2024-09-17 14:04:00
Mannheim actually wanted to attack at the top of the 3rd division. But the start of the season was a failure. Now the coach has to go.
After a completely botched start to the season, third division football club SV Waldhof Mannheim has parted ways with coach Marco Antwerpen. The 52-year-old was relieved of his duties on Tuesday after less than eight months, the still winless bottom team explained in a press release of just two sentences. The club will inform “in a timely manner” who will succeed the hapless coach.
Antwerpen only took over the team from the Palatinate at the end of January and managed to keep them in the league last season. This season, the former Bundesliga team wanted to attack again and try to “get up to the top” of the table, as Antwerpen said at the start of the pre-season training. But after five match days, SVW is at the bottom of the table with just two points.
Despite a few new additions during the summer break, there is no sign of any development or hierarchy in the squad. In the bottom-of-the-table clash with Hansa Rostock, which was supposed to mark a turnaround on Saturday, Waldhof could only manage a 1:1 draw after a weak performance on the Baltic Sea. On Saturday (from 2 p.m./MagentaTV) Mannheim will host second division relegated team VfL Osnabrück.