Football Season Guide

Sandhausen continued to defy the odds last season and, despite remaining the team with one of the smallest budgets in the second tier, the White & Blacks enjoyed three consecutive campaigns of trouble-free mid-table existence. Coach, Kocak, knows that the only way for this to continue will be if Sandhausen are working hard as a unit and also it will all come down to how many home wins the team can achieve. Sandhausen definitely rely a lot on their displays on home turf and, with all of Wooten, Holer, Sukuta-Pasu and Vunguidica still in the squad, they have plenty of fire-power, which should see them having a good scoring record. Three of the last season's regulars left this summer and the limited finances are preventing the coach from signing big names but he still added nine new players to the squad and the depth of the team looks decent. Gordon's departure means that Knipping will be the new regular starter in the heart of the defence if veteran midfielder Karl is not preferred instead. Meanwhile, Gipson's signing sees him providing cover at right-back for the experienced Klingmann. Linsmayer and captain Kulovits will continue to be extremely important right in front of the back-four while Daghfous, Vollmann and the fully fit after a year of disruptions Stiefler and Derstroff will be providing threat down the wings. Wooten is also regularly used as a winger but the versatile American can easily play as a centre forward too. Kocak brought on loan playmaker, Zejnalluhu, with the promise that he will be heavily involved in Sandhausen's games and it seems that the 22-year-old will be orchestrating the attacks from the number 10 role once he settles into his new team. Sandhausen hope that they will stay injury-free for most of the campaign and, despite the modest ambitions and the constantly poor financial situation, the happiness of the players seems to be very high ahead of the new campaign.