, coach Neuhaus must be really proud with his men.
Dynamo’s limited financial resources didn’t allow the manager to strengthen his squad too much in the summer after the achieved promotion back to Bundesliga 2, but the two major moves he made were to bring on loan the aggressive attacking midfielder Gogia and to extend Stefan Kutschke’s loan stay by a year. The latter started just once in the opening 7 rounds, but quickly after that he became the main striker of the team and it was his 17 goals that helped a lot for the very high table position.
Two draws followed by two wins in the opening four rounds showed that Dynamo are playing some good football from very early on and, when Yellow and Blacks achieved four wins and two draws between rounds 9 and 14, they found themselves just a point behind the top three. Dynamo beat all of Stuttgart, Hannover and Eintracht Brausnchweig in the autumn and they definitely looked like a team to watch.
Again the transfer activity in the winter was minimal, but the arrival of the left-back Heise proved a successful move and he started every game of the second part of the season recording six assists and a goal. In the early games of 2017 Dynamo remained solid and, with just two defeats and five wins in the opening ten rounds after the winter break, they remained just behind the top three when April came.
The team’s destiny was decided between rounds 28 and 32 when a single point collected from five fixtures ruined the chances to challenge for promotion. This poor run of form coincided with injuries for the team’s captain Hartmann and the solid supporting striker Testroet which, considering the limited options and the small squad, was serious. Still Dynamo overachieved big time and in the summer Neuhaus hopes to be able to strengthen the ranks more. Many worry that three of the most important players in the squad were only on loan though and, if they don’t return, problems might occur.
